breath of our nostrils and the light of our eyes and besides the many Comforts which under you and your Royall Progenitours in this frame of Government this Nation hath enjoyed the Religion we professe hath taught us whose Image you are And we do all most humbly declare to your Majestie that nothing is or can be more deare unto us then the sacred Rights and Prerogatives of your Crown no Person or Councell can be greater lovers of them nor more truly carefull to maintain them And the fundamentall Liberties which concern the freedome of our persons and propriety of our goods and estates are an essentiall meanes to establish the true glorie of a Monarch for rich and free Subjects as they are best governed so they are most able to do your Majestie service either in peace or warre which under God hath been the cause of the happie victories of this Nation beyond other Kingdomes of larger Territories and greater numbers of people What information soever contrarie to this shall be brought to your Majestie can come from no other then such as for their own ends under colour of advancing the Prerogative do in truth undermine and weaken Royall Power and by impoverishing the Subject render this Monarchie lesse glorious and the people lesse able to serve your Majestie Having by this which hath been said cleared our hearts and proceedings to your Majesty our trust is that in your Royall Judgement we shall be free from the least opinion of giving any unnâ—cessary stop to our procâ—eding in the matter of Supply and that your Majestie will be pleased to entertain belief of our alacritie and cheerfulnesse in your service and that hereafter no such misfortune shall befall us to be misunderstood by your Majestie in any thing We all most humblie beseech your Majestie to receive no information either in this or any other businesse from private relations but to weigh and judge of our proceedings by those resolutions of the House which shall be presented from our selves This rightly and graciously understood we are confident from the knowledge of your goodnesse and our own hearts that the ending of this Parliament shall be much more happy then the beginning and that it shall be stiled to all ages The Blessed Parliament which making perfect union betwixt the best people your Majestie may ever delight in calling us together and we in the Comforts of your Gracious Favour towards us In this hope I return to my first errand which will best appear by that which I shall humbly desire your Majesty to hear read being an humble Petition from the House of Commons for redresse of those many inconveniences and distractions that have befallen your Subjects by the billetting of Souldiers Your Royall Progenitours have ever held their Subjects hearts the best Garrison of this Kingdome And our humble suit to your Majesty is that our Faith and Loyalty may have such place in your Royall thoughts as to rest assured that all your Subjects will be ready to lay down their lives for the defence of your Sacred Person and this Kingdome Not going our selves into our Countreys this Easter we should think it a great happinesse to us and we know it would be a singular comfort and encouragement to them that sent us hither if we might but send them the newes of a gracious Answer from your Majesty in this particular which the reasons of the Petition we hope will move your most excellent Majesty graciously to vouchsafe us The King's Answer to the Petition concerning billetting of Souldiers 14 April 1628. M r Speaker and you Gentlemen WHen I sent you my last message I did not expect any Reply for I intended to hasten you not to find fault with you I told you at your first meeting that this time was not to be spent in words and I am sure it is lesse fit for disputes which if I had a desire to entertain M r Speaker's Preamble might give me ground enough The Question is not now what Libertie you have in disposing of matters handled in your House but rather what is fit to be done Therefore I hope you will follow my example in eschewing disputations and fall to your important businesse You make a protestation of your affections and zeal to my Prerogative grounded upon so good and just reasons that I must believe you But I look that you use me with the like charitie to believe what I have delivered more then once since your meeting which is That I am as forward as you for the preservation of your true Liberties yet let us not spend so much time in this that may hazzard both my Prerogative and your Liberties to our Enemies To be short go on speedily with your businesse without fear or more Apologies for time calls fast on you which will neither stay for me nor you Wherefore it is my dutie to presse you to hasten as knowing the necessity of it and yours to give credit to what I say as to him that sitteth at the Helme Sir Dudley Diggs his Introduction My Lords I Shall I hope auspiciously bâ—gin this Conference this day with an Observation out of Holy Story In the dayes of good King Iosiah when the Land was purged of Idolatry and the great men went about to repaire the House of God while money was sought for there was found a Book of the Law which had been neglected and afterwards being presented to the good King 2 Chro. cap. 34. 2 Kings cap. 22. procured the blessing which your Lordships may read of in the Scriptures My good Lords I am confident your Lordships will as cheerfully joyn with the Commons in acknowledgement of Gods great blessing in our good King Iosiah as the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House by me their unworthy servant do thankfully remember your most religious and truly honourable invitation of them to the late Petition for clensing this Land from Popish Abominations which I may truly call a necessary and happy repairing of the House of God And to go on with the parallell while we the Commons out of our good affection were seeking for money we found I cannot say a book of the Law but many and those fundamentall points thereof neglected and broken which hath occasioned our desire of this Conference Wherein I am first commanded to shew unto your Lordships in generall that the Lawes of England are grounded on reason ancienter then bookes consisting much in unwritten Customes yet so full of Justice and true Equity that your most honourable Predecessours and Ancestours many times propugned them with a Nolumus Mutare and so ancient that from the Saxons daies notwithstanding the Injuries and Ruines of Time they have continued in most parts the same as may appear in old remaining Monuments of the Lawes of Ethelbert the first Christian King of Kent In Bibliotheca â—ottoniana Ina King of the West-Saxones offa of the Mercians and of Alfred the great Monarch who united
which are excluded by the word liber for the generall Law of the Land doth allow their Lords to imprison them at pleasure without cause wherein they only differ from the Free-men in respect of their persons who cannot be imprisoned without a cause And that this is the true understanding of those words per legem terrae will more plainly appear by divers other Statutes that I shall use which do expound the same accordingly And although the words of this Grand Charter be spoken in the third person yet they are to be understood of Suites betwixt partie and partie at least not of them alone but even of the Kings Suites against his Subjects as will appear by the occasion of the getting of that Charter which was by reason of the differences betwixt those Kings and their people and therefore properlie to be applyed to their power over them and not to ordinarie questions 'twixt Subject and Subject The words per legale judicium parium suorum immediately precedeing the other per legem terrae are meant of trialls at the Kings Suit and not at the prosecution of a Subject And therefore if a Peer of the Realm be arraigned at the Suit of the King upon any Indictment of Murther he shall be tried by his Peeres that is Nobles But if he be appealed of Murther by a Subject his triall shall be by an ordinarie Jury of 12 Free-holders as appeareth in 10. Edw. 4. It is said such is the meaning of Magna Charta By the same reason therefore as per judicium parium suorum extends to the Kings Suit so shall these words per legem terrae And in 8. E. 2. Rot. Parliam num 7. there is a Petition that a Writ made under the Privie Seal went to the Guardians of the Great Seal to cause lands to be seized into the Kings hands by force of which there went a Writ out of the Chauncery to the Exchequer to seize against the forme of the Grand Charter That the King or his Ministers shall out-law no man of Free-hold without reasonable Judgement And the partie was restored to his land Which sheweth the Statute did extend to the King There was no invasion upon this personall liberty till the time of King Edw. the 3. which was soon restrained by the Subject For in the 5. E. 3. cap. 9. it is ordained in these words It is enacted that no man from henceforth shall be attached by any accusation nor forejudged of life or limbe nor his lands tenements goods nor cattells seized into the Kings hands against the forme of the great Charter And the Law of the Land 25. E. 3. cap. 4. is more full and doth expound the words of the Grand Charter and it is thus Whereas it is contained in the great Charter of the Franchises of England That no Free-man be imprisoned or put out of his Free-hold nor of his Franchise nor Free Custome unlesse it be by the Law of the Land it is accorded assented and established that from henceforth none shall be taken by petition or suggestion made unto our Lord the King or to his Councell unlesse it be by indictment or presentment of his good and lawfull people of the same neighbourhood where such deeds be done in due manner or by processe made by Writ originall at the Common Law nor that none be out of his Franchises or of his Free-hold unlesse he be duely brought into answer and forejudged of the same by course of Law and if any thing be done against the same it shall be redressed and held for null Out of this Statute I observe that what in Magna Charta and the Preamble of this Statute is termed by the Law of the Land is in the body of this Act expounded to be by processe made by Writ originall at the Common Law which is a plain interpretation of the words Law of the Land in the grand Charter Andâ— I note that this Law was made upon the commitment of divers to the Tower no man yet knoweth for what The 28. E. 3. is yet more direct this Libertie being followed with fresh suite by the Subject where the words are not many but very full and significant That no man of what estate or condition he be shall be put out of his lands or Tenement nor taken nor imprisoned nor disinherited nor put to death without he be brought into answer by due processe of the Law Here your Lordships see the usuall words of the Law of the Land are rendered by due processe of the Law 36. E. 3. Rot. Parliam num 9. amongst the Petitions of the Commons one of them being translated into English out of the French is thus First that the great Charter and the Charter of the Forrest and the other Statutes made in his time and the time of his Progenitours for the profit of him and his Commonaltie be well and firmly kept and put in due execution without putting disturbance or making arrest contrarie to them by speciall command or in any other The answer to the Petition which makes it an Act of Parliament is Our Lord the King by the assent of the Prelates Dukes Earles Barons and the Commonaltie hath ordained and established that the said Charters and Statutes be held and put in execution according to the said Petition which is that no arrest should be made contrarie to the Statutes by speciall command This concludes the Question and is of as great force as if it were printed For the Parliament Roll is the true warrant of an Act and many are omitted out of the books that are extant 36. E. 3. Rot. Parliament num 20. explaineth it further for there the Petition is Whereas it is contained in the Grand Charter and other Statutes that none be taken or imprisoned by speciall command without indictment or other due processe to be made by the Law yet oftentimes it hath been and still is that many are hindred taken and imprisoned without indictment or other processe made by the Law upon them as well of things done out of the Forrest of the King as for other things That it would therefore please our said Lord to command those to be delivered which are so taken by speciall Command against the forme of the Charters and Statutes aforesaid The answer is The King is pleased if any man find himself grieved that he come and make his complaint and right shall be done unto him 37. E. 3. cap. 18. agreeth in substance when it saith Though that it be contained in the great Charter that no man be imprisoned nor put out of his Freehold without processe of the Law neverthelesse divers people make false suggestions to the King himself as well for malice as otherwise whereat the King is often grievâ—d and divers of the Realme put in damage against the forme of the said Charter Wherefore it is ordained that all they which make such suggestions be sent with the suggestions before the Chauncellour Treasurer and the
grand Councell and that they there find suretie to pursue their suggestions and incurre the same paine that the other should have had if he were attainted in case that their suggestions be found evil and that then processe of the Law be made against them without being taken and imprisoned against the forme of the said Charter and other Statutes Here the Law of the Land in the grand Charter is explained to be without processe of the Law 42. E. 3. ca. 3. At the request of the Commons by their Petitions put forth in this Parliament to eschew mischiefs and damage done to divers of his Commons by false accusers which oftentimes have made their accusation more for revenge and singular benefit then for the profit of the King or of his people which accused persons some have been taken and sometimes caused to come before the Kings Councell by writ and otherwise upoâ— grievous paine against the Law It is assented and accorded for the good governance of the Commons that no man be put to answer without presentment before Justices or matter of Record or by due processe or writ originall according to the old Law of the Land And if any thing henceforth be done to the contrary it shall be void in Law and holden for errour But this is better in the Parliament Roll where the Petition and Answer which make the Act are set down at large 42. E. 3. Rot. Parliament num 12. The Petition Because that many of the Commons are hurt and destroyed by false accusers who make their accusations more for their revenge and particular gaine then for the profit of the King or his people and those that are accused by them some have been taken and others have been made to come before the Kings Councell by writ or other Commandment of the King upon grievous paines contrary to the Law That it would please our Lord the King and his good Councell for the just government of his people to ordain that if hereafter any accuser propose any matter for the profit of the King that the same matter be sent to the Justices of the one Bench or the other or the affaires to be enquired and determined according to the Law And if it concern the accuser or partie that he take his suit at the Common Law and that no man be put to answer without presentment before Justices or matter of Record and by due processe originall writ according to the ancient Law of the Land And if any thing henceforward be done to the contrarie that it be