Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	common_a	court_n	judge_n	4,690	5	7.1911	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91218	Minors no senators. Or A briefe discourse, proving, that infants under the age of 21. yeares, are uncapable, in point of law, of being members of Parliament, and that the elections of any such are meere nullities; yea, injurious, prejuditiall, dishonourable to the whole Parliament and Kingdome, in sundry respects. / Written by a common-lawyer (a true lover of his country, and honourer of the Parliament) to a friend and client of his, for his private satisfaction, and published for the common-good.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1646 (1646)	Wing P4008; Thomason E506_33; ESTC R205590	20,692	18

MINORS NO SENATORS Or A Briefe Discourse proving That INFANTS under the Age of 21. yeares are uncapable in point of Law of being Members of Parliament and that the Elections of any such are meere Nullities Yea injurious prejuditiall dishonourable to the whole Parliament and Kingdome in sundry respects Written by a Common-Lawyer a true lover of his Country and Honourer of the Parliament to a Friend and Client of his for his private satisfaction and published for the Common-good Job 12. 12 12. With the ancient is wisdom and in length of days is understanding With him is wisdome and strength he hath Councell and understanding Galath. 4. 1 2. Now I say the Heire as long as hee is a Child differeth nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutors and Governours untill the time appointed of the Father Isay 3. 1. 2 3 4. For behold the Lord of Hosts doth take away from Jerusalem the stay and the Staffe the prudent man and the Ancient the Honourable man and the Councellor and the Eloquent Orator And I will give Children to be their Princes and Babes shall rule over them And the People shall be oppressed every one by another c. 1 Cor. 13. 11. VVhen I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought or reasoned as a Child but when I became a man I put away Childish things Chrysostom Hom. 4. in 1 Cor. cap. 1. Non ferunt Pueri ut de ulla re utili curam gerant sape autem cum nos loquamur de rebus necessarijs eorum quae dicuntur nihil sentiunt Printed at London Anno 1646. Minors no Senators OR A Briefe Discourse against the Election Admission and Permission of any INFANTS under the Age of 21. Yeares to be Members of PARLIAMENT SIR WHereas you have requested me to deliver my opinion in point of Law concerning this question now in controversie Whether an Infant under the age of one and twenty ye●●es be Capable of being a Member of Parliament And whether his Election be not meerly voyd in Law I conceive the finall resolution of this Quere belongs only to the Houses of Parliament a The proper Iudges of their own respective Priviledges Members and of the Legallity or Nullity of their Election● Yet notwithstanding since every Lawyer may without breach of Priviledge of either house declare what hee believes the Law to bee in any disputable point that concernes Elections or Members the Committee of Priviledges in all Parliaments admitting Lawyers some of the most necessary usefull active able Members in a Parliament whatsoever some * Ignoramusses have lately scribled to the contrary as experience manifests to debate all questions concerning Elections of Members before them by the rules of Law and right reason and that Committee with the whole House of Commons alwayes Voting Elections good or bad by these very Rules I have adventured without any scruple freely and impartially to deliver my Judgement touching the propounded Quere with all humble submission to the Parliament the proper Judge thereof and the opinions of more able Lawyers then my selfe For mine own opinion in this point I am really perswaded That Infants under the Age of twenty one yeares which the b Law resolves to be their full age when they come to full discretion are altogether uncapable of being Members of the Commons House and that the Elections of such Members are meere Nullities in Law The reasons swaying mee to this opinion are various weighty and I thinke unanswerable I shall reduce them to these foure heads 1. Reasons extracted out of the very bowells of the Writ it selfe for the Electing of Knights Citizens and Burgesses 2. Reasons taken from the very Nature of the High Court of Parliament both as it is the highest Court of Justice and greatest Councell of the Realme and from the importance of the publike affaires therein transacted 3. Reasons from the inconveniencies that may arise from admitting Infants competent Members of this supreame Court and Councell 4. Reasons from Presidents of Forraign Senates Parliaments Councels appliable to our owne great Councell and one expresse printed authority First the writ it selfe for electing Knights and Burgesses which is very ancient approved by all Par●iaments and c unalterable but by Parliament furnisheth me with three Arguments against the Election of Infants and their incapability of being Members of Parliament The first of them is couched in this clause comprizing the subject matter for which Parliaments are summoned to treat and consult about to wit