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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	judge_n	law_n	2,498	5	5.0932	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25494	Another word to the wise, shewing that the delay of justice is great injustice by displaying heavier grievances in petitions from severall counties to the House of Commons and letters to Parl[i]ament men, from Mr. John Musgrave, Gentleman, one of the commissioners from Cumberland and Westmerland, for presenting their grievances to the Parliament, who, instead either of redressing those two counties grievances, or prosecuting the charge given in by him against Mr. Richard Barwis, a Parliament man ... did illegally commit the said Mr. John Musgrave to the Fleet, where he hath lain these 4. moneths without any justice on tryall of his businesse ...	Musgrave, John, fl. 1654.	1646 (1646)	Wing A3274A; ESTC R17785	19,085	18

but by constraint have by subtle speeches and clandestine wayes gradually wound themselves in to be Committees for the Parliament and some to be Commanders Who so palliate and vail their actions with pretences of State that the well-affected and friends of the Parliament cannot have justice or are so delayed in their just suits that they are quite wearied out and discouraged The Petitioners therfore humbly pray this honourable House to take the premises into serious and due consideration and for prevention of the great mischiefe that may happen if not prevented by disheartning the good and animating the ill affected To order that all such persons as have been in Armes against the Parliament Malignants and Neuters may be removed from being Committees or Commanders and that their place may be supplyed with honest men who have ventured their Lives spent their Estates in and for the Parliaments service And they shall ever pray c. The Coppy of a letter sent by Mr. John Musgrave Gent. to Alexander Rigby Esquire a member of the House of Commons Worthy Sir LIttle did I expect to have beene so troublesome to my friends upon such an occasion as this sitting a free Parliament we were in hope when the High Commission Councell Board and Starre-chamber were taken away according to the Law that we had been free men and no more subject to any Arbitrary Power But according to the Law we should have beene protected in our just Liberties and have had justice done us without begging or intreaties I have beene kept Prisoner here some 13. weekes yet neither by solicitation of friends or petitions can I get audience I desire but the benefit of the Law which I claim as my Right either to bee justified or condemned by the same favour I desire not no other then the innocency of my cause deserveth Justice only I expect as you have ever professed your selfe to be the Common wealths servant so I desire you in the behalfe of my Country to move the House that I may have my Liberty being their Agent and their Cause put in a way of Tryall This is all I desire from you which I hope you will not deny me and I shall bee From the Fleet Prison 29th of the first moneth 1646. Yours to do you service John Musgrave The coppie of a letter sent by Mr. John Musgrave to Sir Arthur Hasilrigge Knight a Member of the House of Commons Sir I Am given to understand that my petitions and letters of late published by some of my wel-wishers under the title of A word to the Wise were delivered unto you by Mr. Peters there is nothing in any of these petitions and letters which are mine but I am ready to owne and avow and if I may have but common justice and an equall hearing I doubt not but to make good the same to be agreeable to law and truth I am informed that you alone have taken upon you to be my judge and have already condemned me and cast many vile aspersions upon me giving forth how I comply with the Scotts to drive on some wicked designe of theirs tending to the prejudice of the State and undoing of my Countrey which if it were true then are you blame-worthy to passe by the same and not to bring me forth to condigne punishment for already you have given out sentence and adjudged me guilty though you never heard me speak and I suppose never knew me by face but howsoever though I were guilty of that wherein you condemne me yet it doth not beseeme you nor any in the place of iudicature as you are to condemne any man unheard and who is absent nor to have respect of persons in iudgement And none but unrighteous iudges will doe so for it is good and agreeable to law what Seneca saith Qui aliquid statuerit altera parte inauditu aequum licet statuerit haud aequus est He that determineth and ordereth any thing the one partie being unheard although he determine and order that which is right yet is he uniust And this your doing is the more grievous in that you insult over a poore prisoner whom you now have in bonds and so not in place to answer for himselfe I complaine of Traytors whom you suffer to walke at libertie I have given in charges against them unto you yet cannot get them brought to answer whiles I am cast into prison before any charge be brought against me put to answer interrogatories and no accusers comming against me Traitors whom I accuse are continued in their authorities yet almost foure months have I laine in prison and know not for what but hetherto neither by friends nor petitions could I ever obtaine that favour and right which of dutie you owe me and all the free borne of this Kingdome to have audience and libertie as a free man to answer