Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	law_n	parliament_n	2,185	5	6.6353	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54692	The reforming registry, or, A representation of the very many mischiefs and inconveniences which will unavoidably happen by the needless, chargeable, and destructive way of registries proposed to be erected in every county of England and Wales, for the recording of all deeds, evidences, bonds, bills, and other incumbrances : written in the year 1656 when Oliver and the Levelling-party made it their design to ruine monarchy ... / by Fabian Philipps.	Philipps, Fabian, 1601-1690.	1662 (1662)	Wing P2014; ESTC R14829	37,868	105

sought to be remedied The Statute of 27 H. 8 cap. 10. for transferring of uses in possession making great alterations in Mens Estates did after many savings and provisoes ordain That all lawful Wills and Testaments made or to be made before the first day of May 1536. should be of the same force as they were forty years before notwithstanding the said Act and that Actions then depending should not be abated or discharged by reason of the executing of any Estate by Authority of the said Act. The Act for Inrollments of Deeds of Bargain and Sale made in the same year and Parliament was ordained not to take effect until after the last day of July which should be in the said year The Statute of 5 6 E. 6. c. 16. forbidding the buying and selling of Offices concerning Administration of Justice doth expresly provide That all Acts or things before done in the execution of such Offices should be good until the parties offending contrary to that Act be removed out of their places and that all Bargains and Contracts made for Offices before the first day of March then next coming should be in such force and effect as if that Act had never been made And all our Acts of Parliament which were not private or by way of pardon for Offences past have until the Act of Attainder of the Earl of Strafford in Anno 1641. Wherein there was a Proviso That it should not afterwards be made or taken to be a precedent been made and ordained for the future and in all their Orders and Prohibitions looking forward and for the time to come and not seldom prefixing a day or time when the Act should begin to take effect And for fear least any particular should be damaged in their intentions and care of the general have besides a saving of other mens rights been loaded with as many Provisoes to that purpose as any their cares or forecast could possibly put them in minde of Wherin we may hope that our no foolish Ancestors though some of their ingrate and less wise Posterity have been pleased to think them otherwise did neither erre in following the opinion of Saint Paul That by the Law is the knowledge of sin and we had not known sins but by the Law And the guidance of Gods Holy Laws and Ordinances or that which the Light of Nature and Laws of all other Nations where Justice and Reason had any acquaintance could as well as their own instruct them For if Laws which are rightly and generally defined to be Praecepta quaedam à recta ratione tracta deducta honesta imperantia turpia prohibentia certain Rules and Precepts drawn and deduced from right reason commanding good and honest things to be done and forbidding the contrary should like Janus whose retrospection was but feigned as a loving farewel to the year past look backward as well as forward and claw and fall upon all that was past and behinde them they would as to what is past cease to be Laws and instead of preventing evil and doing good prove to be no better then snares to catch and surprise men in their past and innocent actions before such Laws came to be known or made against them make the time past out of a time to come and be as to what is past or had been done before as Laws altogether impossible to be kept and as never known or published and the punishments or evils hapning upon them as inflicted for Offences before any Law was made to make or declare them to be so and be in the birth and making of them like some fierce and pitiless winds broke loose into the world which with some benefit they bring along with them in other things do at the same time break overturn and throw down all that are near or about them contrary to the care and love which God himself was pleased to shew to his people Israel in the making and giving of his Laws to whom intending to deliver his Laws with great terrors and majesty in Mount Sinai to the end they might hear and obey them he did three days before give them warning to set bounds before them and take heed that they came not near the Mountain least they or their Cattle should perish or be consumed And contrary to the rules of all the Intellect and right reason which God hath hitherto blessed the World withal and the rule and reason of all the Laws of God Nature and Nations Civil Common or Cannon But if there were nothing of ill example or consequence which might happen by this proposed retrospection in the making of other Laws Such as inforced Retrospection of Deeds and Evidences already past and executed which could never yet deserve to have any entertainment or to be so much as heard or mentioned in Senates will bring a very great charge and trouble to the people to Register their former Deeds and Evidences which were before as strong and valid as the Law and the best Council they could get could make them and to or