Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	law_n	parliament_n	void_a	3,330	5	9.0049	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25841	The Army's martyr, or, A more ful relation of the barbarous and illegal proceedings of the court-martiall at White-Hall upon Mr. Robert Lockier who was shot to death in Paul's church-yard upon the 27 day of April, 1649, and a brief narrative of the cause thereof : with his Christian carriage and deportment, and his dying speeches to all his fellow-souldiers at the time of his execution as an everlasting witnesse of his integrity to the rights and freedoms of the Common-Wealth.	Lockier, Robert, d. 1649.; Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing A3714A; ESTC R24189	16,468	16

time of Peace by Martial Law May it please your Excellency WEe have not yet forgot your Solemn Engagement of June 5. 1647 whereby the Armies continuance as an Army was in no wise by the will of the State but by their owne mutuall Agreement and if their standing were removed from one Foundation to another as is undeniable then with the same they removed from one Authority to anoother and the Ligaments and Bonds of the first were all dissolved and gave place to the Second and under and from the head of their first Station viz. By the will of the State the Army derived their Government by Martiall Law which in Judgment and Reason could be no longer binding then the Authority which gave being thereto was binding to the Army for the denyal of the authority is an Abrogation and Nulment of all Acts Orders or Ordinances by that Authority as to them And upon this account your Excellency with the Army long proceeded upon the Constitution of a new Councell and Government contrary to all Martiall Law and Discipline by whom only the Army engaged to be ordered in their prosecution of the ends to wit Their severall Rights both as Souldiers and Commoners for which they associated Declaring agreeing and promising each other not to Disband Divide or suffer themselves to be Disbanded or Divided without satisfaction and security in relation to their Grievances and desires in behalfe of themselves and the Common-wealth as would be agreed unto by their Councel of Agitators And by vertue under color of this Establishment all the extraordinary Actions by your Excellency your Officers and the Army have past Your refusall to Disband disputing the Orders of Parliament Impeachment and ejection of Eleven Members your First and Second March up to London your late violent Exclusion of the major part of Members out of the House and their imprisonment without Cause declared c. which can no way be justified from the guilt of high Treason but in the accomplishment of a righteous end viz. The enjoyment of the benefit of our Laws and Liberties which we hoped long ere this to have enjoyed from your hands Yet when we consider and herewith compare many of your late carriages both towards the Souldiery and other Free-People and principally your cruell exercise of Martiall Law even to the Sentence and execution of Death upon such of your Souldiers as stand for the Rights of that Engagement c. And not only so but against others not of the Army we cannot but look upon your Defection and Apostacy in such dealings as of most dangerous consequence to all the Lawes and Freedoms of the People And therefore although there had never been any such solemn Engagement by the Army as that of June 5. 1647. which with your Excellency in point of duty and conscience ought not to be of the meanest obligation We do protest against your Exercise of Martial Law against any whomsoever in times of Peace where all Courts of Justice are open as the greatest encroachment upon our Lawes and Liberties that can be acted against us And particularly against the Trial of the Souldiers of Captain Savage's Troop yesterday by a Court Martiall upon the barbarous Articles of Warre and sentencing of two of them to death and for no other end as we understand but for some dispute about their pay And the reason of this our Protestation is from the Petition of Right made in the third yeer of the late King which declareth That no person ought to be judged by Law Martiall except in times of Warre And that all Commissions to execute Martiall Law in times of Peace are contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of the Land And it was the Parliaments complaint That Martial Law was then commanded to be executed upon Souldiers for Robbery Mutiny or Murder Which Petition of Right this present Parliament in their late Declarations of the 9. of Feb. and the 17 of March 1648 commend as the most excellent Law in England and there promise to preserve inviolably it and all other the fundamentall Laws and Liberties concerning the preservation of the Lives Properties and Liberties of the People with all things incident thereunto And the Exercise of Martiall Law in Ireland in time of Peace was one of the chiefest Articles for which the Earl of Strafford lost his head as appears Article 1 in the case of the Lord Mount-Norris yet alive the same by this present Parliament being judged high Treason And the Parliament it self neither by Act nor Ordinance can justly or warrantably destroy the fundamental Liberties and Principles of the Common Law of England It being a maxime in Law and Reason both That all such Acts and Ordinances are ipso facto null and void in Law and bind not at all but ought to be resisted and stood against to the death And if the supreme Authority may not presume to do this much lesse may You or Your Officers presume therupon for where remedy may be had by an ordinary course in Law the party grieved shall never have his recourse to extraordinarie Whence it is evident That it is the undoubted Right of every Englishman Souldier or other that he should be punishable onely in the ordinary Courts of Justice