being Liberum agens is subject to no Law but his own Will is the perfect Law of Justice which is the Fountain from whence all Laws are derived to all things in Heaven and in Earth Law hath a threefold respect and is divided according to the diversity of things to which this great Law-giver doth dispense Law They are of three kinds to wit the Natural Sensible and Reasonable agents To the first are referred the Elements and all compounded things without life They are guided by that Law which was imposed on them at the begining and they do never break it The second which is the Sensible agents are all living Beasts which are guided not with so forcible a Law of necessity as the first for they are not ordained to keep their certain and setled stations but they do follow their own kind and appetite wherein yet they do not transgress the Laws of Nature The third kind of agents called Reasonable are Men and Angels and they at first were created with a possibility of performing or not performing the Laws imposed on them According to these three forenamed A threefold Law Subjects of Law there is a threefold Law as some say given unto them that is the Divine Natural and Humane The first delivered by God and written by the direction of his Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testament The second stamped and as it were engraved by him in mens hearts The third derived out of the two first and devised for Government and Society amongst men Some others do divide Laws into four parts that is the Law of Providence or the eternal Law of God which is his wisdom by which from Eternity he that is called Antiquus dierum hath pre-ordained all things before their beginning whereof St. Paul speaketh when he saith that Deus voeat ea quae non sunt tanquam ea quae sunt The second is the Divine Law which God hath given in his Old and New Testament to conduct men unto their supernatural end for his Glory and Service and for their own final Salvation Of this Jeremiah speaketh by the Spirit and as in the Person of God Dabo Legem meam in visceribus eorum scribam eam Of the third which is the Natural Law the Apostle Paul maketh mention Gentes quae legem non habent naturaliter quae legis sunt faciunt Of the fourth which is the Humane Law warranted by Gods Word the Apostle Paul likewise speaketh Omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita a sit So that all these Laws have their warrant from Gods Word save the Eternal Law which was his will and wisdom being from the beginning before any Law was written or could be divulged Therefore next to the Eternal Law The excellency of the Divine Law the Divine Law springing from the same hath his place and preheminence before all other in Dignity and Antiquity because from it all other good Laws have their derivation and foundation or else are squared by it and for that it suffereth no mutation in it self In amplitude because it affordeth the self-same Rules and measure to all Men and Nations without difference of Persons Place and Time or any other such like circumstances by which other Laws are often altered And of this Divine Law the Decalogue or Ten Commandments delivered by God unto Moses on the Mount and by him to Gods people is a Compendium or full Epitome of all the rest as unto which the rest may be reduced as Conclusions drawn out of certain Principles The Law Divine delivered by God The Law of Moses or of the Old Testament more antient than any humane Law unto Moses is in Antiquity before all Humane Laws for though Pliny goeth about to prove that Ceres was the first gave Laws unto men and as others attribute that honour unto Radamanthus yet Josephus writing against Apion directly proveth that Moses was the first did promulgate unto men the Laws delivered unto him from God and that long before those Law-givers whom Isidorus nameth as Pharonius to the Grecians Mercurius Trismegistus to the Aegyptians Solon to the Athenians Lycurgus to the Lacedemonians Numa Pompil to the Romans The Law of Nature is next to the The Law of Nature next to the Divine Law Divine Law in excellency antiquity immutability and severity because it began with mans Creation it never changeth being nothing else as one defineth it according to the part of the Law of Nature which is called secondary whereof we shall have cause to speak somewhat in the next Chapter but dictamen rationis in rationabili creatura therefore this Law of Nature secondary is the effect of Gods Law in the mind of man and the impression thereof as a step in dust is the effect of the foot which first framed it And this secondary Law of Nature is in some sort contrary to that first Law which St. Paul calleth the Law of the Members being a natural inclination to sensuality After these Laws followeth the Humane or Positive Laws of men which being the prescript and particular rules by which the actions of men should be reduced and conducted to their due ends and this grounded on the Eternal Divine and Natural Laws mentioned before but yet still measured and moulded by the reason invention and disposition of men which is most commonly variable and diverse no marvel then if also the Laws of men setled upon such slippery foundation of different reasons and affections be also changeable and subject to imperfection whereof Justinian in his Preface