Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	session_n	5,616	5	10.5793	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41804	An appeal of murther from certain unjust judges, lately sitting at the Old Baily to the righteous judge of heaven and earth; and to all sensible English-men, containing a relation of the tryal, behaviour, and death of Mr. William Anderton, executed June 16. 1693. at Tyburn, for pretended high treason.	Grascome, Samuel, 1641-1708?	1693 (1693)	Wing G1566; ESTC R216496	30,841	41

For whereas that Statute saith no Act Deed or Offence shall be adjudged Treason but such as are declared and expressed to be such by the 25 of Edw. 3. It is absolutely impossible that Printing should be any ways declared or expressed in that Act it not being known in England till eight Kings Reigns after and not long invented before it travail'd hither Any Man that had but a grain of Sense Reason or Conscience would have thought this should have struck the matter dead but he still urged further an Act of their own and where Men will not so much as stand to their own Acts happy are they who have nothing to do with such In the Reign of King Charles the Second an Act was made to prevent abuses in Printing c. by which the Printer upon the first Offence is disabled to follow his Trade for three years and upon the second disabled for ever with Fine Imprisonment or other corporal Punishment not extending to Life or Limb this is pretty severe and yet a great way off Treason but this being in favour of that King was made only for his Life and consequently expired with him but no longer since then the last Sessions of Parliament was this very Act revived and the present Government obtain'd it not without great Strugling But to what purpose Or I would fain know what favour was done it if there were more effectual Remedies before And I think it may be worth while for the Parliament when they sit next to consider for what reason they revived that Law or whither it be to any purpose for them to make that or any other Law if even whilst they are fresh made and in all Mens view and knowledge a Judg shall dare openly not only to set them aside but to violate them and judge contrary to them But I shall trouble the Reader no further with his Plea which had been here inserted but that some thought it would be too tedious and not so proper for all sorts of Persons as being fraught with much Latin and French which he was necessitated to use as to the matters he cited In short he acquitted himself so well that all indifferent Persons were abundantly satisfied and yet it proved to no more purpose than a Wall-lecture The reason is the Tryal was only a piece of Pageantry and the Man was condemned long before but to over-rule this without more ado had been a down-right Affront both to Law and Reason and therefore Mr. Judge must needs make a Flourish and now a Man would expect that he should have gon through all the Cases Statutes and Arguments used by the Prisoner and fairly and fully confuted him but I thank you no such matter if the Man had but little Honesty yet he had more Wit he warily leaves it all in the Lurch and to put a blind upon the matter makes a Bluster with two or three old musty impertinent Presidents which had not seen the Sun for many Ages the chief of which was that of Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham and he might as well have urged the Case of the Man in the Moon For what was my Lord Cobham's Case to Printing That famous Wicklevite lived in the Reign of Richard the Second some scores of years before Printing was thought on which came not into England till the Reign of Henry the Seventh and the Prisoner had very well observed That what is not expressed in the Statute 25 Edw. 3. and it is impossible Printing should be expressed there is barr'd from being any ways adjudged or interpreted Treason by the Statute 1 mo Marie In short in summing up the Evidence to the Jury the Judg acted not the part of a Judg but rather of a keen malitious Councel or Accuser and mustered up all his Arts to insnare and impose upon the Jury he aggravated to the utmost every little Punctilio which he thought might be any thing servicable to beget in the Jury an hard Opinion of the Prisoner he could not let the Bed with Wheels alone but whipt it up and down like a Top he could not forbear brushing the poor Man's Night-gown he rambled from St. James's to Hoxton and fetcht in every little Trifle with all the witty Malice imaginable nay if you will believe him he lookt into the very Soul of the Man and told the Jury what was within him he was an ill-minded Man a disaffected Person he was no Lover of the Government and in my Conscience I cannot tell how he should the Government had not used him to well that he should be passionately fond of it but above all he took mighty Pains to beat it into their heads That Printing was an Overt Act But on the other hand of there being two Witnesses to the proving the Fact alas he knew there was not one or of any thing the Prisoner had pleaded though plain and substantial Law or of any thing that did make for the Prisoner not a Word did he speak and when he had thus disguised the business with all the skill he had The Jury were sent out to consider of their Verdict Whilst the Jury were withdrawn all sorts of People were big with Expectation what would be the Issue of the business many who who were very well affected to the Government thought he could not be found guilty and do not stick to say still that he had very hard measure nay even Robin Stephens who thirsted for his Blood was fearful he would escape for as he was passing along the Streets coming up to three Gentlemen one of whom asked what they thought would become of Mr. Anderton Stephen's laying his hand on Mr. M sh 's Shoulder said thus The Rogue pleaded bravely and I believes hopes he hath Friends among the Jury to get off but if such as he are acquitted the Government must give us Orders to stob them whereever we find them I think this is a faithful Servant of the Government indeed a Man who will go through stitch with his work but then my Dear Country-men what would become of the Laws if every Rogue should have a License to murther whom he pleaseth After two hours debate the greater part of the Jury became very well inclined to have found Not Guilty but there was a true Trojan amongst them one who loved Mischief and the Government in his Soul and he was for hanging Men for being Jacobites not for being Guilty and being since told of the severity of their Verdict he readily acknowledged that the Evidence did not amount to the proof of the Fact but saith he what of that I believed he was guilty and I will hang a hundred of them for half so much Evidence A very useful Man and certainly deserves a Pention if he have not one already When the Jury appeared the Question was asked Whether they were agreed of their Verdict A zealous Man answered No. Whereat the Court fround and shew'd themselves much displeased when the Fore-man

