hither that by a timely provision against those great imminent dangers our selves may be strengthened at home our Friends and Allies incouraged abroad and those great causes of feare scattered and dispelled And because in all warlike preparations Treasure bears the name and holds the semblance of the nerves and finewes and if a finew be too short or too weak if it be either shrunk or strained the part becomes unusefull it is needfull that you make a good and timely supply of treasure without which all counsells will prove fruitlesse I might presse many reasons to this end I will but name few First for his Majesties sake who requires it great is the duty which we owe him by the law of God great by the law of Nature and our own Allegeance great for his own merit and the memory of his ever blessed Father I do but point at them but me thinks our thoughts cannot but recoyle on our consideration touched by his Majestie which to me seemes to sound like a Parliamentarie part or Covenant A Warre was advised here Assistance professed yea and protested here I do but touch it I know you will deeply think on it and the more for the example the King hath set you his Lands his Plate his Jewells he hath not spared to supply the War what the People hath protested the King for his part hath willingly performed Secondly for the Cause sake it concernes us in Christian Charity to tender the distresses of our Friends abroad it concernes us in honour not to abandon them that have stood for us and if this come not close enough you shall finde our Interest so woven and involved with theirs that the Cause is more ours then theirs If Religion be in perill wee have the most flourishing and orthodoxe Church if Honour be in question the steps and monuments in former ages will shew that our Ancestours have left us as much as any Nation if Trade Commerce be in danger we are Islanders it is our life all these at once lye at stake and so doth our safety and being Lastly in respect of the manner of his Majesties demand which is in Parliament the way that hath ever best pleased the subjects of England and good cause for it for Aides granted in Parliament work good effects for the People they be commonly accompanied with wholesome Lawes gracious Pardons and the like Besides just and good Kings finding the love of their people and the readinesse of their supplies may the better forbear the use of their Prerogatives and moderate the rigour of the Lawes towards their Subjects This way as his Majestie hath told you he hath chosen not as the onely way but as the fittest not as destitute of others but as most agreeable to the goodnesse of his own most gracious disposition and to the desire and weale of his people If this be deferred Necessity and the Sword of the Enemy make way to the others Remember his Majesties admonition I say remember it Let me but adde and observe Gods mercy towards this land above all others the torrent of Warre hath overwhelmed other Churches and Countries but God hath hitherto restrained it from us and still gives us warning of every approaching danger to save us from surprize And our gracious Sovereign in a true sense of it calls together his High Court of Parliament the lively representation of the wisdome wealth and power of the whole Kingdome to joyn together to repell those hostile attempts which have distressed our Friends and Allies and threatned our selves And therefore it behoves all to apply their thoughts unto Counsell and Consultations worthy the greatnesse and wisdome of this Assembly to avoid discontents which may either distemper or delay and to attend that unum necessarium the common Cause propounding for the scope and work of all the debates the generall good of the King and Kingdome whom God hath joyned together with an indissoluble knot which none must attempt to cut or untie And let all by unity and good accord endeavour to pattern this Parliament by the best that have been that it may be a pattern to future Parliaments and may infuse into Parliaments a kinde of multiplying power and faculty whereby they may be more frequent and the King our Sovereign may delight to sit on this Throne and from hence to distribute his graces and favours amongst his people His Majestie hath given you cause to be confident of this you have heard from his royall mouth which neverthelesse he hath given me expresse command to redouble If this Parliament by their dutifull and wise proceedings shall but give this occasion his Majestie will be ready not onely to manifest his gracious acceptation but to put out all memory of those disasters that have troubled former Parliaments I have but one thing to adde and that is As your consultations be serious so let them be speedy The Enemy is beforehand with us and flies on the wings of Succese we may dallie and play with the houre-glasse that is in our powers but the houre will not stay for us and an opportunity once lost cannot be regained And therefore resolve of your Supplies that they may be timely and sufficient serving the occasion Your Counsel your Aid all is but lost if your Aid be either too little or too late And his Majestie is resolved that his affaires cannot permit him to expect it overlong And now having delivered what his Majestie hath commanded me concerning the cause of this Assembly his Majestie willeth that you of the House of Commons repaire to your owne House to make choice of a Speaker whom his Majestie will expect to be presented unto him on Wednesday next at two of the clock The Speaker Sir John Finches Speech March 19. 1627. Most Gracious Sovereign YOur obedient and loyall Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses by your royall Summons here assembled in obedience to your gracious direction according to their antient usage and priviledge have lately proceeded to the choice of a Speaker and whether sequestring their better Judgements for your more weighty affairs or to make it known that their honour and wisdome can suffer neither increase nor diminution by the value or demerits of any one particular Member in what place soever serving them omitting others of worth and ability they have fixed their eyes of favour and affection on Mee Their long knowledge of my unfitnesse every way to undergo a charge of this important weight and consequence gave mee some hope they would have admitted my just excuse yet for their further and clearer satisfaction I drew the curtains and let in what light I could upon my owne inmost thoughts truely and really discovering to them what my self best knew and what I most humbly beseech your royall Majestie to take now into consideration that of so many hundreds sitting amongst them they could have found few or none whose presentation to your Majestie would have been of lesse repute