d De quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotijs Statum Defensionem Regni Ang●●a Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus And Infants certainly are uncapab●e for want of Judgment experience wisdome Learning to debate and determine such arduous urgent grand affaires concerning the safety the defence both of the Rea●me and Church of England since in Judgment of Law they are uncapable to mannage their owne private Estates as I shall more ful●y prove herea●ter Therefore not capable to be elected Members of this supreamest Councell of the Realme The 2d is more transparent and positively expressed in these ensuing words of the Writ which thus describe the quality of the persons to be elected e Elogi facias duos Milites gladijs ●inctos MAGIS IDONEOS ET DISCRETOS de qualibet Civitate Com. praedict. duos Cives de quolibet Burgo Duos Burgenses DE DISCRETIORIBUS ET MAGIS SVEFICIENTIBUS Eleg● facias In relation to which clause of the writ the Sheriffes and Majors use to make this forme of Returne Virtute ●stius Brevis feci cleg● duos Milites MAGIS IDONEOS ET DISCRETOS c F●ci etiam Praeceptum virtute hu●us Brevis quod de eodem Burg● Elegi facerent duos Burgenses DE DISCRETJOR BUS ET MAGIS SVFFIENTI●VS c. Now I would demand of any rationall man Elector or Member of Parliament whether he believes in his conscience that in the judgement of common reason Law the compilers or issuers of this Writ for Elections Infants who hav● f not arrived at the yeares of full of ordinary discretion and are so indiscreet in judgement of Law that they are uncapable to manage or dispose of their owne private estates and therefore are in ward to others can possibly be deemed THE MOST FIT AND DISCREET MEN to be e●ected Knights in any County OR THE MORE DISCREET AND SVFFICIENT PERSONS that can be culled out to serve as Citizens and Burgesses for any City or Burrough Certainly they are so far from being the most discreet persons that the g Law and Gospel to resolves they are within the years of perfect discretion the most indiscreet of all others not able to dispose of their own private estates yea so far from being the most sit persons to be Judges or councellors in this supreame Court that they can neither be Stewards Judges Attorneys nor

Officers in any Court of Law or justice so far from being the most sufficient men to wit for wisdome skill experience judgement the sufficiency here intended that they are the most insufficient of any nnlesse all the whole County City or Borough which elected them be Fooles Children or more indiscreet then those very Infants they chuse to serve in Parliament as most discreet and sufficient persons There is yet a third clause in the Writ discribing what persons must be elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament even such only Qui plaenam sufficientem Potestatem PRO SE ET COMMVNITATE Civitatum Burgorum pradict AD FACIEDVM ET CONSE●T I●NDVM HIS quae tunc ibidem de communi consilio dicti Regni nostri super negotijs ante dictis contigerint ordinari Ita quod pro defecta potestatis hujusmodi seu propter improvidam electionem Civium ac Burgensium pradictorum dicta N●gocia infecta non remaneant quovismodo Now are Wards or Infants under the age of 21. years such persons as these Have they or can they have any full and sufficient power for themselves or for the Communaltie of the Counties Citties or Burroughs for which they serve to do and consent to those things concerning the arduous and weighty affaires of the Church and state of England which shall be ordained by common consent in Parliament doubtles not Our common Law resolves h that Infants have no full power to do or consent to any thing for themselves If they Levy a Fine acknowledge a statute or recognisance which are matters of record they may avoyd them by a Writ of i Error or an Audita Quarla by the Common-Law during their Minorities Their feofments Gra●ts Releases are all either void or voidable as will at their full age as before and that not only by themselves but their heirs to by entrie or a writ of k Dum fuit infra aetatem yea their assents are meerly void in Law not binding themselves as our Law-books resolve Vpon which very reason M. 11. E. 3. Assise 87. It was resolved that if one enter upon the freehold of an Infant with his assent this is a disseisin because an Infant cannot consent to an entry And if he cannot consent fully for himselfe much lesse for others being unable to be an l Attorney or Proxy to assent for others in any Court of Iustice much more then in a Parliament the supreamest Court Therefore for defect of such a power and by reason of such an improvident Election of Infant-Citizens and Burgesses the affaires of the Realme must needs remain altogether or in a great measure unfinisht contrary to the purport of the Writ of Election And so in all these respects such Infants Elections must needs be meerly void in Law My second sort of reasons shall be drawn from the nature of the High Court of Parliament it selfe as it is the supremest Court of Iustice the greatest Councell of the Kingdom and from the consideration of the great publike affaires therein debated transacted resolved settled First the high Court of Parliament is the m most absolute and supreame Court of Justice in the Realme wherein the Judgements proceedings of all other Courts Civill Ecclesiasticall or Marine are examined finally determined confirmed or revoked without any further Appeale if then an Infant be uncapable of being a Judge either of matters of fact or Law in any iuferiour Court of Justice much more then in this supreame Soveraigne Court which control's all others Master Lit●leton in his Chapter of Parceners Sect. 259. and Sir Edward Cooke in his Institutes on it f. 155. 