Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	obligation_n	1,168	5	9.4651	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60883	The security of English-mens lives, or, The trust, power, and duty of the grand jurys of England explaining according to the fundamentals of the English government, and the declarations of the same made in Parliament by many statutes / published for the prevention of popish designs against the lives of many Protestant lords and commoners who stand firm to the religion and ancient government of England.	Somers, John Somers, Baron, 1651-1716.	1681 (1681)	Wing S4643; ESTC R33648	56,152	169

dare not rely upon Him in His Kingly Office and trust for safety and Protection by the Laws Our English History affords many Instances of those that have pretended to serve our King in this manner by undermining the Peoples Right and Liberties whose practices have sometimes proved of fatal consequence to the Kings themselves but more frequently ended in their own destruction But after all imagining it could be made out that this Method of private Examinations by a Grand Jury which from what has been said before hath appeared to be so Extremely necessary for the publick good and to every private mans security were inconvenient or Mischievous and therefore fit to be changed Yet being so Essential a part of the Common Law it is no otherwise alterable than by Parliament We find by Presidents that the bare forms of Indictments could not be reformed by the Judges The words Depopulatores agrorum Insidiatores viarum Viet Armis Baculis Cultellis Arcubus sagittis could not be left out but by Advice of the Kingdom in Parliament A writ issued in the Time of K. Ed. 3. giving Power to hear and determine Offences and all the Justices resolved Cok. 4. Inst Pag. 164. That they could not lawfully act having their Authority by Writ where they ought to have had it by Commission Tho it was in the form and words that the Legal Commission ought to be John Knivett Chief Justice by Advice of all the Judges resolved that the said Writ was Contra Legem And where divers Indictments were before them found against T. S. the same all that was done by colour of that Writ was Damned If in such seeming little Things as these and many others that may be instanced the Wisdom of the Nation hath not thought fit to intrust the Judges but reserved the Consideration of them to the Legislative Power It cannot be imagined that they should subject to the discretion and pleasure of the Judges those important Points in the Established course of the administring Justice whereupon depends the safety of all the Subjects Lives and fortunes If Judges will take upon themselves to alter the constant practice they must either alter the Oath of the Grand Jury or continue it If they should alter it so as to make it sail with any such new Method and thus in appearance charitably provide that the Grand Jury should not take a mock Oath or forswear themselves they then make an Incroachment upon the Authority of Parliaments who only can make new or change old Legal Oaths and all the proceedings thereupon would be void If they should continue constantly to impose the same Oath as well when they have notice from the King that the Jury shall not be bound to keep his Secrets and their own as when they have none They must assume to make the same form of Law to be of force and no force and the same words to bind the Conscience as they will have them Whereby they would prophane the Natural Religion of an Oath and bring a foul Scandal upon Christianity by trifling worse than Heathens in that sacred matter And whilst the Judges find themselves under the necessity of administring the Oath unto Grand Juries and not suffer them to observe it according unto their consciences they would confess the illegality of their own Proceedings and can never be able to repair the Breaches by pretending a tacite Implication if the King will but must unavoidably fall under that approved Maxim of our Law Maledicta est Interpretatio quae corrumpit Textum It is a Cursed Interpretation that dissolves the Text. There are Two Vulgar Errours concerning the duty of Grand Juries which if not removed will in Time destroy all the benefit we can expect from that Constitution by turning them into a meer matter of form which were designed for so great Ends. Many have of late thought and affirmed it for Law that the Grand Jury is neither to make so strict Inquiry into matters before them Nor to look for so clear Evidence of the Crime as the Petit Jury but that of their Presentments being to pass a second Examination they ought to indict upon a Superficial Inquiry and bare Probabilities Whereas should either of these Opinions be admitted the Prejudice to the subject would be equal to the total laying aside Grand Juries There being in Truth no difference between arraigning without any Presentment from them at all and their Presenting upon slight grounds For the first that Grand Juries ought not to make so Strict Inquiry it were to be wisht that we might know how it comes to pass that an Oath should be obligatory unto a Petit Jury and not unto the Grand Or in what Points they may lawfully and with good Conscience omit that Exactness whether in Relation to the Witnesses and their credibility Or the fact and all its circumstances Or the Testimony and its weight Or lastly in Reference to the Prisoner and Probability of his guilt And withal upon what grounds of Law or Reason their Opinion is founded On the contrary he that will consider either the Oath they take or the Commission where their duty is described will find in all Points that there lies an Equal obligation upon them and the Petit Juries They swear diligently to inquire and true Presentment make c. and to Present the Truth the whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth c. And in the Commission of Oyer Terminer their duty with that of the Commissioners is thus described Ad Inquirendum per Sacramentum Proborum legalium hominum c. per quos rei veritas melius sciri poterit de quibuscunque proditionibus c. confoederationibus Falsis allegantiis nec non Accessoriis Eorundem c. per quoscunque qualitercunque habit fact perpetrat sive Commiss Et per quos Et per quem cui vel quibus quando qualiter vel quomodo de aliis articulis Circumstantiis praemis eorum aliquod vel aliqua qualitercunque concernen To inquire by the Oath of honest and lawful Men c. By whom the Truth of the matter may be best known of all manner of Treasons c. Confederacies false Testimonies c. As also the Accessories c. by whomsoever or howsoever done perpetrated or committed by whom or to whom how in what way or in what manner And of other Articles and Circumstances premised and of any other Thing or Things howsoever concerning the same Now for any Man after this to maintain that Grand Juries are not to inquire or not carefully is as much as in plain terms to say they are bound to act contrary to the Commission and their Oath And to affirm that they can discharge their duty according to the obligations of Law and Conscience which they lie under without a strict Inquiry into Particulars is to affirm that the End can be obtained without the means necessary unto it The Truth is

