Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A25448
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The Account of the manner of executing a writ of inquiry of damages between His Royal Highness James Duke of York &c. and Titus O[a]tes which was executed at the bar of the Court of Kings Bench at Westminster on Wednesday the 19th of June, 1684 in the presence of the high sheriff of Middlesex.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing A320; ESTC R34141
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20,410
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34
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out and desired to know what he intended to do whether he would plead or no. Otes asked him If he were the Duke's Attorney He answered him Yes Says he I do not value the Duke nor his Attorney neither I will plead as I shall see cause according to Law I declare I neither love the Duke nor fear him And so turned his back and was going away and comes up again and says to him It may be I may be in for One hundred thousand Pounds here but if ever a Parliament sit I do not question but to have some Body else in my place Mr. Swift asked him to explain himself who he meant says he Do you come to Trapan me and away he went Mr. Att. Gen. My Lord we have now done if the Jury please to consider of it Lord Chief Justice Is there any Body here for Mr. Otes to offer any thing to lessen the Damages To which No Body answered Then Gentlemen of the Jury your Business now is to enquire what Damages you think fit to assess to his ROYAL HIIGHNESS by reason of the speaking of the Words mentioned in the Declaration there being in this Action Judgment by Default obtained by his ROYAL HIGHNESS and you have nothing now to do but only to assess to the Plaintiff such Damages as you shall think fit Now Gentlemen though the acknowledgment of this Judgment for so it is in effect it being by Default be a sufficient Confession of the Words being spoken as they are laid in the Declaration yet they have given you Proof of the very Words The Declaration is in an Action grounded upon the Statute De SCANDALIS MAGNATUM taking notice that His Royal Highness is a great Peer of this Kingdom and His Majestie 's only Brother and that Oates the Defendant knowing him to be so to bring him under Reproach and Calumny and to cause Discord to arise between the King and him and between him and other Great Men did speak the words laid in the Declaration which you have heard read and which are these The first are This Letter Oates having a Letter in his Hand cost Me Nine-pence and might have been brought for a Penny I know no Body is the better for it but that Traitor JAMES Duke of YORK This is laid over again with a very little variation This Letter cost Me Nine-pence and might have been afforded for a Penny I know no Body is the better for it but that Traitor JAMES Duke of YORK which are words of the same Sound and to the same purpose with the former they differ only in some minute Circumstances a word or so but import the same thing The next words are these The Duke of YORK is a Traitor and these words too are laid two several ways differing but in very small Circumstances Is a Traitor and Was a Traitor the Substance of the words is the same Now I say Gentlemen Though it is not your Business to enquire whether or no Oates spoke these words for by letting Judgment go against him by Default he doth in Law confess the words but you are to enquire what Damages may be fit to be given to the Plaintiff by reason of these words yet in as much as this Case is a Case of an extraordinary Nature Weight and Moment having relation to so great a Prince His Royal Highness the King 's only Brother requires this extraordinary Solemnity it having not been usual heretofore that is to have Writs of Enquiry executed at the Bar. But the Occasion is extraordinary such as has not happened before this Age this Corrupt Age this Profligate Age wherein we live and wherein common ordinary Fellows the meer Scum and Scoundrels of the Factious Party have taken a Liberty to reproach and calumniate Magistracy and Government and the greatest Personages concerned in it not sparing even Majesty it self nor Him who is next in Degree to His Sacred Person His onely Dear and Royal Brother And therefore as the Case is extraordinary in its Nature so ought the Example of it to be made as Publick as can be in order to satisfie all People what a sort of Fellow this Defendant is who has been so much adored and looked upon with an Eye of Admiration courted with so wonderful an Affection and so I had almost said Hosanna'd among People that have been Factious and Tumultuous to the Government Such as he ought to be made Publick Examples of and therefore the King's Counsel have desired that this Cause might be canvased here at the Bar and the Defendant as he has made himself Eminent for some particular Qualifications might be made a Publick Example for this Offence Thus this Writ comes to be executed here Now though the Words laid in this Declaration are words that do import in themselves so much Scandal and Reproach so much Malice and Venom that they need no Aggravation besides themselves and his suffering it to go by Default shews they are no way to be extenuated but are thereby acknowledged Yet however to satisfie all People that desire or have any inclination to be satisfied that this Prosecution is highly reasonable nay absolutely Necessary they come here and give you an Account that these in the Declaration are but a small Part of the Scandalous and Malicious words that the Defendant useth concerning the Plaintiff And indeed it doth plainly appear that the Malice of the Defendant is attended with all the most Unchristian and Uncharitable as well as Disloyal and Disobedient Circumstances that any thing can be with design to Traduce and Disparage a Subject so Loyal and a Person so Great and Illustrious as His Royal Highness As to the first words you have the first Witness Mr. Smith and he gives you this Account He was in a Coffee-House where he met the Defendant Oates and the Defendant in a Vain-glorious huffing sort of manner takes occasion though none was offer'd him by any thing spoken to him by any Body but only on set purpose to express his Malice and Venom against the Plaintiff He takes up a Letter that it seems came to him by the Post and to gratifie his own malicious Inclination and to give it vent he Proclaims This Letter cost Me Nine-pence it might have been brought or afforded for a Penny and I know no Body is the better for it but that Traitor JAMES Duke of YORK So you see Gentlemen he takes hold of every little Occasion if he can but happen upon an Opportunity such as this was in an open Coffee-House to reek his Malice upon His Royal Highness And sure there can be no greater imputation of Scandal brought upon any Man than this upon the Plaintiff That the first and greatest Subject of the King of England's should be taxed with the greatest Crime in the Law Disloyalty and Treason to his Soveraign And so at once not only chargeth him with being Perfidious to his only Brother against that Affection which by Nature he is
