Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	court_n	defendant_n	plaintiff_n	3,417	5	10.5128	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58855	A speech made by Sir William Scrogg, one of His Majesties Sergeants at Law, to the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor of England, at his admission to the place of one of His Majesties Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas	Scroggs, William, Sir, 1623?-1683.	1676 (1676)	Wing S2124; ESTC R10261	3,598	8

A SPEECH MADE BY Sir William Scrogg ONE of His MAJESTIES SERGEANTS at LAW To the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor Of ENGLAND At his Admission To the Place of One of His Majesties Justices Of the Court of COMMON-PLEAS LONDON Printed for Samuel Lowndes near Exeter-House in the Strand M. DC.LXX.VI Sir William Scrogg HIS SPEECH MY LORD THat the King's Favour is the effect of the duty I have paid Him which your Lordship is pleas'd to call Service is the most welcome and pleasing part of His kindness and I trust We shall still see such times that no man shall hope to have it or keep it on any other account The right application of Rewards and Punishments is the steady Justice of a Nation where though the Rewards of Kings exceed what a Subject can merit they should never reach him that demerits To return Good for Evil may be an obligation of Charity It is never of Bounty And the taking off as they call it of an Ambitious and therefore a Factious man by Favours is the worst way to stop or open his mouth for he will whisper one way louder than he will speak the other And when you think you gain one Enemy you make many On such an occasion as this I think it very proper to give your Lordship some account what considerations I have had in order to the discharge of my duty in this place since the King 's first intimations of His pleasure And that respects Matters either as they stand betwixt the King and his People or betwixt Man and Man For the first I know that the Law gives such Prerogatives to the King that to endeavour more were to desire worse and it gives to the People such Liberties that more would be licentious What then hath a man to do that hath Courage enough to be honest but to apply his Understanding to the Ministration of those Laws justly to both Wherein I may say that the Cases will be rare that will be difficult in themselves They may be made so from sinister Causes when men thinking to serve a Turn or like Pilate to please the People deliver up that which is right to be crucified Then they are fain to rack their Fancies to make good their Faults This makes such nice Distinctions and such strained Constructions till they leave nothing plain in the world Whereas in truth the Duty we owe to the King and his People is like the Duty we owe to God not hard to understand whatever it is to practice This Court my Lord 't is true is properly a Court of Meum and Tuum where Prerogative and Liberty are seldom Plaintiffs or Defendants But yet 't is certain that even in private Causes matter of Government many times intervenes and the Publick is concerned by Consequence And therefore I think it fair and like English honesty and plainness something to unveil one's self in that particular that men may know before-hand what they may expect And herein I do declare I would no more wrong or lessen the People's Liberties than I would sacrifice up my Son But then I will no more derogate from the King's Prerogative than I would betray my Father My Lord In times when Faction is so bold as to be bare-fac'd and false and seditious News is openly talk'd and greedily embrac'd when the King 's reasonable Demands are disputed and turned into Cavils and those that oppose 'em talke confidently and those that should maintain 'em speak fearfully and tenderly when the Reverence we owe to the King is paid to the People the Government is beset the King is in danger and there is nothing wanting but opportunity But when to prevent that opportunity men are afraid and hold it dangerous to avoid the danger when we dare not call a Crime by its right name and for some find none and a Mischief must be effected before we will think it one When dangerous Attempts are minc'd and by some trivial difference Treason is distinguish'd into a Trespass when men are forward and venturous enough in what thwarts the Government but in supporting it seem grave and cautious nice and timerous and so fill'd with Prudentials till they are as wise as fear can make 'em The Law is enervated and becomes useless to its greatest end which is the preservation of the whole 'T is true in Publick Causes the same Integrity is necessary as in Private But that is but part of a Judge's Duty He must be Magnanimous as well as Virtuous And I acknowledge it to be a main and principal part of my duty as it relates to the King and his People with hearty resolution to suppress all open Force and private Confederacies not thinking any thing little that attempts the Publick Safety for when the Motives are small