the mouth of Publick fame or to have shewed the justly jealous Subjects that there were such fit and proper Witnesses that a Prince was now born of the Queen as were unquestionable without any possible exception whose truth and faithfulness might be relied upon securely Justice also required for full security that there had been competent and sufficient numbers of those fit and proper Witnesses at least that there had been so many of them as were able to obviate all ways and practices of deceit that it could not have been supposed to be possible that a Fraud had been put upon them This sort of Caution is always just and necessary in the Birth of our Princes but in the present case there could have been no honest end intention or pretence to have confin'd themselves to a small number of Witnesses of a fact wherein a Kingdom known to be filled with just suspitions of an Imposture to be put upon them were to be satisfied meerly by the Witnesses averrment and a Noble Princess also to be excluded from being Heiress apparent to the Crown Our Laws require Witnesses of Facts answerable to the Nature and Circumstances of them and always require ample Testimonies when the Parties that are obliged to prove them had it in their powers and choice without charge or burden to themselves to have multiplied their Witnesses to what number they had pleased and could not be ignorant of the usefulness or necessity of it and yet more especially if the fact were such whereby Great Benefit was to accrue to them and Answerable Loss unto others in such a Case it would much abate the strength of the proof in the course of the Law if there were such a small number of Witnesses as might leave room for any objection or the least doubt of the fact The ancient Roman Imperial Laws in the Cases of Subjects when there was a Posthumus to be born that might exclude another Heir apparent We say those Laws in common natural Equity to prevent a supposititious Child appointed thirty days notice to be given to the apparent Heir and all others whose Right was concerned of the Expected time of her Travel and delivery that on the behalf of the Heir apparent Women might be sent to be present to see the Birth of the Child that might become the Heir that Law confined the number to five free Women to be sent allowing her that was to be delivered to have also five Women of her own chusing and no more so that the number to be present at her delivery should not exceed Ten besides two Midwives and six Maid Servants that were no Witnesses This Rule was set down positively in the Empire as the Dictate of natural Equity and Prudence and although England hath no positive written Law that prescribes any set number of Friends to be sent in such a case by the Heir apparent to see the Birth of such a Child yet the Custom and Practice is in every such case tho' no Fraud be suspected to give notice to the next Heir and that some of their Friends are customarily sent to what number they please to be present at the Birth of the Child that may be an Heir to the Exclusion of another That practice with us is not of Favour but of Legal Right our Common Law generally Binds all that set up a claim to any thing that another hath to give such Notice of his pretence as is needful to make his just defence if he can and to prove the Fact whereby he claims by such a number of Witnesses as may put the Truth of it out of doubt to the Court of Judicature but that number in the Course of our Law is greater or smaller according to the Cause that appears of jealousy or distrust of the Truth of the Fact pretended These Rules of our Law and the Reasons of them fully include the case of a Pretence of a Child to be born to exclude an Heir apparent and if there were many known grounds of suspition in any such case that it was designed to set up a supposititious Child and a notorious Common fame of it and no notice were given of the time expected of the Childs Birth hoped to be Heir to the then Heir apparent or to any that had expectances of the Inheritances We say in such a case by the Rules and Practices of our Laws a small number of Witnesses of the Birth of a Child ought not to be believed since they that should claim for such a Child might by due notice to the Parties concerned have had such Witnesses as had put the Childs Birth beyond all question Certainly by the reason of our Common Law there ought to be a much greater number of Witnesses of the Birth of every of our Princes than of the Birth of the Subjects Heirs but our Law requires that the Birth of this pretended Prince of Wales should have been proved by a greater number of Witnesses than was ever needful heretofore in the case of a Prince there ought to have been so many fit and proper Persons present at his pretended Birth that it might have been manifest to all that had heard it that the Eyes of so many Witnesses of such Condition Knowledg and Judgment could not have been deceived in what they had testified to have known and seen the number