to the Digests doth render the like reason saith he Sed quia divinae res quidem perfectissimae sunt humani vero juris conditio semper in infinitum decurrit nihil est in eo quod stare possit perpetuo multas enim formas natura novas edere deproperat No Humane Laws can be made absolutely perfect no more than other Arts and Sciences can be perfected by men since Art is the imitator of Nature and even Nature her self is imperfect in her works The conclusion therefore is short and certain That those Humane Laws tend most although hardly can they attain to perfection which do square most and most depend on the Divine Eternal and Natural Laws And on the contrary those positive Laws of men are most corrupt and unprofitable which swerve most from them Since we see what Laws are perfectest and which are subject to most imperfection let us a little consider what conditions are required in Humane Laws to help them towards perfection They by Isidorus are described to be these that is that they be honest Certain conditions requisite to bring Laws towards perfection just possible according to nature and custom convenient and agreeable to the time and place that they be necessary and profitable manifest and perspicuous lest by their obscurity the uncircumspect be intrapped that they be not made for private profit but for publick utility Others require fewer yet as
Cases and in some Courts goeth out in the Kings name Also for the conventing and summoning of any man before the Judge greater Liberty is given by the Law of By the Civil Law one might not convent a Magistrate c. England than was antiently allowed by the Civil Law For by the Civil Law a man might not convent a Magistrate nor Judge nor one that was marrying a wife or a man that is performing the Funerals of his friend or a man that is pleading or following his Cause before a Judge nee parentem patronum parentes patroni in Jus saith the Praetor sine permissu meo ne quis vocet But by the None exempted from Suite by the Laws of England Laws of England none are exempted from Suite only Dukes Earles Barons and their Wives are priviledged that a man cannot attach or take their persons by Capias both for the honour of Nobility and because it is supposed they are never without some goods or land which may satisfy the Debts But if the action be against the Crown and Dignity or Contra pacem then for their violence their bodies also were subject to the Kings Writ The same Law is of Abbots and Priors The Civil Law allowed more exemptions from appearing to Suits than the Law of England But the Civil Law alloweth a greater Liberty and saith generally eas personas quibus reverentia praestanda est sine jussu Praetoris in Jus vocare non licet And yet although the Civil Law be more liberal in allowing exemptions from Citation and summoning of persons to appear than is our Law of England notwithstanding there is difference betwixt these Laws in the form of Suite and pleading upon divers process wherein these two Laws might perhaps correct each other whereof but a touch shall be given at this time and it may be more shall be said at the conclusion of this tract when the remedy and redress of some things conceived to be amiss in our Laws shall be spoken of The second point concerning the The second difference in the form of pleading difference betwixt our Laws of England and the Civil Laws being in the form of pleading and diversities of process For the first which is the form of pleading only they agree in this That both the Laws have had a special respect of nice observation and also have endured alteration in pleading For first the Civil Law after that in Rome the Decemviri had gotten the Law of the 12 Tables and that Interpretation grew frequent upon them then saith Pomponius Ex his legibus eodem fere tempore actiones compositae sunt quibus inter se homines disceptarent quas actiones ne populus ut vellet institueret certas solennesque esse voluerunt appellata haec pars juris legis actiones id est legitimae actiones and immediatly after saith he Omnium harum interpretandi scientia actiones apud Collegium pontificum erant c. Afterwards the Actions were as Livy reporteth and the Book of them gotten by C. Flavius Secretary to Appius Claudius was by him published and so communicated to the common people for which they bestowed on him the Tribuneship and other Magistracies they called that Book Jus Civile Flavianum Like to which also Sextus Aelius framed another which was called after his name Jus Aelianum These formulae Juris were used very strictly for saith Wesenbechius Olim ut omnia ordine recte procederent ne temere sineque causa quis ad jurgia lites conudaret impetrandum erat à praetore judicium qui actori postulatam à se actionem impertiebatur formulam agendi disceptandique pedaneo judici litigatoribus praescribebat So that then by the Civil Law the planitiffe did get his form of pleading from the Judge or Praetor which was afterwards upon experience of inconvenience altered by the rescript of Constantine which Justinian hath put in his Code likewise Theodosius and Valentinian hath done the same But the difference betwixt this and the pleading of our Common Law is That at no time was the A strict form of pleading required but not particularly prescribed by our Laws plaintiffe tied by the