some of them spoyled or quite worn out and yet many times such extorting Officers have been so impudent and voyd of all conscience or honesty that if the business be compounded so that such Defendant were to have such Goods Chattals and Cattel again they have caused such poor Defendants to pay great Sums of Mony for the keeping and Stoage of such Goods and Chattals and feeding of such Cattel And then such extorting Officers would be prevented of their continual usage of defrauding many poor people who have come to them for Writs and others to whom they have offered themselves to sue out Writs for by going to ignorant Attorneys or Officers who know the course of Actions as little as themselves to take out such Writs in Trespass when the Causes have been for great Debts or Demands who sometimes have made forth such Writs and thereby such Officers have Arrested divers Defendants of whom or their Sureties they have taken good security for the appearance of such Defendants but after by reason of Bribes given to such Officers by such Defendants such Officers have sometimes forborn to tell such simple people who have so first gone to such Officers for such Writs before they have advised with or acquainted any honest and learned Counsel Clerk or Attorney in their Causes of such Arrest done till after such Defendants have appeared at the day of their appearance and either foysted in common Bayl for want of marking the Rolls or calling for good Bayl or otherwise in some Courts have non-suited the Cause and obtained Costs against such simple people both which have usually been done and allowed by the course and practice of the Superior Courts or otherwise when such appearance and good Bayl hath been called for such Officers have forborn the return of such Writs and Warrants thereupon and Bonds many times half at other times a whole year and divers times several years and some of them after the return of such Writs have stood out Amerciaments for as long a time and divers times till many Debts have been lost and such Amerciaments have not redounded to the benefit of the Suitors but to the King or c. and after such Officers have stood out so long after appearance they have got off such Amerciaments for very little And some of them have bragged and boasted that they have obtained Patents for the benefit of Amerciaments within their Jurisdictions to their own uses and that therefore they have not cared how many Amerciaments have been imposed upon estreated or extracted out against them saying the more the better for their advantage and have jeered the Suitors and said that if they did not comply with them the said Sheriffs or Officers to their liking by giving of them such high Rewards as they have demanded or retained some Attorney of their Associates or Servants who use to squeeze and wring much Mony out of their Clyents in an excessive manner and with whom such Sheriffs or Officers use to share then such Suitors should have little benefit of their businesses some of such Officers who have gained peculiar liberties therein often reporting that they can do what they please in most Causes within their liberties And many times such Officers and Clyents have gone to such Attorneys or Solicitors as have been Associates of such Officers who have made out Warrants without Writs or otherwise such Officers have Arested the Defendants without Writs and then took Rewards or as they may more fitly be called Bribes of both Plaintiffs and Defendants in endevoring to end their business and threatning Plaintiffs that if they would not stand to their award they should have little good success in their businesses and by using the Defendants being simple ruggedly and terrifying them they have wrought them into Commpositions and shared in the Debts and Demands and in many that have not been they have gained a fourth third and sometimes half of such Debts and Demands and by such means have caused themselves to be made both Judges Attorneys or Solicitors and Bayliffs in such Causes And in many Causes wherein they have grasped into their hands the suing out of such Writs and in such Causes wherein they could not procure Compositions or References they have caused the Defendants to retain Attorneys being Associates of such Officers with whom they have shared in their Fees and in neither of both these cases last mentioned any Writs at all have been sued out and yet the Clyents have payd for Writs by which menas Mony hath been extorred and exacted out of Clyents for more Writs then have issued out of the Superior Court by which means the honest people of this Nation have been much defrauded for many years together And many such Officers that is to say Undersheriffs Bayliffs and Serjeants when they have Arrested honest meaning men had them to Tippling houses or houses of them and their Associates have extorted and exacted much Money out of them by threatning of them to carry them to prison and those who have not rewarded them to their liking or could not they have drag'd nd hurryed to prison hunching and kicking them though they have never resisted nor offered to resist such Officers nor given them any ill words And when such Officers have been imployed only to take appearance upon Arrest they have constrained the persons Arrested to pay down the Attorneys Fees and mony by them to be layd out in appearances into the hands of Officers and then would they seldom or never pay the same to such Officers if the business proceeded or restore the same to the Defendants if the same were ended and when some few have gotten some part of such mony out of such Hucksters hands they have spent as much and sometimes more then the value thereof besides the sustaining of great trouble in moving Courts by Counsel and complaining to Judges and Justices by which means such Officers have kept to their own uses such mony and the poor parties so Arrested constrained to procure so much more for their appearances And further if all the Propositions or Proposals before mentioned were Enacted besides the benefit which thereby would accrue to the honest people of this Nation as before is mentioned these benefits and advantages hereafter following would redound to the Publique Advantage and the ensuing Inconveniencies and Mischiefs which have much injured and prejudiced the honest people of this Nation be prevented and taken away For then it would be again as in ancient times when Parliaments have been once every year and more often when occasion in those times have happened being when Kings were vertuous and abhorred vice and had care of the then honest people of this Nation according as to their then light they were as of themselves when the people had Justice equally and without delay done by their Equals and thereby continued in great quiet but that they were besotted and beguiled by the Priest as before is mentioned who for such