for my selfe for as you can exact no obedience of us further then by the law so may we boldly claime iustice according to the law which to deny us is iniustice in you by the law I am blamed because I decline the Committee how should I expect any good from them when they dare not or will not suffer our cause to be publiquely heard and debated but doe shut their doores against both our friends and also against strangers contrary to law yet suffer they our adversaries whom we accuse to sit with their hats on as Iudges in the cause both permitting them and they taking upon them to examine us O England saith one well in the like case what 's become of thy liberties For if Sir Edward Cooke spake truth or knew the law that iudge who ordereth and ruleth a cause in his chamber though his order or rule be iust yet offendeth he the law and the reason he rendereth is for that all causes ought to be heard ordered and determined openly in the Kings Courts whether all persons may resort and not in chambers or other private places See Cooke 2. part instit. fol. 103. And how can I assent unto the Committees demands to bring witnesses to be examined before such a Committee as cannot or is not authorized to administer an oath and so consequently cannot determine or give any iudgement for or against the partie accused for that all matters of fact and causes criminall are to be tryed and determined by the verdict of 12. men upon the solemne oaths and depositions of witnesses See Cook 3. part instit. fol. 163. And how can I without incurring the haynous sin of periury submit unto the arbitrary proceedings and determinations of any Committee being bound by solemne oath and protestation to maintaine the lawes and iust liberties of the people and that the proceedings orders and results of the Committees be arbitrary and not regulated by the law I need no further proofe then that exorbitant and unlimitted power they take upon them and daily exercise in seizing on free mens goods and imprisoning their bodies contrary to law

presented to the House which not many daies after hee did accordingly And thus as my ends and intentions herein were reall and honest so I hope the means which I used to attaine thereunto were no wise unlawfull nor indirect But as I cannot flatter neither give vaine titles to any so I hold it ignoble and base to bee ingratefull either by neglecting such persons or not acknowledging such favours and the rather that they proceeded from strangers when as my owne Country men who both of duty and by oath were bound unto us so unworthily so long delayed and at last refused so that they both neglected us and sleighted our cause and Country Let others say and do what they please as I am not ashamed to owne and acknowledge favours received from my noble friends so for my part as Lieut. Col. Lilburne speaking of the justice done to him by the House of Peers saith in his book intituled Innocency and truth justified Pag. 75. I am resolved to speake well of those that have done mee justice and not to doubt they will deny it me till such time as by experience I find they doe it Sir if I had found the like timely justice from you I would neither have had so much cause thus to complain nor to have been so much beholden to strangers whom the Parliament have still accounted friends And if you for your own part had beene as tender of your friends to whom you professe kindnesse and to your Country to whom you owe duty as I have alwaies been and still am ready to approve my selfe at all times in all faithfullnesse to my Country and forwardnesse to promote their just cause wherewith I am intrusted and which hath purchast no small envy of the great enemies of our Countrey I do verily beleeve that some of your suffering friends in the like condition with me who have relyed so much upon you had not been so frustrated in their expectation and driven to so great straites as to seek that comfort which you professed and might with ease have afforded And you would have been more ready to have vouchsafed your assistance to have brought Traytors and enemies to the common wealth to condigne punishment according to your severall oaths protestations and subscriptions and would have beene ashamed that traitors ●●ould have walked at large in London streets whilst your cordiall friends their prosecutors are cast and kept by you in prison for no other cause wherewith they can be iustly charged but for that they stand for the lawes and iust liberties of this kingdome neither would you have been so censorious to condemne that man whom the wel-affected of his countrey have thus intrusted and on whom they doe still relye and against whom you know nothing but bare and groundlesse reports and under hand calumniations which no iudicious generous nor truly honest man will beleive yet if you be not resolved against knowledge to act or if there be any hope to recover and bring you to a right understanding of our countreys cause my earnest desire is to undeceive you if possibly I can and have the more inlarged my selfe the better to informe you of the true state thereof And I doe assure you if I may have iustice done me by mine owne countrey men I will never seeke unto strangers for it was no small griefe unto me that from none of mine owne nation I could obtain so much favour neither by intreaties nor recommendations as to present the iust complaints of two counties which so much concerned the weal and safety of two kingdomes but was driven to that extremitie