Common Laws of England to receive his whole form of pleading from the Judge although it be true that he is required to set down a strict form of pleading according to the Law upon his own peril Also another difference there is in Different forms of pleading in our own Law in several Courts and much more betwixt both the Laws the forms of pleading betwixt these two Laws First that our forms of pleading do differ according to the different forms of pleadings and declarations in several Courts which the Civil Law doth not Secondly and particularly the form of pleading in the Civil Law is in all actions personal because they do ex obligatione tanquam causa proxima competere actoribus in the Libel you must express the remote Cause and not only the next Cause as for example I lend mony to Titius now I may have an Action against him for it The remote cause is the lending the next and immediate of the Action is the obligatio as they call it Now if I Libel against Titius if I say Ago ad decem ad quae Titius est mihi obligatus This is naught saith Minsinger shewing it out of other The Civil Law in personal actions doth express the remote cause in the Libel but in real actions the next Cause authorities because the remote Cause is not in the Libel But if that had been in alone that had been good as Mutuam Titio decem peâ—o eum condemnari But in real Actions they go inversa via putting in always the next Cause but not of neccessity the remote but at the pleasure of the Advocate as Peto fundum istum à Sempronio quia ejusdem sum dominus fundi here the dominium is the Causa proxima and if the Advocate dare venture it he may say also sum dominus quia emi where the remote Cause is also contained A very nice difference which is not exacted in the form of pleadings How in our Law the remote and next Cause are both expressed in all actions in our Law But it is usual with us that in every Mans real personal and mixt Actions the Causa propinqua and remota are both put in the Declaration yet so that in the Common Pleas in the Writ commonly is expressed the next Cause and in the Declaration which containeth the Writ also the remote Cause but in some the Writ doth contain the other as in wast the Writ quare fecit vastum in terris quas tenuit ex dimissione ad exhaereditationemâ— here is the remote Cause But in Action of Debt praecipe quod reddat vj. libr. quas debet here is the next Cause and the Declaration contains the remote as Contract Bargain c. Neither is there any
a more speciall Oath may be held as requisite that the Jurors had a more special and particular Oath when they are summoned and do appear but before they are sworn of the Jurie to know whether they have been forestalled by Informations or Persuasions as well as that they will give their Verdict without any particular respects to either side for it is like they will make more conscience being examined upon their Oath before they come to the Trial than after when they have suddenly swallowed the Oath without publick examination of the Justices upon Oath or particular and private of their own Consciences by this Oath And although there is good provision already taken by our Law that exception and chalenge may be taken upon reasonable and just causes allowed by the Law yet since this cannot be certainly known who is laboured and dealt withall before-hand but by the examination of a mans conscience upon a mans own Oath I am perswaded that this would prevent many corruptions in Trials by Juries whereunto the nature of man is subject to be drawn by solicitation of friends promise of reward or fear of displeasure And it would take away the scandal layed upon the Trial of Juries which as it is different from the course of other Laws so being well looked to by these and the like cautions there is no doubt but it is a most excellent kind of Trial especially in matters of Fact whereunto it is principally applied and being thus exactly executed I will be bold to say that it excells the Trialls of all other Laws and is one of the worthiest parts of proceedings in our law whatsoever some Calumniators have said to the contrary whereof he that shall desire to be farther satisfied may find it fully demonstrated in that noble and learned Chancellor of England Fortescue his Book Touching the other point wherein there may be some prejudice in Touching the Judges sinceritie the Trials of Suits for want of sinceritie in the Judges although there are at this time as reverend upright and learned Judges as hath been at any time within this kingdome yet that amongst them there have been always some who might be sometimes led by affection or by some other private respects may not be denied unless we should think that they all and every of them had more priviledge of not crring or of not affecting liking or disliking than either any other Judges or men of any other profession in the world are induced withall Therefore as a great Prince was content nay did command that every day one should come into his Chamber and put him in mind of his estate and to tell him these words Remember that thou art a mortal Man In like sort it is a thing fit to be considered whether it were not convenient that the Judges every Term and at every Assise or at An addition to the Judges Oath least once every year should publickly in