void in Law and held for errour Here by due processe and originall writ according to the Law of the Land is meant the same thing as per legem terrae in Magna Charta and the abuse was they were put to answer by the commandment of the King The Kings Answer is thus Because that this article is an article of the Grand Charter the King wills that this be done as the Petition doth demand By this it appeareth that per legem terrae in Magna Charta is meant by due processe of the Law Thus your Lordships have heard Acts of Parliament in the point But the Statute of Westm. the 1. ca. 15. is urged to disprove this opinion where it is expresly said That a man is not replevisable who is committed by the command of the King without any cause shewn which is therefore sufficient to commit a man to prison And because the strength of the Argument may appeares and the answer be better understood I shall read the words of the Statute which is thus And for as much as Sheriffs and others have taken and kept in prison such as were replevisable and have let out by plevin such as were not replevisable because they would gaine of the one partie and grieve the other And forasmuch as before this time it was not certainly determined what persons were replevisable and what not but only those that were taken for the death of a man or by Commandment of the King or of his Justices or for the Forrest It is provided and by the King commanded that such prisoners as were before outlawed and they which have abjured the Realme Provors and such as be taken with the manner and those which have broken the Kings prison Thieves openly defamed and known and such as be appealed by Provors so long as the Provor be living if they be not of good name and such as be taken for burning of houses felloniously done or for false money or for counterfeiting the Kings Seal or persons excommunicated taken at the request of the Bishops or for manifest offences or for Treason touching the King himself shall be in no case replevisable by the common writ or without writ But such as be indicted of larceny by inquests taken before Sheriffs or Bailiffs by their office or for light suspicion or for petty-larceny that amounteth not to above the value of 12 pence if they were not guilty of some other larceny aforetime or guilty of receipt of fellons or of commandment or force or of aid in felony done or guilty of some other trespasse for which one ought not to loose life or member and a man appealed by a Provor after the death of a Provor if he be no common thief or defamed shall from henceforth be let out by sufficient suretie whereof the Sheriff will be answerable and that without giving ought of their goods And if the Sheriff or any other let any go at large by suretie that is not replevisable if he be Sheriff or Constable or any Bailiffe of fee which hath keeping of prisoners and thereof be attainted he shall loose his â—ee and office for ever And if the under-Sheriff Constable or Bailiffe of such as have fee for keeping of prisons do it contrarie to the will of his Lord or any other Bailiffe being not of fee they shall have three yeares imprisonment and make Fine at the Kings pleasure And if any hold prisoners replevisable after they have offered sufficient sureties he shall pay a grievous amercement to the King And if he take any reward for the deliverance of such he shall pay double to the prisoner and also shall pay a grievous amercement to the King The Answer It must be acknowledged that a man taken by the Commandment of the King is not replevisable for so are the expresse words of this Statute But this maketh nothing against the Declaration of the House of Commons for they say not that the Sheriff may replevy such a man by sureties scilicet Manucaptores but that he is bailable by the Kings Court of Justice For the better understanding whereof it is to be known that there is a difference betwixt replevisable which is alwayes by the Sheriff upon on pledges or sureties given and bailable which is by Court of Record where the prisoner is delivered to his Baile and they are his Gaolers and may imprison him and shall suffer for him bodie
courages but to presse to provision worthy the wisdome of a Parliament And for that cause his Majestie hath called you hither that by a timely provision against those great imminent dangers our selves may be strengthened at home our Friends and Allies incouraged abroad and those great causes of feare scattered and dispelled And because in all warlike preparations Treasure bears the name and holds the semblance of the nerves and sinewes and if a sinew be too short or too weak if it be either shrunk or strained the part becomes unusefull it is needfull that you make a good and timely supply of treasure without which all counsells will prove fruitlesse I might presse many reasons to this end I will but name few First for his Majesties sake who requires it great is the duty which we owe him by the law of God great by the law of Nature and our own Allegeance great for his own merit and the memory of his ever blessed Father I do but point at them but me thinks our thoughts cannot but recoyle on our consideration touched by his Majestie which to me seemes to sound like a Parliamentarie part or Covenant A Warre was advised here Assistance professed yea and protested here I do but touch it I know you will deeply think on it and the more for the example the King hath set you his Lands his Plate his Jewells he hath not spared to supply the War what the People hath protested the King for his part hath willingly performed Secondly for the Cause sake it concernes us in Christian Charity to tender the distresses of our Friends abroad it concernes us in honour not to abandon them that have stood for us and if this come not close enough you shall finde our Interest so woven and involved with theirs that the Cause is more ours then theirs If Religion be in perill wee have the most flourishing and orthodoxe Church if Honour be in question the steps and monuments in former ages will shew that our Ancestours have left us as much as any Nation if Trade Commerce be in danger we are Islanders it is our life all these at once lye at stake and so doth our safety and being Lastly in respect of the manner of his Majesties demand which is in Parliament the way that hath ever best pleased the subjects of England and good cause for it for Aides granted in Parliament work good effects for the People they be commonly accompanied with wholesome Lawes gracious Pardons and the like Besides just and good Kings finding the love of their people and the readinesse of their supplies may the better forbear the use of their Prerogatives and moderate the rigour of the Lawes towards their Subjects This way as his Majestie hath told you he hath chosen not as the onely way but as the fittest not as destitute of others but as most agreeable to the goodnesse of his own most gracious disposition and to the desire and weâ—le of his people If this be deferred Necessity and the Sword of the Enemy make way to the others Remember his Majesties admonition I say remember it Let me but adde and observe Gods mercy towards this land above all others the torrent of Warre hath overwhelmed other Churches and Countries but God hath hitherto restrained it from us and still gives us warning of every approaching danger to save us from surprize And our gracious Sovereign in a true sense of it calls together his High Court of Parliament the lively representation of the wisdome wealth and power of the whole Kingdome to joyn together to repell those hostile attempts which have distressed our Friends and Allies and threatned our selves And therefore it behoves all to apply their thoughts unto Counsell and Consultations worthy the greatnesse and wisdome of this Assembly to avoid discontents which may either distemper or delay and to attend that unum necessarium the common Cause propounding for the scope and work of all the debates the generall good of the King and Kingdome whom God hath joyned together with an indissoluble knot which none must attempâ— to cut or untie And let all by unity and good accord endeavour to pattern this Parliament by the best that have been that it may be a pattern to future Parliaments and may infuse into Parliaments a kinde of multiplying power and faculty whereby they may be more frequent and the King our Sovereign may delight to sit on this Throne and from hence to distribute his graces and favours amongst his people His Majestie hath given you cause to be confident of this you have heard from his royall mouth which neverthelesse he hath given me expresse command to redouble If this Parliament by their dutifull and wise proceedings shall but give this occasion his Majestie will be ready not onely to manifest his gracious acceptation but to put out all memory of those disasters that have troubled former Parliaments I have but one thing to adde and that is As your consultations be serious so let them be speedy The Enemy is beforehand with us and flies on the wings of Successe we may dallie and play with the houre-glasse that is in our powers but the houre will not stay for us and an opportunity once lost cannot be regained And therefore resolve of your Supplies that they may be timely and sufficient serving the occasion Your Counsel your Aid all is but lost if your Aid be either too little or too late And his Majestie is resolved that his affaires cannot permit him to expect it overlong And now having delivered what his Majestie hath commanded me concerning the cause of this Assembly his Majestie willeth that you of the House of Commons repaire to your owne House to make choice of a Speaker whom his Majestie will expect to be presented unto him on Wednesday next at two of the clock The Speaker Sir John Finches Speech March 19. 1627. Most Gracious Sovereign YOur obedient and loyall Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses by your royall Summons here assembled in obedience to your gracious direction according to their antient usage aud priviledge have lately proceeded to the choice of a Speaker and whether fequestring their better Judgements for your more weighty affairs or to make it known that their honour and wisdome can suffer neither increase nor diminution by the value or demerits of any one particular Member in what place soever serving them omitting others of worth and ability they have fixed their eyes of favour and affection on Mee Their long knowledge of my unfitnesse every way to undergo a charge of this important weight and consequence gave mee some hope they would have admitted my just excuse yet for their further and clearer satisfaction I drew the curtains and let in what light I could upon my owne inmost thoughts truely and really discovering to them what my self best knew and what I most humbly beseech your royall Majestie to take now into consideration that of so many hundreds
Assembly so that you are secure not onely from wilfull and pregnant errours but from doubt of sinister interpretation My Lord the King is as an Angel of God of a quick of a noble and just apprehension he straines not at gnats he will easily distinguish between a vapour and a fogg between a mist of â—rrour and a cloud of evill right he knowes if the heart be right Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speakes You proceed to a survey of the lustre of this great and glorious Assemblie and in that as in a curious Crystall you observe the true happinesse which we all here enjoy You have distributed and divided aright and whosoever sees it otherwise hath an evill eye or a false glasse We have enjoyed it long through the happy meanes of gracious and good Princes and the way to enjoy it still is to know and heartily to acknowledge it and that God hath not done so to any other Nation It is a prime cause or meanes of this our happinesse You mention the forme of Government under which we live a Monarchie and the best of Monarchies where Sovereignty is hereditarie no Inter-Regnum nor competition for a Crown Descent and Succession are all one The Spirit of God by the mouth of the wisest of Kings long since proclaimed this happinesse Blessed art thou O Land where thy King is the son of Nobles The frames of other States are subject some to inconstant Levitie some to Faction some to Emulation and Ambition and all to manifold Distempers in which the People go to wrack The Monarchie is most naturall and in it Unity is the best cement of all government principally in respect of the unity of the Head which commands the rest And therefore other States when they have tryed a while doe for the most part resolve into this as into the best for Peace for Strength and for Continuance But formes of other governments though never so exact move not of themselves but are moved of their governours And therefore our Monarchie as you have truly said this glorious Assemblie the lively image and representation of our Monarchie is made happy and perfect by the Royall Presence that sits here in his highest Royal Throne the Throne of the Law-giver glorious in it selfe glorious by those happy Lawes and Oracles which have issued from it and most glorious by them that sit on it his Majestie and his Royall Progenitours incomparable Kings that with so much honour have swayed the Sceptre of this Kingdome so many successions of Ages In the next place after the Throne of Majestie you look into the Chaire of Doctrine the reverend Prelates and upon the state of Religion their proper charge This is the blessing of all blessings the priviledge and assurance that secures us of all the rest that as our Religion is most sincere and orthodoxe so our Clergie is eminent both for purity of Doctrine and integritie of Life our Priests are clothed with righteousnesse and their lips preserve knowledge and therefore God's Saints may and doe sing with joyfulnesse I must joyn with you in attributing this transcendent blessing to us as in the first place to God's goodnesse so in the second to his Majestie 's piety who following the steps of his ever-blessed Father is carefull that all the Lamps of the Church may be furnished with Oyle and especially those which are set on golden Candle-sticks with the purest and best oyle The Schools also and nurceries of Learning never so replenished especially with Divinity as in this last Age as they all shew his Majestie 's Piety so are they infallible Arguments of his Constancy The triall which you call the fierie triall undergone by his Majestie in the place of danger and again the power and policie of Rome and Spaine hath approved his resolution inimitable and his own remarkable example in his closet and his chamber his strict over-sight of and command to his Houshold servants and his charge to his Bishops and Judges his Edicts his Proclamations and Commissions and the like for the execution of the Lawes and his general care to preserve the fountain pure both from Schisme and Superstition are faire fruits and effects of a pious and zealous resolution From the chaire of Doctrine you turn to the state of Honour unto the Nobles and Barons of England These are Robur belli who for the service of the King and Kingdome are to make good with their Swords what the Church-men must hallow and blesse by their Prayers And therefore as the Prelates are the great Lights of the Church so the Nobility are the Starres of the State and you know that the starres have fought and fought powerfully against the enemies of God From the state of Honour you come to the state of Justice and to the twelve Lyons under Solomon's Throne the Iudges and Sages of the Law and as their peculiar charge intrusted to them by our Sovereigne the Lawes of the Kingdome Lawes undoubtedly fitted to the constitution of this people for Leges Angliae and Consuetudines Angliae are Synonyma and Confuetudo est alter a natura so as besides the justnesse and rightnesse of the Lawes they are become naturall to our people and that is one of the powerfullest meanes which begetteth obedience and such Lawes in the mouthes of learned and upright Judges are like waters in a pure chanel which the fairer it runs the clearer they run and produce that whereof Solomon speaks Prov. 29. 2. When the righteous are in authority the People rejoyce From the Law you passe to the Knights Citizens and Burgesses and the third Estate who represent the Commons of England in whom the Scripture is verified In the multitude of People is the Kings honour and therefore you may be sure that distance of place and order breeds no distance in affection for wise Kings everlay their honour next to their hearts Kings are Pastores populi and the Shepherds care is nothing lesse to the furthest then to the next part of his Flock and it is asmuch towards the least of his Lambs as towards the greatest Cattel And as in the Natural bodie no member is so remote but it is still within the care of the head so in this great Politick bodie of the Kingdome no ranck or order of People so low is at such distance from the Throne but it dayly feeles the influence and benefit of the Kings care and protection And to say the truth in a well-governed Kingdome the superiour rancks of Nobles of Judges and of Magistrates are not ordained for themselves but as conduits for the Kings justice protection and goodnesse to the lower rancks of his People And as the People are so its just cause they should be constant to the Poles of Love and Loyalty And thus having perused both Houses by divided parts joyn them together and in that juncture you believe truly and materially that the greatest denyal of their joynt requests is The King