even to have returned home to our owne Countrey which is nigh 300. miles distant without any hope of so much as getting a petition presented to the House of Commons if by meanes under God of the Lord of Warriston to whom before I was never known by face those our grievances by petition and articles had not been put up to the House By all which passages you may perceive how wickedly I am dealt with and traduced by the friends and favorites of our and our Countries enemies so that I may truly say that the slanders of my adversaries is more quicke then any martiall law for by them I have been arraigned condemned and executed all in one instant if in a mans good name doth consist his life and honour your selfe being iudge However give me leave to tell you if I may obtaine that favour from you as to mediate for me into the house of Commons and in my behalfe to present unto them this petition here inclosed to the intent my countries iust cause may be put into a way of tryall And whatsoever my adversaries say I will engage my selfe in the behalfe of my countrey to prosecute the same to a full period and make good our charge against them or otherwise as I have formerly offered by my letter to Mr Speaker to undergoe such penaltie and punishment as by the rigour of the law may be inflicted upon me And in the meane time J would have my adversaries to understand that I am nothing cast downe though layed and kept by their meanes in prison but still relying upon God and the strength and truth of my cause and the iustice of the Parliament am resolved though freedom were made capitall and truth accompted never so offensive not to relinquish nor desert the iust cause of my countrey but in all loyall obedience to authority my endeavours shall be to performe that duty which I owe to my countrey and discharge that trust they have committed unto me Yea and to my utmost power by all lawfull wayes and meanes according to my oath and protestation to set my selfe against the factions and attemps of the adversarie in the defence of the lawes and our iust liberties wherein I shall not spare to spend my selfe and put to hazard whatsoever is nearest and dearest unto me and so I wish you may account it to be your honour whom we have honoured to chuse as our trusties to sit at the helme of this our tossed ship in such an ocean of tempestuous waves even to execute righteous iudgement as yee wish to come to a faire haven and as ye labour to destroy your cruell enemies so to protect your trustie friends who have in all assaults and extremiteis never relinquished you nor the common cause of this distressed kingdome thus hoping yee will all unanimously use your best endeavours to deliver us your selves and the posteritie from all the bondage and oppression which is now exercised over this bleeding nation and restore us to our ancient liberties at least which our ancestors by their blood so dearly purchast that henceforth we may injoy peace and truth with the administration of iustice which is the earnest sute and fervent desire of Your faithfull friend in all due respects John Musgrave Sir I forgot one thing which I desire to be cleared which is the Scottish wicked designe

For which if they should as they ought pay 500. l a peece treble damages to every party grieved according to the statute of 17. Car. made for the abolishing of the Starchamber I beleeve they would not adventure so boldly to transgresse sed impunitas continuum affectum tribuit delinquendi but neglect of punishment giveth boldnesse to transgresse Nay I am verily perswaded the whole estates of many of them would not give halfe satisfaction for the wrongs done by them That this law were put in execution against such lawlesse men is my earnest desire and daily expect the same But it seemes you are much displeased that we should impeach a member of your house why have you any priviledge to transgresse To be a Parliament man is it a good plea in Bar I ever thought this warre had been undertaken for the preservation and defence of our lawes and iust liberties and not for sheltering nor protecting any delinquents or offenders Can it stand with your honours your oaths your trusts your protestations and declarations to refuse the delivering up your delinquent members to the law to slight our iust complaints and to cast us into prison for complaining Can it stand with iustice and law for the trustees of the law to plead priviledge and exemption from the law Were not this to iustifie transgression by a law Doth not the observation of the law generally without any limitation or exemption concerne all equaly and alike Is not the practice and execution the very life and soule of the law And what saith learned Cooke neither can a iudge punish extortion who is corrupted himselfe neither any Magistrate punish any sin as he ought that is knowne to be an offender therein himselfe Therefore saith he in the same place it is an incident inseparable to good government that the Magistrates to whom the execution of the lawes is committed to be principall observers of the same themselves Cooke lib. 4. pref. Have not you complained often times expressing great griefe for that the King would not deliver up his evill counsellors and bad servants to be tryed by the law and can we expect lesse from you then you exact of others even of the King himself For my part I cannot deem them lesse then guilty to themselves who under pretence or shadow of any priviledge goe about to avoide the tryall of the law