Court and in open audience of the people take an Oath That they have not received nor will receive any gift or reward or promise of reward for their favour in any Cause heard or to be heard before them nor will for favour fear or affection incline to either partie otherwise than as the very truth of the matter shall move nor shall receive private Information Messages or Letters of Recommendation to draw them aside from sincerity or to shew favour to any partie but that they shall speedily make known the same in open Court By which means the Judges shall be less importuned by men of power and shall keep their Consciences clear and unspotted If the like Oath were given to the A means for the Judges to avoid importunitie c. Masters of the Chancery who in some Cases and at some times do sit as Judges and most commonly by their Reports do much guide and direct the Decrees in that Court it might perchance avoid much imputation to themselves and prejudice to others But against this there is no doubt but there will be many Objections made As first That this Oath being new Objections against giving the Oath to the Judges and so often taken would argue distrust in the uprightness of the Judges and that it will be a disgrace not only unto them but to the Place wherein they sit and consequently an imputation to the Justices of the Realm that they should not be trusted upon an Oath as Christians ought to be in other Cases And next that it will be an impeachment of reputation to all former Judgments and Judges who were not tyed with so strict a Band. And therefore if this were now necessary then were they in former times let goe with too long raines of libertie and of looseness That which may be answered to Answ to these Objections these Objections is this First That this new more strict and frequent Oath doth not so much argue distrust in the Judges as put them in minde of their Duties no more than the often calling of a Steward or other great Officer to a strict and often Accompt doth presuppose that his Faith is alwaies doubted nay it is the best means for his discharge which most wise and honest men do much desire and so in this Case it may be said that this Oath thus taken is the strongest Argument that may be to free the Judges from suspicion of Corruption whereto they may many times be subject causlesly for what man of any charitable and reasonable consideration will conceive but that he that is more often and strictly sworn to doe his duty will be more carefull to discharge it than he who but once in his life receiveth that Oath And for some part of this Oath it is such that no Judges of this Land have been formerly sworn unto and yet it is such as by the opinion of some both wise and learned is held most necessary For the other Objections That it will be a disgrace to their Places and to precedent Judges and Judgments that these are oftner and more strictly sworn than were former Judges Divers do deem that neither of these consequents will ensue One reason is That if this Oath be a disgrace to precedent or to present Judges then the like would ensue That an Oath taken by a Bishop of this Land not long since of his clearness from Simony and from giving any thing for his Bishoprick would be a disgrace to him or to his Predecessors who had not taken the like Oath before Yet I think no man will conclude so but rather that this is a worthie Precedent fit to be followed and to be left unto posterities Also it may be said the more multiplicitie of Suits that doth increase as indeed they doe dailie the more caution is to be used and the more care to be enjoyned unto the Judges in the Trial of them Secondly The former Judges followed the Oath which was given them and therefore no disgrace to them that
their Successors have a more strict Oath nor is it any disgrace to them that receive it because it belongs unto latter times to provide for that which former Ages have left undone And in this new Oath no Judge is singled out or made a mark by himself which if he were it might indeed tend much to his disgrace as a great argument of distrust in him But whether this Oath or any part of it and whether the latter if not the former be to be used or whether it be often or seldom to be administred is a matter which I submit wholly to the Censure of such as are most Judicial and fit in the highest seats of Authority and Judgement To the second Point spoken of before which concerneth the over-burthening of the Subjects by delays and by diverting the right Proceedings of the Law This is not to be attributed to the Laws themselves nor to the Judges thereof but to the corrupt ministers officers and practitioners of the Law who do as most men in other Faculties are accustomed prefer their own private profit before the publick utility They from whom these faults do flow which are commonly but not justly imputed to the Laws are amogst others these that is to say Councellors at Law Atturneys Officers in Courts of Records Sheriffs and their Bailiffes c. For the first sort which are the Councellors at Law and Barristers as they are called the right Proceedings of the Law in divers particular mens Cases in Suits is many times diverted and sometimes overthrown by their multitude insufficiency advice of delatory or defective Pleas by their taking of excessive