doubting of your Lordships Inclinations not only to do him all Justice but to shew him all the Mercy and Favour you can that may consist with your Lordships Justice and humbly conceiving That this Court by further considering your Petitioner's Case may even yet be capable of Relieving your Petitioner especially if upon hearing what your Petitioner can say your Lordships shall be satisfied That your Petitioner hapned to be Convicted through any Errour or Mistake as no Man was ever exempt from Errour and the best of Men are always readiest to confess it Your Petitioner therefore humbly beseecheth your Lordship's Patience seriously to read and consider some few of many Reasons which your Petitioner hath heard from others which he herein has set down as briefly as he can as followeth First They lay down That the Treason laid in the Indictment being that Of the intent of the heart expressed in the Statute by Compassing and Imagining the King's Death requires by Law Two Proofs The one of the Fact the other of the Inference and that both these must be plain That of Fact called the overt-Overt-Act must be proved by direct and positive Evidence by Two Witnesses at least and not by Circumstantials only as this of Printing was against your Petitioner there being no positive Proof at all not so much as by One Witness given of his Printing either of the Books laid in the Indictment And then that of Fact being thus proved must by necessity of Inference as evidently and certainly prove That the Party in doing such Overt-Act could intend or imagine thereby nothing less than the King's Death And if either of these Proofs fall short of such necessary Certainty such Indictment must fail the Law for great Reasons regarding only such plain and direct Proofs in these great Charges Now can a Printer Quatenus only the Printer of these Books be thereby inferred to Assent to and Approve of the matters and things contain'd in these Books and that necessarily too Quatenus the Printer By the same Legal Logick every Printer may be proved to have in his heart and approve of all the Opinions Notions and Imaginations contained in all the Books he ever Printed For a Quatenus ad omne valet Consequentia 'T is true say They Writing and Speaking have in some Instances been accounted as Overt-Acts and there might be good Reason for it as a Man expressing his own Mind by his own Writing and by his own Words which according to the manner of his Writing or Speaking may evidently appear to come from his Own heart And your Petitioner doth not doubt but that the Writing a Book as in Cardinal Pool's Case and the Signing the Warrant for the Execution of King Charles the First as in the Case of the Regicides which Cases were urged by some of the Court against your Petitioner were sufficient Overt-Acts to prove the Compassing and Imagining the King's Death But can these Instances be any thing to the Case of a Printer whose business it is as a Printer only to print the Thoughts of Others being accounted in Law only as a meer Mechanick and whose end thereby is to get Money for his Work And for further reason in this matter they observe That as it doth not appear that bare Printing was ever pretended to be an Overt-Act within Stat. 25 Edw. 3. so when the Parliament of 13 Car. 2. carried up Treason to the highest for the Preservation of the King's Person during his Life and among other things particularly therein took notice of Printing yet would they not thereby lay so great a Penalty upon the Printers as no doubt considering the unreasonableness of Comprising such Tools and Mechanicks within an Act intended for Persons of higher Designs But this Parliament kept the Printers in their Remembrance as intending to consider them by themselves in another Act as they very soon after did for the very same Parliament in 13 and 14 Car. 2. make an Act which they stile An Act for preventing Abuses in Printing Seditious Treasonable and Unlicensed Books and Pamphlets and for regulating Printing and Presses and therein as they fix them their Rules and Bounds so they allot them their Punishment Which for the first Offence is Disability for three years and for the second perpetual Disability Fine Imprisonment or other corporal Punishment at Discretion Wherefore the Premises throughly weighed and considered your Petitioner humbly implores your Lordships That in favour of Life in a new and extraordinary Case and That too of Treason your Lordships would be pleased to extend so much Mercy to your Petitioner as to suspend your Judgment and pronouncing Sentence upon on him untill your Lorships shall have heard what can be further Offered by Counsel on his behalf And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. Here is no need of a Comment this Petition speaks for it self and doubtless will continue to speak to their everlasting Shame who answered it only with Neglect and Scorn When the last day of the Sessions came and the Prisoner was asked in course what he had to say why Sentence should not be passed upon him He desired that his Petition might be read but the Court not being willing to take notice of the knowledge of any such Petition thereby to elude his Request he foreseeing it had provided one ready and offered it to be read but no Man daring to take and read it he took the freedom to read it himself and then offered these things further in Arrest of Judgment which he drew up by way of Queries 1. Whether if a Jury not being competent Judges of the matter of Fact whereof they are to judge and bring in their Verdict against the Defendent contrary to Law I say whether Judgment ought to pass upon the Defendent because of that Verdict 2. Whether if a Judg who is Counsel for the Defendent and therefore indispensibly bound to take particular Cognizance of what the Defendent urgeth in his own behalf as well as what is alledged against him in summing up the Evidence doth omit out of forgetfulness or otherwise the only material Point upon which the whole Indictment is founded and which the Defendent so much urged in his own behalf and also which inevitably led the Jury into this Mistake of their Verdict whether I say this be not sufficient to stay Judgment 3. Whether any Judg c. can construe Printing to be a sufficient Overt-Act till it be so declared by Parliament 4. Whether the Stat. of 13 Car. 2. does not plainly intimate the contrary And likewise the 13 and 14 Car. 2. lately revived These Queries and this Petition will some time or other be thought considerable and the rather for that the Prisoner did make it his humble and last Request That these things being matter of Law he might be allowed Counsel to plead them or any other matter of Law in his Case And he backt his Request with this modest Reason That being matter of