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	power_n	will_n	1,439	5	6.6180	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30795	Surinam justice in the case of several persons proscribed by certain usurpers of power in that colony : being a publication of that perfect relation of the beginning, continuance, and end of the late disturbances in the colony of Surinam, set forth under that title, by William Byam Esq. (sometime rightfull) governour of that colony : and the vindication of those gentlemen, sufferers by his injustice, form the calummies wherewith he asperseth them in that relation / couched in the answer thereunto by Robert Sanford ...	Sanford, Robert.	1662 (1662)	Wing B6377; ESTC R37524	51,112	58

Surinam Justice IN THE CASE Of several persons proscribed by certain Usurpers of Power in that COLONY BEING A Publication of that perfect Relation of the Beginning Continuance and End of the late Disturbances in the Colony of SURINAM set forth under that Title by William Byam Esq sometime Rightfull Governour of that Colony AND The Vindication of those Gentlemen sufferers by his injustice from the Calumnies wherewith he asperseth them in that Relation Couched in the Answer thereunto By ROBERT SANFORD Neither least in Innocence nor in Sufferings Nec mori vereor nec vivere virtute salva Laesa mori vivere LONDON Printed for the Authour and are to be sold at the Brasen Serpent in St. Pauls Church-yard 1662. Imprimatur George Stradling S.T.P. Rev. in Christo Pat. Guil. Episc Lond. a Sac. Domest Ex Aed sub●ud 14. Octob. 1662. To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners appointed by his Sacred Majesty to consult the Affairs of his Foreign Plantations My LORDS REason could not direct me to a better way to let your Lordships understand the whole of my case then by presenting you with the full charge my adversaries have published against me with such answer to it as truth and my own innocence prompted me to make Here your Honours will finde all the criminations which their inventions could superadd to the proofs brought against us and my refutation of them which are both subjected to your Lordships judgement That this Narrative which I have exposed to publick view is Byam's own I can onely bring these Arguments for when I came to Barbadoes which was long after the departure of my fellow-Proscripts from Surinam Byam not doubting their arrival gave onely short accounts to his friends there of those rancounters amongst us referring them to this Narrative sent formerly But they miscarried by their leaky vessel came not to that Island till I was departed thence and then this Declaration became first publick there Among divers copies one of them was sent to my Vncle well interessed in Surinam with a letter from Byam aggravating my particular fact He sent both to me and I as faithfully as I could transcribe them have sent both into the world I can I believe finde some here who having seen and read them before they came to my hands dare so far rely on their memories as to aver these to be the very same Here now my Lords you have both the parties pleading before your Honours in the contest the disadvantage of the weapons is observable They having afflicted us with the greatest injuries have nothing to doe but to be dirt us with any imputation which may render us criminal enough for the punishments we have suffered We are forced to bring Proofs of our Innocence against their no-proofs of our guilt or else muct fall under 〈…〉 and aspersions as though it were argument enough of our cri 〈…〉 … at we have so highly suffered Certainly it is a hard task to prove negatives but surely a much harder case that suffering Innocence must be put to it while he that hath violated her is credited on his bare assertion yet this is our task and our case and how I have performed it and acquitted my self and friends of their defamations your Lordships alone can judge This I shall chiefly urge our enemies do here confesse that they have despoiled us of reputation and liberty by an infamous imprisonment of goods by heavy fines of houses lands and of countrey by banishment and all this by an usurpt power and an arbitrary tyrannical way of proceedings by the force of an army destroying the Birth-right of the subject If they must have credit given to all their criminations against us I hope they will not he permitted to traverse what they have confessed of themselves If then to subvert the sacred fundamental Sanctions of our Nation to tread under foot the laws established for the preservation of persons and proprieties to usurp Dominion that branch of Regality to congregate an armed force without warrant and therewith to invade the Rights of their fellow-subjects be crimes of a mid-night-hew I hope they may be as well understood when they charge themselves with all this as when they accuse us of what is lesse evident Since also the Honour Libertie and Estates of the subjests are in the protection of the King and his laws