till his pleasure be first known Thus did the Lord Chief Justice Coke in Raynards Case They say this would have been done if the King had not written but why then was the Letter read and published and kept and why was the Town Clark sent carefully to enquire because the Letter so directed whether these men offered for bayl were subsedy men the Letter sheweth also that Beckwith was committed for suspition of being acquainted with the Gun-Pouder-Treason but no proof being produced the King left him to be bayled The Earle of WARVVICKS speech 21. April 1628. MY Lords I will observe something out of the Law wherein this liberty of the Subjects Person is founded and some things out of Presidents which have been alleadged For the Law of Magna Charta and the rest concerning these points they are acknowledged by all to be of force and that they were to secure the Subjects from wrongfnll imprisonment as well or rather more concerning the King then the Subject why then besides the grand Charter and those 6. other Acts of Parliament in the very point we know that Magna Charta hath been at least 30. times confirmed so that upon the matter we have 6. or 7. and thereby Acts of Parliament to confirm this liberty although it was made a matter of derision the other day in this House One is that of 36. E. 3. No. 9. and another in the same year No. 20. not printed but yet as good as those that are and that of 42. E. 3. cap. 3. so express in the point especially the Petition of the Commons that year which was read by M r. Littleton with the Kings answer so full and free from all exception to which I refer your Lordships that I know not have any thing in the World can be more plain and therefore if in Parliament ye should make any doubt of that which is so fully confirmed in Parliament and in case so clear go about by new glosses to alter the old and good Law we shall not onely forsake the steps of our Ancestors who in Cases of small importance would answer nolumus mutare leges Angliae but we shall yield up and betray our right in the greatest inheritance the Subjects of England hath and that is the Laws of England and truely I wonder how any man can admit of such a gloss upon the plain Text as should overthrow the force of the Law for whereas the Law of Magna Charta is that no Free-man shall be imprisoned but by lawfull judgement of his Peers or the Law of the Land the King hath power to commit without Cause which is a sence not onely expresly contrary to other Acts of Parliament and those especially formerly cited but against Common sence For Mr. Attorney confesseth this Law concerns the King why then where the Law saith the King shall not commit but by the Law of the Land the meaning must be as M r. Attorney would have it that the King must not commit but at his own pleasure and shall we think that our Ancestors were so foolish to hazard their Persons Estates and labour so much to get a Law and to have it 30. times confirmed that the King might not commit his Subjects but at his own pleasure and if he did commit any of his Subjects without a Cause shewen then he must lie during pleasure then which nothing can be imagined more ridiculous and contrary to true reason For the Presidents I observe that there hath been many shewen by which it appears to me evidently that such as have been committed by the Kings Councel they have been delivered upon Habeas Corpus and that constantly It is true that some Presidents were brought on the Kings part that when some of these persons desired to be delivered by Habeas Corpus the King or his Councel signified his Majesties pleasure that they should be delivered or the Kings Attorney hath come into the Court and related the Kings Command but this seems to make for the Subject For that being in his Majesties power to deliver them who by his special Command were imprisoned May not we well think that his Majesty would rather at that time have stayed their deliverance by Law then furthered it with his Letters and made the Prisoners rather beholding to him for his grace and mercy then to the Judges for Justice had not his Majesty known that at that time they ought to have been delivered by Law I think no man would imagine a wise King would have suffered his Grace and Prerogative if any such Prerogative were to be so continually questioned and his Majesty and his Councel so far from commanding the Judges not to proceed to deliver the Prisoner by them committed without Cause shewn as that on the other side which is all the force of these Presidents the King and the Councel signified to the Judges that they should proceed to deliver the parties certainly if the King had challenged any such Prerogative that a Person committed without any cause shewn ought not to be delivered by the Judges without his consent it would have appeared by one President or other amonst all that have been produced that his Majesty would have made some claim to such a Prerogative But it appears to the contrary that in many of these cases the King or his Councel did never interpose and where they did it was alwayes in affirmation and incouragement to that Court to proceed And besides the writing of Letters from his Majesty to the Judges to do Justice to his Majesties Subjects may with as good reason be interpreted that without those Letters they might not do Justice also the King signified his willingness that such such Persons which were committed by him should be delivered therefore they could not be delivered without it which is a strange reason So that findeing the Laws so full so many and so plain in the point and findeing that when ever any were committed without cause shewn brought their Habeas Corpus they were delivered and no Command ever given to the contrary or claim made on the Kings part to any such Prerogative I may safely conclude as the House of Commons have done and if any one President or two of late can be shewn that the Judges have not delivered the Prisoners so committed I think it is their fault and to be enquired of but contrary it seems to me to be an undoubted Liberty of the Subject that if he be committed without cause or without cause shewn yet he may have some speedy course to bring himself to Trial either to justifie his own innocencie or to receive punishment according to his fault for God forbid that an innocent man by the Laws of England should be put in worse case then the most grievous Malefactors are which must needs be if this should be that if a cause be shewed he may have his Trial but if none he must lie and pine in Prison during pleasure
April 1628. Mr. Speaker WE are now upon a great business and the manner of handling it may be as great as the business it self I need not tell you that Liberty is a pretious thing for every man may set his own price upon it and he that doth not value it deserves to be valued accordingly for my own part I am clear without scruple that what we have resolved it according to Law and if any Judge in England were of a contrary opinion I am sure we should have heard of him before now Out of all question the very point the scope and drift of Magna Charta was to reduce the Regal to a Legal power in matters of imprisonment or else it had not been worth so much contending for But there have been Presidents brought to prove the practise and interpretation of the Law I confess I have heard many Presidents of utillity and respect but none at all of truth or of Law Certainly there is no Court of Justice in England that will discharge a Prisoner committed by the King Rege inconsulto without acquainting the King yet this good manners was never made or mentioned as a legal part of the delivery It is Objected that the King ought to have a trust left and deposited in him God forbid but he should And I say that it is impossible to take it from him for it lies not in the wit of man to devise such a Law as should be able to comprehend all particulers all accidents but that extraordinary cases must happen which when they come If they be disposed of for the Common good there will be no Law against them yet must the Law be general for otherwise admissions and exceptions will fret and eat out the Law to nothing God himself hath constituted a general Law of nature to govern