from which such Registring by Act of Parliament without a judicial examination of the cause and hearing of the parties concerned on both sides can neither adde or diminish Or if they shall be pretended to be onely inforced to be Registred to prevent frauds and inconveniences for the future by former Bargains or Dispositions which do so seldom happen to Purchasers and Money-lenders as there is not one in every thousand which comes to any loss or mischances by them will as to Fines and Recoveries Judgments Statutes Recognisances and many Deeds which are Inrolled without some of which no Land or almost Bargain of consequence doth pass from one man to another Actum agere and altogether needless for that they being the greatest incumbrances to be feared are better Registred already then they are like to be by the Proposers And for such Deeds or Evidences which the owners were unwilling to be at the charge of Inrolling as not being necessary they are not like to bring any disturbance or inconveniencies to Purchasors who by the Fines and Recoveries onely which in every purchase or mortgage of any considerable value are sure not to be omitted may if nothing else were to be found upon Record though very many Deeds of Uses Trusts Intails Releases and of other special concernments are for preservation most commonly to be found Inrolled easily understand there hath been some former disposition or alteration of the Estate which is to be suspected or looked after And for the greatest part of them are so little wanting to themselves in their purchases or lending out moneys as they do not onely then and at all other times before hand summon in and be speak all the cares diligences and jealousies possible of themselves and their Counsel learned but make out all manner of Inquiries and Scrutinies concerning the title and value of the Lands call for and peruse the

forbid or take away the use and force of Fines and Recoveries Leases with Releases and Feoffments with Livery and Seisin which in the extent and validity thereof are far better Assurances but onely ordain That all Deeds whereby Estates of Inheritances or Freehold should pass or or be altered or changed from one to another by way of Bargain and Sale should not be good unless they should be Indented and Inrolled as that Act appointed and restraining onely the execution and effect thereof to the Inrolment within the time prefixed did leave the people to Inrol them where it might seem best or their own conveniences perswade them Wherefore an Inforced Registry or Inrolment of all such Deeds in the proper Counties if it should keep within the bounds of that Act and onely injoyn Inrolments of Deeds by Indenture where Estates of Freehold and Inheritance are to pass by way of Bargain and Sale will unavoidably produce many Inconveniences CHAP. II. The inconveniencies of an inforced Registry of such Deeds in the proper Counties THey will be illiterately carelesly and ill-favoredly Registred and kept in the proper Counties if either the pay or number of them shall not come up to the care and time are to be bestowed upon them or receive no other or greater Fees then are allowed by that Statute for Inrollments As it hath demonstrably already hapned in the taking and inrolling of Statutes Merchant by the Majors of the Staple in all Cities Burroughs and good Towns and their Officers thereunto appointed by vertue of the Statutes or Acts of Parliament of Acton Burnel in 11 E. 1. and the Statute de Mercatoribus in 13 E. 1. which have since the erecting of the Statute Office at London by the Statute of 23 H. 8. 6. to attend the Lord Cheif Justices of the Court of Upper Bench or Common Pleas and in their absence the Major of the Staple at Westminster and Recorder of London For acknowledging of Statutes for Debts have been so much disused and the course of Statutes Merchant which are yet in force for Merchandise so neglected as there are above a hundred such Statutes entred to or for every one Statute Merchant And whereas the Clerk of the Statutes who was by that Act of Parliament ordered to reside at London doth fairly and orderly enter and keep his Books and Records and after certain years lodg and lay them up for safety in the Tower of London It will upon search and inquiry appear that notwithstanding every Statute whether for Merchandise or otherwise is to be duly Inrolled by the Clerks or Officers upon pain of forfeiting of Twenty pounds for every Statute not entred or Inrolled there can be found very few of the Rolls or Books of the Statutes Merchant since 23 H. 8. and none at all of those that were taken and Inrolled in Two hundred years before The difference betwixt the now Statute Office which is inperpetual succession to such a capital City and superior Courts as the City of London and the Courts of Upper Bench and Common Pleas and annexed as it were unto them and the Town Clerks or Majors or Constables of the Staple in the other Cities and Corporations which do so often change and are by election as they become little more then as private persons giving us the reason why those Writings or Records in their custody coming afterwards through so many changes to so many several hands as they do can no way as it seems escape imbezelling We may well enough believe that the same fate may attend these Country Registers if they shall not be made to be as a Court of Record and in perpetual Succession and if they shall