that daie that I shall dare to lift up my arm to touch that forbidden fruit those flowers of his princely Crown and Diadem But yet in our Eden in this garden of the Common-wealth as there are the flowers of the Sun which are so glorious that they are to be handled onely by royall Majestie so are there also some Daisies and wholsome herbs which every common hand that lives and labours in this garden may pick and gather up and take comfort and repose in them Amongst all which this oculus diei this bona libertas is one and the cheif one Thus much in all humblenesse I presume to speak for the occasion I will now descend to the Question wherein I hold with all dutifull submission to better Iudgments that these Acts of power in imprisoning and confining of his Majesties Subjects in such manner without any declaration of the cause are against the fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome And for these reasons thus briefly drawn I conclude 1. The first from the great favour which the Law doth give unto and the great care which it hath ever taken of the liberty and safety of this Kingdome I should not need to take the question in pieces nor handle it in parts dividedly but as one intire because I hold no other difference between imprisonment and confinement then only this that one hath a lesse and streighter the other a greater and larger Prison And this word Confinement not being to be found in any one case of our law if therefore it is become the language of State it is too difficult for me to define To proceed therefore in maintenance of my first reason I find our Law doth so much favour the Subjects liberty of his Person that the body of a man was not liable to be arrested or imprisoned for any other cause at the Common Law but for force and things done against the peace For the Common Law being the preserver of the land so abhorreth force that those that commit it she accompts her capitall enemies therefore did subject their bodies to imprisonment But by the statute of Marlebridge Cap. 24. which was made 35. Hen. 3. who was the eighth King from the Conquest because Bailiffs would not render accounts to their Lords it was enacted that their bodies should be attached And afterwards by the statute 23. Edw. 3. 17 who was the 〈◊〉 King after the Conquest because men made no Conscience to pay their debts it was enacted that their bodies should likewise be attached But before those statutes no mans body was subject to be taken or imprisoned otherwise then as aforesaid Whereby it is evident how much the Common Law favoured the Liberty of the Subject and protected his body from imprisonment I will inforce the reason further by a Rule in Law and some cases in Law upon that Rule The Rule is this That Corporalis injuria non recipit aestimationem è fuâ—uro So as if the question be not for a wrong done to the person the Law will not compell him to sustain it and afterwards except a remedy for the Law holds no damage a sufficient recompence for a wrong which is corporall The cases in Law to prove this rule shall be these If one menace me in my goods or that he will burn the evidence of my land which he hath in his custody unlesse I make unto him a Bond there I cannot avoyd the Bond by pleading of this menace But if he restrains my person or threatens me with battery or with burning my house which is a protection for my person or with burning an instrument of manumission which is an evidence of my enfranchisement upon these menaces or dares I shall avoid the bond by plea. So if a Trespassour drives my beast over another Mans ground and I pursue to rescue it there I am a Trespassour to him on whose ground I am But if a man assault my person and I for my safety fly over into another man's ground there I am no Trespassour to him for Quod quis in tuitione sui corporis fecerit jure id fecisse existimatur Nay which is more the Common Law did favour the Liberty not only of Freemen but even of the persons of Bondmen and Villains who haue no right of propriety either in lands or goods as Freemen have And therefore by the Law the Lord could not maim his Villain nay if the Lord commanded another to beat his Villain and he did it the Villain should have his action of Battery against him for it If the Lord made a Lease for yeares to his Villain if he did plead with his Villain if he tendred his Villain to be Champion for him in a Writt of Right any of those acts and many other which I omit were in Law infranchisements and made these Villains Freemen Nay in a suite brought against one if he by Attorney will pleade that he is a Villain the Law is so carefull of Freedome that it dissallowes this plea by Attorny but he must doe it propria persona because it binds his Posterity and bloud to the Villains also And thus much in the generall for my first reason 2. My next reason is drawn by an Argument à majori ad minus I frame it thus If the King have no absolute power over our Lands or Goods then à fortiori not over our Persons to imprison them without declaring the cause for our Persons are much more worth then either Lands or Goods which is proved by what I have said already and Christ himself makes it clear where he saith An nonest corpus supra vestimentum Is not the Body more worth then Raiment where the Canonists say that Vestimentum comprehendeth all outward things which are not in the same degree with that which is corporall And our Law maketh it also plain for if a Villain purchase Frankland this maketh it villain-Villain-land according to the nature of his person but it holds not è converso frank-Frank-land shall not free the person Now that the King hath no absolute power either over our Lands or Goods I will onely at this time but put a case or two for without proof of the Premisses my Conclusion would not follow First for Land The King cannot by his Letters pattents make the son of an Alien heir to his father nor to any other for he cannot disinherit the right heir saith the book nor do no prejudice to the Lord of his Escheat The King by his Prerogative shall pay no toll for things bought in Fairs and Markets but a custome for paying toll to go over the soil and free-holds of another shall bind the King for this toucheth the inheritance of the Subject and therefore the King shall not have so much as a way over his lands without paying and if not a way then certainly not the land it self Next for Goods If a man hath a Jewell in gage for ten pound c. and is attainted for
God declared against our selves in the manifold Evils already fallen upon us and in those which are further threatned as by your sacred Majesty was intimated to us even to the utter destruction and subversion of this Church and State all which our sins have justly deserved and being now by your Majestie 's gracious favour assembled in Parliament as the great Councel of this your Kingdome to consult on such means as we conceive fittest to redresse the present and prevent the future Evils wherein through Gods blessing we intend to imploy our utmost endeavours with as good hearts to your Majestie and the publick service as ever people did do in the first place humbly beseech your Majesty that by your speciall command one or more daies may be forthwith solemnly set apart wherein both our selves and this your Kingdome may by Fasting and Prayer seek a Reconciliation at the hands of almighty God and with humble and penitent hearts beseech him to remove those miseries that lie upon us and our neighbour Churches to avert those which are threatned to continue the favours which we yet enjoy and particularly to bestow his abundant blessing upon your Majesty and this present Parliament so that all our counsels and consultations being blessed with his divine assistance may produce much honour safety and happinesse to your Majesty your People and Allyes The Kings Propositions March 28. 1628. 1. TO furnish man and victuall 30. ships to guard the Narrow seas and along the Coasts 2. To set out 10. other ships for the preservation of the Elve and the Baltick sea 3. To set out 10. other ships for the relief of the Town of Rochel 4. To leavy arme cloth victuall pay and transport an army of 1000. horse and 10000. foot for forrain service 5. To pay and supply 6000. men for the assistance of the King of Denmark 6. To supply the stores of the Office of the Ordinance 7. To supply the stores of the Navy 8. To build 20. ships yearly for the increase of the Navy 9. To repair the Forts within the Land 10. To pay the Arriers of the Office of the Ordinance 11. To pay the Arriers of the Victuallers Office 12. To pay the Arriers of the Treasurer of the Navy 13. To pay the Arriers due for the fraight of divers Merchants ships imployed in his Majestie 's service 14. To provide a Magazine of Victualls for Land and Sea-service Three grand Questions 1. NO Free-man ought to be committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the command of the King of the Privy Councel or any else unlesse some cause of the commitment detainment or restraint be expressed for which by law he ought to be committed detained or restrained 2. A Writ of habeas corpus may not be denyed but ought to be granted to every man that is committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained though it be by the command of the King Privy Councel or any other he praying the same 3. If a Free-man be committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the command of the King Privy Councel or any other unlesse the cause of the commitment detainment or restraint be expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed detained or restrained and the same be returned upon habeas corpus granted for the said party that then he ought to be delivered or bailed Sir John Coke his Speech at a Conference between the Lords and Commons about the Petition to the King against Recusants My Lords WE are sent to attend this Conference from the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons And first we acknowledge all due honour both unto the reverend Fathers of the Church and to you noble Lords in that ye have shined before us as worthy lights in the encouragement and maintainance of true Religion It is the true support of all your dignities and honours And this forwardnesse of yours is the more remarkable when that viperous generation as your Lordships justly stile them doe at â—ase with tooth and nail assay to rend the bowels of their Mother For give me leave to tell you what I know that they now both vaunt at home and write to their friends abroad they hope all will be well and doubt not to prevail and to win ground upon us And a little to awake the zeal and care of our learned and grave Fathers it is fit that they take notice of that Hierarchie which is already established in competition with their Lordships for they have a Bishop consecrated by the Pope this Bishop hath his subalternate Officers of all kinds as Vicars-generall Arch-deacons rurall Deans Apparatours and such like Neither are those nominall or titular Officers alone but they all execute their Jurisdictions and make their ordinary Visitations through the Kingdome keep Courts and determinâ— Ecclesiasticall causes and which is an argument of more consequence they keep ordinary intelligence by their Agents in Rome and hold correspondence with the Nuntioes and Cardinalls both at Bruxells and in France Neither are the Seculars alone grown to this height but the Regulars are more active and dangerous and have taken deep root they have already planted their Societies and Colledges of both Sexes they have setled Revenues Houses Libraries Vestments and all other necessary provisions to travell or stay at home nay even at this time they intend to hold a concurrent Assembly with this Parliament But now since his sacred Majesty hath extended his royall arm and since the Lords of his Councell have by their authority caused this nest of Wasps to be digged out of the earth and their Convocations to be scattered and since your Lordships joyn in courage and resolution at least to reduce this People to their lawfull restraint that they may doe no more hurt we conceive great hope and comfort that the almighty God will from henceforth prosper our endeavours both at home and abroad But now my Lords to come to the chief errand of this our meeting which is to make known to you the approbation of our House of that Petition to his Majesty wherein you were pleased to request our concurrence The House hath taken it into serious consideration and from the beginning to the end approve of every word and much commend your happy pen onely we are required to present unto you a few additions whereby we conceive the Petition may be made more agreable to the Statutes which are desired to be put in execution and to a former Petition granted by his Majesty recorded in both Houses confirmed under the Broad Seal of England and published in all the Courts of our ordinary Justice But these things we propound not as our Resolutions or as matters to raise debate or dispute but commend them only as our Advise and desire being ready notwithstanding to joyn with your Lordships in the Petition as now it is if your Lordships shall not find this reason to be of weight These additions were