Fees and by their absenting of themselves from the Barrs and places appointed to plead for their Clients after that they have taken Fees First the multitude of Councellors Multitude of Councellors at Law and outer Barristers is so great that many of them are not able to maintain themselves and some have few or no Clients at all especially such of the second sort as were named to be insufficient who if any Suitors at Law come unto them for Counsel by reason of their acquaintance kindred or other private respects they many times send them away unsatisfied or if they rely on such weak Councellors sometimes their good Causes for want of sound Counsel are overthrown The reason of the multitude and insufficiency of many of these Councellors The Insufficiency of divers Councellors at Law at Law as I conceive it is because divers of them are admitted to the Barr before they have read over half the Volumes of the Law and before they have with any good Commendation or allowance performed the exercises at Mootes and at Readings which is requisite for the place and for the testimony of their Profession and sufficiency but having lived so long in one of the Inns of Court as is prescribed by the orders of that house wherein they are although they be and are known to be no profitable or painfull students yet by favour they find meanes to be called to the Barr many times to their own hindrance and much to the hurt of such as have their Counsell The second Cause of this their insufficiency is for that they have of late been permitted to plead at Barr and to put their hands unto Pleadings as soon as they are made Barristers whereas in former times it was neither usual or allowed that they should either plead at Barr or put their hands to Pleadings till three years after they were called and in those times they were kept more hardly and strictly to their Mootes and Pleadings in those houses wherein they continued The Inconveniencie of this generall untimely and promiscuous kinde of Pleading and counseling by all sorts of Lawyers in Rome aswell the unlearned as the able and sufficient was foreseen and in some sort prevented by Augustus the Emperor in his time who ordained Augustus his restraint of Lawyers in Rome that no Lawyer should practise without his royal assent and approbation first had If the King's Majestie did take this course with our Common Lawyers or else assigned some others of greatest authoritie and Judgement in the Law to take good notice and assurance of their sufficiency before they should be admitted to practise there would not be such a deluge of insufficient Councellors at Law within this Kingdome by whose Ignorance and want of knowledge many mens Inheritances and Estates are overthrown For their perillous advice of delays The ill advice of Councellors given to their clients and of other evasions to procure gain unto themselves and less unto others it is sure that there are divers Councellors at Law who study nothing more than as it may be truly termed the Gall of the Law how to seek evasions and to defeat the true meaning of the Law and aswell to draw some into danger of the Law and to overthrow the Right of others by their own incircumspection by their Adversaries cunning and by the advices of such wicked Councellors against whom there should be some sharp Law made for their punishment or if not so yet it should seem requisite that every Councellor at the Law should An Oath necessary to be given unto Councellors at Law when he is called to the barr take some special Oath for his upright dealing in the advice of his Clients to proceed according to Equity and that he should not lead them into any by paths of indirect and un-conscionable evasions contrary to the true meaning and upright course of Law and of a good Conscience By this means if they who take this Oath have any good Conscience in them the expence of much money in Law may be saved and honest peaceable men kept from the trouble of quarrelsome and unquiet Neighbors in Causless Suits Another abuse there is offered by The excessive Fees that Councellors take the Councellors at Law in the taking of excessive Fees which late Custome their extream covetousness and the necessities of mens Estates in their Suites have introduced For of late years and in the memory of many men yet living xx s. was a good Fee for a great Councellor not onely to move but to plead at the Barr and if a Serjeant at Law had x s. for to argue a Case he thought himself well rewarded But now what Councellor of account and of good practice is there that will think xl s. a sufficient recompence if he do argue any mans Case at the Barr nay that Serjeant at Law who hath but v l. given for such a purpose will goe thither with an ill-will or else not come at all besides how often Many Fees every Term for one Cause they must be feed in one Case even in one Term although of the poorest Client they have if they have occasion to come often unto them common experience and many poor mens Purses can too well tell Therefore when it pleased the King's Majesty at his first coming to this