ought to have been so considerable that there could have been no reasonable Suspition that so many of both Sexes and of various Dignities Honours and Interests and some of them of Consanguinity with the former Heiress apparent had made a Confederacy amongst themselves to abuse the Kingdom with a Counterfeit Prince and that so many had kept each others Counsel in a Fraud and Falshood so odious and injurious It had been common Prudence as well as Justice to the Realm that the Witnesses of the Birth had been very many that amongst such a Number some of them might have been known in one part of the Kingdom and others in another Part and that some of their Names and Qualities might have been known in Foreign Countries and for that Reason the Ministers of Foreign Princes according to Custom ought to have been some of the Witnesses the Peoples knowledg of the Names Qualities or Persons of the Witnesses had much conduced to their fuller assurance of the Truth it would have appeared to them incredible and almost impossible that the Integrity of such and so many Witnesses could have been attacked either separately or jointly But on the contrary seeing Custom and Law required a good number of fit and proper Witnesses to have made up a Testimony of the Birth of a Prince that might have been truely said to have been omni Exceptione majus above all possible Objections against it and seeing the wit of Man cannot invent a reason why the King and the Patrons of this pretended Prince of Wales did not provide such ample and unquestionable Testimonies that he was born of
the Queen when they could not be ignorant that it was the voice of common Fame in England and Foreign Countries that her Majesties Conception of a Child was meerly Fictitious and that a supposititious Prince was designed and seeing no Excuse or Pretence is published for the neglect or failure of such a Testimony of his birth we say the Circumstances of the Case being considered it 's most unjust to expect or demand of Your Highnesses or of the People of England or of Foreigners a belief and acknowledgment that this pretended Prince of Wales was born of the Queen As our Common Law informs us who are fit and proper Witnesses whose Testimonies ought to be received in this Case and in the proof of all Matters of Fact respectively so the same declares who are deemed to be unfit and disabled to be Witnesses in all the various and respective Questions of Fact it shews whose Testimonies ought not to be heard and much less believed in divers sorts of Facts that come into question If your Highness and the Kingdom be told of the presence of such persons to have been at the Birth of this pretended Prince as ought not by our Laws to be accounted Witnesses nor their averrments in the case to be heard by your Hss or the Kingdom and much less to be allowed to be of any Validity in the Common course of out Courts of Judicature if parties concerned to prove a Fact do knowingly offer for Witnesses such as our Laws reject in the Facts in question it turns to the prejudice of their other proof we are therefore obliged to acquaint your Highnesses with the Actions Qualities Respects and Circumstances that have disabled many by force of our Common Law to be heard as Witnesses of the Birth of this pretended Prince of Wales First Our Laws utterly disable all those to be heard in the Case that have received either gifts of Money or Honours or any other Reward or Benefits whatsoever for their pretended Assistance about his Birth or by reason or occasion of that pretence 't is the Common Practise of our Law that when a Witness is produced the adverse Party may examine him upon his Oath whether he hath had Money or other Reward or Gift directly or indirectly for or by reason of the matter in question or from the Party in whose behalf he is produced to testifie or from any of his Friends if he cannot acquit himself thereof by his Oath though it cannot be proved against him our Impartial Law deems such a person not only to be partial in the Case but corrupted and bribed and unworthy to be heard Our Law will not admit those to be Witnesses for the Birth of this supposed Prince of Wales that have any Promise Expectation or Hopes of any Advancement Office Place or Benefit by or under him if he shall be received and allowed by the Kingdom to be Prince of Wales they that cannot purge themselves by their Oaths from all such Promises Expectations and Hopes are not in the Judgment of our Law persons indifferent and unconcerned in the Event of the Matter in question nor fit to be heard as Witnesses their Testimonies being partly for themselves and their own Benefit and the allowance of such Testimonies in Judicature would in consequence subvert all Civil Justice and Government Our Law excludes all from being Witnesses to support the pretence of the supposed Prince of Wales as have such dependance on the Patrons and Maintainers of him that they are in danger of damage and loss by them of any kind if they should displease