and constant use in the Court of Kings Bench as it cannot be doubted but your Lordships will easily know also from the grave and learned my Lords the Judges These two causes the one of the Entrie of Committitur Marescallo postea traditur in ballium and the other Remittitur quousque and Remittitur generally or Remittitur prisonae predict together with the nature of the habeas Corpus being thus stated it will be easier for me to open and your Lordships to observe whatsoever shall occurre to this purpose in the Presidents of Record to which I shall come in particular But before I come to the Presidents I am to let your Lordships know the resolution of the House of Commons touching the enlargement of any man committed by the command of the King or of the Privie Councell or of any other without cause shewed of such commitment It is thus That if a Free-man be committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the Command of the King the Privie Councell or any other and no cause of such commitment detainer or restraint be expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed detained or restrained and the same be returned upon a habeas Corpus granted for the partie that then he ought to be delivered or bailed This resolution as it is grounded upon those Acts of Parliament already shewed and the reason of the Law of the Land which is committed to the charge of another and anone to be opened unto you is strengthened also by many Presidents of Record But the Presidents of Record that concerne this point are of two kinds for the House of Commons hath informed it self of such as concern it either way The first such as shew expresly that persons committed by the Command of the King or of the Privie Councell without any cause shewed have been enlarged upon Baile when they prayed it Whence it appeares cleerly that by Law they were bailable and so by habeas Corpus to be set at liberty For although they ought not to have been committed without cause shewen of their commitment yet it is true that the reverend Judges of this Land in former Ages did give such a respect to such commitment by Command of the King or of the Lords of the Councell as also to the commitments sometimes of inferiour persons that upon the habeas Corpus they rarely used absolutely to discharge the prisoners instantly but to enlarge them only upon Baile which sufficiently secures and preserves the Liberty of the Subject according to the Lawes that your Lordships have already heard Nor in any of these cases is there any difference made between any such commitments by the King and commitments by the Lords of the Councell that are incorporated with him The second kind of Presidents of Record are such as have been pretended to prove the Law to be contrarie and that persons so committed ought not to be set at liberty upon Baile and are in the nature of Objections out of Record I shall deliver them summarily to your Lordships with all faith as also the true Copies of them Out of which it shall appear cleerly to your Lordships that of those of the first kind there are no lesse then twelve most full and directly in the point to prove that persons so committed are to be delivered upon baile and among those of the other kind there is not so much as one that proves at all any thing to the contrary I shall first my Lords go through them of the first kind and so observe them to your Lordships that such scruples as have been made upon them by some that have excepted against them shall be cleered also according as I shall open them severally The first of this first kind is of Edw. 3. time It is in Pasche 18. E. 3. Rot. 33. Rex The case was thus King E. 3. had committed by Writ that under his Great Seal as most of the Kings Commands in that time were one Iohn de Bidleston a Clergie man to the prison of the Tower without any cause shewed of the commitment The Lieutenant of the Tower is commanded to bring him into the Kings Bench where he is committed to the Marshall But the Court asked of the Lieutenant if there were any cause to keep this Bidleston in prison besides that commitment of the King He answered No. Whereupon as the Roll saith Quia videtur Curiae breve predictum that is the Kings Command sufficientem non esse causam predictum Johannem de Bidleston in prisona Marr. Regis hic detinend idem Johannes dimittitur per manucaptionem Will. de Wakefield and some others Where the Judgement of the Court is fully declared in the very point The second of this first kind of Presidents of Record is in the time of H. the 8. One Iohn Parker was committed to the Sheriffs of London prosecuritate pacis at the Suit of one Brinton ac pro suspicione fellonie committed by him at Cow all in Glocester shire ac per mandatum Dni Regis he is committed to the Marshall of the Kings Bench posâ—ea isto eodem Terminâ— traditur in Ballium There were other causes of the commitment but plainly one was a Command of the King signified to the Sheriff of London of which they took notice But some have interpreted this as if the commitment here had been for suspicion of fellony by command of the King in which case it is agreed of all hands that the Prisoner is â—ailable But no man can think so of this President that observes the Contents and understands the Grammar of it wherein most plainly ac per mandatum Regis hath no reference to any other cause whatsoever but is a single cause enumerated in the Return by it self as the Record cleerly shewes It is in the 22. H. 8. Rot. 37. The third is of the same time It is 35. H. 8. Rot. 33. Iohn Bincks case He was committed by the Lords of the Councell pro suspicione fellâ—nie ac pro aliiâ— caâ—sis illos movantibus Qui committitur Marescallo c. et immediate ex gratiâ— curiae special traditur in ballium They commit him for suspicion of fellony and other causes them thereunto moving wherein there might be matter of State or whatsoever else can be supposed and plainly the cause of the commitment is not expressed yet the Court bailed him without having regard to those other unknown causes that moved the Lords of the Councell But it is indeed somewhat different from either of those other two that precede and from the other nine that follow For it is agreed That if a cause be expressed in the return insomuch as the Court can know why he is committed that then he may be bailed but not if they know not the cause Now when a man is committed for a cause expressed pro aliis causis Dominos de Concilio moventibus certainly the Court can no more know in such a case
say according to the lawes which leaves the matter very uncertain and per speciale mandatum c. be within the meaning of these words according to the law then this Act had done nothing The Act is No Free-man shall be imprisoned but by the law of the land if you will understand these words per legem terrae in the first sense this statute will extend to Villains as well as to Free-men for if I imprison another man Villain the Villain may have an action of false imprisonment But the Lords and the King for then they both had Villains might imprison them and the Villain could have no remedy but these words in the statute per legem terrae were to the Free-man which ought not to be imprisoned but by due processe of law and unlesse the interpretation shall be this the Free-man shall have no priviledge above the Villain So that I conceive my Lord these words per legem terrae must be here so interpreted as in 42 Eliz. the Bill is worth the observing it reciteth that divers persons without any writ or presentment were cast into prison c that it might be enacted that it should not be so done hereafter the answere there is that this is an Article of the great Charter this should be granted so that it seemes the statute is not taken to be an explanation of that of Magna Charta but the very words of the statute of Magna Charta I will conclude with a little observation upon these words nec super eum mittimus which words of themselves signifie not so much a man cannot finde any fit sense for them But my Lord in the seventh year of King Iohn there was a great Charter by which this statute in the ninth of Henry the third whereby we are now regulated was framed and there the words are nec eum in Carcerem mittimus we will not commit him to prison that is the King himself will not and to justifie this there is a story of that time in Matthew Paris and in that Book this Charter of King Iohn is set down at large which Book is very authentique and there it is entred and in the ninth of Henry the third he saith that the statute was renewed in the same words with the Charter of King Iohn and my Lord he might know it better then others for he was the Kings Chronologer in those times and therefore my Lord since there be so many reasons and so many presidents and so many statutes which declare that no Free-man whatsoever ought to be imprisoned but according to the laws of the land and that the liberty of the subject is the highest inheritance that he hath my humble request is that according to the ancient laws and priviledges of this Realm this Gentleman my Client may be bailed The Argument of Master Calthrop upon the Habeas corpus Sir Iohn Corbet being brought to the Kings Bench Bar with Sir Edmond Hampden Sir Walter Earl and Sir Iohn Henningham who were also brought thither by severall writs of Habeas Corpus with the same return I being assigned by the Court of Kings Bench upon a petition delivered to be of Councell with Sir Iohn Corbet did move that Sir Iohn Corbet might be discharged of his imprisonment and put in bail for I did conceive that the return of this Habeas corpus was insufficient both in the matter of the return and in the manner of the return and so there ought not to be a longer detaining of Sir Iohn Corbet in prison for as unto the manner of the return it is not laid down precisely that Sir Iohn Corbet is detained in prison by the speciall commandment of the King signified by the warrant of the Lords of the Councell the which is not a direct affirmation that he is detained by the speciall command of the King but that the Lords of the Councel by their warrant have signified unto him that he was committed and still detained by the speciall command of the King And howsoever the Lords of the Councell had signified that he was detained by the commandment of the King yet it may be he was not detained by the commandment of the King for their signification of the same by warrant may be untrue and the warrant of the Lords of the Councell that is returned in haec verba importeth that the keeper of the Gatehouse rather took upon him to return that was signified unto him by the warrant of the Lords of the Councell that Sir Iohn Corbet was committed and detained by the speciall commandment of the King because if the keeper had taken upon him to affirm it upon his return then needed he not to have returned the warrants of the Lords of the Councell and the warrant it self sheweth that he had onely his information from the Lords of the Councell for their warrant is to let the keeper know that both the first commitment and this direction for the continuing of him in prison were and are by his Majesties speciall commandment and I do not see as this return is made that an accord upon the case can lie upon the keeper of the Gatehouse if S r. Iohn Corbet was not committed nor detained by the special commandment of the King so long as the warrant of the Lords of the Councell be returned as it was made because he doth return the same as the significavit of the Lords by their warrant Register 65. the writ of Excommunication Capiend ' goeth Rex vicecom ' Lincoln S. significavit nob ' venerabilis Pater Henricus Lincolnien sis Episcopus per Literas suas Patentes quod R. suus Parochial ' propter suam manifestaÌ„ cotumac ' authoritate ipsius Episc ordin ' excom ' est nec se vult per censuram Ecclesiasticam justiciar ' c. tibi praecipimus quod praedict ' R. per corpus suum secundum consuetud ' Angliae justic ' c. and yet no man will say that there is an information of the King that R. is excommunicated but onely that the Bishop of Lincoln had signified unto him that R. was excommunicated and in Fitz. Nat. Br. 663. and Register 65. it appears that the form of the writ of Excommunication deliberand ' is Rex Vicecom ' London Salut ' Cum Thom ' Iay allutar ' London qui nuper ad denuntiat venerabil ' Patris Archiep ' Eborum pro contumaciis suis ratione contractus in civitate nostra Eborum habit ' ut dicebat tanquam excom ' claves Ecclesiae contemnent ' per corp ' suum secundum consuetud ' Augliae per te justic ' praecepimus donec c. esset satisfact ' eid ' Archiepiscopo ad satisfaciendum Deo sanctae ecclesiae sufficientem exposuit cautionem per quod eidem Archiepiscopus â—ffic Archdiac London mutuae vicissitudin ' obtentu scripsit ut ipsum absolvat ab excom ' senten ' memorata sicut idem Archiepiscopus per Literas suas Patentes
Monstrans de faict si upon an action of trespasse brought for cutting of trees the defendant pleadeth that the place where he cut them is parcell of the Manor of D. whereof the King is seised in fee and the King commanded him to cut the trees and the opinion of the Court there is that the plea in barre was ill because he did not shew any speciall commandment of the King and there it is agreed by the whole Court that if the King commandeth one to arrest another and the party commanded did arrest the other an action of trespasse or false imprisonment is maintainable against the party that arrested him although it were done in the presence of the King 39 H. 6. 17. where one justifieth the seisure of the goods of a person that is outlawed by the commandment of the King such a party being no Officer may not in an action brought against him have any aid of the King for such a commandment given to one that is not an Officer will not any wayes avail him that is to justifie himself by the return of that commandment 37 Hen. 6. 10. If the king give me a thing and I take the same by his commandment by word of mouth it is not justified by law nothing may passe without matter of Record 10 Hen. 7. 7. 17. 18. it is agreed that Justices may command one to arrest another that is in their view or presence but not one that is out of their view or presence And Keble 10 Hen. 7. 