according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm in the time of Peace as now it is there being no declared enemy in arms either in field or garrison ready to destroy the Nation with fire and sword and by their fury and power stop or dam up the ordinary administration of the Law and the extraordinary way by Court Martiall in no wise to be used Yea the Parliaments Oracle Sr. Ed. Cook Declares in the third part of his Institutes Cap. of Murther fol. 52. that for a General or other Officers of an Army in time of Peace to put any man although a Souldier to death by colour of Martiall Law it is absolute murther in that Generall or Councel of War c. Because saith he this is against Magna Charta ch 29. and is done by such power and strength as the party cannot defend himself and here the Law implyeth malice vide Pasch 14 fol 3. in Scaccario The Abbot of Ramsey's Case in a Writ of Errour in part abridged by Fitzh tit Scire fac 112 for time of peace Thomas Earl of Lancaster being taken in an open Insurrection was by judgment of Martial Law put to death in anno 14. Ed. 4. this was adjudged to be unlawfull because saith he he was not arraigned or put to answer in the time of peace and because the Chancery and all other Courts of the Kings were then open in which Law was done to every man as it wont to be and that against the Charter of Liberties because the said Thomas being a Peer and Noble of the Kingdom should not be imprisoned nor should the same King passe Sentence upon him but by the lawfull judgment of his Peers yet in the time of

peace and without Arraignment or Answer or lawful Judgment of his Peers he was adjudged to death Therefore erecting of Martiall Law now when all Courts of Justice are open and stopping the free current of Law which sufficiently provides for the punishment of Souldiers as well as others as appears by 18. H. 6 Ch. 18 19. and 2 3. Ed. 6. Ch. 2. 4 5. P. M. Ch. 3. 5. Eliz. 5. 1. Jam. 25. is an absolute destroying of our Fundamentall Liberties and the razing of the Foundation of the Common Law of England the which out of duty and Conscience to the Rights and Freedoms of this Nation which we value above our lives and to 〈◊〉 You and all Your Councell without all excuse we are moved to present unto your Excellencie Earnestly pressing you well to consider what you doe before you proceed to the taking away the lives of those men by Martiall Law least the blood of the Innocent or the blood of War shed in the time of peace and so palpable subversion of the Laws and Liberties of England bring the reward of just vengeance after it upon you as it did upon Joab the Son of Zerviah 1 King 2. ver 28 29 30 31 32 33. and the Earl of Strafford for innocent blood God will not pardon Gen. 9.5 6. and Rev. 13.10 and which cannot be expiated but by the bloud of him that shed it Numb 35.33 Deut 19.11 12 13. and 2 Sam. 11.12 and 1 King 21.19 and 2 King 9.7 8 9 10 26 33 36 37. and chap. 24.2 3 4. and what the people may do in case of such violent subversion of their Rights we shall leave to your Excellency to Judge and remain Sir Your Excellencies most watchful observers Iohn Lilburn Richard Overton From our Causelesse unjust and Tyranical Captivity in the Tower of London April 27. 1649. The POSTSCRIPT to the READER Dear Countryman WE desire thee to take notice that M. Robert Shaw M. Thomas Moulson M. George Atkinson M. Thomas Harris M. Thomas Frisby and M. Walter Allen delivered a Petition to the Generalls own hands to the effect of this Letter divers houres before the execution of the foresaid gallant and honest M. Robert Lockier which Petition and the Generals answer you may at large read in the 3 and 4 pages of the Book called the Armyes Martyr But nothing would satisfie the Generall but his innocent bloud and therfore according to the Law of his will he caused him to be murthered or shot to death in Pauls Church-yard for whose innocent blood both by the Law of God and the Kingdome the Generals ought to go without mercy or compassion and not only his but also all the rest of his Judges and Executioners for which by the Law of England they are indictable by any honest English man in the County where the murther was committed And that this Act in shooting precious Master Lockier to death is not only willfull mutrher in the eye of the law of England but also Treason is plainly and undeniably proved in C. Iohn Ingrams plea M. Wil. Tompsons plea and M. Io. Crosinans plea all of which are printed at large in Lieutenant Col. Iohn Lilburns Book Printed Feb 1647. and called The Peoples Prerogative pag. 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56. And also in his additions to his second Edition of his Book called The Picture of the Councell of State And therefore let us tell the Generall It may prove in time a vaine thing to him and his officers to protect themselves with their swords from the due course and proceedings of Law least the people come to preach the same doctrine to the Generall and his Tyrannicall officers that their darling friend the present Lord Chief Justice St. Iohn preached to the Earl of Strafford in the latter end of his Argument of Law Printed for Iohn Bartlet and made against him when he was upon his Tryall whose words are these That he in vaine calls for the help of the Law that walks contrary unto Law and from the Law of life for life he that would not have others to have law why should he have any himselfe why should not that be done unto him which he himselfe would have done to another It is truth saith he we give law to Hares and Deer because they be Beasts of Chase but it was never accompted either cruelty or foule play to knock Foxes or Wolves on the head as often as they can be found because they be beasts of prey The warrenner sets traps for Polcats and other vermine for the preservation of the warren JOHN LILBURN RICHARD OVERTON Tower May 4 1649. FINIS