Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	king_n	lord_n	power_n	14,769	5	5.2297	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88156	An anatomy of the Lords tyranny and iniustice exercised upon Lieu. Col. Iohn Lilburne, now a prisoner in the Tower of London. Delivered in a speech by him, Novem. 6. 1646. before the honorable Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to consider of the priviledges of the commons of England: the originall copy of which, he in obedience to the order and command of the said Committee, delivered in writing to the hands of Col. Henry Martin, chairm-man of the said Committee: Nov. 9. 1646 and now published to the view of all the commons of England, for their information, & knowledge of their liberties and priviledges.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1646 (1646)	Wing L2080; Thomason E362_6; ESTC R201211	18,985	23

his country to the utmost of my endeavours to defend and maintain his Rights and Liberties which is as justifiable by the Law of this Kingdome and in the eyes of all understanding men as for a true and just man to draw his sword and to cut a Theefe or Rogue that sets upon him upon the high-way on purpose to rob him of his life and goods And if after such a hearing before your honourable house it shall appear to their judgments and understandings that I have wronged the Lords in generall or the Earl of Manchester or Col. King in particular which two are the principall causes of all my present trouble and against whom are two Grand charges in your house as I judge them of no lesse then high treason commitmitted against the Kingdom which as I humbly conceive the justice of the Kingdom requires should come to a finall determination I shall with all willingnesse and cheerfulnesse submit to what punishment shall be just for them to inflict upon me and I hope that by this faire offer you will be provoked with the strength of resolution to deal impartially betwixt the Lords and me without fear punish those where the just fault is especially considering that you in your most excellent Declaration of the 17. April 1646 published by you to the view of the whole kingdome have solemnly declared That you will preserve the Rights and Liberties of the people and abolish the exercise of arbitrary power and so provide for the safety and weal of the people which is as you say the end of the primitive institution of all government And therefore in the behalf of my self and all the Commons of England I most humbly beseech and entreat his thonourable Committee to improve all the interest you have in the house of Commons to make good unto us this their own just and honest Declaration I beseech you heare me but one word more which I intreat you well to observe that the Lords have joyned with you in severall Declarations in which the Kings Oath is printed which I read in the Book Decl. pag. 268.713.714 where you and they declare positively and back it with many strong arguments That the King by his Coronation-Oath is bound to passe such lawes as his people shall chuse and if so then he hath no power in him to give a law unto the people or impose a law upon them much lesse can hee give a power to the Lords his meer creatures made by his will pleasure for them to oppose or give a Law unto the people and I am sure if they have a legislative power in them to do what they please and so by the authority of that presumed to do with mee as they did I am sure by the established Law of the Kingdom they have no power at all not in the least to do with me as they have done And therefore I humbly entreat you to presse home unto your House the Lords usurpations and incroachments upon our common rights that so they may effectually curbe them as in Justice they ought For Sir that which addes sorrow to all my sorrowes is this that I suffer all these inhumanities and illegall usages during the time of the sitting of a free Parliament and yet can have no effectuall redresse in five moneths time though earnestly sought for Alas Sir the Parliament is the English-mans legall last refuge and if that faile us to speak as men we are undone unlesse God set his power at work to work miracles and raise up meanes for our preservation And Sir if the Lords dare thus tyrannize over the free Commons of England in time of Parliament that used to be the fear and dread of Offendors what is it that they will not do unto us out of a Parliament Therefore again I most earnestly beseech this honourable Committee to remember them and improve all your interest to punish or at least effectually to curbe them for which as well as for your present patience in hearing me so largely I shall both now as well as formerly remain oblieged to improve my best and utmost ability for the preservation of the just supreame interest power and authority of your honourable House Esa 48.10 Behold I have refined thee but not with silver I have chosen thee in the fulnesse of affliction Job 23.10 When he hath tryed me I shall come forth as gold Novemb. the 9. 1646. JOHN LILBURN Reader thou art requested to take notice of two faults committed in the printing of this Booke the first in page 2. line 1. left out and also what passed betwixt my L. Wharton and my self the 2. in p. 5. l. 26. where thou shalt find these words a Commitment lawful viz. to be in the 28. line which ought to be placed at the end of the 26. line as thou mayst easily perceive For other faults if thou meet with any impute them not unto the Authour who could not be at the correcting hereof but in love to him amend them Vale. FJNJS