the ordinary course of things he hath made no Laws for miracles Yet there is this observation of them that they are rather praeter naturam then contra naturam and alwayes propter bonos fines for Kings Prerogatives are rather besides the Law then against it and when they are directed to right ends for the publick good they are not onely concurring Laws but even Laws in singularity and excelling But to come nearer M r. Speaker let us consider where we are now what steps we have gone and gained the Kings learned Councel have acknowledged all the Laws to have been still in force the Judges have disallowed any Judgement against these Laws the Lords also have confessed that the Laws are in full strength they have further retained our resolution intire and without prejudice All this hitherto is for our advantage but above all his Majesty himself being publickly present declared by the mouth of my Lord Keeper before both the Houses that Magna Charta and the other six Statutes are in force that he will maintain his Subjects in the liberty of their Persons and the propriety of their goods that he will govern according to the Laws of the Kingdom this is a solemne and bindeing satisfaction expressing his gracious readiness to comply with his People in all their reasonable and just desires The King is a good man and it is no diminution to be called so for whosoever is a good man shall be greater then a King that is not so The King certainly is exceeding tender of his present Honour and of his same hereafter he will think it hard to have a worse mark set upon him and his Government then any of his Ancestors by extraordinary restraints his Majesty hath already intimated unto us by a message that he doth willingly give way to have the abuse of power reformed by which I do verily believe that he doth very well understand what a miserable power it is which hath produced so much weakness to himself and to the Kingdom and it is our happiness that he is so foreward to redress it For my own part I shall be very glad to see that good old decrepit Law of Magna Charta which hath so long kept in and lain as it were bedrid I should be glad I say to see it walk abroad again with new vigour and lustre attended by the other six Statutes questionless it will be a general hartning to all the People I doubt not but by a debating conference with the Lords we shall happily fall upon a fair and fit accommodation concerning the Liberty of our Persons and propriety of our goods I hope we have a Bill to agree in the point against imprisonment for Loanes or privy Seals as for intrincical power and reason of State they are matters in the clouds where I desire we may leave them and not meddle in them at all least by way of admittance we may loose somewhat of that which is our own already Yet this by the way I will say of reason of State that in the latitude as it is used it hath eaten out almost not onely all the Laws but all the Religion of Christendom Now M r. Speaker I will onely remember you of one precept and that of the wisest Man Be not overwise be not over just and he cited his reason for why wilt thou be desolate Sir if Justice and Wisedom may be stretcht to desolation let us thereby learn that moderation is the virtue of virtues and the wisedom of wisedomes Let it be our Master-piece so to carry our business as we may keep Parliaments on foot for as long as they are frequent there will be no irregular power which though it cannot be broken at once yet in short time it will fade and moulter away there can be no total and final loss of Liberty but by loss of Parliaments as long as they last what we cannot get at one time we may have at another Let no man think that what I have said is the language of a private end my aim is upon the good success of the whole for I thank God my minde stands above any fortune that is to be gotten by base and unworthy means No man is bound to be rich or great no nor to be wise but every man is bound to be honnest out of which heart I have spoken The Lord KEEPERS speech 28. April 1628. MY Lords Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons I cannot but remember the great and important affairs concerning the safety both of State and Religion declared at first from his own mouth to be the cause of assembling this Parliament the fear whereof as it doth dayly increase with his Majesty so it ought to do and his Majesty doubts not but it doth so with you since the danger encreaseth every day both by effluction of time and preparation of the enemy Yet his Majesty doth well weigh that this expence of time hath been occasion by the debate that hath risen in both Houses touching the Liberty of both Subjects in which as his Majesty takes in good part the purpose and intent of the Houses so clearly and
an accompt of my actions to none but to God alone It is known to every one that a while ago the House of Commons gave me a Remonstrance how acceptable every man may judge and for the merrit of it I will not call that in question for I am sure no wise man can justifie it Now since I am truely informed that a second Remonstrance is preparing for me to take away the profit of my Tonnage and Poundage one of the chief maintenances of the Crown by alleadging that I have given away my right thereof by my answer to your Petition This is so prejudiciall to me that I am forced to end this Session some few hours before I meant it being not willing to receive any more Remonstrances to which I must give an harsh answer And since I see to that end the House of Commons beginneth already to make false constructions of what I granted in your Petition least it be worse interpreted in the Countrey I will now make a Declaration concerning the true intent thereof The profession of both Houses in the time of hammering this Petition was no was to trench upon my prerogative saying they had neither intention nor power to hurt it Therefore it must needs be conceived that I have granted no new but confirmed the ancient Liberties of my Subjects yet to shew the clearness of my intentions that I neither repent nor mean to recede from any thing I have promised you I do here declare that those things which have been done whereby many had some cause to suspect the libertie of the Subject to be trenched upon which indeed was the first and true ground of the Petition shall not hereafter be drawn in example for your prejudice and in time to come in the word of a King you shall not have like cause to complain But as for Tonnage and Poundage it is a thing I cannot want and was never intended by you to ask never meant I am sure by me to grant To conclude I command you all that are here to take notice of what I have spoken at this time to be the true intent and meaning of what I granted in your Petition but especially you my Lords the Judges for to you onely under me belongs the interpretation of Laws for none of the Houses of Parliament either joynt or separate what new doctrine soever may be raised have any power either to make or declare a Law without my consent The Second Remonstrance Most Gratious Soveraign YOur Majesties most Loyall and Dutifull Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled being in nothing more carefull then of the Honour and prosperity of your Majesty and the Kingdom which they know doth much depend upon your happy Union and relation betwixt your Majestie and your people do with much sorrow apprehend that by reason the incertainty of their continuance together the unexpected interruptions