Crown of England graciously to take notice of this enormity and to make known his Pleasure that indifferent and reasonable Fees should be taken by the Councellors at Law of their Clients some of them did restore or at least offer to restore part of the Fees profered unto them which continued no longer with any of them than the dread of punishment or of danger drew them thereto But where it is alledged by some that the sufficiency of all Councellors is not alike All Lawyers not of like sufficiency or merit nor their pains and travell all alike and therefore their Recompence cannot be equally measured no more than in other Faculties can the professors thereof merit as much the one as the other To this I think it may be easily answered That although the sufficiency and pains of every one be not answerable unto the best yet there should some proportion be limited what the best might deserve and how much he should take in such Some proportion of Fees to be limited and such particular Cases by which also somewhat a correspondent Recompence might be awarded to others of inferior degrees and sufficiency though not to be scanted by the penny yet at the least to be rated by the pound whereby a man of reasonable Estate in a suite of reasonable value might compass his Right without his undoing and although the Labourer be worthy of his hire yet is it hard that the Labourer for his hire should have the value of the Land whereon he laboureth or more as many Lawyers have But chiefly divers of the Councellors do offend and abuse their Clients sometimes to their utter undoing when some of them do take round Fees against a day of Hearing and yet neither come to the place or if they do they depart before it be heard and sometimes in the midst of the Argument being sent for unto another Barr in another Cause where perchance their Fee is greater or their Client of more reputation or nearer unto them whereby men depending on them according to promise after Fees taken receive much prejudice and sometimes the subversion of their Estates In this Case many men have much wished that either they were enjoyned to plead at one Barr only according to antient order so should they be certainly found and their Clients not frustrated of their help or else if that were not thought fit yet that some severe punishment may be ordained and afflicted on such Councellors as take Fees for several Courts in one day and do break with their Clients The 2d sort of Ministers towards The Abuse of Attornies the Law who do mislead the people in their Suits and sometimes make them misspend their money in undertaking of unjust Suits and setting on of men to causeless quarrels for their own private commodity are the Attorneys at Law who do divers ways offend and many of them offer much wrong First for their The Multitude of Attornies Multitude for they have increased to such a huge number of later years that they cannot chuse but make much work for the Lawyers and Law in the parts wherein they live as in the Courts of Records at Westminster First to begin with the Court of Common-pleas Since this Attornies of the Common-pleas Chief Justice of that Court came to his Place he commanding an Enquiry to be made by Jury of the number and condition of Attornies belonging to that Court it is said that there were no less than 800. of them found already by Jury so that the Complaint is common that every Scrivener and other mens Clerks who have desired that place paying a certain sum have been all thereto admitted to the no small hurt of the Subjects of this Kingdom But if the Lord chief Justice who hath begun this laudable course do perfect it with out remission to weed out both the excessive surplusage of their number and discharge all them that are ill conditioned or not of sufficient understanding and experience as no doubt but that there are divers of that sort and no question but he will doe it especially if he be required thereto By this good example other Courts of Justice may be purged of their ill members to the generall good of the whole Realm There is the like though not so great an excesse of Attornies in the Attornies in the Kings bench Kings Bench at Westminster wherein there are estimated to be about 200 and yet within the memory of some yet living there were not above eight or twelve at the most for indeed they ought not to be other than the Prignatories Clerks of that Court But besides these who only make out Writts there are nine parts of ten that are reckoned Attornies Attornies at large at large as they call them who neither take Oath nor have any power to make out Writts but yet every one of them keeps a Clerk and some two to write under them who must be maintained by their Masters countenance and sometimes they maintain their Masters by bringing Causes and Clients unto them these swarming in so great numbers cannot live and grow rich as many of them do without they hearten and increase Suits and stirs betwixt their neighbours which enormities might partly be reformed by the Statutes already made if they were put in execution and by some other provision for it should seem Provision made by former Laws against Attornies that former times have had trial of their abuses and care to reform them though there were not then such urgent cause to take a sharp course with them as at this instant By the Statute of the 4 of Henry the 4. every Attornie should be sworn truly to serve in their Offices but now no Oath at all given unto many of them especially to deal justly and uprightly other