and so thinke to escape with Ioab by flying to the hornes of the Altar If Mr Lisle Chair man of the Committee where unto our cause was referred and under whose bare report without any further ground I suffer had been as truely zealous for the law as he would be accounted knowing in the law and had been as faithfull in discharging his trust by doing good offices for the publique as he hath been ready to procure by his publique place in the house contrary to the selfe denying ordinance private and profitable offices to himselfe he would not have laid our papers and informations aside to the great damage and danger of our Countrey nor so falne upon us as guiltie persons by propounding interrogatories to insnare us even before he had any direction from the House so to do he would have not misreported to the house that I contemptuously refused to answer whereas only according to law I required time to answer He would not have so contrary to law denyed to have given me and my fellow Commissioner the interrogatories nor hindered us to write them from his mouth Neither would he have refused to give us a reasonable time to have advised according 〈◊〉 the law for answer so that either he must to his shame being a prof●ssor of the lawes plead ignorance of the law which is his best plea or else these his prac●●ses doe discover him to be faithlesse corrupt and uniust and one of those to whom it is said woe to you lawyers For it appeareth by Sir Edward Cooke 2. part instit. fol. 51. that I ought by law to have had time allowed me wherein to advise for answer his words be these If any one be suspected for any crime be it treason fellony c. and the partie be to be examined upon interrogatories he may take a reasonable time to answer the same with deliberation and the examinate if he will may put his answer in writing and keep a coppie thereof and so it was resolved in Parliament in the case of Justice Ric●el See the record at large 1. Hen. 4. memb. 2. num 2. O yee Senatours learne wisedome and take heed how ●ee either indanger your selves or us the free borne people of England whom yee represent And though we trust you with our great affaires yet doe not you trust too much those Lawyers by whom our liberties have been so often betrayed that except some few like noble St. Johns they are all so mercinarie that even those who sit in Parliament are nor ashamed to take fees and moneyes for pleading causes depending in that high and honourable court as they doe also in all other courts of iustice in Westminster hall and how short they come in discharge of the trust committed unto them let the preceeding practice of Mr. Lile towards me now a prisoner and agent for the well affect●d of Comberland and Westmoreland to the Parliament beare witnesse As touching our charge against Mr Barwis and the rest it is evident that they are to be tryed at the Common law and thus I prove it the charge is for treasons committed by them against the state And in Magna Charta cap. 29 it is declared that no free man shall be taken or imdrisoned or disseised of his free-hold or liberties or free customes or be out-lawed neither will we passe upon him neither will wee sit in judgement upon him but by the lawfull judgement of his Peeres or by the law of the land and to no man will we sell deny or delay justice or right And hereby that crooked coard as saith Cooke in 2 part instit. fol. 56 of that which is called discretion appeareth to be unlawfull unles you take it as it ought to be taken discretio est discernere per legem quid sit justum discretion is to discerne by the law what is just And there he saith it is called right because it is the best birth-right that the subiect hath for thereby his goods lands wife children his body life honour and estimation are protected from injury and wrong adding the words of Citero Maior hereditas venit unicuique nostrum a iure et ●egibus quam a parentibus A far greater and better inheritance discends unto each one of us from iustice and the lawes then from our parents And in his proeme to his 3. part instit He urgeth that ancient maxime of the law Misera servitus est ubi ius est vagum vel incognitum It is a miserable bondage where the law is uncertaine and unknown And in the 24. page of the same booke he

telleth us how treasons are to be tryed saying there is another excellent branch of a statute made 1. et 2. Philip et Mar. cap 10. in these words Be it further inacted by authoritie aforesaid that all tryalls to bee had awarded or made for any treason shall be had and used only according to the due order and course of the common law which Statute is yet still in as great force as first when it was made the same never being repealed for according thereunto yee tryed the Earle of Strafford since this present Parliament began who had as good right to have challenged his priveledge and exemp●ion from the common law if any such appeale had been as ever Mr. Barwis had or any other who so ever and which doubtlesse hee would have done and you have granted At whose tryall I was and you made use of mee as a witnesse against him where I was examined viva voce upon oath the Earle himselfe having first answered his charge according to law Whereby you may perceive it is plain and evident that this our cause and charge is not proper nor pertinent to be tryed by any Committee who are not authorized to administer an oath whereby to put an end to any controversie but altogether such courts of iustice as are inabled to begin and