their going such ought to be their speed to make known the Treason Or if in any case they be otherwise openly flagitious though they be not legally infamous or if they are men of desperate Fortunes so that the temptation of want is manifestly strong upon them and the restraint of Conscience can be supposed to be little or none at all what ever they say is at least to be heard with extraordinary caution if not totally rejected In Scotland such a degree of Poverty S. G. Mack●zy Crim. Law lib. 26.3 that a Witness cannot swear himself to be worth Ten Pounds is sufficient to lay him aside wholly in these high Concernments of Criminal Cases And in some other Kingdoms to be a loose liver is an Objection of the same force against any produced for Witnesses And for the better discovery of the Truth of any fact in question the Credit of the Witnesses and the value of the Testimonies it is the Duty of the Grand Inquest to be well informed concerning the Parties indicted of their usual Residence their Estates and manner of living their Companions and Friends with whom they are accustomed to converse such knowledge being necessary to make a good judgment upon most accusations but most of all in suspitions or Indictments of secret Treasons or Treasonable Words where the accusers can be of no credit if it be altogether incredible that such things as they testifie should come to their knowledge Sometimes the quality of the accused person may set him at such a distance from the Witnesses that he cannot be supposed to have conversed with them familiarly if his Wisdom and Conduct has been always such that it is not credible he would trust men so inconsiderable or meer strangers to him and such as are wholly uncapable to assist in the Design which they pretend to discover Can the Grand Inquest believe such Testimony to be of any value Or can they avoid suspecting Malice Combination and Subornation in such a case or can they shew themselves to be just and conscientious in their Duty if they do not suspend their Verdict until further Enquiry and write Ignoramus upon the Bill It is undoubtedly Law which we find reported in Stiles Stiles Repor 11. That Though there be Witnesses who prove the Bill yet the Grand Inquest is not bound to find it if they see cause to the contrary Now to make their Enquiry more instrumental and advantageous to the Execution of Justice they are enjoined by their Oath to keep secret the King's Counsel their fellows and their own Perhaps 't is not sufficiently understood or considered what duty is enjoyned to every man of a Grand Inquest by this clause of their Oath being seldom if ever explained to them in the general charge of the Judges at Sessions or Assises But it is necessary that they should apprehend what Counsel of the King is trusted with them Certainly there is or ought to be much more of it communicated to them than is commonly thought and in things of the greatest consequence To them ought to be committed in the several Counties where any Prosecutions are begun the first Informations and suspitions of all Treasons Murders Felonies Conspiracies and other Crimes which may subvert the Government endanger or hurt the King or destroy the Lives or Estates of the innocent People or any way disquiet or disturb the common Peace Our Law intends the Councils of the King to be continually upon the protection and security of the People and prevention of all their mischiefs and dangers by wicked lawless and injurious men And in order thereunto to be advising how to right his wronged Subjects in general if the publick safety be hazarded by Treasons of any kind or their Relations snatcht from them by Murderers or any way destroyed by malicious Conspirators in form of Law or their Estates taken away by Robbery and Thieves or the Peace broken And for these ends to bring to exemplary Justice all offenders to deterr others from the like Wickedness And until these Counsels of the King come to the Grand Jury he can bring no such Criminals to judgment or to answer to the Accusations and Suggestions against them Hence it becomes unavoidably necessary to reveal to the Grand Juries all that hath been discovered to the King or any of his Ministers Judges or Justices concerning any Treasons or other Offences whereof any man is accused And where suspicion hath caused any to be imprisoned all the grounds of their suspitions ought to be opened concerning the Principals and the Accessories as well before as after the fact all the circumstances and presumptions that may induce a belief of their Guilt and all notices whatsoever which may enable the Jury to make a more exact and effectual Enquiry and to present the whole Truth They themselves will not only be offenders against God by reason of their Oath but subject to legal punishments if they knowingly conceal any Criminals and leave them unpresented and none can be innocent who shall conceal from them any thing that may help and assist them in their Duty The first notices of Crimes or suspicions of the Criminals by whomsoever brought in and the intentions of searching them out and prosecuting them legally are called the King's Counsel because the principal care of executing Justice is entrusted to him and they are to be prosecuted at his Suit and in his name and such proceedings are called Pleas of the Crown From hence may be easily concluded that the Kings Counsel which by the Oath of the Grand Inquest is to be kept secret includeth all the persons offered to them to be indicted and all the matters brought in Evidence before them all circumstances whatsoever whereof they are informed which may any way conduce to the discovery of Offences all intimations given them of Abettors and Encouragers of Treasons Felonies or Perjuries and Conspiracies or of the Receivers Harbourers Nourishers and Concealers of such Criminals Likewise the Oath which enjoins the Counsel of their Fellows and their own to be kept implies that they shall not reveal any of their personal knowledge concerning Offences or Offenders nor their intentions to indict any man thereupon nor any of the Proposals and Advices amongst them of ways to enquire into the truth of any matter before them either about the Crimes themselves or the accusers and Witnesses or the party accused nor the debates thereupon amongst themselves nor the diversity of opinionins any case before them Certainly this Duty of secresie concerning the Kings Counsel was imposed upon the Grand Inquest with great reason in order to the publick good It was intended that they should have all the advantages which the several cases will afford to make effectual Enquiries after Criminals to offer them to Justice If packs of Thieves private Murderers secret Traitors or Conspirators and Suborners can get Intelligence of all that is known of their Villanies all the parties concerned may