13. said that where one is arrested by a parroll command in their view or presence it is fitting that a record may be made of it insomuch that without such a record there can hardly be a justification in another Term. Secondly there is a commandment of the King by his Commission which according unto Calvins case in the seventh Report it is called by him breve mandatum non remediabile and by virtue of such a commandment the King may neither seise the goods of his subject nor imprison his body as it is resolved in 42 Ass. pl. 5. where it is agreed by all the justices that a Commission to take a mans goods or imprison his body without indictment or suit of the party or other due processe is against the Law Thirdly there is a commandment of the King which is grounded upon a suggestion made to the King or to his Councell and if a man be committed to prison by such a suggestion by commandment of the King it is unlawfull and not warranted by the Law of the Realm The 25 of Edward the third cap. 4. de Provisoribus whereas it is contained in the great Charter of the Franchises of England that none shall be imprisoned or arrested of his Free-hold or of his Franchises nor of his free customes but by the Law of the land It is awarded consented and established that from hence forth none shall be taken by petition or suggestion made to our Soveraign Lord the King or to his Councell untill it be by indictment or presentment of his good and lawfull neighbours where such deeds are done in due manner or by processe made by writ originall at the common law nor of his free-hold unlesse he be duely brought in and answer and forejudged of the same by way of Law and if any thing be done against the same it shall be redressed and holden for nought 37 Ed. 3. cap. 10. although it be contained in the great Charter that no man be taken or imprisoned or put out of his freehold without due processe of the law neverthelesse divers persons make false suggestions to the King himself as well for malice as otherwise whereof the King is often grieved and divers of the Realm put in great damages contrary to the form of the same Statute Wherefore it is ordained that all they that make such suggestions be sent with their suggestions to the Chancellour or Treasurer and they and every of them find sureties to pursue their suggestions and endure the same pain that the other should have had if in case that his suggestion be found untrue and that then processe of the law be made against them without being taken or imprisoned against the form of the same Charter and other statutes So that it appears by these severall statutes that such commandments of the King as are grounded upon suggestion either made to himself or to his Councell for the imprisonment of a man are against the law Fourthly I find that there is a commandment of the King which is made under his hand with his signet for in the fourth and the fifth of Philip and Mary Dier 162. where the statute of 1 Rich. 2. cap. 11. restraineth the Warden of the Fleet for letting any man at large that is in upon judgement at the suit of any man except it be by writ or other commandment of the King It was doubted whether the Queen by letter under her hand and privy signet doth give commandment to the Warden of the Fleet to suffer a man that is there in execution to go about his businesse or the affaires of the Queen whether this be a warrantable command or not within the Statute and the Law hath alwayes been conceived upon that book that such a commandment is not warrantable by Law and if such a command will not serve the turn to give unto a man his liberty which the Lord favoureth and had the countenance of an Act of Parliament for the doing of it then I conceive it should be a more strong case the King should not have power by his commandment to imprison a man without due processe of the Law and restrain him of his liberty when there had been so many Acts of Parliament made for the liberty of the subjects Fifthly I do find that there is the commandment of the King which is by his writ under the Great Seal or the seal of the Court out of which it issueth Regist. f. 69. 70. in the writ de cautione admittenda I find the words mandatum Regis expounded to be breve Regis for the writ goeth Rex vic' Salutem Cum nuper ad requisitionem S. de Isle Canonici Lincol. venerabilis Patris H. Lincoln Episcopi ipso in remotis agente Vicarii general per Literas suas patentes nobis significantis Nicho. B. dict Lincoln Dioc. propter manifestam contumaciam Authoritate ipsius Episcopi Ordinar excommunicat esse nec si velle c. vobis praeceperimus quod praefat c. satisfactum ex parte ipsius N. qui virtute mandati nostri praedict per vos Capt. in Prison nostrade Newgate detent existit c. nos nolentes quod praefat N. per breve nostrum praedict via praecludatur c. prosequi possit in forma Iuris maxim ' c. integer esse debeat vobis praecipimus quod scire c. quod sit c. quare praedict N. Ã Prisona praediet
Common Law for there are also divers Jurisdictions in this Kingdom which are also so reckoned the Law of the Land As in Kendrick's Case in the report fol. 8. the 1. Ecclesiastical Law is held the Law of the Land to punish Blasphemies Schismes Heresies Simony Incest and the like for a good reason there rendred viz. That otherwise the King should not have power to do Justice to his Subjects in all Cases nor to punish all Crimes within his Kingdom The Admiral 's Jurisdiction is also Lex terrae for things done upon the Sea but if they exceed their Jurisdiction a prohibition is awarded upon the Statute of null us liber homo by which appears that the Statute is in force as we have acknowledged The Martial likewise though not to be exercised in times of peace when recourse may be had to the Kings Courts yet in times of invasion or other times of Hostility when an Army Royal is in the field and offences are committed which require speedy reformation and cannot expect the solemnity of legal Trials then such imprisonment execution or other Justice done by the Law Martial is Warrantable for it is then the Law of the Land and is Ius gentium which ever serves for a supply in the defeat of the Common Law when ordinary proceeding cannot be had And so it is also in the case of the Law of the Merchant which is mentioned 13. E 4. fol. 9. 10. where a Merchant stranger was wronged in his goods which he had committed to a Carrier to convey to Southampton and the Carrier imbezelled some of the goods for remedy whereof the Merchant sued before the Councel in the Star-Chamber for redress It is there said thus Merchant strangers have by the King safe conduct for coming into this Realm therefore they shall not be compelled to attend the ordinary Trial of the Common Law but for expedition shall sue before the Kings Councel or in Chancery de die in diem de hâ—râ in horam where the Case shall be determined by the Law of Merchants In the like manner it is in the Law of State when the necessity of State requires it they do and may proceed to natural equity as in those other Cases where the Law of the Land provides not there the proceeding may be by the Law of natural equity and infinite are the Occurrences of State unto which the Common Law extends not And if these proceedings of State should not also be accounted the Law of the Land then we do fall into the same inconveniency mentioned in Cawdries Case that the King should not be able to do Justice in all Cases within his own Dominions If then the King nor his Councel may not Commit it must needs follow that either the King must have no Councel of State or having such a Councel they must have no power to make Orders or Acts of State Or if they may they must be without means to compell obedience to those Acts and so we shall allow them Jurisdiction but not compel obedience to those Acts but not correction which will be then as fruitless as the Command Frustra potentia quae nunquam redigitur in statutum Where as the very Act of Westminster first shews plainly that the King may commit and that his commitment is lawfull or else that Act would never have declared a man to be irreprieveable when he is committed by the Command of the King if the Law-makers had conceived that his commitment had been unlawfull And Divine truth informs us that the Kings have their power from God the Psalmist calling them the children of the most High which is in a more special manner understood then of other men for all the Sons of Adam are by election the Sons of God and all the Sons of Abraham by recreation or regeneration the Children of the most High in respect of the power which is committed unto them who hath also furnished them with ornaments and arms fit for the exercising of that power and hath given them Scepters Swords and Crowns Scepters to vestitute and Swords to execute Laws and Crowns as Ensigns of that power and dignity with which they are invested shall we then conceive that our King hath so far transmitted the power of his Sword to inferiour Magistrates that he hath not reserved so much Supream power as to commit an Offender to prisonâ— 10. H. 6. fol. 7. It appears that a Steward of a Court Leet may commit a man to prison and shall not the King from whom all inferior power is deduced have power to commit We call him the fountain of Justice yet when these streams and rivolets which flowe from that Fountain come fresh and full we would so far exhaust that Fountain as to leave it dry but they that will admit him so much power do require the expression of the cause I demand whether they will have a general cause alleadged or a special if general as they have instances for Treason Fellony of for Contempt for to leave fencing and to speak plainly as they intend it If loan of money should be required and refused and thereupon a commitment ensue and the cause signified to be for a contempt this being unequal inconvenience from yielding the remedy is sought for the next Parliament would be required the expression of the particular cause of the commitment Then how unfit would it be for King or Councel in Cases to express the particuler Cause it s easily to be adjudged when there is no State or pollicy of government whether it be Monarchal or of any other frame which have not some secrets of State not communicable to every vulgar understanding I will instance but one If a King imploy an Ambassadour to a Forreign Countrey of States with instructions for his Negotiation and he pursue not his instructions whereby dishonour and dammage may ensue to the Kingdom is not this commitment And yet the particuler of his instruction and the manner of his miscarrying is not fit to be declared to his Keeper or by him to be certified to the Judges where it is to be opened and debated in the presence of a great audience I therefore conclude for offences against the State in Case of State Government the King and his Councel have lawfull power to punish by imprisonment without shewing particular cause where it may tend to the disclosing of State-Government It is well known to many that know me how much I have laboured in this Law of the Subjects Liberty very many years before I was in the Kings service and had no cause then to speak but to speak ex animo yet did I then maintain and publish the same opinion which now I have declared concerning the Kings Supream power in matters of State and therefore can not justly be centured to speak at this present onely to merit of my Master But if I may freely speak my own understanding I conceive it to be a question too high to
be determined by any legal direction for it must needs be an hard case of contention when the Conquerour must sit down with irreparable losses as in this Case If the Subject prevails he gains Liberty but looseth the benefit of that State-Government by which a Monarchie may soon become an Anarchie or if the State prevails it gives absolute Soveraignty but looseth Subjects not their subjection for obedience we must yield though nothing be left us but prayers and tears but yet looseth the best part of them which is their affections whereby Soveraignty is established and the Crown formerly fixt on his Royal head between two such extreams there is not way to moderate but to finde a medium for the accommodation of the difference which is not for me to prescribe but onely to move your Lordships to whom I submit After M r. Serjeant his speech ended my Lord President said thus to the Gentlemen of the House of Commons That though at this free conference Liberty was given by the Lords to the Kings Councel to speak what they thought fit for his Majesty Yet M r. Serjeant Ashley had no Authority or direction from them to speak in that manner he hath done M r. NOYE his Argument the 16. of April 1628. HE offered an answer to the inconveniences presented by Mr. Attorney which were 4. in Number First where it was objected that it was inconvenent to express the cause for fear of divulging Arcana â—mperii for hereby all may be discovered and abundance of Traitors never brought to Justice To this that Learned Man answered That the Judges by the intention of the Law are the Kings Councel and the secrets may safely be committed to all or some of them who might advise whether they will bayl him and here is no danger to King or subjects for their Oath will not permit them to reveal the secrets of the King nor yet to detain the Subjects long if by Law he be to be bayled Secondly for that Objection of the Children of Odonell he laid this for a ground that the King can do no wrong but in Cases of extream necessity we must yield sometimes for the preservation of the whole State ubi unius damnum utilitate publica rependitus he said there was no trust in the Children of Traitours no wrong done if they did tabe facere or marcesere in Carcere It is the same Case of necessity as when to avoid the burning of a Town we are forced to pull down an honnest mans House or to compell a man to dwell by the Sea-side for defence or fortitude Yet the King cannot do wrong for potentia juris est non injura Ergo the Act of the King though to the wrong of another is by the Law made no wrong as if he commanded to be kept in Prison yet he is responsal for his wrong he quoted a book 42. 6. Ass Port. Thirdly the instance made of Westminster First he said there was a great difference between those 3. Mainprize Bail and Replevin The Statute saith a man cannot be repleiued Ergo not bayled non sequitur Maniprize under pain Bayl body for body no pain ever in Court to be declared Replevin neither by surety not bayl of Replevin never in Court the Statute saith a man cannot be Repleiued Ergo not bayled non sequitur Fourthly where it is said that bayl is ex gratia he answers that if the Prisoner comes to Habeas Corpus then it is not ex gratia Yet the Court may advise but mark the words ad subjiciendum recipiendum prout Curia consideraverit now it is impossible the Judges should do so if no cause be expressed for if they know no cause he may bring the 1. 2. 3. and fourth Habeas Corpus and so infinite till he finde himself a perpetual Prisoner so that no cause expressed is worse for a man then the greatest cause or Villany that can be imagined and thus far proceeded that learned Gentleman M r. GLANVILES Argument HE said that by favour of the House of Commons he had liberty to speak if opportunity were offered he applies his answer to one particuler of M r. Attorney who assigned to the King 4. great trusts 1. of War 2. Coins 3. Denizens 4. Pardons Is assented unto that the King is trusted with all these 4. legal Prerogatives but the Argument followeth not the King is trusted with many Prerogatives Ergo in this non sequitur non est sufficients enumer atiâ— partium he said he could answer these particulars with 2. rules whereof the first should wipe of the first and the second and the other the third and fourth The first rule in this there is no fear of trusting the King with any thing but the fear of ill Councel the King may easily there be trusted where ill Councel doth not ingage both the King and Subjects as it doth in matter of War and Coin If he miscarry in the Wars it is not alwayes pecuum Achiro but he smarts equally with the people If he abase his Coin he looseth more then any of his people Ergo he may safely be trusted with the flowers of the Crown War and Coin The second rule he began was this when the King is trusted to confer grace it is one thing but when he is trusted to infer an injury it is another matter The former power cannot by miscouncelling be brought to prejudice another The latter may if the King pardoneth a guilty Man he punisheth not a good subject if he denizen never â—o many strangers it is but damnum â—ine injuria we allow him a liberty to confer grace but not without cause to infer punishment and indeed he cannot do injury for if he command to do a Man wrong the command is void alter fit Author and the Actor becomes the wrong doer Therefore the King may be safely trusted with War Coin Denizens and Pardons but not with a power to imprison without expression of Cause or limmitation of time because as the Poet tells us Libertas potius auro The Answer of the Judges for matter of Fact upon the HABE AS CORPUS 21. April THe Chief Justice saith they are prepared to obey our Command but they desire to be advised by us whether they being sworn upon penalty of forseiting Body Lands and Goods into the Kings hands to give an account to him may without Warrant do this The Duke said he had acquainted the King with the business and for ought he knoweth he is well content therewith But for better assurance he hath sent his brother of Anglesey to know his pleasure Devonshire saith if a complaint be made by a mean Man against the greatest Officer in this place he is to give an account of his doings to this Honse Bishop of Lincoln saith this motion proceeded from him and so took it for clear that there was an appeal from the Chancery to a higher Court then the Kings-bench and in that Court hath ever