them in their Testimony Our Laws judg all such not to be free and of their own Right in the Case but bound to serve and please the Patrons of the Cause and therefore presume that they may be corrupted by fear of losing the Advantages they love if they should impartially declare the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth of the matter Our Laws seek to know the naked and entire Truth of all Facts that come into legal question or Contest and will not admit of any to be Witnesses of them unless they appear to be free from Fears of any Prejudice to themselves by speaking the Truth impartially We are inforced by the Concern of all the Protestants to speak more plainly than we would we must say that all that hold Offices of Profit and Honour during the Kings Will are by the Laws of England excluded out of the Number of fit and competent Witnesses about the Birth of this Child whom His Majesty hath proclaimed and maintains to be Prince of Wales our good Laws have regard to humane infirmities and will not put a temptation upon men to suffer them to be Witnesses in matters wherein they may damnifie themselves in the loss of their Offices if they happen to displease their Master in his concern in the case by testifying clearly the whole Truth of it they are not free in the Judgment of our Laws to speak the Truth without fear and for that reason are not to be received by the Kingdom as Witnesses in this Case Our Laws will never allow or suffer any to be Witnesses in this Case who are known or may be proved to have Enmity or Prejudice of any kind upon any account whatsoever to Her Royal Highness against whom most immediately this supposed Prince contends she having been most unquestionably the Heir apparent of the Crown and justly so remaining until the Kingdom shall be satisfied by a sufficient Number of lawful Witnesses that there is a Prince born whereby her claim to the next Succession shall be postponed The question of Fact to be decided by Witnesses is apparently between her Royal Highness and this supposed Prince and 't is a legal unanswerable and conclusive Exception against any to be received for Witnesses against her in his behalf that they are declared Enemies to her and the Professed Protestant Religion the destruction whereof they are bound in Conscience to endeavour and for that reason such known Enemies to her right of Succession to the Crown that their Church have decreed and declared her Right and the Right of all Protestants to any Authorities to be absolutely forfeited to the Papists for Protestant Heresie It cannot be denied that all that are sincerely Roman Catholicks and believe their own Church do judg Her Royal Highness to be an Excommunicated Heretick by their Church and that all Her Rights in possession and reversion are thereby confiscated and that they are all obliged by the Law of their Church in Conscience of their Religion and by the hope of Pardon of their sins to defeat and destroy by all ways and means in their Power all Her Pretensions to the Descent of the Crown upon her and to assist to the investing the Right to the Succession in a Roman Catholick We might here add that our English Papists are all in Vnion and Communion with the Pope as appears by his Nuntio in
London and he is by the ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm declared the Publick or Common Enemy of the Kingdom near two hundred years before Henry the Eighth T is manifest that the English Papists are declared Enemies to Her Royal Highnesses Right in this Case between her and the pretended Prince of Wales and therefore by the Laws of England they cannot be Witnesses of the Fact in question neither ought their Testimonies therein to be offered to the Kingdom to Delude the People The Civil Law so fully concurs with our Common Law in rejecting Enemies to be Witnesses in the cause of their Enemy that it denies to give credit to what they may testifie in the cause of their Enemy with their dying Breath after they have received the Eucharist that is the General Conclusion of the Doctors of that Civil Law Inimicus etiamsi in articulo mortis constitutus accepisset Eucharistiam repellitur a testimonio causae sui inimici We mention this chiefly to shew that 't is not only by our English Laws that our Papists are rejected from being Witnesses of the Birth of this pretended Prince against Her Royal Highness but by the ancient approved Rules of the Civil Law which they generally acknowledg and by the Judgment of their own Doctors Herein are only set forth to Your Highnesses the Laws of England that you may justly insist upon as your Right to prevent the Church of Rome's Conspiracies against you we reflect not on the credit or truth of any Roman Catholick Lords or others in giving their Testimonies in Matters of private Interests wherein the cause of their Church is not in question and the Laws of their Church bind them not to either party but since they are bound in this case to be Enemies to Her Royal Highness