than for the profit of their Court. By the same statute if any Attornie were openly found in default by Record or otherwise he should forswear the Court and never after be allowed to prosecute any Suite in any of the King's Courts By a late Statute made 3 Jacobi nuper Regis Angliae none should be henceforth admitted Attornies in any of the King's Courts of Record but such as have been brought up in the same Courts or have been well practised in soliciting of Causes and have been found of honest disposition which Statute so well and lately made is already set aside and grown out of use By the same Statute no Attornie shall be allowed from his Client for any Fee or for any Disbursement in charge of Law without a ticket subscribed with the hands of them to whom the same is given or paid and shall give a bill subscribed with his hand of all such Charges concerning the said Suits But yet we see this Law no sooner made but already altogether infringed by the Attornies and Solicitors for it may be that some of them do deliver a Bill of the Charges but who is
there that bringeth a Ticket under the hands of the Councellors and Officers to whom the same is paid This is an abuse worthy to be reformed and this Statute very necessary to be executed In the 33 year of King Henry the 6. a Law was made that there should be but six common Attornies in Norffolk six in Suffolk and two in Norwich If then the Country were pestered with Attornies and that a Law must be made to ascertain the A Law already made necessary to be executed for the admission of Attornies number which likewise should be elected and admitted by the two chief Justices how much more needfull is it now to have the like Law of restraint for all the Counties of this Kingdom when we see how even in those Shires then thus provided for there are far greater numbers of Attornies and such for the most part as they are specially noted by them who know these Countries to be full of cunning and many of them nourishers of contention and contenders themselves with their neighbours These being commonly the Conduits that convey Suits and Gain to covetous and unconscionable men desiring Law with the losse and impoverishment of many there is therefore great need that their numbers should be lessened and their dispositions who shall be allowed to practise well known to be good and honest A third sort there are of the ministers of our Law which do offer oppression and wrong unto the subjects of this Kingdom in their Suits And they are the Officers of the Courts of Records and their Clerks Abuse of Officers and their Clerks in the Courts of Record whereof many do exact unreasonable and unlimited Fees not or very seldome vouchsafing to set down in a note under their hands what their Fees are but demanding so much or else nothing must be done or if it be first done they will often detain it untill their own demands be satisfied So the Subject must give whatsoever No certainty of Fees in most Courts it pleaseth them to ask Wherein it hath been the hearty desire of such as wish well unto their Country without any private respect unto themselves that there might be a certainty of Fees set down for every Court and the same to remain in written Tables in open Court subject to every mans view whereby the Subjects who have Suits in Law may not have so great cause of loss and of complaint as now they have Of the same nature and indeed a part of this exaction is the excessive Excessive Rates for the writing of Copies Rates taken for writing the Copies of all Bills and Answers Replications and Rejoinders and of all other Records within the Court of Westminster and the Offices belonging to the same First for the foule and Wastfull Writing of purpose wastfull Writing next for the few numbers of Lines in every Sheet and for the smallness of the Paper wherein they write they alwayes demanding so much for the sheet how few soever of lines letters or syllables there be in the same and allwayes they strive to write the least they can with great letters full of large dashes to make the more distance and very spacious lines for their more Gain and the greater Charge of them who are forced to take out these Copies whereby they raise great summes of mony out of the Subjects purses keep good houses purchase much living enrich themselves and impoverish many Sutors at Law If that some reasonable stint of this Writing and the certainty of Fees withall might be set down and observed it would without doubt yield great contentment prosit and ease unto the people of this Land who for the most part feel and some sink under this burden Besides these before mentioned Abuses in the Ministers and Officers of our Law there are some other declinations and with-drawings from the right Proceeding of Law by such as seek to pervert the same As The Judges select certain Lawyers whom they hear most willingly and often first in every Court of Record in Westminster the Judges have certain selected men on whom they are pleased to bestow their favours in yielding them ready hearing before others which being perceived they are the more resorted to and must have the more Fees This increaseth the charge of the subjects and yet many times disappointeth them of their expectation And although it be not unreasonable that the Judge should