in Chambers but publick in Court where every one may hear which causeth Judgement to be given with maturity Your Lordships have heard the particulers delivered by my brethren how that Councel being assigned to those 4. Gentlemen in the latter end of Michaelmass Term their Cause received hearing and upon consideration of the Statutes and Records we found some of them to be according to the good old Law of Magna Charta but we thought that they did not come so close to this Case as that bayl should be thereupon presently granted My Lords the Habeas Corpus consisteth of 3. parts the Writ the Return upon the Writ or schedule and the Entry or rule reciting the Habeas Corpus and the Return together with the opinion of the Court either a remittitur or traditur in ballium In this Case a remittitur was granted which we did that we might take better advisement upon the Case and upon the remittitur my Lords they might have had a new Writ the next day and I wish they had because it may be they had seen more and we had been eased of a great labour And my Lords when the Attorney upon the remittitur pressed an Entry we all straitly charged the Clark that he should make no other Entry then such as our Predecessors had usually made in like Cases for the difference my Lords betwixt remittitur and remittitur quousque I could never yet finde any I have now sat in this Court 15. years and I should know something surely if I had gone in a Mill so long dust would cleave to my cloaths I am old and have one foot in the grave therefore I will look to the better part as near as I can But omnia habere in memoria in nullo errare divinum potiùs est quam humanum THE LORD CHIEF IUSTICE SAith he shall not speak with confidence unless he might stand right in the opinion of the House and protested what he spake the day before was not said by him with any purpose to trench upon the Priviledges of this House but out of that respect which by his place he thought he owed to the King he said concerning the point he was to speak of that he would not trouble the Lords with things formerly repeated wherein he concurred with his brethren He said if it were true the King might not commit they had done wrong in not partly delivering for my Lords saith he these Statutes and good Laws being all in force we meant not to trench upon any of them most of them being Commentaries upon Magna Charta but I know not any Statute that goeth so far that the King may not commit Therefore justly we think we delivered the interpretation thereof to that purpose for my Lords Lex terrae is not to be found in this Statute they gave me no example neither was there any Cause shewed in the Return A President my Lords that hath run in a storm doth not much direct us in point of Law and Records are the best Testimonies These Presidents they brought being read we shewed them wherein they were mistaken if we have erred erramus cum Patribus and they can shew no President but that our Predecessors have done as we have done sometimes bayling sometimes remitting sometimes discharging Yet we do never bayl any committed by the King or his Councel till his pleasure be first known Thus did the Lord Chief Justice Coke in Raynards Case They say this would have been done if the King had not written but why then was the Letter read and published and kept and why was the Town Clark sent carefully to enquire because the Letter so directed whether these men offered for bayl were subsedy men the Letter sheweth also that Beckwith was committed for suspition of being acquaninted with the Gun-Pouder-Treason but no proof being produced the King left him to be bayled The Earle of WARVVICKS speech 21. April 1628. MY Lords I will observe something out of the Law wherein this liberty of the Subjects Person is founded and some things out of Presidents which have been alleadged For the Law of Magna Charta and the rest concerning these points they are acknowledged by all to be of force and that they were to secure the Subjects from wrongfâ—ll imprisonment as well or rather more concerning the King then the Subject why then besides the grand Charter and those 6. other Acts of Parliament in the very point we know that Magna Charta hath been at least 30. times confirmed so that upon the matter we have 6. or 7. and thereby Acts of Parliament to confirm this liberty although it was made a matter of derision the other day in this House One is that of 36. E. 3. N o. 9. and another in the same year N o. 20. not printed but yet as good as those that are and that of 42. E. 3. cap. 3. so express in the point especially the Petition of the Commons that year which was read by M r. Littleton with the Kings answer so full and free from all exception to which I refer your Lordships that I know not have any thing in the World can be more plain and therefore if in Parliament ye should make any doubt of that which is so fully confirmed in Parliament and in case so clear go about by new glosses to alter the old and good Law we shall not onely forsake the steps of our Ancestors who in Cases of small importance would answer nolumus mutare leges Angliâ— but we shall yield up and betray our right in the greatest inheritance the Subjects of England hath and that is the Laws of England and truely I wonder how any man can admit of such a gloss upon the plain Text as should overthrow the force of the Law for whereas the Law of Magna Charta is that no Free-man shall be imprisoned but by lawfull judgement of his Peers or the Law of the Land the King hath power to commit without Cause which is a sence not onely expresly contrary to other Acts of Parliament and those especially formerly cited but against Common sence For M r. Attorney confesseth this Law concerns the King why then where the Law saith the King shall not commit but by the Law of the Land the meaning must be as M r. Attorney would have it that the King must not commit but at his own pleasure and shall we think that our Ancestors were so foolish to hazard their Persons Estates and labour so much to get a Law and to have it 30. times confirmed that the King might not commit his Subjects but at his own pleasure and if he did commit any of his Subjects without a Cause shewen then he must lie during pleasure then which nothing can be imagined more ridiculous and contrary to true reason For the Presidents I observe that there hath been many shewen by which it appears to me evidently that such as have been committed by the Kings Councel
may be said that the offence was of that nature that the time of his imprisonment before the Return was a sufficient punishment and we may be frequently imprisoned in this manner and never understand the cause and have often such punishment and have no means to justifie our selves and for all these proceedings this Law will be the justification or colour 2. If by this Act there be a Tolleration of imprisonment without shewing cause untill the Return of the Habeas Corpus yet it is possible to accompany that imprisonment with such circumstances of close restraint and others which I forbear to express as may make an imprisonment for that short time as great a punishment as a perpetual imprisonment in our ordinary manner 3. The party may be imprisoned a long time before he shall come to be delivered by this Law The place of his imprisonment may be in the furthest parts of this Kingdom The Judges always makes the Return of the Habeas Corpus answerable to the distance of the Prison from Westminster The Goaler may neglect the Return of the first Process and then the party must procure an alias and the Goaler may be then in some other imployment for the King and excuse the not returning of the body upon that Process and this may make the imprisonment for a year and in the end no cause being returned the party may be discharged but in the mean time he shall have imprisonment he shall never know the cause he shall have no remedy for it nor be able to question any for injustice which have not a justification or excuse by this Law 4. The party may be imprisoned during his life and yet there shall be no cause ever shewn I will instance in the manner a man may be committed to the furthest part of the Kingdom Westward he obtains an Habeas Corpus Before the Goaler receives the Habeas Corpus or before he returns it the Prisoner by Warrant is removed from that Prison to another it may be the furthest Northern part of the Realm the first Goaler returns the special Matter which will be sufficient to free himself and in like manner the Prisoner may be translated from one Prisoh to another and his whole life shall be a preregrination or wayfairing from one Goal to another and he shall never know the cause not be able to compalin of any who cannot defend their actions by this Bill 5. If the Prisoner be brought into the Court by Habeas Corpus and no cause expressed and thereupon he be enlarged he may be partly committed again and then his enlargement shall onely make way for his commitment and this may continue during his life and he shall never know the cause and this not remedied but rather permitted by this Act. And there are also considerable in this Matter the expence of the party in Prison His Fees to the Goaler his costs in obtaining and prosecuting an Habeas Corpus and his charges in removing himself attended with such as have the charge of his conduct and that the Prisoner must sustain all without satisfaction or knowing the cause The onely reason given by those of the other opinion That it is requisite the King and Councel should have power to command the detainer of a man in Prison for sometime without expressing the cause is because it is supposed that the manifestation of the cause at first may prevent the discovery of a Treason The reason is answered by the remedy proposed by this Act it being proposed that it shall be provided by this Bill that upon our commitment we may have instantly recourse to the Chancery for an Habeas Corpus retornable in that Court which is alwayes open that partly upon the receipt thereof the Writ must be returned and the cause thereupon expressed If then this remedy be really the cause of commitment must partly appear which contradicts the former reason of State And in my own opinion we ought not onely to take care that the Subject should be delivered out of Prison but to prevent his imprisonment The Statute of Magna Charta and the rest of the Acts providing that no man should be imprisoned but by the Law of the Land And although the King or Councel as it hath been objected by might may commit us without cause notwithstanding any Laws we can make Yet I am sure without such an Act of Parliament such commitment can have no Legal colour and I would be loath we should make a Law to endanger our selves for which reasons I conceive that there being so many wayes to evade from this Act we shall be in worse case by it then without it providing no remedy to prevent our imprisonment without expressing the cause to be Lawfull and administers excuses for continuing us in Prison as I have before declared and thus for providing for one particuler out of reason of State which possibly may fall out in an age or two we shall spring a leak which may sinck all our Liberties and open a gap through which Magna Charta and the rest of the Statutes may issue out and vanish I therefore conclude that in my poor understanding which I submit to better Judgements I had rather depend upon our former resolutions and the Kings gracious Declarations then to pass an Act in such manner as hath been proposed The Speakers speech to his MAJESTY in the Bancketting-House 5. May 1628. Most gracious and dread Soveraign YOur Loyal and dutifull Subjects the Commons assembled in Parliament by several Messages from your Majesty especially by that your must Royal Declaration delivered by the Lord Keeper before both Houses have to their exceeding joy and comfort received many ample expressions of your Princely care and tender affection towards them with a gracious promise and assurance that your Majesty will govern according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and so maintain all your Subjects in the just freedom of their Persons and safety of their Estates that all their Rights and Liberties may be by them enjoyed with as much freedom and security in your time as in any age heretofore by their Ancestors under the best of your Royal Progenitors For this so great and gracious a favour enlarged by a continual intimation of your Majesties confidence in the proceeding of this House they do by me their Speaker make a full return of most humble thanks to your Majesty withall dutifull acknowledgement of your grace and goodness herein extended to them And whereas in one of these Messages delivered from your Majesty there was an expression of your desire to know whether this House would rest upon your Royal word and promise assuring them if they would it should be Royally and really performed As they again present their humble thanks for this seconding and strengthning of your former Royal expressions so in all humbleness they assure your Majesty that their greatest confidence is and ever must be in your gracious favour and