obey their unjust and tyrannicall commands And therefore tell them I will whether they will or no talk with any man that will talk with me till they out-strip the Bishops who gagged me for speaking in cruelty by cutting out my tongue or sowing up my lips And by and by I was called into their House and being by them commanded to kneele at their Barre I absolutely refused to doe it unlesse they would by force compell me thereunto which if they did I told them it would bee no act of mine And I shall with your favour give you one reason which with some others that made me I did not kneele and it was this I knew by Law the Lords had no jurisdiction over me and accordingly I had performed my duty to my selfe c. in protesting against them and had appealed to your House as the absolute legall supreame power of the Kingdome and so farre and by many degrees above the Lords Now if I should have done any action that should have declared any subjection unto the power and judicature of the Lords which my kneeling would have done I had not onely turned traytor there by to the Lawes and Liberties of England but I had also undone all that before I had done and deprived my selfe both of the benefit of my Protest and Appeale and should also by my own act have laid my selfe open justly to be sentenced and punished by the Lords And upon refusall to kneele they commanded me to withdraw and made this Order Die Martis 23. Junii 1646. ORdered by the Lords assembled in Parliament that Iohn Lilburne shall stand committed close Prisoner in the Prison of Newgate and that he be not permitted to have pen inke or paper and none shall have accesse unto him in any kinde but onely his Keeper untill this Court doth take further order To the Keeper of Newgate his Deputy or Deputies Iohn Brown Cler Parliamentorum Exam. per. Rad Briscoe Cleric de Newgate Now I shall humbly desire this Honourable Committee in the first place to observe that the Lords Warrant of the 22. June 1646. expresseth no cause at all wherefore I should dance attendance at their Barre and therefore illegall 2. I also intreate this Honourable Committee to observe that the Lords Commitment of me 23. June close Prisoner is altogether illegall and against the Petition of Right which is confirmed with every clause in it by the act that abolisheth the tax of Ship-money made this present Parliament and as Sir Edward Cooke that learned Lawyer doth well and truly observe in the 2. part of his institutes folio 52. there are 4. things that are required to make 1. That he or they which do commit have lawfull authority a Commitment lawfull viz. 2. That their warrant or mittimus be lawfull and that saith he must be in writing under hand and Seal 3. The cause must be contained in the warrant as for treason fellony c. or for suspition of treasou felony c. 4. The warrant or mittimus containing a lawfull cause ought to have a lawfull conclusion viz. and him safely to keepe untill he be delivered by law c. and not untill the party committing doth further order All which 4. are wanting in this warreat and therefore altogether illegall and unjust Now may it please this Committee I was very free in my discourse with Mr. Wollaston c. the Keeper of Newgate about the illegallity of this warrant which it may be came to the Lords eares and therefore within 4. or 5. dayes after they sent a more formall warrant containing the cause of my commitment and as Mr. Brisco could me tooke the aforesaid warrant away the originall copyes of all which orders are in your hands Mr. Martin and were delivered to you upon the first examination of this businesse about 4. moneths agoe to which I humbly referr you Now may it Please you to give me leave to go on with the true relation of the barbarous and tyrannicall execution of this unjust order by vertue of which for about 3. weeks together I was debarred of pen inke or paper and my Chamber by Mr. Brisco for that end strictly searched and my wife councellers and friends kept from me my wife c. after I was first locked up not being permitted to set her foote within my Chamber doore nor permitted to come into the Prison yard to speake with me out of my window nor I suffered to receive from the hands of my wife servant or friends either meat drinke money or any other necessaries and yet their Lordships nor none by their order allowing me all that time the valew of one penny loaf to live upon and though my wife obtained so much favour from a neighbour to speake with