our Law will not allow them to be believed to her prejudice and they must openly renounce that common Honesty to which they pretend if they offer themselves to the Kingdom to be competent Witnesses against Her in behalf of this pretended Prince when they are conscious to themselves that not only our Laws but Natural Justice and Equity abhors such a practice We must say with all due reverence and most humble submission that Our Laws will not allow that the Declaration or Testimony of His Majesty or the Queen should be accepted and believed in this case as lawful proof that this pretended Prince was born of the Queen 't is sufficient for us that our Laws will not suffer our Kings to descend into the Place of Witnesses they will not admit them to testifie their own knowledg of the Facts in any case whatsoever Criminal or Civil but there is abundant reason also from Natural Equity and Civil Justice that the Kingdom should not receive and rely upon the King's Affirmation about the Birth of this supposed Prince their Majesties have publickly Espoused his Cause for their own in all respects and none on Earth Kings or Subjects may justly expect or be suffered to supply the Place of Witnesses in their own case since Civil Government is established if they might lawfully be their own proof for their cause they might as justly be Judges of their own proofs which in Consequence would turn up the Foundations of Civil Government one of its chiefest original intentions being to introduce a course of Justice that none might be their own Judges We would not speak thus plainly if it were justly avoidable we cast no Scandal hereby upon His Majesty nor any way come near the crime of detraction we barely relate the Law of England in this case of His Majesties Affirmation of the Birth of this pretended Prince that it hath not the force of legal proof or of the Testimony of one Legal Witness and His Majesty is obliged in Justice and Honour by his Office and Oath not to impose upon his Subjects to believe and rely upon his Affirmation or Word in this case nor on the Queen's that 's necessarily included in his he cannot desire the People diffusively to change their ancient customs and Laws to substitute their King's Words or Assertions in the room of sworn Legal Witnesses to prove the Matters of the Highest moment about the Government If the Kingdom should allow the Affirmation of their Kings to be sufficient to make a Lawful Prince of Wales without such Witnesses of his Birth as our Law requires they should consent to Change the ancient Constitution of the English Monarchy and so destroy the established Legal Security of their Freedom and Estates The Laws of England in this case are not dissonant from the Laws of other Kingdoms and the most absolute Empires the Civil Law now received in most Christian Kingdoms that was so adapted to absolute Government that it was one of its principles That Principis verbum pro lege habendum est the word of the Prince was to be taken for a Law we say that Law never ascribed absolute credit to the Prince's Affirmations of Matters of Fact wherein the Subjects Rights were concerned it passeth for a Rule of that Law in such cases Princeps indistincte non creditur the Emperour is not to be believed intirely without limitations and restrictions in his affirming Matters of Fact relating to his Subjects Legal Interest and Securities The Learned Doctors in that Law determine that the Emperor's Affirmation that a Subject hath committed Treason or Rebellion against him ought nor to be believed or taken for a proof they say expresly Regi fides non adhibetur si attestatur talem fuisse proditorem likewise if he pretends and declares a cause why he deprives any Subject or Feudatory of his Interest he is not to be believed there must be proof and the parties intended to be prejudiced must be cited and heard in their defence They generally resolve that when a King asserts or attests any thing to the prejudice of another he is not to be therein believed especially when his Affirmation is for his own advantage and to the Subjects damage or inconvenience These are their words Quando ex assertione Principis ipse Principaliter sentiret commodum subditi incommodum tum ipsi Principi non creditur The Emperor Henry the 6. of Germany had a due sense of the Justice and Reason of the Law herein about the year 1200. he did not Expect that the People should believe the Affirmations of himself and his Empress Constantia about the Birth of a Prince when there was a rumor and suspition that Constantia was past her age of Child-bearing and feigned a Great Belly he gave the People plentiful proof by Witnesses more than Reason required he prepared a most publick Place wherein she remained expecting her time of Delivery Ventre Custodito with publick Watchers or Keepers that no Supposititious Child might possibly be Conveyed to her and there in the sight of the People of the City and all the Matrons that would and could possibly approach her none being