Lords viam faustam both to his Majesty and your Lordships and to our selves for my Lords this is the greatest bond that any Subject can have in Parliament verbum Regis that is an high point of Honour but this shall be done by the Lords and Commons and assented to by the King in Parliament This is the greatest obligation of all and this is for the Kings Honour and our safety And therefore my Lords we have drawn a form of a Petition desiring your Lordships to concur with us herein for we come with an unanimous consent of all the House of Commons for there is great reason your Lordships should do so because that your Lordships be involved in the same condition commune periculum and so I have done with the first part And now I shall be bolde to read that which we have so agreed on I shall desire your Lordships that I may read it The Petition of Right to the KINGS most Excellent Majesty HUmbly sheweth unto our Soveraign Lord the King the Lords spiritual temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled That whereas it is declared and enacted by a Statute made in the time of the Raign of King Edw. 1. commonly called Statutum de tallagio non concedendo That no Tollage or aid should be laid or levied by the King or his Heirs in this Realm without the good will and assent of the Arch-Bishop Earles Barons Knights Burgesses and others the freemen of the Cominalty of this Realm And by Authority of Parliament holden in the 13. year of the Raign of King Ed. 3. it is declared and enacted that from thence-forth no Persons should be compelled to make any loan to the King against his will because such loans were against reason and the Franchises of the Land And by other Laws of this Realm it is provided that none should be charged by any charge or imposition called a Benevolence nor by such like charge by which the Statutes before mentioned and other the good Laws and Statutes of this Realm your Subjects have inherited this freedom that they should not be compelled to Contribute to any Tax Tollage Aid or other like charge not set by common consent in Parliament Yet nevertheless of late divers Commissions directed to sundry Commissioners in several Countreys with instructions have issued by means whereof your people have been in divers parts assembled and required to lend certain summes of money to your Majesty And many of them upon refusal so to do have had an unlawfull Oath administred unto them not warrantable by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give attendance before your privy Councel and in other places And others of them have been therefore imprisoned confined and sundry other wayes molested and disquieted and divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several Countreys alleadging some superior by Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Commissioners for Musters Justices of Peace and others by command or direction against the Laws and free Customes of the Realm from your Majestie or your privy Councel And where also by the Statute called the great Charter of the Liberties of England It is declared and enacted That no Freeman may be taken nor â—mprisoned nor be disseised of his Freehold nor Liberties nor his free Customes nor be outlawed or exiled or in any manner destroyed but by the Lawfull judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And in the 28. year of the Raign of King Edw. 3. it was declared and enacted by Authority of Parliament that no man of what Estate or condition he be shall put out of his Land or Tenement nor taken nor imprisoned nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law Nevertheless against the Tenour of the said Statutes and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realm to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your Majesties Writ of Habeas Corpus there to undergo and receive as the Court should order and the Keepers commanded to certefie the causes of their detainer no cause was certified but that they were detained by your Majesties special command signified by the Lords of your privy Councel and yet were returned back to several Prisons without being charged with any thing the which they might make answer to and to Law And whereas of late great Companies of Souldiers and Marriners have been dispersed into divers Countreys of the Realm and the Inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses and there to suffer them to sojourn against the Laws and Customes of this Realm and to the great grievance and vexation of the people And whereas also by Authority of Parliament in the 25. E. 3. it is declared and enacted that no man shall be fore-judged of Life or Limb against the form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land and by the said great Charter and other the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm no man ought to be adjudged to death but by the Laws established in this your Realm Nevertheless of late times divers Commissions under your Majesties great Seal have issued forth by which certain Persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners with power and Authority to proceed within the Land according to the Justice of Martial Law against such Souldiers or Marriners or other dissolute Persons joyning with them as should commit any Murther Robbery Fellony Mutiny or other outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever and by such summary course and order as is agreeable to Martial Law and is used in Armies in time of War to proceed to the trial and condemnation of such offenders and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the Law Martial By pretext whereof some of your Majesties Subjects have been by some of the said Commissioners put to death when and where if by the Laws and Statutes of the Land they had deserved death by the same Laws and Statutes also they might and by none other ought to have been adjudged and executed And also sundry grievous offenders by colour thereof claiming an exemption have escaped the punishment due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm By reason whereof divers of your Officers and Ministers of Justice have unjustly refused or forbore to proceed against such offenders according to the same Laws and Statutes upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable onely by Martial Law and by Authority of such Commissions as aforesaid which Commissions and all other of like nature are directly contrary to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm They do therefore humbly pray your most Excellent Majesty that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any Guift Loan Benevolence Tax or such
overthrow the Duke is by humble Petition to his Majestie With the violent sort we have taken a contrary course by working upon their passions and intreating their fancies with probabilities and presidents which never were heard of that favourites have but Parliament proofs they may wrastle for a time but at last the Parliament hath ever overthrow them upon their backs we incourrage them withall the wits we have to fall upon the Duke and perswade them now is the time or never the King being in such apparant necessity insomuch that we assure our selves that God hath so forsaken and infatuated them that they shall not onely strike and dash upon the same rock again but split and wrack in the bottomless sea of destruction We have now many strings to our bow and have strongly fortified our faction and have added two Bulwracks more for when King Iames lived you know he was very vehement against Arminianisme interrupted with his pestilent wit and deep learning our strong designes in Holland and was a great Friend to that old Rebell and Heretick the Prince of Orange now we have planted that Soveraign drug Arminianisme which we hope will purge the Protestans from their Heresie and it flourishes and bears fruit in due season The materials which builds up the other Bulwarks are the projectors and beggerers of all ranks and quallities whatsoever both those factions copulated to destroy the Parliament and introduce a new species and form of government which is Oligarchal Their factions serve as direct medicines and instruments to our ends which is the universall Catholick Monarchy our foundation is imitation this Immitation will cause a relaxation as so many violent diseases in the body as the Sone Gout and to the speedy destruction or perpetuall and insufferable anguish of the body which is worse then death it self We proceed with counsel and mature deliberation when and where to work upon the Dukes jealousie and revenge In this we give the honour to those that merit it which are the Church Catholicks There is another matter of consequence which we take much into our consideration and tender care which is to stave the Puritans that they hang not upon the Dukes ears they are impudent subtill people and `t is to be feared least they should negotiate a reconciliation betwixt the Duke and the Parliament It is certain the Duke would have reconciled himself to the Parliament at Oxford and Westminster but now we assure our selves we have so handled the matter that both the Duke and the Parliament are irreconciliable For the better preventing of the Puritans the Arminians have already blockt up the Dukes ears and we have those of our own Religion which stand continuall Centinel at the Dukes Chamber dore to see who goes in and out we cannot be two carefull and circumspect in this regard I cannot chuse but laugh to see how some of our coat have accooted themselves you would scarce know them if you saw them and it is admirable how in speech gesture they act the Puritans the Cambridge Schollers to their wofull experience shall see how we can ect the Puritans a little better then they have acted the Iesuites they abused our Patron S. Ignatius in jeast but we will make them smart for it in earnest I hope you will excuse my merry digression for I confess unto you I am at this instant transported with joy to see how happily all instruments and means as well great as less operate to our purposes But to return to the maine Fabrick our foundation is Arminianisme Arminians and projectors as it appears in the premisses affect mutation this we see in force by all probable Arguments we can in the first place take into our consideration the Kings Honour and his present necessity and we shew how the King may free himself of his wardships as Lewis the 11. did and for his great splender he may raise a vast revenew and not beholding to his Subjects which is by way of imposition and excise we instance in the low Countries and shew what a mass of monies they raised to pay their Armies by Sea and Land meerly out of excise Then our Church Catholicks shewed the means of this excise which must be by a mercinary Army of Horse and Foot For the Horse we have made it sure they shall be forraigners and Germans who will eat up the Kings revenews and spoil the Countrie wheresoever they come though they should to be paid what havock will they make then when they are not dayly paid surely they will do much more mischief Then the Catholick Army of 10000 Horse and 20000. Foot shall be taken over and in pay before the mercinary Army suffocate the Country Then the Souldiers and projectors shall be paid out of the confiscation of the Country to be had of the Souldiers then they must consequently mutiny which is equall advantagious to our superlative design which is to work the Protestans as well as the Catholicks to wellcome a conquest and this is by this means we hope instantly to dissolve Trade hinder the building of shipping in propounding probable designs and putting the stay upon expedition as that of Cales taking away the Merchants ships and feeding them with hope to take the West-Indies Fleet which is to seek a needle in a bottle of hay his Catholick Majestie shall not want our best intelligence besides he hath so many pistashawes and carvils which are spread abroad to discover so you cannot be surprized in any harbor when Trade is ruined and shipping decayed What will become of Noblemens and Gentlemens revenews the Yeamen and Formers in which consists the infantry of this Kingdom they will turn Rogues and resemble the object peasants in France who are little better then slave Trade and shipping is so much decayed already that London is as it were beseiged for want of fewel Sea coles are at 30 shillings the chaldren When things are brought to this perfection which we hope will be by that time his Sacred Majestie hath setled his affairs in Germany all the people in general will linger for a conquest missing their means and revenews which should maintain and support them according to their several ranks and qualities Then we assure our selves that the Lands which were rent and torn from the Church by that ravenous Monster Hen. 8. shall be restored by our mighty Protector his Catholick Majestie to the recalling of those that are exiled and deliver thousand of souls which suffer persecution at home for the testimony of a good conscience Joyn your prayers with ours importuning the blessed Virgin and all the hoast of Angels and holy Martyers to intercede for us and we doubt not God will make hast to help us Thus hoping to see the Count Tillies and Marquess Spinola here about Iuly come twelve-moneth I rest In the mean time we pray for a happy success in Germany and the Lâ—w-Countries From the County c. Your loving friends I. W.
Licensing of bad books is a crime or the refusing to license books because then writ against Poperie or Arminianisme is a crime There is no Law to prevent the printing of any book in England onely a Decree in Star-chamber therefore that a man should be sued and imprisoned and his goods taken from him is a great Invasion on the Libertie of the Subject moveth a Law to be made upon this This is referred to a select Committee to examin Mr. Shervile REported concerning the Pardons that they have examined Doctor Sibthorp and Cosens Pardons Sibthorp solicited his own Pardon and said he would get the Bishop of Winchester to get the Kings hand to it It is evident that the Bishop of Winchester got the Kings hand to Sibthorp and Cosens Pardons and also Mountagues Pardon was promised by him That Doctor Manwering solicited his own Pardon and the Bishop of Wincâ—ester got the Kings hand to it It is likewise said the Pardons were all drawn by Mr. Attorney before there was any Warrant Mr. Cromwell saith he had by relation from one Doctor Beard that Beard said Doctor Allablaster had preached flat Poperie at Pauls Cross the Bishop of Winchester commanded him as he was his Diocesan that he should preach nothing to the contrarie Sir Robert Philips saith One Doctor Marshall will relate as much said to him by the Bishop of Winchester as the Bishop said to Doctor Moor. Mr. Kirtoâ— That Doctor Marshall and Doctor Beard may be sent for This Bishop though he hath leapt through many Bishopricks yet he hath leâ—t Poperie behind him That Cosens frequenting the Printing-house hath caused the Book of Common-Prayer to be new printed and hath changed the word Minister into Priest and hath put out in another place the word Elect thus Cosens and his Lord go hand in hand Sir Miles Fleetwood saith We are to give Mountague his Charge and by his books charge him with Schisme in error of Doctrine Faction in point of State Thirdly matter of Aggravation Sir Walter Earl OUi color albus erat nunc est contrarius albo saith Doctor White hath sold his Orthodox books and bought Jesuiticall books moves that Bishop White may go arm in arm with Mountague Ordered a select Committee to be named to digest these things that have been alreadie agitated concerning the Innovation of Religion the Cause of the Innovation and the Remedie Thursday 12. THe Sheriff of London upon his submission at the Barre is released his imprisonment in the Tower Sir Iohn Elliot made the Report for the Committee in the examination of the complaint of Merchants and delivered the Orders and Injunctions into the Exchequer At a great Committee for Tonnage and Poundage Mr. SHERVIL in the Chair MAster Waller delivered a Petition from Chambers Felke and Gilborn in complaint of an information against them in the Star-chamber about Tonnage and Poundage that by the restraint of their goods they are like to be undone Sir Iohn Elliot THe Merchants are not onely kept from their goods by Customers but by a pretended Justice in a Court of Justice as the Exchequer I conceive if the Judges of that Court had their understanding enlightened of their error by this House they would reform the same and thereby the Merchants suddenly come to their goods Mr. Transtort conceiveth this to be a difficult way for us to go Mr. Corington Let it be done which way the House shall think fit but I conceive the Merchants shall have their goods before we can think of the Bill Kings ought not by the Law of God thus to oppress their Subjects I know we have a good King and this is the advice of his wicked Ministers but there is nothing can be more dishonorable unto him Mr. Stroud That it may be Voted That the Merchants may have their goods before we enter on the Bill Chancellor of the Dutchie I shall speak my opinion because I know not whether I shall have libertie to speak or you to hear any more All the proceedings of the King and his Ministers was to keep the Question safe untill this House should meet and you shall find the proceedings of the Chequer were Legal and thus much not knowing whether I shall have a days libertie to speak any more here again Mr. Thesaurer There is none here but would think it a hard thing that a Possession should be taken from us without any order for