which have been cast upon them and the shortness of time in which your Majestie hath determined to end this Session they cannot bring to maturity and perfection diverse businesses of waight which they have taken into consideration and resolution as most important for the common good Amongst diverse other things they have taken in especial care for preparing a Bill for the granting to your Majestie such a subsedy of Tonnage and Poundage as might uphold your profit and revenew in as ample manner as their just care and respect of Trade wherein not onely the prosperity but even the life of the Kingdom would permit but being a work which will require much time and preparation by conference with your Majesties Officers and with the Merchants not onely of London but also of other remote parts they finde it not possible to be accomplished at this time wherefore considering it will be much more prejudiciall to the right of the Subject if your Majestie should continue to receive the same without Authority of Law after the determination of a Session then if there had been a recess by adjournment onely in which case that intended grant would have related to the first day of the Parliament and assuring themselves your Majesty is resolved to observe that your Royall answer which you have lately made to the Petition of Right of both Houses of Parliament Yet doubting lest your Majesty may be misinformed concerning the particular case as if you might continue to take those subsedies of Tonnage and Poundage and other impositions upon Merchants without breaking that answer they are forced by that dutie which they owe to your Majestie and to those whom they represent to declare that there ought not any imposition to be laid upon the goods of Merchants exported or imported without common consent by Act of Parliament which is the right and inheritance of your Subjects founded not onely upon the most ancient and Original constitution of this Kingdom but often confirmed and declared in divers Statute Laws And for the better manifestation thereof may it please your Majestie to understand that although your Royall predecessors the Kings of this Realm have often had such subsedies and impositions granted unto them upon diverse occasions especially for the guarding of the Seas and safe-guard of Merchants yet the Subjects have been ever carefull to use such cautions and limmitations in those grants as might prevent any claim to be made That such subsedies do proceed from duty not of free gift of the Subject and that they have heretofore used to limmit a time in such grants and for the most part but short as for a year or two and if it were continued longer they have sometimes directed a certain space of cessation and intermission that so the right of the Subject might be more evident At other times it hath been granted upon occasions of War for a certain number of years with proviso that if the War were ended in the mean time then the grant should cease And of course it hath been sequestred into the hands of some Subjects to be imployed for the guarding of the coasts and it is acknowledged by the ordinary answers of your Majesties predecessors in their assent to the Bills of subsedy of Tonnage and Poundage That it is of the nature of other subsedies proceeding from the good will of the Subject Very few of your predecessors had it for life until the raign of Hen. 7. who was so far from conceiving he had any right thereunto that although he granted commissions for collecting certain duties and customes due by Law yet he made no commissions for receiving the subsedy of Tonnage and Poundage untill the same was granted unto him in Parliament Since his time all the Kings and Queens of England have had the like grants for life by the free love and good will of the Subject And whensoever the people have been grieved by laying any imposition or other charges upon their goods or Merchandizes without Authority of Law which hath been very seldom yet upon complaint in Parliament
the Communion Tables stood as Tables in Ale-houses but he would have them to be set as High Altars Dr. Moor is to deliver these things in writing to Morrow morning At the Committee for Religion SIr William Bawstrod If we now speak not we may for ever hold our peace when besides the Queens Mass there are two other Masses dayly so that it is grown ordinarie with the out-facing Iesuits and common in discourse Will you go to Mass or have you been at Mass at Somerset-house there coming 500 at a time from Mass. Desires to know by what authoritie the Iesuits lately in Newgate were released Mr. Corington Doubts not but his Majesties intention was good in the Declaration lately published but I conceive it will be made use of onely to our disadvantage that therefore the Declaration made be taken into consideration Sir Richard Gravenor REports the proceedings of this House against Poperie the last Session and what fruits have been thereon Sir Rober Phillips If ever there were a necessitie of dealing plainly and freely this is the time There is an Admission of Priests and Iesuits as if it were in Spain or France this increase of Papists is by connivance of persons in Authoritie Nine hundred and fourtie persons in houses of Religion being English Irish and Scots in the Netherlands maintained by the Papists of England and of this I shall deliver the particulars that we may frame a Remonstrance to the King that unless there be some better performance of his Majesties late answers to so many Petitions our Religion will be past recoverie Mr. Corington That the Papists by Act of Parliament or Laws of State may be removed from their offices which we have just cause to suspect Mr. Selden moveth that these things may be debated in order and first for releasing the Iesuits that were arraigned at Newgate whereof one was condemned they were 10 in number which were Priests who had begun a Colledge here in London about Clarkenwell and these men could not attempt these acts of boldness but they must have great countenancers Secretarie Cook THat a Minister who is said to be himself having notice of these 10 and this Colledge intended to be kept at Clarkenwell That it is plain there was a place appointed for this Colledge and Orders and Relicts prepared This Minister made the King acquainted with it and I should not do my dutie if I should not declare how much his Majestie was affected with it His Majestie refers it to the special care of the Lords of the Councell who examining the same sent these ten persons to Newgate and gave order to Mr. Attorney to prosecute the Law against them That this Colledge was first at Edmonton removed from thence to Camerwell and thence to Clerkenwell Ordered That all the Knights and Burgesses of the House shall to Morrow morning declare their knowledge what Letters or other hinderances have been for the staying of proceedings against Recusants Mr. Long a Justice of Peace who is said to understand much in the business of the Colledge of Iesuits at Clarkenwell is sent for and examined saith by the appointment of Mr. Secretarie Cook he apprehended these persons and took their Examinations and saith further he heard they were delivered out of Newgate by order from Mr. Attorney That Mr. Middlemore or General Soliciter for the Papists hired this house for the Lord of Shrewsburie a Papist and that there are diverse books of account of payments and disbursments to the value of 300 pounds per Annum with diverse Recusants names who allowed towards the