be made to be as so many Judicatures and Courts of Record will be the cause of more inconveniences to the people then the loss and imbezeling of their Records or Inrollments can come unto The City of London which did use to Inroll such Deeds in the Hustings and divers other Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate who did use to do the like and had therefore their Rights expresly saved by the Proviso of that Act of Anno 27 Henry the Eight for Inrollments and that it should not extend to any Manors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within the said Cities Boroughs or Towns Corporate for that they did anciently and before the making of that Act use to Inroll such Deeds will by these new Registries without any forfeiture or cause given to loose them be deprived of those their very ancient Rights and Liberties Such a constrained way of Registring of Deeds of Bargain and Sale which concern onely Estates of Freehold and Inheritance will be very inconvenient to Purchasors who most commonly do reside at or near London or Trade or come thither where the richest and most moneyed men and Purchasors amongst the people are to be found and whose Inhabitants or near dwellers do amount to almost the one half of the Commonwealth and added to such as upon Merchandise or other occasions do come thither and pass to and fro from Ireland Scotland and other Foreign parts will make up in number as many as the whole people of the Nation and be not a little prejudicial to such also as live in the Countreys more remote who for any thing of value do usually either come themselves on purpose to London or employ their Attorneys or Lawyers to procure their Conveyances to be there made where the best of Lawyers and most variety are most easily to be found and advised withal in the Term times to travel or send to those several Counties where the Lands do lie to have their Deeds Inrolled or for such as dwell and purchase in remote Counties either to content themselves at home with such Counsel o● Lawyers which the Country affords and adventure their Estates and Security upon it or go on purpose or send to London to have their Conveyances made and when they are brought home send to the Shire-Town to finde the Register or some before whom to acknowledge the Deed which may happen to be many miles distant from him and for them that buy in London to be at the charge to carry those that do sell and live as far as Yorkshire or other remote places or make their bargain in London for Lands lying in Wales or the West part of England into that Country where the Lands do lie And send or travel to Inroll a Deed for every parcel of Land in its several County the Lands therein sometimes extending into three or four Counties and many times into more then one when as now one uninconvenient charge to Inroll it at London will serve for Lands in all the Counties mentioned in the same Deed. Or upon any Suit or occasion at London or Westminster Hall where all the Suits and Actions of concernment are amongst many other businesses most commonly and commodiously dispatched at one and the same time by the Nobility Gentry Merchants Tradesmen

known to be in use long before and ever since the Conquest and which without any strained guess or conjecture and with more probability for it then against it may to such as know that our Fines are Recorded as an Agreement betwixt the Parties acknowledged in the Court of Common Pleas before the Judges Et multis aliis fidelibus ibi praesentibus and many other good people there present seem either to be deduced or very much to resemble that manner of assurance or conveyance which Abraham had of Ephron the Hittite when he bought of him the Field of Ephron for a burying place for himself and his wife Sarah where after the Agreement or Bargain made for it the holy Scripture saith it was made sure To Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth before all that went in at the Gates of the City which was their Court of Justice will be taken away to give place to that will be a great deal dearer and a worse assurance then a Fine which as to the Indentures of Chyrograph if there were no other necessary foregoing Writs and Solemnities to make it legal and prevent counterfeiting would amount but unto about Five or Six shillings And if it shall be endeavored to be made equal with a Fine with Proclamations and as safe from Forgeries and be a bar as such Fines are should be read and proclaimed and hung up in Tables as Fines are to be read at the Assizes in the County where the Land lies and be also hung up in Tables at Westminster-Hall and read and proclaimed in open Court or some eminent place in four Terms after the Ingrossing or acknowledging of it to the end that such as are for ever to be concluded by it may not pretend ignorance And yet if that were done there cannot be in a Deed inrolled reasonably supposed That Ground or Reason which besides the parties agreement and consent appears to be in a Fine or Recovery viz. That it is done upon a Demand Suit or Action and Interpleading in the Court of Common Pleas whereby the parties are for ever bound and debarred to say It was not so by the strength and power of a double Estoppel in so high a Court of Record against the Record whereof there can be no Averment For all our former Acts of Parliament do in their Preambles which are to be as the Keys to open and expound the minde and