Sequestration that therefore it was not to be suffered that these few men should so unjustly disturb the Government of the State Desires there may be no interruption but that we may proceed to settle the Tonnage Mr. Corington I hope we may speak here as I hope we may speak in heaven and do our duties and let no fear divert us Mr. Waller It is not so few as 500 Merchants are threatened in this Sir Robert Phillips moveth we may go to the King and satisfie him of these interruptions Mr. Noy We cannot safely give unless we be in possession and proceedings in the Exchequer nullified and information in the Star-chamber and the Annexion to the Petition of Right and other Records I will not give my voice to this untill these things be made void for it will not be a Guift but a Confirmation Neither will I give unless these interruptions be removed and a Declaration in the Bill That the King hath no Right but by our free guift If it will not be accepted as is fit for us to give it we cannot help it If it be the Kings alreadie as by these new Records then we need not to give it Mr. Selden secondeth the Motion of sending a Message to the Exchequer declareth a President of a Message sent into the Chancerie for stay of proceedings in a Cause and it was obtained and whatsoever the Judges return it cannot prejudice us the Law speaks by Record and if these Records remain it will to posteritie explain the Law Mr. Littleton For the Right there is no Lawyer so ignorant to conceive it nor any Judge in the Land to affirm it is against giving to the King or going on the Bill In this case by the Law a man cannot be put to a Petition of Right but shall recover without Right Ordered that a Message shall be sent to the Court of the Exchequer That whereas certain goods of the Merchants have been stayed by Injunction from that Court by a false Affidavit and that the Customers that made the Affidavit have upon examination of this House confessed that the goods were stayed onely for duties contained in the book of Rates that therefore that Court would make void the orders and Affidavits in this business Friday 13. A Petition against one Burges a Priest who was here complained of the last Session some new Articles complained against him that he could not get a Copie of his Articles out of the house untill he was fain to get one counterfeit himself a Puritan to get the same and
no Priviledge lieth against the King in point of his duties Sir Francis Seymour I desire it may first be debated Whether this case doth concern the King or no for I conceive these Customers have not made good that there was any right here is onely art used to entitle the King I conceive it a high offence for any man to lay the scandal upon the King for every project Mr. Glanveil Here is a cunning Project in the Exchequer to entitle the King a meer cunning Project and an offence of a high nature to shelter their projects under the Command of the Crown Secretarie Cook The point in question is not the right of the Subject but the right of Parliament Priviledge and that in the case of Mr. Rolles and this is onely now in question Sir Iohn Strangewaies I know no reason why we should draw a question upon our selves which we need not especially between the King and us I conceive it plain these Customers took the goods in their own right not in the Kings In this Priviledge is plainly broken wherein it is easily determined Mr. Banks In this case there is no interposing of the Kings Right and the King this Parliament hath declared as much That the Courts at Westminster do grant 12 days priviledge to any man to inform his Councel much more the Court of Parliament are to have their Priviledge The Kings Command cannot extend to authorize any man to break the Priviledges no more than it will warrant an entrie upon any mans Land without process of Law Mr. Soliciter If the King have no Right how can he make a Lease then this pretended interest of the Customers must needs be void and therefore the goods must not be taken on their own right but in the right of the King Mr. Selden If there were any right the pretended right were in the Subject First whether Priviledge in goods Secondly whether the right were in the Customers onely Thirdly whether priviledge against the King 1. If the Lords have no priviledge in Parliaments for their goods then have they no priviledge at all for they are priviledged in their persons out of Parliament 2. For the point of interest it is plain no kind of Covenant can alter the interest and questionless had the cause in the Exchequer appeared to the Barons as it doth to us they would never have proceeded as they did 3. If our goods may be seized into the Exchequer be it right or wrong we were then as good have nothing Sir Nath. Ritch It was recorded the last Session and citeth other presidents in this House that a servant of a Member in Parliament ought to have priviledge in his goods Mr. Noy saith that these Commissioners had neither Commission nor Command to seize Therefore without doubt we may proceed safely to the other question That the priviledge is broken by the Customers without relation to any Commission or Command of the King Secretarie Cook saith It is in the Commission to seize but the Commission being read it is not found to be there Chancellor of the Dutchie saith Mr. Dawes mentioned that he seized these goods by virtue of a Commission and other Warrants remaining in the hands of Sir Iohn Elliot that therefore these Warrants may be seen whether there be no command to seize these goods Sir Nathaniel Ritch This days debate much joyeth me specially the motion made by Mr. Noy whereby it is plain we have a way open to go to this question without relation to the Kings Commission or Command and desire it in respect there appears nothing before us to incumber the question Chancellor of the Dutchie desires again these Warrants may be lookt into before we go to the question Mr. Kirton In respect this Honorable Gentleman presseth this so far that it may appear with what judgement this House hath proceeded Mr. Glanviel I consent these Warrants be sent for and read but withall if any thing arise that may produce any thing of ill consequence let it be considered from whence it doth come The Privie Councellers are contented with this Motion The Warrants being sent for and read it is plain there is no Warrant to seize Mr. Kirton If now there be any thing of doubt I desire those Honorable persons may make their objections Chancellor of the Dutchie I rejoyce when I can go to the Court able to justifie your proceedings I confess I see nothing now but that we may safely proceed to the Question Mr. Secretarie Cook saith as much Mr. Hackwell argueth against Priviledge in time of Prorogation Mr. Noy saith he had no doubt but that Priviledge was in force in time of Prorogation untill he heard this Argument of Prorogation of Mr. Hackwell and saith that he hath nothing from him yet that doth alter his opinion and citeth a cause wherein the Lords House hath this verie Prorogation adjudged the Priviledge Mr. Hackwell saith he is glad to hear it is so and he is now of the same opinion Decided by Question That Mr. Rolles ought to have Priviledge of Parliament for his goods seised 30 Octob. 5 Iac. and all sithence This Committee is adjourned untill Munday and the Customers to attend The Protestation of the COMMONS in Parliament on Munday 2. Mar. 1628. 1. WHosoever shall bring in an Innovation in Religion or by favour or countenance seek to extend or introduce Poperie or Arminianisme or other Opinion differing from the true and orthodox profession of our Church shall be reputed a Capital enemie to this Kingdom and Common-wealth 2. Whosoever shall counsel or advise the taking or leavying of the Subsedies of Tonage and Poundage not being granted by Parliament or shall be an Actor or an Instrument therein shall likewise be reputed an Innovator in the Government and a Capital enemie to the Kingdom and Common-wealth 3. If any Merchant or other person whatsoever shall voluntarily yield or pay the said Subsedie of Tonnage or Poundage not being granted by Parliament he shall likewise be reputed a Betrayer of the Liberties of England and an enemie to the same THE KINGS SPEECH in the House of PARLIAMENT Mar. 10. 1628. to Dissolve it My LORDS I Never came here upon so unpleasing occasion it being for the Dissolving of a PARLIAMENT therefore many may wonder why I did not rather choose to do this by my Commission it being the general Maxim of Kings to lay harsh commands by their Ministers themselves onely executing pleasing things But considering that Justice is as well in Commanding of Virtue as Punishing of Vice I thought it necessarie to come hâ—râ— to day to declare to you my Lords and all the world That it was onely the disobedient carriage of the Lower House that hath caused this Dissolution at this time and that you My Lords are so far from being causers of it that I have as much comfort in your Obedience manifested by all your carriage towards me as I have cause to distaste their proceedings Yet that
Treason the King shall not have this Jewell if he payes not the ten pound So if Cattel be distreined and the owner of them afterwards be attainted yet the King shall not have them untill he have satisfied that for which they were distreined And if in these Cases where the owners of the goods are such capitall offendours the King cannot have them much lesse shall he have them when the owner is innocent and no offendour Nay I may well say that almost every leaf and page of all the volumes of our Common Law prove this right of propriety this distinction of meum and tuum aswell between King and Subject as one Subject and another and therefore my Conclusion follows that if the Prerogative extend not neither to Lands nor to Goods then à fortiori not to the Person which is more worth then either lands or goods as I said And yet I agree that by the very law of Nature service of the Person of the Subject is due to his Soveraigne but this must be in such things which are not against the law of Nature but to have the body imprisoned without any cause declared and so to become in bondage I am sure is contrary unto and against the law of Nature and therefore not to be inforced by the Soveraigne upon his Subjects 3. My next reason is drawn ab inuâ—ili incommodo For the Statute de frangentibus prisonam made 1 E. 2. is quod nullus qui prisonam fregerit subeat judicium vitae vel membrorum pro fractione prisonae tantum nisi causa pro qua captus imprisonetur tale Iudicium requirat Whence this Conclusion is clearly gathered That if a man be committed to prison without declaring what cause and then if either Malefactour do break the prison or the Gaoler suffer him to escape albeit the prisoner so escaping had committed Crimen laesae majestatis yet neither the Gaoler nor any other that procured his escape by the Law suffer any corporall punishment for setting him at large which if admitted might prove in consequence a matter of great danger to the Common-wealth 4. My next reason is drawn ab Regis honore from that great honour the Law doth attribute unto soveraigne Majesty and therefore the Rule of Law is that Solum Rex hoc non potest facere quod non potest juste agere And therefore if a Subject hath the donation and the King the presentation to a Church whereunto the King presents without the Subjects nomination here the quare impedit lies against the Incumbent and the King is in Law no disturber And Hussey chief Justice in 1 H. 7. fol. 4. saith that Sir Iohn Markâ—am told King Edw. 4. he could not arrest a man either for treason or fellony as a Subject might because that if the King did wrong the party could not have his Action against him What is the reason that an Action of false imprisonment lies against the Sheriff if he doth not return the Kings Writ by which he hath taken the body of the Subject but this because the Writ doth breviter enarrare causam eaptionis which if it doth not it shall abate and is void in Law and being returned the party when he appears may know what to answer and the Court upon what to judge And if the Kings Writ under his great Seal cannot imprison the Subject unlesse it contains the cause shall then the Kings warrant otherwise doe it without containing the cause that his Judges upon return thereof may likewise judge of the same either to remain or judge the partie imprisoned I should argue this point more closely upon the statute of Magna Charta 29. quod nullus liber homo imprisonetur the statute of West 1. cap. 15. for letting persons to bail and the Judgements lately given in the Kings Bench but the later of these statutes referring having been by that honourable Gent. to whom the Professours of the Law both in this and all succeding ages are and will be much bound already expounded unto us and that also fortified by those many contemporary Expositions and Judgements by him learnedly cited and there being many learned Lawyers here whose time I will not waste who were present and some of them perhaps of councell in the late Cause adjudged in the Kings Bench where you to whose person I now speak do well know I was absent being then of councel in a cause in another Court and my practice being in the Country farre remote from the treasure of Antiquity and Records conducing to the clearing of this point Therefore the narrowness of my understanding commends unto me sober ignorance rather then presumptuous knowledge and also commands me no further to trouble your Patience But I will conclude with that which I find reported of Sir Iohn Davis who was the Kings Serjeant and so by the duty of his place would no doubt maintain to his uttermost the Prerogatives of the King his royall Master and yet it was by him thus said in those Reports of his upon the case of Tavistry Customs That the Kings of England alwayes have had a Monarchy Royall and not a Monarchy Seignorall where under the first saith he the Subjects are Free-men and have propriety in their goods and free-hold and inheritance in their Lands but under the later they are as Villains and Slaves and have proprietie in nothing And therefore saith he when a Royall Monarch makes a new Conquest yet if he receives any of his Nations ancient Inhabitants into his protection they and their heirs after them shall enjoy their Lands and Liberties according to the Law And there he voucheth this President and Judgement following given before William the Conquerour himself viz. That one Sherborn at the time of the Conquest being owner of a Castle and lands in Norfolk the Conquerour gave the same to one Warren a Norman and Sherborn dying the Heir clayming the same by descent according to the Law it was before the Conquerour himself adjudged for the Heir and that the gift thereof by the Conquerour was void If then it were thus in the Conquerour's time by his own sentence and judgement and hath so continued in all the successions of our Kings ever since what doubt need we have but that his most excellent Majestie upon our humble petition prostrated at his feet which as was well said is the best passage to his heart will vouchsafe unto us our ancient Liberties and Birthrights with a through reformation of this and other just grievances And so I humbly crave pardon of this honourable House that I have made a short Lesson long Sir Benjamin Ruddier's Speech March 22. 1627. Mr. Speaker OF the mischiefs that have lately fallen upon us by the late distractions here is every man sensible and that may ensue the like which God forbid we may easily see and too late repent The eyes of Christendome are upon us and as we speed here so go the Fortunes of