maitenance of this Colledge and these books and papers are in the hand of Mr. Secretary Cook Secretarie Cook saith he cannot so amply declare the truth of the proceedings herein untill he have leave from his Majestie One Cross a Pursevant is to be examined upon oath who declareth he could discover diverse stoppages of the execution of the Laws against Recusants Saturday 14. A Complaint against the Lord Lambert a Baron of Ireland and a Member of this House who being a Colonel of Souldiers in Midd. hath imposed Four pence upon every Souldier towards his Officers Charges and the Petitioner for refusing to pay was first set in the Stocks and after by the Lord Lambert committed to a Publick prison It is Ordered that the Lord Lambert shall be sent for to answer this Sir Iohn Epsley desireth leave to answer a Complaint that is in the Lords house of Parliament against him Mr Selden That the use was and citeth Presidents that no Commander could be called to the Lords House but it will trench much to the disadvantage of the Priviledge of this House and untill 18. Iac. there was never President to the contrarie That therefore this may be considered of by a select Committee Ordered that Sir Iohn Epsley shall not have leave Mr. Chancellor of the Dutchie stifly secondeth Mr. Seldens Motion Mr. Secretarie Cook I am as carefull to maintain a good correspondencie with the Lords as any man but connivances in this kind may overthrow the fundamental Rights and Liberties of this House Let it therefore seriously be considered of for this not onely concerneth the Right of this House but the Libertie of the Common-wealth Ordered a select Committee shall be appointed to consider this Mr. Chancellor of the Dutchie delivereth an answer in writing from the Lord Chancellor Trer. and Barons to the Message sent to them Mr. Kirton WE looked for Satisfaction but now you see a Justification of their actions I therefore desire now we may proceed to consider of their proceedings and whether ever the Court of Exchequer held this course before for staying of Replevies and whether these have been done by the Regal Prerogative of the King in his Court of Exchequer It is Ordered that a select Committee of Lawyers Chequer-men shall take this into consideration Mr. Selden We have delayed the proceeding with the Customers expecting some good success from the Chequer but finding it otherwise I desire the Customers may be called to the Barre on Munday next Which is Ordered At the Committee for Religion SIr Thomas Hobbie from the Committee reported for the examination of the Keeper and Clerk of Newgate concerning the Priests there being a Warrant under the Attorneys hand for the deliverie of the Persons a Warrant under the Lord Chief Justices hand according to a Letter which he received from the Lord of Dorset signifying that it was his Majesties pleasure that the Priest condemned should be reprived Another Warrant under the Attorneys hand that the Priests condemned should be reprived and also in the Kings name to release those other nine persons Sir Nathaniel Ritch I am confident the Grace of the King hath been abused in this that therefore the privie Counsellers of this House may know whether it were his Majesties direction It is moved that Mr. Secretarie Cook may first declare his knowledge in this One Cross gave intimation of these persons First
this Land And when according to the Lawes and Statutes of this Realm redresse hath been sought for in a legall way by demanding Habeas Corpus from the Judges and a discharge or triall according to the Law of the Land successe hath failed which hath now inforced the Commons in this present Parliament assembled to examine by Acts of Parliaments Presidents and Reasons the truth of English Subjects Liberties which I shall leave to learned Gentlemen whose weightie Arguments I hope will leave no place in your Lordships memories for the errours and infirmities of your humblest Servant that doth thankfully acknowledge the great favour of your most honourable and patient attention The Argument made by M r Littleton at the command of the House of Commons out of Acts of Parliament and Authorities of Law expounding the same at the first Conference with the Lords concerning the Liberty of the Person of every Free-man My Lords UPon the occasions delivered by the Gentleman that last spake your Lordships have heard the Commons have taken into their serious Consideration the matter of Personall Libertie and after long debate thereof on divers dayes as well by solemn Arguments as single propositions of doubts and answers to the end no scruple might remaine in any mans breast unsatisfied they have upon a full search and cleer understanding of all things pertinent to the Question unanimously declared That no Free-man ought to be committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the command of the King or the Privie Councell or any other unlesse some cause of the commitment detainer or restraint be expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed detained or restrained And they have sent me with some other of their Members to represent unto your Lordships the true grounds of such their resolutions and have charged me particularly leaving the reasons of Law and Presidents for others to give your Lordships satisfaction that this Libertie is established and confirmed by the whole State the King the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons by severall Acts of Parliament The authority whereof is so great that it can receive no answer save by interpretation or repeal by future Statutes And these that I shall mind your Lordships of are so direct to the point that they can bear no other exposition at all and sure I am they are still in force The first of them is the Grand Charter of the Liberties of England first granted in the 17 yeare of King Iohn and renewed in the 9 yeare of King Hen. 3. and since confirmed in Parliament above 30 times Cap. 29. the words are these Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur aut diseisietur de libero tenemento suo vel libertatibus vel liberis consuetudinibus suis aut utlagetur aut exuletur aut aliquo modo destruatur nec super eum ibimus nec super eum mittemus nisi per legale judicium parium suorum vel per legem terrae These words Nullus liber homo c. are expresse enough yet it is remarkable that Matthew Paris an Authour of speciall credit doth observe fo 432. that the Charter of the 9. H. 3. was the very same as that of the 17. of King Iohn in nullo dissimiles are his words and that of King Iohn he setteth down verbatim fol. 342. and there the words are directlie Nec eum in carcerem mittemus and such a corruption as is now in the print might easily happen 'twixt 9. H. 3. and 28. E. 1. when this Charter was first exemplified But certainly there is sufficient left in that which is extant to decide this question for the words are That no Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned but by the lawfull judgement of his Peeres which is by Jury Peeres for Pares ordinary Jurours for others who are their Peeres or by the Law of the Land Which words Law of the Land must of necessity be understood in this Nation to be by due processe of Law and not the Law of the Land generally otherwise it would comprehend Bond-men whom we call Villains which are excluded by the word liber for the generall Law of the Land doth allow their Lords to imprison them at pleasure without cause wherein they only differ from the Free-men in respect of their