to keep him Company and Mr. Otes step'd up on a sudden and said The Duke of YORK was a Son of a Whore and he should live to see him hanged and if they could but get a Parliament to their mind they would soon send the Duke and all his Gang out of England for he must never expect to succeed to the Crown Mr. Sol. Gen. Pray who did he say was to head the Forces at Black-Heath that you talk of were to plunder the City Mr. Ashlock The Duke of YORK and London was fired by his Order and this he would prove if they could but get a Parliament to their mind And he said They should take away the Post-Office from the Duke of YORK and give it to the Duke of Monmouth Mr. Sol. Gen. Then call Capt. Cresset and swear him Which was done Mr. Att. Gen. Capt. Cresset Pray do you remember what Discourse you had with Otes when the Duke went into Flanders what he said of his Royal Highness Capt. Cresset It was the last time the Duke went into Scotland with her Royal Highness I think it was in October 1680. I was commanded over Night to wait at the Duke's Lodgings till a Paper should be delivered me by my Lord Rochester I stay'd there till Twelve a Clock at Night and not seeing my Lord come out I went away and came early the next Morning And when the Duke and Dutchess went to take water at the Privy-Stairs I came down through the Guard-Chamber and Dr. Otes was in the Gallery that leads betwixt that and the Gate when he saw me I bid him Good Morrow Doctor or he bid me Good Morrow one of the two I cannot exactly tell which Says he to me You will never leave till you have lost your Reputation Why what is the matter now Doctor said I I hope my Reputation is not hung upon so slender a Thread as to be lost for my going any where Says he You have been with JAMES Who do you mean by JAMES said I YORK says he Surely said I it might have been the Duke of YORK or his Royal Highness No said he he is a Rascal a Papist and a Traytor and I hope to live to see him hanged Truly Doctor said I now let me give you a little advice to govern your Tongue and your Passions I assure you they will do neither you nor your Cause good it may do you a great deal of hurt in time if you do not take care Mr. Sol. Gen. Call Sir William Jennings Mr. Att. Gen. Truly my Lord I think we need call no more though we have multitudes of them it is his daily Discourse Lord Chief Justice Call whom you will Mr. Attorney for though it be the last day of the Term and it is an unusual thing to have a Jury at the Bar on that day and more unusual to have them to execute a Writ of Enquiry here yet in regard of the Greatness of the Person that is concerned and the extraordinary Nature of the Cause We have ordered it thus That all the World may see how his ROYAL HIGHNESS has been abused and scandalized by this Person Mr. Att. Gen. The Defendant my Lord has been a person pretty much talk'd of too Lord Chief Justice Yes truly it is done with regard to him too for he has been an eminent Man in his Way Mr. Sol. Gen. Then swear Sir William Jennings Which was done Mr. Att. Gen. Now Sir William Jennings speak out you hear the Question What have you heard Otes say of the Duke of YORK Sir William Jennings My Lord at the time of the Sitting of the Parliament at Oxford I was in a Tavern there with Mr. Cranfeild one of the King's Gentlemen-Ushers who seeing Mr. Otes going along by the Room invites him to drink a Glass of Wine there were a matter of some Eight or Nine at the Table there was a little partition Curtain it being a long Room and there was some Company beyond that Curtain and some Body in that Company named JAMES Duke of YORK and the KING's Health being drunk at our Table Mr. Cranfeild began a Health to the DUKE Says Mr. Otes Do not you drink YORK ' s Health Why should we not says Mr. Cranfield and a Gentleman or two more in the Company Why says he he has ruined the Nation and if the Devil has a place in Hell more hot than others I hope he will bestow it upon him Several words past between Mr. Cranfeild and him upon it and the KING was told of it presently Mr. Att. Gen. Swear Justice Warcup Which was done Pray tell what you know of this Man 's discoursing concerning the Duke Mr. Warcup My Lord I went into the Company where Sir William Jennings was that he spoke last of and being desired to drink a Glass of Wine with them I did so and they told me what Dr. Otes had said there Lord Chief Justice Mr. Otes Titus Otes you mean Mr. Warcup Yes my Lord the Room had a Partition by a Hanging or Curtain and I was first in the other Company beyond the Partition and there some Body began a Health to his Royal Highness the Duke of YORK this Health went round and Otes was it seems in the next Room and heard this Health I suppose when I came into Sir William Jennings Company Otes was gone the Company there told me what Otes had said as Sir William Jennings has declared they all agreed those to be the words That he had ruined or betray'd the Nation and if the Devil had a hotter place in Hell than other he hoped he would bestow it upon him I met Otes afterwards and asked him why he would speak such irreverent words of the DUKE His Answer was He was a Traytor and was in the Plot and he told me I was a Yorkist and he would remember me for it Mr. Att. Gen. Did not that afright you Mr. Warcup to have him threaten you so Mr. Warcup I had then an Impeachment against me and truly I think I might well be afraid Lord Chief Justice You say he owned the Words they told you of Mr. Warcup They did all agree those to be the Words and I met him afterwards and asked him why he would speak so Irreverently of the Duke considering he was the King's Brother and as virtuous a Prince as trod upon the Earth Says he He is a Traytor and in the Plot and you are a Yorkist and I will remember you for it Mr. Sol. Gen. We shall only call one more to shew in what mind he continues to be even since this Action brought Swear Mr. Charles Chapman Which was done Pray Sir Tell what you know Mr. Chapman My Lord I met Mr. Swift the Duke of YORK's Attorney when he was going over as he told me to demand a Plea of the Defendant Mr. Otes and he desired me to go along with him I did so and when we came to him Mr. Swift told Otes the Rules were