extend his favour more unto some than unto the rest by hearing them before others yet considering the inconveniency of this favour it were far better forborn and to be some way else shewed unto them that deserve it There is also some Rules of the Courts uncertain and unknown to the Judges defect in the Courts concerning the Rules of the Courts that sometimes the Judges themselves are ignorant of the Rules of their Courts touching the times of Answer Reply Rejoynder Imparlance with the like circumstances whereby they are forced to ask the opinions of the antientest and best experienced Attornies and Officers of the Court touching those Rules where it were much better that time were taken by the Judges to examine these Rules wherein perchance somewhat might be amended for the more speedy execution of Justice and the same set down in writing might be more certain and subject to all mens knowledge with lesse hindrance to Suitors and to their Causes There are also some Courts in Westminster where the Judges as for example the Barons of the Exchequer do alter upon new motions out of Court as in the Chequer Chamber or in other places the Orders Alteration of Orders out of the Court. made in Court And that which was publickly ordered by all the Barons in open Court is often reversed by one of the Barons when either the plaintiff or defendant bringeth his Counsel and upon some new information getteth the former Order to be dissolved which tendeth much to the Trouble Charge and Delay of many Suitors In the Kings Bench and somewhere else as it is said writing out of Record must be twice or thrice unnecessarily copied as upon a Prohibition Unnecessary Copies to be taken out a copie of the Suggestion then after Declaration a new Copy after issue or Demurrer a third Copy whereas each of them sometimes cost three four or five pounds and yet with a little alteration it is thought that one might serve for all The incertainty and intricate ambiguity Incertainty and intricacy of Pleadings of Pleadings in the Courts of Records bring much dammage and danger unto the Subjects of this Kingdom wherein many men wishing well unto our Laws have exceedingly desired That either some certain Formes of these Pleadings if it were possible to be performed might be drawn by expert men and the same considered and corrected by the Judges might stand for good and those Forms to be allowed as in Rome at the first the Forms of Actions were given to the Actors of the Law by the Pretors Or if this may not be performed Advantages of pleadings not to be so penal yet that some other Course were taken upon the advantage of a Pleading mistaken than is in the Case betwixt the King and his Subject If also in Actions personal a shorter A shorter course to be taken in Actions personal and more certain Course were taken than is by our Common-law whereof somewhat hath been spoken before as that which the Civil Law alloweth or some other such like for speedy and direct Trial without evasion or circumvention it would yield no small profit unto the People that are forced to prosecute these Suits FINIS A Catalogue of some Law Books printed for and sold by several Booksellers in Fleetstreet and Holborn 1. Rastell's Entries fol. price 3li. 2. Pulton's Statutes continued to the year 1670. price 50s. 3. Cook 's Commentary on Littleton price 18s. 4. Dalton's Office of Sheriffs with very large Additions printed in the year 1670. fol. 12s. 5. Townsend's Tables to most of the printed precedents Writs and Returns at Commom Law fol. 12s. 6. The Law of Common Assurances touching Deeds in General viz. Feoffments Gifts Grants Leases with two Alphabetical Tables by W. Sheppard Esq fol. price 14s. 7. The Country Justice containing the practice of the Justices of the Peace as well in as out of Sessions and with Additions by Michael Dalton in fol. price 8s. 8. A Collection of all the Acts and Statutes made in the Raigns of King Charles the first and King Charles the second fol. price 14s. 9. Lord Cook 's eleven books of Reports in French fol. printed 1672. price 3li. 10. Lord Cook 's Book of Entries fol. price 3li. 11. Lord Hobart's Reports with Additions in fol. price 10s. 12. Lord Dyer's Reports with a new Table fol. printed 1672. price 18 s. 13. Compleat Clerk 4o. price 12s. 14. An abridgement of all the Statutes in force and use from Magna Charta to the year 1670. by Edmond Wingate 8o. price 6s. 15. Fitz-herbert's Natura Brevium Corrected and amended 8o. price 5s. 16. Termes of the Law with Additions 8o. printed in the year 1670. price 4s. 17. Doctor and Student printed in 1673. price 2s. 18. The Compleat Justice in 12o. price 2s. 19. Briddal's view of the Laws of England 8o. price 1s. 20. Littleton's Tenures French and English in 12o. price 2s. 6d. 21. Lord Cook 's Compleat Coppyholder with additions 8o. price 1s. 6d. 22. Abridgement of the statutes that relate to the knowledge and practice of the Common-law in 8o. price 1s. 23. Compleat Attorney 8o. price 3s. 24. Fortescue of the Laws of England 8o. price 3s. 25. Placitae Latinae Redivivae with Additions printed Mich. Term 1673. 4o. price 6s. 26. The Transactions of the High Court of Chancery both by practice and precedent with the Fees thereunto belonging in 8o. by Will. Tothill Esq late one of the six Clerks printed 1673. price 1s. 6d.