persons who cannot be imprisoned without a cause And that this is the true understanding of those words per legem terrae will more plainly appear by divers other Statutes that I shall use which do expound the same accordingly And although the words of this Grand Charter be spoken in the third person yet they are to be understood of Suites betwixt partie and partie at least not of them alone but even of the Kings Suites against his Subjects as will appear by the occasion of the getting of that Charter which was by reason of the differences betwixt those Kings and their people and therefore properlie to be applyed to their power over them and not to ordinarie questions 'twixt Subject and Subject The words per legale judicium parium suorum immediately precedeing the other per legem terrae are meant of trialls at the Kings Suit and not at the prosecution of a Subject And therefore if a Peer of the Realm be arraigned at the Suit of the King upon any Indictment of Murther he shall be tried by his Peeres that is Nobles But if he be appealed of Murther by a Subject his triall shall be by an ordinarie Jury of 12 Free-holders as appeareth in 10. Edw. 4. It is said such is the meaning of Magna Charta By the same reason therefore as per judicium parium suorum extends to the Kings Suit so shall these words per legem terrae And in 8. E. 2. Rot. Parliam num 7. there is a Petition that a Writ made under the Privie Seal went to the Guardians of the Great Seal to cause lands to be seized into the Kings hands by force of which there went a Writ out of the Chauncery to the Exchequer to seize against the forme of the Grand Charter That the King or his Ministers shall out-law no man of Free-hold without reasonable Judgement And the partie was restored to his land Which sheweth the Statute did extend to the King There was no invasion upon this personall liberty till the time of King Edw. the 3. which was soon restrained by the Subject For in the 5. E. 3. cap. 9. it is ordained in these words It is enacted that no man from henceforth shall be attached by any accusation nor forejudged of life or limbe nor his lands tenements goods nor cattells seized into the Kings hands against the forme of the great Charter And the Law of the Land 25. E. 3. cap. 4. is more full and doth expound the words of the Grand Charter and it is thus Whereas it is contained in the great Charter of the Franchises of England That no Free-man be imprisoned or put out of his Free-hold nor of
speciali Nos volentes eisdem C. D. E. graciam in hac parte facere specialem tibi praecipimus quod si praedict C. D. E. occasione praedict non alia in Prisona praedict detineantur pro transgressionibus illis secundum legem consuetudinem Regni nostri Angliae replegiabiles existunt c. tunc impos C. D. E. Ã Prisona praedict si ea occasione non alia detineantur in eadem interim deliberari facias per manucapt supradict habeas ibi tunc coram praefat Iusticiar nomina manncapt illorum hoc breve And the exposition of this speciale mandatum domini Regis mentioned in the writ is expounded to be breue domini Regis and thereupon is this writ directed unto the Sheriffe for the delivery of them And so for the branch of the first part I conclude that the speciall command of the King without shewing the nature of the commandment of the Kings is too generall and therefore insufficient for he ought to have returned the nature of the commandment of the King whereby the Court might have adjudged upon it whether it were such a commandment that the imprisonment of Sir Iohn Corbet be lawfull or not and whether it were such a commandment of the King that although the imprisonment were lawfull at the first yet he might be bailed by Law And as for the generall return of speciale mandatum domini Regis without shewing the cause of the imprisonment either speciall or generall I hold that for that cause also the return is insufficient First in regard of the Habeas corpus which is the commandment of the King onely made the 15 of November According to the Teste of the writ commanding the keeper of the Gatehouse to have the body of Sir Iohn Corbet una cum causa detensionis ad subjiciendum recipiendum ea quae curia nostra de eo ad tunc ibid. ordinar contingat So as the commandment of the writ being to shew the cause of his detaining in prison the keeper of the gatehouse doth not give a full answer unto the writ unlesse the cause of the detainment in prison be returned and the Court doth not know how to giue their judgement upon him either for his imprisonment or for his discharge according to the purport of the writ when there is not a cause returned and forasmuch as upon an excommengement certified it hath been adjudged oftentimes that Certificates were insufficient where the cause of the commitment hath not been certified that the Court might adjudge whether the Ecclesiasticall Judges who pronounced the excommunication had power over the original cause according to the book of 14 Hen. 4.14.8 Rep. 68. Trollops case 20 Ed. 3. Excommengement 9. So upon an Habeas corpus in this Court where a man hath been committed by the Chancellour of England by the Councell of England Marches of Wales Warden of the Stanneries High Commission Admiralty Dutchy Court of request Commission of Sewers or Bankrupts it hath severall times been adjudged that the return was insufficient where the particular cause of imprisonment hath not been shewen to the intent that it might appear that those that committed him had jurisdiction over the cause otherwise he ought to be discharged by the Law and I spare to recite particular causes in every kind of these because there are so many presidents of them in severall ages of every King of this Realm and it is an infallible maxime of the Law That as the Court of the Kings Bench and Judges ought not to deny an Habeas corpus unto any prisoner that shall demand the same by whomsoever he be committed so ought the cause of his imprisonment to be shewn upon the return so that the Court may adjudge of the cause whether the cause of the imprisonment be lawfull or not and because I will not trouble the Court with so many presidents but such as shall suit with the cause in question I will onely produce and vouch such presidents whereas the party was committed either by the commandment of the King or otherwise by the commandment of the Privy Councell which Stampford fol. 72. tearmeth the mouth of the King such acts as are done by the Privy Councell being as Acts done by the King himself And in all these causes you shall find that there is a cause returned as well as a speciale mandatum domini Regis c. or mandatum Privati Concilii domini Regis whereby the Court may adjudge of the cause and bail them if they shall see cause In the eighth of Henry the seventh upon return of an Habeas corpus awarded for the body of one Roger Sherry it appeareth that he was committed by the Mayor of Windsor for suspicion of felony and ad sectam ipsius Regis pro quibusdam feloniis transgressionibus ac per mandatum domini Regis 21 Hen. the seventh upon the return of an Habeas corpus sent for the body of Hugh Pain it appeared that he was committed to prison per mandatum dominorum Privati Concilii domini Regis pro suspicione feloniae Primo Henrici Octavi Rot. 9. upon the return of an Habeas corpus sent for the body of one Thomas Harrison and others it appears that they were committed to the Earl of Shrewsbury being Marshall of the houshould Per mandatum Domini Regis pro suspicione feloniae pro homicidio