why should not these persons be accountable to them how rightly they have deprived us of all these But they think to justifie their proceedings against us by the names of a General Assembly and the united Authority of the Countrey when it is known that the General Assembly though duly Authorized neither there nor in Barbadoes was ever a Court of Judicature especially in criminal cases such being always tried by the Governour assisted by all the Justices at the General Sessions of the Peace where the fact is presented by a Grand Inquest and after found done or not done by a Jury of the neighbourhood And this is according to Magna Charta and to this way of proceedings the Authority of Surinam were bound by their own Act besides the General fundamental Constitution Yet should we grant that it were customary in those Colonies to try offences by the General Assembly contrary to the great Charter it would not excuse a company of men who seiz to themselves the Power and Name of a General Assembly and vote all those that deny their Authority guilty of what crimes they please sparing or punishing them according to the Rule of their wills What they call sedition in us they confesse to be onely a disputing their power and an Act of Parliament cannot authorize any to be Judges in their own cause My Lords as we cannot loose our Allegiance by changing or soil or heaven so neither can we loose the Royal Protection And that subject that hazards life and fortunes to enlarge his Majesties Dominions the revenues of his crown and traffick of the Nation deserves not to be disenfranchised I should not importune your Lordships with a repeated clamour of my case did I groan under a supportable sufferance but wholly to loose an estate purchased by a large expence of money time and travel to be reduced from a plentiful way of being to the nearest confines of Beggery from the dignity of store to the contempts of want to be deprived of that fruition which when it was in hope onely did sweeten the toil of its acquist and what is the sum of all to see a wife and children dear and deserving panting under this whole burthen is so superlative a punishment that I cannot believe all they would make me guilty of can deserve it Death though murther had been a mercy to this And this my Lords without Hyperbole or aggravation is truly my condition whatever I brought into that Colony and whatever improvement of that my industry had made which was sufficiently considerable is so wholly gone that not the least Remains

having owned his Majesty as our supream Magistrate by our solemn proclaiming of him and recognized upon our publick records our Governour as his Governour virtually by his Majesties Declaration The Governour thus authorized empowred and confirmed by the Kings Declaration and his power and authority therein as Governour by virtue thereof recognized by us upon our own Records the disowning of him so to be and the declaring and endeavouring by an Overt act to set up and exect any other Governour in opposition to and contempt of the King his Crown and Dignity signified by his Royal Will and Pleasure requiring our subjection and obedience to his commands and Declaration is treason in such opposers and contrivers Answ … Sect. 3. At length out comes the true reason for this establishment but it is not remembred 1. That Byam plaid the seditions person when out of all publick emploiment and raised many disputes against the power left in possession of the Government by Holdip and therein continued by the peoples representatives as not sufficiently authorized instigating the people to an actual disobedience Nor 2. That though at that time I had the sword of that authority in my hand and the authority to back me yet I did not drive him into exile but made way for him to the Chair by perswading those that sate in it to descend and give the people leave to place in it whom they liked best Nor 3. That after all this notwithstanding the a●mes he had particularly against me in all his m●vings to sedition in emulation of my eminency and disdain of his own nullity I laid on many on that heap of votes which mounted him to his height therein consulting the Colonies not my own advance this person being of so restlesse an Ambition that if he ruled not all there was no ruling him But of this no more He thus coming to the possession of the Government labours every year to be perpetuated without an annual standing candidate and at last fearing to hazard himself longer on the unconstant multitude elated also with the conscience of his sufferings and service in the Royal cause saies I will continue and I will say the King hath so commanded and I will with force drive away all those that have hitherto and still shall impede me herein be their constant loyalty never so exemplar For what is all this talk of the Kings proclamation but Byams ipse dixit Nay what is it else but a meer fiction raised from a presumption that probably enough the King in this so great a change