their actings deservedly fell and it is thought others who have done as bad or worse then they on a sudden will do the like if they do not timely repent and amend And then would again the Members of Parliaments or Representatives be only of the most honest and discreet of the people of this Nation and no other equally and impartially Elected without trouble or charge to any as formerly hath been and dispatch all business coming before them speedily the one of them seldom contradicting the other as hath been in those ancient times without sitting of full Parliament or Representative any extraordinary long time together but conclude all business for them necessary to be done which no other Courts could remedy within a Month six weeks or two Months time at the most unless upon extraordinary occasions before Adjournment Prorogation or Ending which caused the English Laws to be accounted the best in Christendom and deservedly before Innovations crept in and then were few Motions in respect of the extraordinary multitudes which have been of late made by Favorite Counsel or any other Motions by any other the Attorneys or Clerks unless it were in cases extraordinary by honest learned Counsel and not by Favorites to begin a Cause and have a large Fee for so doing usually only saying such an one is Plaintiff and such an one is Defendant and then an honest learned Lawyer have usually gone on with the same throughly or otherwise such Favorites have or could say little more and some of them have not been of ability or capable to say any more though they have received extraordinary large Fees double treble sometimes fourfold of that which such honest Lawyers have had which Favorites the Suitors have been constrained to retain or otherwise such learned and honest Lawyers have several days the one after the other waited till some of them have been wearyed out and given the business over and others who have attended to be heard have took as much pains as a Porter hath in going of errands and earning as much mony in such time and besides such honest Lawyers when they have long waited and have been heard they have had little or no fruit of their Motions but have been flammed off baffled and girt up and checked before they have been half heard out their Motion and have been sent home with a sleeveless errand and been discouraged And thereby the Favorites by Alliances or yearly presents gratuities or new-years gifts learning the meaning of their Superiors by their looks have ingrossed up all or the most part of the gains in every Cause and thereby they and their Superiors have climbed to a great height in few years and many times when one Suitor having retained one two or three Counsel to plead his Cause at the Assizes and other places where several Counsel have used to attend to the number of twenty or thirty or sometimes more at several Bars such Suitor hath been baffled out and lost his Cause unless he had retained half such Counsel by reason some crafty person have caused the Record of such Cause to be carryed to another Bar where such Suitor nor his Counsel have expected the Cause should be tryed and many times the principal Counsel of such Suitor being called to and attending another Cause at another Bar and from the Bar where such Suitors Cause was expected to be tryed and then when the Cause of such Suitor hath been called and he desiring the Judg to stay until his Counsel came or that the Cause might be tryed where they were to attend other Tryals the Judges before whom such Causes have been to be tryed have denyed to admit the same casting an angry look upon such Suitor saying there were other Counsel enough whom they might retain nodding towards Favorite Dunces standing in sight ☞ and thereupon such poor Suitors have been constrained to retain Lawyers of mean Judgment on a sudden who could not understand their Causes soon enough and some not at all nor capable thereof and such Causes having been tryed in the absence of such honest and learned Counsel retained and instructed at the first have gone and passed against such Suitors having had the best and most right to recover in such Cause And when any of such Favorite Lawyers have failed in such their presents or gifts at the usual time of the presenting of the same have grown out of favor and after they so failing have had a grin or a wry face from some of such Superiors they have not come into favor again a long time and some of them never which hath caused most of them constantly to continue the same and by those means grow the more expert in such their Combinations the more to keep others who do not use such dealing ignorant thereof and be suffered to foam out non-sence and lye bark brawl and wrangle as they have pleased when others of ability have not been suffered scarce to speak three or four words in a cause and thereby to gain the affection of Suitors in such Causes and sometimes such Favorites though they have been many on a side have not dared to speak a word more in any Cause after they have received a private look from some Superior which none other but themselves have understood which is thought hath been when some such Superior or some of his Alies or Private Creatures have grasped and hooked in more then such Favorites have received for their Fees Coventry and Manchester wherein Coventry and Queen Besse have been accounted very expert And by such means other under or petty Officers to Inferiors under the high Superiors who have learned the skill to give Rewards or Bribes to those Superiors to keep them from questioning by such Inferiors when they have done amiss have gained much And then would Suitors know what evidence they were to produce at Tryals and not to be triced or non-suited on a sudden many times the one after the other as many times hath fallen out to the infinite gains of such ignorant Favorite Lawyers and great damage to the honest people neither would Juries be pusled with multitudes of Issues at a time but all Causes tryed in an easie way as hath been in the best time And then could not such Inferior and the greater Monopolizing Officers before mentioned by the favor which they have gained of their Superiors by contributing to them part of the gains of such innovated and extorting Offices before mentioned take such occasion as they have done to increase their Exactions by colour of such Offices to cause Orders to be made whereby many Mischiefs and Inconveniencies have faln upon Suitors in Causes and when complaint hath been thereof they have caused the poor Prosecutors thereof to be blamed and checked for the faults or neglects of such Officers and their Superiors and still kept such Prosecutors under that they have not dared to complain or so much as publiquely reveal what
