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A54943 Scotland mourning: or, A short discovery of the sad consequences which accompanies the delay of the setling judicatories in that nation. By Robert Pittilloh advocate. Pittilloh, Robert, 1621?-1698. 1659 (1659) Wing P2312; ESTC R218256 7,277 8

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SCOTLAND MOURNING OR A Short DISCOVERY OF THE Sad CONSEQUENCES Which accompanies the Delay of the setling Judicatories in that NATION By Robert Pittilloh Advocate 1 CHRON. 22.16 Arise therefore and be doing and the Lord be with thee ESTHER 4.16 I will go in which is not according to law and if I perish I perish LONDON Printed in the year 1659. SCOTLAND MOURNING OR A short Discovery of the Sad Consequences which accompanies the delay of the setling Judicatories in that Nation TO every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the Heaven saith the Wiseman and among other things a time to keep silence and a time to speak And if ever there was a fit time to speak it is when the Cause of the Dumb is pleaded and iniquity not only done But when there is hazard that it shall be established by a Law If full information be not given concerning the truth of Affairs The consideration whereof makes me look upon it as my duty at this time to give a word of Information to the Supream Authority concerning the desolate condition of the Nation of Scotland by want of Justice and the sad affliction it should further undergoe if the setling of Judicatories shall be delayed for any long space upon closing of the Union of any other pretence whatsoever It may seem to some impertinent for me to use such freedome in so high a concernment but beside that every member of the body albeit the meanest ought naturally to care for the good of the whole in time of a dangerous Tempest every Passenger in a Ship ought to put to his hand and albeit in a Calme his service would have been accompted Officious yet in such a case when the Storme is over if he have been instrumentall in preserving the Ship none will defraud him of his deserved Commendation I am not ignorant of the envy and hatred it may procure at the hands of some of my Countreymen here knowing how much some of them have already smitten me with the Tongue making their Arrowes flye in secred upon groundless imaginations against me and if I durst follow the prudentiall consideration of self interest I should put my Seal to whatsoever they say but when I consider that the fearfull and unbelieving shall receive the same dispensations of wrath from God And that Job reckons it among the chief of his vindications from the Calumnies of his Friends did I fear a great multitude or did the contempt of Families terrifie me that I kept silence and went not out of the Doore I am taught intentionally not to do any thing against the Truth but for the Truth neither shall I write any thing which justly may give offence to any sober spirit knowing that men may be of different apprehensions being all of pure hearts and innocent hands and if by this Truth all shall be discovered Lovers of Truth will rejoyce therein if otherwise I have but lost my labour and published my own weakness The thing to be considered is Whether it be fit and expedient to delay the setling of the Courts of Justice in Scotland and Officers necessary for carrying on the Administration of Justice before them till the Vnion betwixt Scotland and England be closed or not The Negative we contend for For clearing whereof we shall first examine the meaning of this expedient secondly the reasons thereof and thridly remonstrate the many sad consequences that accompany it which shall be as so many Arguments against it As to the first The meaning and sence of it cannot be till the Parliament ratifie and confirm the Act of Union past in the time of the late Protector Because it is humbly conceived neither could it stand with the honour of the Parliament side implicita to ratifie that Act nor if it had been intended would the Parliament or their Counsell have made any reference to Scotsmen for considering the expediency of the setling Judicatories before or after the closing thereof nor had it b●n wothy their consultation seeing it is obvious to the meanest capacity that an Act of ratification of this nature and for setling of Judicatories might have been past in one and the self same day at different houres after they were prepar'd The true and genuine sence of it then must be till the Union betwixt the two Nations be closed in a legall and solid way to the rationall satisfaction of both For effectuating whereof It is humbly conceived 1. Commissioners lawfully chosen must come from Scotland for Treating of the matter or meet with Commisioners of Parliament upon the place appointed by them for that Effect For to pass an Act of Union without their constent were to make a forced Marriage without consent of Parties and if any in their name should consent without Commission such cousent would be ipso jure null as to the thing and crimen false in a high degree to the Actors 2. Examination of the legall elections and qualifications for non fieri non rite fieri in jure ●parificantur 3. The matter must be debated and conditions of the Union held forth pondered and accepted and if Commissioners of Parliament shall be sent to Scotland for that purpose if any thing fall out dubious expresses must be sent up to the Parliament for resolution for the answers whereof they must wait before they bring the matter to a period 4. The Act must be prepared and past Lastly Before writes can be emitted in name of the keepers of the liberties of England and Scotland Commissioners from Scotland lawfully chosen by warrant of the Parliament must be set down in Parliament as sharers in the Authority For it seems contrary to Law and reason that the Parliament of England can be cald keepers of the liberty of Scotland till Members of that Nation be a part of their number having an intrinsick repugnance in it self in so far as it is to them meerly a Provinciall Government Diametrally opposit to the liberty of a free People to be governed only by the representatives of another Nation There being as yet no Order of Parliament Issued forth for chosing Commissioners in Scotland for Treating of the Union nor Commissioners of Parliament appointed if it shall be found needfull to meet with them upon the place the Journey being long the matter weighty and of great concernment the Persons interested many of various Judgments and different abilities with many other dilatory circumstances considered It cannot in reason be presumed that before the expiring of five or six Moneths time albeit gone about with the greatest alacrity the Uunion can be brought to such perfection as that Commissioners of Scotland lawfully chosen may be sitting in the Parliament of England without which they cannot be cald keepers of the liberty of Scotland besides that it is not impossible that the closing of this Union may be interrupted for at me by unexpected emergencies So that in plain english the sense of it in