172. 175. resolve That an infant before the age of 21. cannot be a n Bayliffe nor Receiver for want of skill and ability in intendment of Law to make any improvement or profit of lands or goods nor yet sworne at all in any Inquest as a Juror The reason is because o Jurors are Judges of all matters of f●ct which Infants have no competent knowledge experience or Judgement in eye of law to determin or Judge a right of any matters comming juditially before them therefore are not such legales homines as the Venire requires M. 40. 41. Eliz. B. Rs. in a case betweene Scambler and Walkers reported in Sir Edward Cookes Institutes on Littleton fol. 3. B. it was resolved That an Infant is altogether uncapable of a Stewardship of a manner in possession or reversion or of any Office which concerns the administration or execution of Iustice or the Kings Revenew or the Common wealth or the interest benefit or safety of the Subject because the Law intends hee wants both skill and judgement juditially to mannage either of them If then an Infant be utterly uncapable of being a Judge Officer or Executioner of Justice in a Court Baron Leet or in any the most inferiour Courts or of being a Justice of Peace Major Bayliffe Sheriffe Auditor p or but an ordinary Attorney and the like where the meanest businesses between man and man are transacted much more is he uncapable of being a Judge in Parliament the suprem●st Court of Justice where the most difficult businesses the most weightie publike causes are q finally examined debated iudged without any further appeale the very judgments of the greatest learnedest Judges re-examined and oft-times reversed the very lives liberties estates of all the Subjects yea the Prerogatives Rights Revenues of the Crowne it selfe judicially determined to the Kingdomes Weale or woe Upon this very ground in the House of Peeres The King is not bound of Right to send forth his Writ of Summons to any Peere that is under Age neither doth he use to Summon such to sit as Iudges in that house though Peere by Birth But when any Peere is of all age then he ought to have a Writ of summons Ex debito justitiae not before as Sir Edward Cook informes us in his 4. Institutes fol. 19. and 41. Nay if the King himselfe be an Infant as King Henry the 3d. Rich. the 2d Hen. 5. Hen. 6. Edward 5. 6. and some others of our Kings were the r Parliament hath in such cases usually created a L. Protector over him in nature of a Guardian to supply his place in Parliament to give his Royall assent to Bills and execute that Royall Authority which himselfe by reason of his Infancy is unable to discharge That of ſ Liuy concerning Ierom the Infant K. of Syra●use who had his Protectors being true Nomen Regium penes puerum Regem regimen rerum omnium penes Tutores If then our Peeres themselves during their Minorities are thus uncapable of being Judges in the House of Peeres where they represent their own persons only and our Kings too in some respects then much more are other Infants uncapable of being Members of the House of Commons where they t represent whole Counties Cities Burroughs yea the Commons

to be Members of our supreame Councell especially in such a time as this The 2. president I shall instance in is the Roman Senate who admitted none into their Senate as Members of it but those who were 24. yeares old at least as the n marginall Authors testifie their Senators being ●tate graves spectataeque probita is The 3d president is the o Laced●monian Senate which consisted of 32. ancient men into which none were admitted unlesse they were above sixtie yeares old The 4th the p Bythinians who admitted no man into their Senate unlesse he were thirty yeares old at least The 5th the q Athenians who permitted none but those who were fiftie yeares old to consult of that which should be good profitable to the Commonweal● The 6th is that of Solon who forbad any young man to be admitted into the Senate seemed he never so wise Lycurgus before him having composed the Senate of the elder sort In few words ſ Iohn Bodin informes us that the Greeks and Latines composed their Senate of Seniors or aged men as being the wisermen and men of greatest experience And that not only the Greeks and Latines have given this prerogative unto the aged to give Councell unto the Common weale but also the Aegyptians Persians and Hebrewes who taught other people well and wisely to govern their estates for that by presumption the Elders are wiser of better understanding of more experience and fitter to give Councell then the younger sort Neither do I finde that ever any forraigne Kingdome State admitted Infant Members into their Senate Parliament Councell they deeming it altogether injurious and absurd Therefore there is no reason why our Parliament and great Senat should admit of any such Infant Members among them I shall conclude with the opinion and resolution of reverend and learned Sir Edward Cook the oldest and best experienced Parliament man in this age who in his 4. Institutes printed by Authority of Parliament Ch. 1. f. 46. 