when they rode from the Serjeants Innes to Westminster Hall and back again upon Asses To shew they ought to be humble and not to vaunt as some have done nor to hoard up much as others have done who with their Favorites and Creatures have gained excessively by the Law before and grew mighty in riches as did the Papal Priests before their fall who in their times gained a great part of the best Lands and Scituations of this Nation by Combination Craft and Subtilty by lulling the people asleep in ignorance and blindness in their vain Superstition pronouncing Hell and Damnation with Bell Book and Candle to all who did not observe the same and thereby brought the people into a sond belief of them for since that fall those that is to say the Judges and their favorites have far out-run these Priests in gaining riches in an excessive manner by griping of very many men divers of whom having been very indigent persons and have climbed up and leap'd into most of the Lordly Titles and gainful places and offices in this Nation and therein and thereby have domineered tyrannized over and oppressed the honest people and gained the favour of fawning flattering and lascivious Courtiers by rewards which they have given upon their entrance into and upon the extorting exacting innovate unnecessary Offices in this Nation to such lascivious and fawning Courtiers and Sycophants who notwithstanding that which they had of them at the first have caused such Officers and great persons and inferior innovated Officers under them to bleed every year ☜ and vomit up part of their Extortions and Exactions to continue them in such their pride and lust and in those ancient times the Serjeants or Servants at Law though they were very learned and far excelled many which have been since and took great pains and care received very reasonable for the same and yet were glad when Clients retained them and used them mildly Their Fee in ancient times but ten groats for a Term. and had great care of their businesses seldom times any Lawyer taking above one Fee in one Cause in a Term notwithstanding such care and pains for then they did not cause men to stand Cap in hand and scrape legs and beseech them to take their mony and then to take large Fees of them most commonly twenty shillings and many times more and divers times many pounds and divers and sundry times have done little and sometimes nothing at all for the same nor came at the Bars at all at the times and places where and when they were to speak according to their Retainers and yet when some few of them have been required to restore the mony which they so have taken they have been so impudent as to refuse and have denyed to restore the same saying to the Clients ☜ it was enough for them that he were not against them and chid them away who have not dared to complain against such Lawyers by reason of the favour which they have had with great Parsonages to whom properly such Clients should complain in that behalf being in great places and having acted such things before they had climbed thither by which means many have been ruined out of whose decays such Serjeants and Lawyers of late have made at their entrances into their offices or places princely Feasts at which they entertained many Sycophant lascivious Courtiers and thereby so ingratiated themselves with those and the lordly persons of this Nation that they have come to such powerful and gainful places as is before mentioned and as is reported were the chief Procurers of a Law to be made whereby they be stiled the honest Serjeants c. and that nothing shall be allowed to any Attorney for any thing given to any Lawyer unless he hath a Ticket or Note under the hand of such Lawyer to shew for the same which whether any or any considerable number did or would give any such thing of late any reasonable man may judg for it is doubted they are ashamed to give any such Note their Fees having been of late so large but by these means the poor Attorney is kept in a slavish condition that he dareth not speak what he knoweth for fear that if his Clients who will not willingly pay for what he paid to such Serjeants and Lawyers but he be constrained to sue for the same and cannot fright his Clients into payment he shall surely lose his mony before he can obtain such Note from any such Lawyer And now of late the Attorneys are not permitted as anciently hath been used to read Records at Assizes when there have been very few Records Nisiprizes tryed in some Counties where many of late use to be tryed not above one or two in two or three years it having been a wonder to the people in divers Counties to hear of such a thing tryed there and in those ancient times there seldom or never was any Counsel on either side at such Tryal but the Judges being then very learned caused the Attorneys to call their Clients Witnesses and he diligently examined them in the presence of the Jury and after sull evidence heard informed the Jury what he conceived they were to do according to his duty in which such Judges in those days were very diligent and did not sit sleeping while the Evidence were giving and leave the Debate of the business to many Counsel on both sides to wrangle and scold out the matter which often hath been done in such manner as the Juries have found against the right as hath appeared afterwards 4. That all Records which shall be needful to be made and bound up into Books or Bundles shall be written by the Clerk or Clerks of some of the Judges of such Court or Examined and Signed and done within such manner and form as is mentioned in the said third Proposition without taking any thing for the same And this may such Judges very well afford to do or cause to be done out of their great Allowances or Salaries which now are given and allowed unto them as well as the former for in ancient times when the former Judges had but small Salaries in respect of that which is now allowed to these Judges of late the Records for a Term in one of the superior Courts might be put and carried in a mans pocket being but one single bundle of Rolls containing about twenty or thirty Rolls and yet some of them fraught with many Continuances most of which long since have been rendred useless by the Statute of Jeofailes But now there be thousands of Rolls in some one or more of the Terms in the year in some of such superior Courts containing three great Bundles of Rolls so much as two or three Porters can conveniently carry on their shoulders the most part of which containing vain Entries Imparlances and Continuances thereof and of Proces of Philazers and Exigenters and Continuances thereof and Counts and Declarations