proceed and end in a iudiciall way per legem et consuetudinem Angliae by the law and custome of this realme For no priveledge of Parliament can hold or be pleaded in cases of treason fellony and the peace Cooke 4. part instit. fol. 15 Herein there only remaines then to be done on your parts ro give up your delinquent members to the law and we on our parts according to the same law to make good our charge by adue and legall prosecution And whereas you say that I have combined with the Scotts and drive on their wicked desigoe give me leave to tell you that I being driven into exile through the crueltie of those unnaturall vipers and traytors of my owne countrey who joyned with the popish conspirators in this great rebellion to ruine our state and countrey they thirsting after my blood and thinking to devoure me profered large sums of money to such as could apprehend me I was forced to fly for my life not being able of my selfe to resist their fury After these your Committee men with us had shamefully desarted me and this iust cause of the kingdome and adhered to the enemie I having then no other way open nor apparent meanes to escape with much difficulty and more danger got by Gods good providence into Scotland where I indured no small tryalls and troubles through the malignancie of some of their Ministers and such as they sturred up against me taking occasion upon my non conformitie and refusall to come to their assemblies and high places unto which I could not submit nor ioyne my selfe But after much and long strugling and contention with these Ministers in the meane time labouring to walke inoffensively towards them and all others in all other things by the private meanes and secret intelligence of some of my faithfull friends in England then in bonds for the Parliaments cause I discovered severall designes of the enemie and our gentry against that state for which I found such favour from the Magistrates there that the governour of Drumfreis did take me under protection and defended me from the persecution and violence of my adversaries there wherein he shewed himselfe to be truly noble and for which I cannot but acknowledge my selfe to be much bound unto him yea and the more in that neither I nor any of my iudgement have received the like duty of love at home notwithstanding the discoveries and all the faithfull services we have done neither sparing our blood nor regarding our estates for the good of the publique After the reducement of Cumberland by the Scottish horse upon my returne thither from Scotland being in exile a yeare and a halfethere some of Mr. Barwis favourers bosome friends who knew me in Scotland and of the good service I had done there threatned to root out me and all of my iudgement in our countrey Neither did Mr. Barwis himselfe regard any honest man there though here as I am informed he pretends to be an Independant but h●ld up and countenanced the booke of Common prayer that English masse notwithstanding all his solemne oaths covenants and protestations against it and likewise did put in the greatest places of trust and command with us traitors and malignants and men disaffected to the publique good of this kingdome All his owne kinred being such whom he thus endeavoured to promote and make great wh●rof we complaining to him were altogether slighted and those our enemies his friends kindred and allyes borne out and continued by him in their authorities neither would he give us any kind of assistance for ●eleiving some honest and godly men who had been kept long and were then still prisoners in Carlile by the enemie for the Parliaments cause and who afterwards by the helpe of the Scotts were relieved out of prison whiles I was at London soliciting this our countries cause some of them being of the separation Sir I was the last Winter here in Town above 3. moneths expecting that Mr. Blaxton one of the Burgesses for New-Castle according to his undertaking would have preferred my petitions and charges against Mr. Barwis and other enemies of our Countrey which he did not And upon my return to the Country Mr. Blaxton promised that in my absence with the first opportunitie he would present to the honourable house of Commons those my petitions and countrey grievances wishing me to encourage my Countrey men to presse on our just complaints and he would bee assisting unto us and likewise I solicited some of the Committee of both Kingdomes at Goldsmiths Hall namely Mr. Moyer and Mr. Allen now a Parliament man who also promising much but after 5. weeks attendance upon them by their owne direction they performed nothing Where by the way I desire you to take notice that in all this time whiles I thus attended with great wearinesse much discouragement and no small expences I did not so much as interchange one word with any of the Scots Comissioners neither was I known to any of them by face But upon our returne againe from our Country to present our grievances with severall Letters to Mr. Blaxton to that purpose we found him changed and become our adversary which did not a little trouble us in respect of the interest which we conceived we had in him But afterwards by means of one Mrs. Glancrosse a gentlewoman well known to many of our friends of the Separation after we had beene in Town sundry weeks were made known to the L. of Wariston one of the Scottish Commissioners who upon perusall of our severall charges against those our adversaries did promise that he would use his endeavour to get the same