me out of their windowes at the distance of about 40. or 50 yards it being impossible for us to say any thing but what the Jaylors if they had a minde might heare yet such was their inhuman cruelty that they often threatned to stop up the poore mans windowes if he would not cease to permit my wife to look out of them and also threatned me to boord up mine or else if I would not forbeare at that distance to speake with my wife to lay me in Newgate Prison where as they could me I should neither have a possibility to speake with her or any other which I bid them do if they durst telling them that would be the onely way to get me my liberty for I had some friends abrode that would then I did believe to the purpose bestir themselves to preserve my life which they would easily judge was then intended in good earnest to be taken away by them and therefore if any mischiefe followed they might thanke themselves upon which they forbore executing their bitter menacies and 〈◊〉 any further upon me But I beseech you further be pleased to observe the Lords guilty consciences and their brave justice who the most part of this time while they keepe me thus close that it was absolutely impossible for me to know what they intended to do with me they had as I am informed 4. Lawyers at worke to frame a charge against me viz. Mr. Serjeant Finch Mr. Haile Mr. Hearne and Mr. Glover and upon the 10. of July 1646. and not before Mr. Serjeant Nathaniel Finch brought in certaine Articles by way of charge into the House of Peers against me which you Mr. Martin have in your hand and therefore I humbly desire they may be read which was done Now Sir before you read the sentence I humbly intreat this Honourable Committee to give me leave to make some observation upon the charge the first of which that I intreate you to take notice of is that betwixt the day of my being first summoned to answer a charge at the Lords barre and the day that it was first brought in or filed upon record there against me is above 29. dayes I being summoned the 10. of

Iune 1646. and the Charge not brought in till the 10. of Iuly 1646 which is a most illegall and unjust thing in any Court whatsoever 2. I beseech you observe that almost all and the principall things layd to my charge are pretended crimes committed not before my being brought to their barre to answer a Charge but afterwards namely in the time of an unjust and provokeing imprisonment and therefore a great injustice it is as any can be in the world to force a man to dance attendance at their Barre to answer a Charge before they have filed one against him or have so much as the pretence of a crime to lay to his charge and then arbitrarily and illegally to commit a man to a tyrannicall imprisonment there by extraordinary provocations to necessitate and force a man as it were to commit slips and fallings that thereby they may pick a hole in his coate because they had none before and then fall upon him and destroy him and this in every particuler hath been the Lords dealing with me which I humbly conceive to be the height of tyranny and injustice Now Mr. Martin I humbly intreate you to read the sentence for upon the 10. Iuly there issued out an order to bring me up againe to their barre the next day to heare my Charge read which was accordingly put in execution Now Sir you having read the sentence I shall humbly crave leave first to make some observations upon it and then secondly to go on methodically with the matter of fact And first I beseech you observe that the 10. Iune 1646. I was summoned to attend their Lordships in their House and the 11. Iune 1646. I there appeared and was then committed by them to Newgate the 16. of the same moneth I appealed to the Right Honourable the House of Commons as my legall and proper Iudges who accepted read approved and committed my appeale to a speciall Committee and yet notwithstanding the 22. of the same moneth the Lords command the Keeper of Newgate to bring me up to their barre and there upon the 23. day I was committed close prisonet to Newgate till the 10. Iuly 1646. at which time my Charge was brought into the Lords House and not before which was a moneth after the first processe or warrant issued out for me All which proceedings besides their not having any legall Iudicature at all over mee are erroneous and illegall and principally in these two points First because I was summoned before any Charge was recorded which proceedings are point blanke against the expresse Statutes of 9. H. 3. 29. 5. E. 3. 9. 25. E. 3. 4. 28. E. 3. 