47. under this Title Who be eligable to be a Knight Citizen or Burgesse of Parliament resolves thus One under the age of 21. years IS NOT ELIGIBLE neither can any Lord of Parliament sit there untill he be of the full age of 21. years A punctual Resolution in direct termes Having thus given you a briefe Account of the reasons of mine Opinion concerning the Question propounded I shall in the next place returne a short Answer to some Objections and so conclude The 1. Objection is this That the Election of Knights Citizens Burgesses and Members of Parliament belongs to the Freeholders Citizens Burgesses and Freemen who elect them if they therefore shall make choice of any Infants as the fittest or ablest persons to serve for them in Parliament their Election must stand good otherwise they shall be deprived of the liberty and priviledge of a free Election To this I Answer 1. That no Freeholders Citizens or Burgesses have any absolute power to elect what Members they please but only such as are most fit able discreet and such as the Laws and Statutes of the Realme approve They t cannot elect a sheriffe a Minister a man beyond the Seas a Iudge or attendant in the Lords house to be Knight of any County because it is contrary to Law expresse statuts and the VVrit it selfe and if they make choice of any such the House may adjudge the Election void and put them to a better election of sitting Members They cannot elect these or Peere of the Realme an Idiot a Non Compos Alien Woman c. to be a Citizen or Burgesse of Parliament and if they do so the election is void because the persons are uncapable Therefore by the selfesame reason they cannot elect an Infant Where a person is uncapable by Law the Electors cannot make him capable of being a Member 2ly The House of Commons not the Electors are the sole Judges of the Fitnes the capability of the persons elected and if any Counties Cities Burroughs be so indiscreet and injurious to the Kingdome as to elect unworthy Members contrary to the Writ and their duty the house may justly cast them out againe notwithstanding the Election which concludes them not This the presidents of former Parliaments in expeling unworthy unsitting Members together with the practise of this sitting Parliament in ejecting all Monopolists Projectors at the first and all Malignant Members since who deserted or betrayed their trust abundantly manifests Therefore by the selfesame reason they may and ought to expell Infants the House as unfitting and illegall Members as well as Projectors Monopolists and Malignants as unworthy ones 3ly I dare confideutly affirme that no Cittie or Borough did ever freely of their owne accords make choice of any VVard or Infant to serve in Parliament for them as the ablest or fittest of any other to do themselves and the Kingdome service in Parliament or as the sufficientest ablest and discreetest persons according as the writ directs them but meerely through the over-earnest solicitation threats or over-rulling power of the Infants friends to whom they stood engaged for favours or durst not offend least they should turne their foes not out of meere publike respects which all electors in justice and prudence should only aime at Therefore it is altogether unreasonable that the election of Infants grounded meerly on such base privat respects as these should defraud the Parliament and whole Kingdome of the choice of abler Members since u every Member elected for any particular Borough when once admitted Votes and serves not only for it but for the whole Kingdome too to whom those who make unworthy elections for private ends or Interests do most apparent wrong which the House hath power to right else we might have our Parliament stuffed with Infants Malignants c. if people be so foolish to Elect them in all places as they have beene insome The 2d Objection is this That some Infants under the age of 21. have bin permitted to sit as Members in former Parliaments Therefore by like reason they may be admitted in this upon our new Elections I Answer First that no Infant ought * de jure to sit in any Parliament as I have manifested therefore not in this 2ly None ever sate in former Parliaments of right but only by connivance when either the House took no notice of them or their Elections were not questioned or if questioned as they have sundry times bin not ejected the busines hath bin comprimised without comming to any solemne debate resolution in the House 3ly The connivance of former Parliaments in this kinde is no president to over-rule or bind our present Parliament for these ensuing respects ● because there are more weighty difficult affaires concerning our Church State and three whole Kingdoms to be consulted upon debated and settled in this Parliament then in any yea all the Parliaments of former ages united 2ly