thereby p. 205. What persons ought to be Jury men and how Qualified p. 209. Jurors in Antient Law-books call'd Judges p. 211. Of the Duty of Grand Juries p. 212. Their Oath p. 213. That Juries are Judges of Law in some respects as well as Fact p. 220. to p. 223. That Juries are not fineable or any way to be punished under pretence of going contrary to Evidence or against the Judges Directions p. 223. The Conclusion Bushels Case reported by the Learned Sir John Vaughan Licensed by the present Lord Chancellor the Lord Chief Justice North and all the Judges then in England THE PROEM THE Constitution of our English Government the best in the World is no Arbitrary Tyranny like the Turkish Grand Seignior's or the French Kings whose Wills or rather Lusts dispose of the Lives and Fortunes of their unhappy Subjects Nor an Oligarchy where the great ones like Fish in the Ocean prey upon and live by devouring the lesser at their pleasure Nor yet a Democracy or popular State much less an Anarchy where all confusedly are hail fellows well met But a most excellently mixt or qualified Monarchy where the King is vested with large Prerogatives sufficient to support Majesty and restrain'd only from Power of doing himself and his People harm which would be contrary to the very end of all Government and is properly rather weakness than power the Nobility adorn'd with Priviledges to be a Screen to Majesty and a refreshing Shade to their Inferiours and the Commonalty too so Guarded in their Persons and Properties by the fence of Law as renders them Free-men not Slaves In France and other Nations the meer Will of the Prince is Law his Word takes off any mans Head imposes Taxes or seizes any mans Estate when how and as often as he lists and if one be Accused or but so much as suspected of any Crime he may either presently Execute him or Banish or Imprison him at pleasure or if he will be so Gracious as to proceed by Form of their Laws if any two Villains will but swear against the poor Party his Life is gone Nay if there be no Witnesses yet he may be put to the Rack the Tortures whereof make many an Innocent Person confess himself Guilty and then with seeming Justice he is Executed or if he prove so stout as in Torments to deny the Fact yet he comes off with Disjoynted Bones and such Weakness as renders his Life a Burthen to him ever after But in England the Law is both the Measure and the Bond of every Subjects Duty and Allegiance each man having a fixed Fundamental Right born with him as to Freedom of his Person and Property in his Estate which he cannot be deprived of but either by his consent or some Crime for which the Law has Impos'd such a Penalty or Forfeiture For all our Kings take a solemn Oath At their Coronation to Observe and cause the Laws to be kept which was done by our present most Gracious Soveraign Likewise all our Judges take an Oath wherein amongst other points they swear To do equal Law and Right to all the Kings Subjects Rich and Poor and not to delay any Person of Common Right for the Letters of the King or of any other Person or for any other Cause But if any such Letters come to them they shall proceed to do the Law the same Letters notwithstanding Therefore saith Fortesoue who was first Chief Justice and afterwards Lord Chancellor to King Henry the 6th in his Book de Laudibus Legum Angliae cap. 9. Non potest Rex Angliae c. The King of England cannot alter nor change the Laws of his Realm at his pleasure For why he Governeth his People by Power not only Royal but also Politick If his Power over them were only Regal then he might change the Laws of his Realm and charge his Subjects with Tallage and other Burthens without their consent and such is the Dominion that the Civil Laws purport when they cry Quod principi plecuit Legis habet Vigorom The Princes pleasure has the force of a Law But from this much differeth the power of a King whose Government over his People is Politick For he can neither change Laws without the consent of his Subjects nor yet charge them with Impositions against their Wills Wherefore his People do frankly and freely enjoy and occupy their own Goods being Ruled by such Laws as they themselves desire Thus Fortescue with whom Accords Bracton a Reverend Judge and Law-Author in the Reign of King Henry the third saying Rex in Regno suo superiores habet Deum Legem The King in his Realm hath two Superiors God and the Law for he is under the Directive though not Coercive Power of the Law and on the same Score Judge Vaughan speaking of our Fundamental Laws which are Coeval with the Government sticks not to say The Laws of England were never the Dictates of any Conquerors Sword or the Placita or good Will and pleasure of any King of this Nation or to speak Impartially and Freely the Results of any Parliament that ever sate in this Land And the late cited Fortescue in his 13 chap. has a very apt similitude to Illustrate and Demonstrate this The Law says he taketh its name a Ligando to bind for thereby the Politick Body is knit and preserv'd together as the Natural Body by the Bones and Sinews and Members which retain every one their proper Functions And as the Head of a Body Natural cannot change his Sinews nor cannot deny or with-hold from his inferiour Members their peculiar Powers and several nourishments of Blood and Spirits no more can a King which is the Head of a Body Politick change the Laws of that Body nor withdraw from his People their proper Substance against their Wills and Consents in that behalf 'T is true the Law it self affirms The King can do no wrong which proceeds not only from a presumption that so Excellent a Person will do none But also because he Acts nothing but by Ministers which from the lowest to the highest are answerable for their doings so that it a King in Passion should command A. to kill B. without process of Law A. may yet be prosecuted by Indictment or upon an Appeal where no Royal Pardon is allowable and must for the same be Executed such Command notwithstanding This Original happy frame of Government is truly and properly call'd an English mans Liberty a Priviledge not to exempt from the Law but to be freed in Person and Estate from Arbitrary Violence and Oppression A greater Inheritance saith Judge Cook is deriv'd to every one of us from our Laws that from our Parents For without the former what would the latter signifie And this Birth-right of English-men shines most conspicuously in two things 1. Parliaments 2. Juries By the first the Subject has a share by his chosen Representatives in the Legislative or Law-making Power for