3. which expresly say that none shall be imprisoned nor put out of his free hold nor of his franchises nor free customs unlesse it be by the law of the Land which is that none shall be taken by Petition or suggestion made to our Lord the King or to his Councel unlesse it be by inditement 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 c. which Statutes are confirmed by the petition of Right and by the Statute for abolishing the Star-Chamber made this present Parliament And indeed regularly both in law and equity the Declaration or bill ought to be filed or recorded before any writ or processe ought to issue against the defendant or party accused either in civill or criminall causes and the write warrant or processe ought to containe the matter of the declaration bill or petition and this appeares cleerly in every writ as the learned in the law informe me set forth by the Register and Fitzherberts natura brevium and that every English bill either in Chancery Exchequer or Star-Chamber doth pray that processe of sub-pena be awarded against the defendant which proves that processe orders or Warrants ought not to be awarded or granted against any man out of any Court of Justice whatever till his charge be recorded against him in the same Court and sutable to this is your own doctrine in your own Declarations Booke Decl. page 38 39 278 845. Secondly I beseech you observe that all the Lords proceedings with me after my appeale to the honourable house of Commons are void in Law because by my appeale to the proper Jurisdiction which is only your House the Lords are outed of their Jurisdiction or conusans of the plea the cause being removed by the Appeale their judgment was thereby determined or at least suspended being but the effect of the cause before them till such time as the Appeal is determined the Appeal being a supersedas to the Lords further proceeding in the same cause and they ought not to have proceeded any further at all but to give them as much as by any just colour or claime they can challenge they ought not any further to have gone on without the privity licence and direction of the honourable house of Commons and therefore all their proceedings with me especially since my Appeal to your honourable house are coram non judice and therefore void and erroneous And I further conceive under favour that the Lords proceedings with me after your House had accepted of my Appeal is as great an affront and indignity offered to the majesty honour and greatnesse of your house the absolute supream derivative power of all the Commons of England the original and absolute fountain of all power therein as their proceedings are unjust towards me destructive to the lawes and liberties of England Again I beseech you observe that in their Articles the originall and chief supposed crime that they charge me with is for scandalizing the Earl of Manchester a Peer as they call him of the Kingdome Now may it please you to take notice that I say if his conscience had not been guilty told him that it was possible I might justly and groundedly have proved much more against him then I lay to his charge in my printed Epistle to Judge Reeve c. hee would never have shunned and avoided the known law of the Kingdome which sufficiently proves a remedy for him in case I had scandalized him as appeares by the statutes of 3. E. 1 33. 27. E. 3. ●8 38. E. 3. 9. 42 E. 3. 3. 2 R. 2. 5. 12. R. 2. 11 17. R. 2. 16. which expresly command that if any man scandalize any of the great men of the kingdome he shall be taken and kept in custody or put in security till he prove what he saith and in case he cannot then he shall incur the same pain that the other should have had if he were attainted and that processe of the law be made against them without being taken and imprisoned against the great Charter and other statutes but his leaving the common common and just road of the kingdom that sufficiently provides for his reparation if innocent argues his knowledge

humbly beseech and most earnestly intreat you not to delay me in my report to your House but to do it speedily for me that so I may know what to trust to and may not by you from whom I may justly seek Justice as my right and due and not as a boon be delayed any longer having bin already long enough delayed it being almost five moneths since I first made my Appeal unto you For truly I must plainly and ingenuously tell you went not the lacombes of strength and assistance from God the more my condition would be insupportable and not any longer with patience to be stoop't unto by me for it cannot but be known to divers of you that for almost this ten yeares together I have never been free from the lashes and destroyings of the Grand Prerogative-men of this kingdome that have ruled and governed by no other law then that of their own will and yet to this day never received a penny by way of reparation for all the wrongs and injuries that I from them have sustained although I have spent divers hundreds of of pounds in indeavouring the procurement of it and my reparations for my sufferings at the hands of the Star-Chamber Judges sticks in your house at this very day which I humbly intreat this honourable Committee when this my businesse is reported to the house to put them in mind of and besides my late extraordinary expences and my shortnesse of pay for my faithfull and successfull service with my grand adversary the Earle of Manchester and the present extraordinary chargeablenesse of my imprisonment in