the Danger is greater when Discontents exceed their Causes And for the discharge of my Duty betwixt Party and Party it is impossible to be performed without those two Cardinal Virtues Temper and Cleanness of Hands Temper comprehends Patience Humility and Candor It seems to me that saying Be quick to hear and slow to speak was made on purpose for a Judge No Direction can be apter and no Character becomes him better and he that would not be said to have but one Ear me-thinks should be asham'd to have none And I appeal to your Lordships experience if a patient Attention accompanied with indifferent Parts and a competency in the Law with a mind fairly disposed for Information or Conviction will not as to use and common benefit exceed the profoundest Knowledge and most towering Understanding that is attended with an impetuous haste either out of a glory of Speaking or too great a fulness of himself And for Humility Though I will not say that every Impatient Man is proud because that may arise from other causes yet every Proud Man is impatient sometimes of Information always of Contradiction and he must be violent to maintain his own Imperiousness Harshness is a needless and unbecoming Provocation It makes Men hate where they should fear and reverence And yet by Gentleness I understand not Tameness but Moderation not without Rebukes but without Taunts For Corruption that Perverter of Law and Destruction of Property that leaves in the World neither Bonum nor AEquum for when he does Right he does not Justice and he that sells Justice will sell Injustice 'T is not only to be avoided but abhorred and not alone in its direct Approaches but in Relatives and Servants those By-ways of Bribery and it becomes every Man so manifestly to detest it that it may scare even the attempt for no Man is sufficiently safe unless to his power he avoids the suspicion as well as the fault Practice does one and that which makes me speak this a publick Profession against it is the way to do the other And where Gifts prevail not yet if Fear Relations or Popularity sway 't is the same thing If there be a Byass put to a Man it matters not of what 't is made Nay these are worse than Corruption by Money for there both sides may have the same Tools when a Man cannot make himself a Kin nor his Cause Popular And now give me leave My Lord to shew why I thought it fit nay extreamly necessary to say something on the Particulars I have mentioned First To satisfie your Lordship and the World I undertake not this Place without due Considerations of the Duty belongs to it Next It is some Tye upon a Man not to commit those Errours he hath in publick declaimed against for he must add Impudence to his Crime to have his own words fly in his face with which every Man will upbraid and no Man can excuse him My Lord In a Discourse on such an Occasion as this where Men are concern'd in Point of Interest for so they are when a Judge is made my Aim is not to say what will please their Humours but what should satisfie their Minds Neither am I so vain as to think I shall do that with all nor much concerned though it fall out so If Reputation and a Good Name can be got by doing my Duty 't is welcome but if it must be sought by other Arts I will be no Seeker especially considering that the Applause of the Multitude that Contingent Judge of Good and Bad rather attends the Vain than the Vertuous and is oftner sought by such too The Approbation of the Wise which are the Few and of the Honest by which I intend Men heartily affected to the Government I acknowledge I earnestly covet For them that are otherwise I court not their good opinion because I fear not their bad and would not draw that suspicion upon my self that Men may say What Ill has he done that those Men speak so well of him I never was of their Party nor never will be And to be even with them I think as meanly of them as they do of Loyalty whose Misfortunes are more to be esteemed than their Triumphs The good words of such as truly love their Country which no Man ever did that does not love his Prince indeed I highly prize and will endeavour to deserve though your Lordship at this time has been before-hand with me in that Particular by bestowing them upon me first and so many that I am ashamed I have been no better to have made 'em good But because your Lordship is willing and able to render any Man much better than he is they ought to be esteemed as the Proceed of a Generous Nature and an Indulgent Prudence which by telling me what I am does but kindly insinuate what I should be My Lord I will waste no more of your time though I omit those usual Returns of formal Thanks for they are of course or extream wondring at the great Surprizals of the Kings Favour and those humble yet high Debasements of ones Self which look like Modesty but is a sort of Bravery My Thanks shall be paid in what the KING likes best Service to His People The Wonder will cease by that time I get to the Bench And my Defects are best confest by endeavouring to amend them FINIS