facto super Mare 3 4 Philip. Mariae upon a return of an Habeas corpus sent for the body of one Peter Man it appeareth that he was committed pro suspicione feloniae ac per mandatum Domini Regis Reginae 4 5 Philippi Mariae upon the return of an Habeas corpus sent for the body of one Thomas Newport it appeared that he was committed to the Tower pro suspicione contrafact monetae per privatum Concilium domini Regis Reginae 33 Elizabethae upon the return of an Habeas corpus for the body of one Lawrence Brown it appeareth that he was committed per mandatum Privati Concilii dominae Reginae pro diversis causis ipsam Reginam tangen ac etiam pro suspicione proditionis So as by all these presidents it appeareth where the return is either Per mandatum domini Regis or Per mandatum dominorum Privati Concilii domini Regis there is also a cause over and besides the mandatum returned as unto that which may be objected that per mandatum domini Regis or Privati Concilii domini Regis is a good return of his imprisonment I answer First that there is a cause for it is not to be presumed that the King or Councell would commit one to prison without some offence and therefore this mandatum being occasioned by the offence or fault the offence or fault must be the cause and not the command of the King or Councell which is occasioned by the cause Secondly it apeares that the jurisdiction of
Majestie thereof and with bleeding hearts and bended knees to crave such speedy redress therein as to your own wisdom unto which we humbly submit our selves and our desires shall seem most meet and convenient what the multitude and potency of your Majesties Enemies are abroad what be their malitious and ambitious ends and how vigilant and constantly industrious they are in pursuing the same is well known to your Majesty Together with the dangers threatned thereby to your sacred Person and your Kingdoms and the calamity which hath already fallen and doth dayly increase upon your Friends and Allies of which we are all well assured your Majesty is most sensible and will accordingly in your own great wisdom and with the gravest and most mature Councel according to the exigency of the times and occasions provide by all means to prevent and help the same To which end we most humbly intreat your Majesty first and especially to cast your eyes upon the miserable condition of this your own Kingdom of late so strangely weakned impoverished dishonoured and dejected That unless through your Majesties most gracious wisdom goodness and Justice it be speedily raised to a better condition it is in no little danger to become a sudden prey to the Enemies thereof And of the most happy and flourishing to be the most miserable and contemptible Nation in the World In the discovery of which dangers mischiefs and inconveniences lying upon us we do freely protest that it is far from our thoughts to lay the least aspercion upon your Majesties sacred Person or the least scandal upon your Government for we do in all sincerity and with all joyfulness of heart not onely for our selves but in the name of the whole Commons of England whom we represent ascribe as much honour to your Majesty and acknowledge as much duty as a most loyal and affectionate people can do unto the best King for so you are and so you have been pleased abundantly to express your self this present Parliament by your Majesties clear and satisfactory answer to our Petition of Right for which both we our selves and our posterities shall bless God for you and ever preserve a thankfull memory of your great goodness and Justice therein and we do verily believe that all or most of those things which we shall now present unto your Majesty are either unknown unto your Majesty or else by some of your Majesties Ministers offered under such specious pretences as may hide their own bad intentions ill consequence of them from your Majesty But we assure our selves that according to the good example of your most noble Predecessors nothing can make your Majesty being a Wise and Judicious Prince and above all things desirous of the welfare of your people more in love with Parliaments then this which is one of the principal ends of calling them that therein you may be truely informed of the State of all the several parts of your Kingdom and how your Officers and Ministers do behave themselves in discharge of the trust reposed in them by your Majesty which is scarce possible to be made known unto you but in Parliament as was declared by your blessed Father when he was pleased to put the Commons in Parliament assembled in minde that it would be the greatest unfaithfulness and breach of duty to his Majesty and of the trust committed to them by their Countrey that could be if in setting forth the grievances of the people and the condition of all the parts of this Kingdom from whence they came they did not deal clearly with him without sparing any how near and deer soever they were unto him if they were hurtfull or dangerous to the Common-wealth In confidence therefore of your Majesties gracious acceptation in a matter of so high importance and in faithfull discharge of our duties we do first of all most humbly beseech your Majesty to take notice that howsoever we know your Majesty doth with your Soul abhor that any such thing should be imagined or attempted yet there is a general fear conceived in your people of some secret working and combination to introduce into this your Kingdom innovacion and change of our holy Religion more precious to us then our lives and what ever this World can affoard Our fears and jealousies herein are not meerly conjectural but arising out of such certain and visible effects as may demonstrate a true and real cause For notwithstanding the many good and wholsom Laws and provisions made to prevent the increase of Popery within this Kingdom and notwithstanding your Majesties gracious and satisfactorie answer to the Petition of both Houses in that behalf presented unto your Majestie at Oxford we finde there hath followed no good execution or effect but on the contrary at which your Majestie out of the quick sence of your own Religious heart cannot but be in the highest measure displeased those of that Religion do finde extraordinarie favours and respects in Court from Persons of great quality and power there unto whom they continually resort and in particuler to the Countess of Buckingham who her self openly professing that Religion is a known favourer and supporter of them that do the same which we well hoped upon your Majesties answer to the aforesaid Petition of Oxford should not have been permitted nor that any of your Majesties Subjects of that Religion or justly to be suspected should be entertained in the service of your Majesty or of your Royal consort the Queen some likewise of that Religion have had Honours Offices and places of Command and Authority lately conferred upon them But that which striketh the greatest terrour into the hearts of your Loyal Subjects concerning this point is That Letters of stay of Legal proceedings against them have been procured from your Majesty by what indirect means we know not and Commissions under the great Seal granted and executed for compositions to be made with Popish Recusants with inhibitions and restraints both to the Ecclesiastical and Temporal Courts and Officers to intermeddle with them which is conceived to amount to no less then a toleration odious to God full of dishonour and extream disprofit to your Majestie of great scandal and grief to your good people and of apparent danger to the present estate of your Majestie and of this Kingdom their numbers power and insolencies dayly increasing in all parts of your Kingdom and in special about London and the Suburbs thereof where exceeding many families of them do make their aboad and publickly frequent Mass at Denmark House and other places and by their often meetings and conferences have opportunities of combining their counsels and strength together to the hazard of your Majesties safety and the State and especially in these doubtfull and calamitous times And as our fear concerning change or subversion of Religion is grounded upon the dayly increase of Papists the open and professed enemies thereof for the reasons formerly mentioned so are the hearts of your