it self is It is fit and expedient to delay the setting of the Courts of Justice in Scotland c. as yet for five or six Moneths in coming and if at that time the Vnion be not closed that accordingly this be delayed albeit I am so charitable as to believe it is not intended by those who are of this Judgment tha● it shall be for so long a space But it may be obiected the Parliament may close the Union upon the consent given by the Commissioners for Scotland in Anno. 1652. To which it is answered 1. Quod possibile est esse possibile est non esse 2. Those who choose wisely among probables consider that which is most probable as the ground of her actings and we humbly conceive it is more probable the Parliament will not close the Union upon that consent for these reasons First Though it be the same Parliament and Authority that then was yet virtually and consequentially the consent seems to be interrupted in so far as it was to their Commissioners because of the Act of Union past by the single Person wherein Scotland was forced to acquiesse having no power to resist 2. That consent being now near seaven years old cannot be presumed to be so effectuall for engaging Scotland cordially to concurre with England in the common concernment as it would be being renewed if a man had so long been kept at a distance from his intended Wife a more intimate renovation of their acquaintance would be thought necessary before the consumation of the Marriage 3. The exercise of the present Authority having been for so long a time interrupted it is humbly conceived it will be found necessary that by a new consent Scotland do acknowledg the present Authority and that they are lawfully again cald to the exercise thereof Lastly The nature and conditions of the Union having never as yet been examined and approved by the present Parliament when they fall upon the debate if it shall be found necessary that any thing therein be altered or that any new thing be added thereto without new representatives of the Nation they have none to confer with about the same The second particular is the foundation whereon this expedient is built or the Arguments brought for strengthening of it which so far as we can learn are 1. It would be a means to cause the Union to be slighted forgotten or delayed 2. It is not fit Writs in Scotland should be emitted in name of the keepers of the liberties of England but Scotland also To the first it is answered If the setling of Judicatories be a ground of slighting or delaying the Union it must be so either to the Parliament or People of Scotland but neither can rationally be said ergo c. not the first because according to the Principles both of reason and sound Divinity the performing of one duty is so far from indisposing them for the performance of another that it rather habituats and further enables them for a second so that it were bad Logick so to reason because the Parliament hath done one duty to Scotland therefore they will neglect another They must pardon me to say they have hard thoughts of the Parliament of England without reason who fears the delay of the union because of the setling of Judicatories there when their Army in Anno 1650. whom they then did and to this day do own declared in Scotland Their consciences did bear them record they did above any thing in the world desire the union of the two Nations and that it was their daily prayer that those that feared the Lord in England and Scotland might become one in the hand of the Lord and joyn together in the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and throwing down and trampling upon the seat of the Beast And when in order to the setling of this union the present Parliament in Anno 1652 with the first convenience sent their Commissioners to Scotland for that effect Not the second First Because it cannot be imagined that the people of Scotland will be averse from the union are any people so foolish as to choose rather to be a Province than a free people Secondly It is evident in reason the more favours the Parliament confers upon them the more cordiall they will be in the union and cheerfull thereto the greater loveliness one extream perceives in the other the larger desire it hath to be united thereto To the second it is answered It cannot be conceived where the difficulty lieth for either it must be because of the indignity Scotland sustains by issuing forth Writs in name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England or because some confusion will follow upon the change when the union is closed The first cannot be alleaged for these reasons First the overturning of the Government in a single Person having taken the originall of it here it is no indignity for Scotland to emit Writs in name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England till they may likewise with Commissioners from Scotland become Keepers of the Liberties of Scotland it being impossible it should be otherwise for the time Secondly It is known to all England and Scotland and many hundreds of thousands more that Scotland is now under the power of the Parliament of England as the only supream Authority which rules and governs them and therefore emitting Writs which will never be published in any place but in their own Nation can be neither an addition to nor publication of this condition Thirdly It is but the continuing Writs in that same form they were in in Anno 1632 and thereafter till the erection of the late Protector Fourthly It is but the emitting Writs in that same form for the peoples good and advantage wherein Orders of their suffering for payment of Custom Sess and Excize are emitted Fiftly There can be no more absurdity for Writs to be issued forth in name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England than for Sheriffs and Justices of Peace to keep Courts in Scotland in their name magis minus non variant speciem As to the second it is cleer no confusion of Process or other Writs whatsoever can follow upon change of the Style when the union shall be closed by former experience in so far as at the erection of the deceased Protector no man who had a summons executed in name of the Keepers of the Liberty c. was ever put to the renewing of them nor any who had an Execution upon a Charge put to the renewing of his Letters yea which is further no person who had an Action depending in the late Kings time before the Lords of Session was put to that trouble as to begin the same de novo before the Commissioners for administration of Justice but only to waken it notwithstanding the change of Government As to the third besides many particulars which I will not enumerate there are these sad consequences following