intention of the Makers and to bring the Act it self unto a reasonable Exposition most commonly if the Reason it self were not obvious not onely take care to express and declare the reason and cause of that which was commanded or forbidden but made every thing that was to be done in order to such prohibition or command to carry and bring along his reason with it whereby to make known its consistence and agreeableness with right Reason Which being the ground foundation and support of all Laws is so every where visible in our Laws where time hath not made some alteration of that which was before the basis and reason of it as every thing therein if not mistaken by ignorance or such as make too much haste to censure or condemn it before it be heard or understood may upon due examination some small or very inconsiderable defects perhaps or redundancies which the greatest perfections under the Sun are to be allowed onely excepted not onely justifie it self but condemn those that have been too busie in finding fault with it it being a never failing principle in the Laws that Ratio Legis is Anima Legis and gives life and being to it And therefore it will be a dangerous president and of ill consequence that Acts or things in Law grounded upon several Reasons and very much differing in the Magis and Minus or extent thereof should be made to be of one and the same operation and effect As that a Grant by Copy of Court-Roll should pass an estate of Freehold as well as Copihold a Fine levied by Tenant in Tail bar a stranger in Remainder as immediately as it doth the issue of his body or that a General Plea or Issue Not guilty the manifold inconveniences whereof have all over England been sufficiently experimented should carry and amount to as much as all other more legal Pleas and Issues or that any thing of an inferior consideration shall be of the same effect as a superior or more weighty As that the sign Manual or Privy Seal of the Supream Magistrate shall be as binding as the Great Seal of England that an Interlocutory sentence shall be as much as a Decree Sentence or Judgment upon a full hearing or debate that an acquittance without Hand and Seal or words of Release of all Actions shall be of the force of a Release of all Actions under Hand and Seal a Lease Parol or by word of mouth or a Deed Poll should be as much as by Indenture that a contract or promise of Marriage before two witnesses shall be as much as a Marriage duly solemnized and that things said or spoken without Oath shall be as much aupon Oath All which would be against that right Reason which do usually accompany our Laws Women Covert who upon levying of Fines were to be examined whether they did freely consent or do it must now sign and seal the Deed to be Inrolled as well as their Husbands if Dower be to be barred and examined as they were wont to be upon levying of Fines for by Law they are not barred by a Deed Inrolled in regard of their Coverture Deeds of Bargain and Sale covinously or deceitfully gained by greedy and insinuating oppressors in taking advantages and working upon mens necessities or gotten by cheating Gamesters of some yong Gentlemen who many times loose their Lands before they finde their wits or some fawning Cormorant Citizens who gets into such witless mens Estates upon kindly supplying their wants with a Knavish bargain of Beaver-Hats St. Omers Onions Brown Paper Pack-thred and such like Trash or loosing Commodities shall have no remedy or relief in Chancery allowed them as formerly If that such Deeds inrolled shall have the force of Fines and Recoveries for that against Fines and Non-claims and Bars by Recoveries there can be no releif to be had in Conscience or Equity because it might otherwise be a means to impeach and open a gap to break into all other Mens Estates and Conveyances So as that which by these Proposals is pretended to be a way to prevent deceipt will in such or the like case become the greatest fortifier and defender of it Such a transferring of the power of Fines and Recoveries into Registred Deeds may hereafter much prejudice and terrifie such as by this new way of Registring shall have deserted the suing out of Fines and Recoveries If another Parliament either in this or any future ages shall happen to repeal or take it away or the

Inrolments of Deeds or Records thereof lying in so many dispersed and unsafe places should happen to be lost and subject them and their Estates to all manner of Claims and Controversies which they would otherwise have been freed of if they had been permitted to make use of the old and safe way of Fines and Recoveries which in all the Commotions of people or Petitions of Parliaments were never yet found fault with or desired to be taken away There will be a great difference betwixt Fines and Deeds inrolled not onely in the manner of passing and acknowledging of them but in the benefits priviledges and safety which as inseparable Concomitants do attend Fines but cannot by any Rule of Right Reason be simul semel or at all put over to Deeds inrolled or lodged in them for Fines which are to be acknowledged in Court before two Judges at the least or out of the Court before the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and if by Commission which is to be signed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper and Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas or by some of the Justices of Assise