Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A29995
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The Duke of Buckingham's speech in a late conference
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Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 1628-1687.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing B5331; ESTC R6911
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2,889
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8
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THE DUKE OF Buckingham's SPEECH In a late CONFERENCE LONDON Printed for M. I. 1668. The DUKE of BUCKINGHAM'S SPEECH Gentlemen of the House of Commons I Am Commanded by the House of Peeres to open to You the Matter of this Conference Which is a Taske I could wish their Lordships had been pleased to lay upon any Body else both for their own sakes and mine having observed in that little experience I have made in the World there can be nothing of greater difficulty Then to Unite Men in their Opinions whose Interests seeme to disagree This Gentlemen I fear is at present our Case but yet I hope when we have a little better considered of it we shall finde that a greater Interest does oblige us at this time rather to joyn in the Preservation of both our Priviledges then to differ about the violation of either We acknowledge it is our Interest to defend the Right of the Commons for should we suffer them to be opprest it would not be long before it might come to be our own case And I humbly conceive it will also appear to be the Interest of the Commons to uphold the Priviledge of the Lords that so we may be in a Condition to stand by and support them All that their Lordships desire of you upon this occasion is That you will proceed with them as usually Friends do when they are in Dispute one with another That you will not be impatient of hearing Arguments urged against your Opinions but Examine the Weight of what is said and then impartially consider which of us two are likeliest to be in the wrong If we are in the wrong we and our Predecessors have been so for these many hundred of years and not only our Predecessors but yours too This being the first time that ever an Appeal was made in point of Judicature from the Lords House to the House of Commons Nay those very Commons which turn'd the Lords out of this House though they took from them many other of their Privileges yet left them the constant practise of this till the very last day of their Sitting And this will be made appear by several Presidents these Noble Lords will lay before you much better then I can pretend to doe Since this business has been in Agitation their Lordships have been a little more curious than ordinary to Informe themselves of the true nature of these Matters now in Question before Us which I shall endeavour to Explain to you as far as my small Abillity and my aversion to hard words will give me leave For howsoever the Law to make it a Mystery and a Trade may be wrapt up in Termes of Art yet it is founded in reason and is obvious to Common Sence The power of Judicature does naturally descend and not ascend That is no inferiour Court can have any power which is not derived to it from some power above it The King is by the Lawes of this Land Supreme Judge in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil And so there is no Court High or Low can Act but in subordination to Him and though they do not all Issue out their writs in the Kings Name yet they can Issue out none but by vertue of some Power they have received from him Now every particular Court has such particular power as the King has given it and for that reason has its bounds But the Highest Court in which the King can possibly Sit that is His Supreme Court of Lords in Parliament has in it all his Judicial Power and consequently no bounds I mean no bounds of Jurisdiction for the highest Court is to Govern according to the Lawes as well as the Lowest I suppose none will make a question but that every Man and every Cause is to be tried according to Magna Charta That is by Peers or according to the Laws of the Land And he that is Tryed by the Ecclesiastical Courts the Court of Admiralty or the High Court of Lords in Parliament is Tryed as much by the Lawes of the Land as he that is Tryed by the Kings Bench or Common-Pleas When these Inferior Courts happâ—n to wrangle among themselves which they must often do by reason of their being bound up to particular Causes and their having all equally and earnestly a desire to try all Causes themselves then the Supreme Court is forced to hear their Complaints because there is no other way of deciding them And this under favour is an Original Cause of Courts though not of men Now these Original Causes of Courts must also of necessity induce Men for saving of Charges and dispatch sake to bring their Causes Originally before the Supreame Court But then the Court is not obliged to receive them but proceeds by Rules of Prudence in either retaining or dismissing them as they think fit This is under favour the summ of all that your Precedents can shew us which is nothing but what we practice every day That is that very often because we would not be molested with hearing too many particular Causes we referr them back to other Courts And all the Argument you can possibly draw from hence will not in any kind lessen our Power but only shew an unwillingness we have to trouble our selves often with matters of this Nature Nor will this appear strange if you consider the constitution of our House it being made up partly of such whose Employments will not give them leisure to attend the hearing of Private Causes and entirely of those that can receive no profit by it And the truth is the Dispute at present is not between the House of Lords and the House of Commons but between us and Westminster-Hall For as we desire to have few or no Causes brought before us because we get nothing by them so they desire to have all Causes brought before them for a reason a little of the contrary nature For this very reason it is their business to invent new wayes of drawing Causes to their Courts which ought not to be pleaded there As for example this very Cause of Skinner that is now before us And I do not speak this by Roate for I have the opinion of a Reverend Judge in the Case who informed us of it the other day in the House They have no way of bringing this Cause into Westminster-Hall but by this form the reason and sence of which I leave to you to Judge of The Form is this that in stead of speaking as we ordinary Men do that have no Art That Mr. Skinner lost a Ship in the East Indies to bring this into their Courts they must say That Mr. Skinner lost a Ship in the East-Indies in the Parish of Islington in the County of Middlesex Now some of us Lords that did not understand the refineness of this stile began to examine what the reason of this should be and so we found that since they ought not by right to try such Causes they are resolved to make bold not only with our Priviledges but the very Sence and Language of the whole Nation This I thought fit to mention only to let you see that this whole Cause as well as many others could not be tryed properly in any place but at our Barr Except Mr. Skinner would have taken a fancy to try the Right of Jurisdictions between Westminster-Hall and the Court of Admirallity instead of seeking Relief for the Injuries he had received in the place only where it was to be given him One thing I hear is much insisted upon which is the Tryal without Juries to which I could Answer That such Tryals are allowed of in the Chancery and other Courts And that when there is occasion for them we make use of Juries too both by directing them in the Kings-Bench and having them brought up to our Barr. But I shall onely crave leave to put you in minde That if you do not allow us in some Cases to try Men without Juries you will then absolutely take away the use of Impeachments which I humbly conceive you will not think proper to have done at this time FINIS