the Tower c. renders my condition an extraordinary object of your present reliefe For although I have not paid all the great summes demanded as fees in that place yet because I have found civility and humanity from my Keeper for my own accommodation and ease-sake I have weekly been I think very liberall unto him I am sure beyond my present ability besides the charge of my own diet and family c. which I hope that when your Honorable House hath adjudged my cause which I am confident according to law cannot goe amisse with me and thereby given me ground to present them with my bill of charges they will not onely cause the Lords to pay it me again but also ample reparations for my hard and unjust sufferings without which although you evacuate the sentence and set my person at liberty I shall think that I scarce have justice to the half having but meerly the shell without the kirnell But if the greatnesse of the Lords by reason of the distractions of the present times shal stick in my way as an hinderance therof give me leave humbly to tell you that the Commons of England are bound by you in a Protestation to maintain their liberties and to stand to all those that defend them yea and to bring those that endeavour their destruction to condigne punishment In which regard I am resolved by the strength of God in a just and legal way with all earnestnesse to desire through City and Countrey the joynt assistance of all in England that are not willing to be slaves to joyn with mee in a grand petition to your House for the obtaining of my just and honest desires against the Lords And truly Sir I must venture life and all that I have upon it For can it appeare just to you that the Lords should cry out against the King their Lord and Master for injustice and cruelty yea and draw their swords against him and yet be more unjust themselves As to goe no further then my very case for sure I am it was the Kings constant custome to provide diet lodging and pay the fees of all those he committed to the Tower but the Lords for no cause in law at all have committed me thither and put me upon it to pay all the vast extravagancies there for fees c. yea and that for tormenting and destroying me Surely Sir they will never be so unjust but when they know it is demanded as a just and legall right but largely in good currant coyn to repay me the which if they be so unjust as to refuse I hope you will be so just and true to your trust according to that sufficient power and authority that is in you to compell them And Sir I humbly crave reparations from all their instruments that with and upon me have out-stript the bounds of the Law in executing their meere malicious wills upon me And under facour I am very confident the Lieutenant of the Tower will bee found guilty in this particular which I have the more ground to presse upon him then the Jaylors of Newgate For to bee hardly and inhumanly dealt withall from such bloody men as they are commonly reported to be is no wonder but to receive the like measure nay and worse from the hands of Col. Francis West my fellow-citizen who out-stript his orders a man who hath been in the field with his sword in his hand pretending to adventure his life for the preservation of the lawes and liberties of England is that that amazeth me that he should so farre forget himselfe as so furiously to fall upon me to torment undoe and destroy me for no other cause but for being true to my principles and the generall and publick interest of the Kingdome in standing for the Lawes and Liberties thereof against those that would destroy them and which action renders him to me to be one of the unworthiest of the sonnes of men especially of those that would bee reputed to have the principles of an honest man in him Now Sir to conclude all having sufficiently intrenched upon your patience I make my most humble sute unto this honourable Committee That when you make my Report unto the house seeing as you tell me you are principally to report matter of Fact not matter of law in point of the Lords Jurisdiction by means of which it may be in your house many Objections may be raised against me for my carriage and expressions before the Lords I therefore humbly intreat you to acquaint the house That it is my most humble desire unto them that seeing this businesse is of so great concernment not only to me but also to your selves yea and to the whole Kingdome that I may have that honour and justice to be called to their Bar and there have a faire open and publique hearing according to Law and Justice and I doubt not but by my self singly by law and unquestionable authority against all the Procters the Lords can fee in England to plead for them to make it cleer as the Sun that shines at Noon-day that the Lords have no jurisdiction at all over me in the case now in controversie betwixt us and that my carriage and expressions before them was but the cordiall demonstrations of a sound and single-harted man who knowes himself bound in duty and conscience to God himself and