or the Circuit where the Land lieth ought to be directed to men of quality and conscience and expert in the Laws of the Land one whereof is to be a Knight the Writs of Covenant whereupon they are grounded passing the Great Seal of England and so many sworn Officers and Judges hands and perusals and have a duplicate or double Indenture of Chyrograph so cut one in another as one must necessarily discover the other if there be any variance or falsification in them and so many places and Offices recording them cannot be counterfeited or if they should will easily be found out but Deeds so to be Registred and Inrolled which shall not be attended with so many cares and cautions may easily be forged counterfeited or antidated and bring with them more deceits and incumbrances then they do pretend to prevent and fall into all the inconveniences questions and debates which Fines and Recoveries being the grand and common Assurances of the Land for Lands betwixt party and party have by those many Laws and Cases which have been adjudged to indulge and protect them hitherto avoided and escaped The same power and force which are granted to Fines cannot with justice or convenience be given to Deeds inrolled against the Bargainor or his Heirs or those that may claim the Lands because in Deeds there are most commonly reciprocal Covenants and some things to be performed on the Bargainees part which may demand equity or performance and many times no words of Warranty or Release but i● a Fine there is onely a Grant Release and Covenant to Warrant on the part of the Cognisor or he which levieth it And if taken away from the people will loose the Supreme Magistrate and his Revenue Ten or twenty thousand pounds per annum which the people having the benefit of such an ancient and sure way of conveyance Which had in 19 E. 1. now almost Four hundred years ago so great and due respect given unto it as it was by a Parliament held in that year declared That the Order of Law will not suffer them to be levied without a Writ Original and that the cause of the Solemnities then used in Fines was because a Fine was so high a Bar of so great force and so strong a nature in it self And hath been setled confirmed and brought to the perfection it now enjoys by fourteen or fifteen Acts of Parliament and for the greatness of the Assurance and the peace and quiet which it bringeth with it justly said to be Finis sructus exitus effectus Legis the end fruit and effect of the Law and a Fine because it doth Finem litibus imponere put an end to most Suits or Controversies can arise against it did never as yet or have in all their Petitions in Parliament which have been since or before concerning other grievances so much as complained of or grudged And though they had no cause or reason to complain of Fines and Recoveries will not like so well as the Proposers To be compelled to Register all their former Deeds or Evidences if but for Ten or twenty years past under a Constraint or Penalty to be otherwise of no effect or not so available in the Law as they would have been formerly CHAP. IV. Of the Registring of all Mens former Deeds or other Evidences if but for Ten or twenty years past under a Penalty to be otherwise of no effect or less then they would formerly have been FOr that were to make any Law which should be made to such a purpose to be guilty of a retrospection or looking backwards in its commands or prohibitions and the penalties ensuing thereupon which can have no rule or pattern from the Laws or Word of God who in the making of his most righteous Laws made them to binde and look onely to the future And when he might do what he would with his Clay not onely commanded those Laws to be written very plainly but was so willing to pardon sins of Ignorance as he ordained a Sacrifice to be made for them And when in the forbidding the Children of Israel to marry within certain degrees or nearness of Blood under the penalty of death or cutting off from the people he had said After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do Did not either punish or call them to account for any former marriages contrary thereunto Moses therefore who understood the minde of God concerning those Laws which he had received from him better then all other Legislators or Law givers which have been since the onely Son of God excepted being to die commanded them to be often read unto the people that they might hear and observe them The Wedg of Gold and Shekels of Silver and the Babilonish Garments for which Achan was stoned to death by all the people had not been the accursed things but the lawful spoils of War if the foregoing prohibition had not made them to be so Nor had Saul so grievously or at all offended or been punished for sparing Agag being his prisoner and captive in War if the command or charge of God before hand had not made it to be an offence Which our English Laws have so much imitated As the Act of Parliament of 36 E. 3. ordering all pleadings to be in English and Inrolled in Latin and not in French as they had been formerly did neither order or intend that all the Pleas for the years before should be entred over again and made to be in Latin The Statute of 23 H. 8. cap. 6. for acknowledging of Statutes or Recognisances for Debts hath an express saving for Recognisances taken before the Major and Constables of the Staple though they did not concern Merchandise which was the evil