might so proclaim And these elaborate Arguments or more truly * Major Noel the scribler of this Conclusion a worshipper of O. Cromwel and triumpher in his motto over the martyred Charles with devict● hoste libertate donati Noellian Inganneations drawn from this supposal are but like those about the Golden tooth which proved at last a forgery But though to expend wit on an erroneous principle may consist with innocence yet to joyn with those whom onely forgetfulness hath left out of the list of traytours and rebels in bespotting a precise never-varied loyalty with the abominated aspersions of Treason and Rebellion pulling Ruine on whole families and all by a mistake should I exclude malice cannot but by justice be condemned as a criminal temerity I need not controvert the Law our Surinam Iudge so Magisterially concludes with but shall onely add these few assertions out of Iudge Ienkins fol. 195. c. To alter the established Lawes in any part by force is High Treason To usurp the Royal Power is High Treason To subvert the Fundamental lawes is High Treason A necessity of a mans own making doth not excuse him Presentment or tryal by Iury is the Birth right of the subject Magna charta the Petition of Right and other good laws of this land ordain that all mens tryals should be by the established laws and not otherwise they are the very words of the Petition of Right An Act of Parliament that a man should be judge in his own cause is a void Act. ib. fol. 139. The common law of this land is that every Freeman is subject to a tryal by Bill of Attainder in Parliament wherein the King and both Houses must necessarily concur for that tryal is an Act of Parliament to which all men are subject But otherwise no man shall be destroyed c. but by the lawfull judgement of his Peers or by the Common law of the land ib. fol. 93. The Governour and General Assembly as they call themselves of Surinam do here confess that in our tryal and punishment they have usurped a Power equal if not superior to that of the King and both houses of Parliament subverted the fundamental Laws end by force of an Army altered the established Lawes of England in the whole From my own reading I shall subjoine this to discharge men guilty of Treason and Felony is Treason and Felony Byam c. have accused us of both punished us for neither if we be guilty they are answerable for not bringing us to a tryal if we be innocent they are puilty of conspiracy nor can they avoid this Dilemma by objecting our Irons Fines and Banishment for all lawyers know these are not the punishments for treason nor felony nor had we the tryal due to either they did this way indeed revenge themselves on some for endeavouring to unfix them in their usurp't dominion and on me for labouring to disappoint them of their revenge which may possibly be termed an inconsiderate cannot rationally be censured a criminal attempt FINIS The Copy of a Letter which Byam sent to Barbados to my Uncle together with this his Declaration Superscribed For Captain Nathaniel Kingsland my respected friend SIR YOur affection to and interest in this Colony are sufficient obligations to render you an account of the late distempers in our Government and I am sorry to tell you that your Nephew Lieutenant Col. Robert Sanford hath not onely abetted but hea●ed the unruly authours of our sad disturbance I have enclosed presented you with an impartial relation of all passages most remarkable wherein I have not the least been swayed by prejudice or animosity What fa●e thus hurried him to that excess of insolence I cannot well judge unless soaring too high with an ●ver weening gale of his natural and acquired parts which too early advanced him to publick offices of Eminency in the Colony he unadvisedly over-set for want of the ballast of experience and discretion had be learn's to obey before he commanded he would not have commanded before he obeyed which you finde was his errour what Apology he may present you for it I know not I am sure I have not painted it so foul as it really was Sir when you have perused the inclosed papers be pleased to recommend them to the view of Mr. John Kirton and Sergeant Major Authony Rous to whom I desire my respects and service may be presented then after a general accompt of the Colonies present condition he concludes your Nephew had of late a desire to give you a visit which I could not admit at present being the positive order for his departure was for London which was his desire nor would I reverse what the united authority had concluded on If I may serve you in these parts you may he assured of my readiness and fidelity I wish you happiness and rest Surinam the 13th of Decemb. 1661. Your very affectionate friend and servant William Byam This was writ and sent away by those other Proscripes while I remained behind in fetters but their vessel failing them I came to and from the Barbados before this arrived there and so never saw it till I received it sent from my Vncle here in London