I conceive it plain these Customers took the goods in their own right not in the Kings In this Priviledge is plainly broken wherein it is easily determined Mr. Banks In this case there is no interposing of the Kings Right and the King this Parliament hath declared as much That the Courts at Westminster do grant 12 days priviledge to any man to inform his Councel much more the Court of Parliament are to have their Priviledge The Kings Command cannot extend to authorize any man to break the Priviledges no more than it will warrant an entrie upon any mans Land without process of Law Mr. Soliciter If the King have no Right how can he make a Lease then this pretended interest of the Customers must needs be void and therefore the goods must not be taken on their own right but in the right of the King Mr. Selden If there were any right the pretended right were in the Subject First whether Priviledge in goods Secondly whether the right were in the Customers onely Thirdly whether priviledge against the King 1. If the Lords have no priviledge in Parliaments for their goods then have they no priviledge at all for they are priviledged in their persons out of Parliament 2. For the point of interest it is plain no kind of Covenant can alter the interest and questionless had the cause in the Exchequer appeared to the Barons as it doth to us they would never have proceeded as they did 3. If our goods may be seized into the Exchequer be it right or wrong we were then as good have nothing Sir Nath. Ritch 〈…〉 recorded the last Session and citeth other presidents in this House that a servant of a Member in Parliament ought to have priviledge in his goods Mr. Noy saith that these Commissioners had neither Commission nor Command to seize Therefore without doubt we may proceed safely to the other question That the priviledge is broken by the Customers without relation to any Commission or Command of the King Secretarie Cook saith It is in the Commission to seize but the Commission being read it is not found to be there Chancellor of the Dutchie saith Mr. Dawes mentioned that he seized these goods by virtue of a Commission and other Warrants remaining in the hands of Sir Iohn Elliot that therefore these Warrants may be seen whether there be no command to seize these goods Sir Nathaniel Ritch This days debate much joyeth me specially the motion made by Mr. Noy whereby it is plain we have a way open to go to this question without relation to the Kings Commission or Command and desire it in respect there appears nothing before us to incumber the question Chancellor of the Dutchie desires again these Warrants may be look into before we go to the question Mr. Kirton In respect this Honorable Gentleman presseth this so far that it may appear with what judgement this House hath proceeded Mr. Glanveil I consent these Warrants be sent for and read but withall if any thing arise that may produce any thing of ill consequence let it be considered from whence it doth come The Privie Councellers are contented with this Motion The Warrants being sent for and read it is plain there is no Warrant to seize Mr. Kirton If now there be any thing of doubt I desire those Honorable persons may make their objections Chancellor of the Dutchie I rejoyce when I can go to the Court able to justifie your proceedings I confess I see nothing now but that we may safely proceed to the Question Mr. Secretarie Cook saith as much Mr. Hackwell argueth against Priviledge in time of Prorogation Mr. Noy saith he had no doubt but that Priviledge was in force in time of Prorogation untill he heard this Argument of Prorogation of Mr. Hackwell and saith that he hath nothing from him yet that doth alter his opinion and citeth a cause wherein the Lords House hath this verie Prorogation adjudged the Priviledge Mr. Hackwell saith he is glad to hear it is so and he is now of the same opinion Decided by Question That Mr. Rolles ought to have Priviledge of Parliament for his goods seised 30 Octob. 5 Iac. and all sithence This Committee is adjourned untill Munday and the Customers to attend The Protestation of the COMMONS in Parliament on Munday 2. Mar. 1628. 1. WHosoever shall bring in an Innovation in Religion or by favour or countenance seek to extend or introduce Poperie or Arminianisme or other Opinion differing from the true and orthodox profession of our Church shall be reputed a Capital enemie to this Kingdom and Common-wealth 2. Whosoever shall counsel or advise the taking or leavying of the Subsedies of Tonage and Poundage not being granted by Parliament or shall be an Actor or an Instrument therein shall likewise be reputed an Innovator in the Government and a Capital enemie to the Kingdom and Common-wealth 3. If any Merchant or other person whatsoever shall voluntarily yield or pay the said Subsedie of Tonnage or Poundage not being granted by Parliament he shall likewise be reputed a Betrayer of the Liberties of England and an enemie to the same THE KINGS SPEECH in the House of PARLIAMENT Mar. 10. 1628. to Dissolve it My LORDS I Never came here upon so unpleasing occasion it being for the Dissolving of a PARLIAMENT therefore many may wonder why I did not rather choose to do this by my Commission it being the general Maxim of Kings to lay harsh commands by their Ministers themselves onely executing pleasing things But considering that Justice is as well in Commanding of Virtue as Punishing of Vice I thought it necessarie to come here to day to declare to you my Lords and all the world That it was onely the disobedient carriage of the Lower House that hath caused this Dissolution at this time and that you My Lords are so far from being causers of it that I have as much comfort in your Obedience manifested by all your carriage towards me as I have cause to distaste their proceedings Yet that I may be clearly understood I must needs say they do mistake me wondrously that think I lay this fault equally on all the Lower House for I know there are many there as dutifull Loyal Subjects as any are in the world I know that it was onely some Viâ—pers among them that did cast this mist of disobedience before their eyes although there were some there that could not be infected with this Contagion insomuch that some by their speaking which indeed was the general fault on the last day of the House did shew their obedience To conclude my Lords as those ill-affected persons must look for their reward so you that are here of the Higher House may justly claim from me that protection and favour that a good King bears to his Loyal and Faithfull Subjects and Nobilitie Now my Lords execute that which I Command you Lord KEEPER MY Lords and Gentlemen of the House of Commons the KINGS Majestie