what they Swear or if we do not find as the Judge directs we may come into trouble the Judge may Fine us c. I Answer this is a vain fear No Judge dare offer any such thing you are the proper Judges of the matters before you and your Souls are at stake you ought to Act freely and are not bound though the Court demand it to give the Reasons why you bring it in thus or thus for you of the Grand-Jury are sworn to the Contrary viz. To keep secret your fellows Counsel and your own and you of the Petty Jury are no way obliged to declare your motives it may not be convenient T is a notable Case before the Chief Justice Anderson in Q. Eliz. daves A Man was Arraigned for murder the Evidence was so strong that 11. of the Jury were presently for finding him Guilty the 12th man refused and kept them so long that they were ready to starve and at last made them comply with him and bring in the Prisoner not Guilty The Judge who had several times admonisht this Jury-man to join with his Fellows being surprized sent for him discoursed him privately to whom upon promise of Indempnity he at last own'd that he himself was the man that did the Murder and the Prisoner was Innocent and that he was resolv'd not to adde Perjury and a second Murder to the first But to satisfie you that a Jury is no way punishable for going according to their Conscience though against seeming Evidence and the Reasons why they are and ought not to be question'd for the same I shall here Recite an Adjudged Case that of Bushel in the two and twentieth year of His Majesty Reported by the Learned Sir John Vaughan whose Book is Licensed by the present Lord Chancellor the Lord Chief Justice North and all the Judges then in England the said Case begins fol. 135. and continues 150. The whole well worth Reading but I shall only Select Certain Passages The Case was this BUshel and others of a Jury having at a Sessions not found Pen and Mead Two Quakers Guilty of a Trespass Contempt Vnlawful Assembly and Tumult whereof they had been Indicted were fined forty pound a man and Committed till they should pay it Bushel brings his Habeas Corpus and upon the Return it appeared he was Committed For that contrary to Law and against full and Clear Evidence openly given in Court and against the Directions of the Court in matter of Law they had Acquitted the said W. P. and W. M. to the great Obstruction of Justice c. Which upon solemn Argument was by the Judges Resolved to be an Insufficient Cause of fining and committing them and they were discharged and afterwards brought Actions for their Dammage The Reasons of which Judgment are reported by Judge Vaughan and amongst them he Useth these that follow which I shall give you in his own words Fol. 140. One fault in the Return is That the Jurors are not said to have Acquitted the persons Indicted against full and manifest Evidence Corruptly and Knowing the said Evidence to be full and manifest against the Persons Indicted For how manifest soever the Evidence was if it were not manifest to them and that they Believed it such it was not a Finable fault nor Deserving Imprisonment Vpon which Difference the Law of punishing Jurors for false Verdicts principally Depends And Fol. 141. I would know whether any thing be more Common than for two men Students Barristers or Judges to deduce Contrary and opposite Conclusions out of the same Case in Law And is there any Difference that two men should Infer distinct Conclusions from the same Testimony is any thing more known than that the same Author and place in that Author is forceably urg'd to maintain contrary Conclusions and the Decision hard which is in the Right is any thing more frequent in the controversies of Religion than to press the same Texts for Opposite Tenets How then comes it to pass that two persons may not apprehend with Reason and Honesty what a Witness or many say to prove in the Vnderstanding of one plainly one thing but in the Apprehension of the other clearly the contrary thing must therefore one of these Merit Fine and Imprisonment because he doth that which he cannot otherwise do preserving his Oath and Integrity And this is often the Case of the Judge and the Jury And Fol. 142. I conclude therefore That this Return charging the Prisoners to have Acquitted P. and M. against full and manifest Evidence first and next without saying that they did know and Believe that Evidence to be full and Manifest against the Indicted persons is no Cause of Fine and Imprisonment In the Margent of that Fol. 142. it is thus Noted Of this Mind were ten Judges of Eleven the Chief Baron Turner gave no Opinion because not at the Argument And in the same fol. 142. he saith The Verdict of a Jury and Evidence of a Witness are very Different things in the Truth and Falshood of them a Witness swears but to what he hath heard or seen generally or more largely to what hath fallen under his Senses But a Jury-man swears to what he can Inferr and conclude from the Testimony of such Witnesses by the Act and force of his Understanding to be the Fact Inquired after which differs nothing in Reason though much in the Punishment from what a Judge out of Various Cases consider'd by him Infers to be the Law in the question before him If the meaning of these Words finding against the Direction of the Court in matter of Law be That if the Judge having heard the Evidence given in Court for he knows no other shall tell the Jury upon this Evidence the Law is for the Plaintiff or for the Defendant and you are under the pain of Fine and Imprisonment to find accordingly and the Jury ought of duty so to do then every man sees that the Jury is but a troublesome delay great Charge and no use in determining Right and Wrong and therefore the Tryals by them may be better Abolished than continued which were a strange new found Conclusion after a Tryal so Celebrated for many hundred Years It is true if the Jury were to have no other Evidence for the Fact but what is Deposed in Court the Judge might know their Evidence and the Fact from it equally as they and so direct what the Law were in the Case though even then the Judge and Jury might honestly differ in the Result from the Evidence as well as two Judges may which often happens but the Evidence which the Jury have of the Fact is much otherwise than that For 1. Being Returned of the Vicinage where the Cause of Action ariseth the Law supposeth them thence to have sufficient Knowledge to Try the matter in Issue and so they must though no Evidence were given on either side in Court but to this Evidence the Judge is a stranger 2. They may have Evidence from their own Personal Knowledge by which they may be assured and sometimes are that what is deposed in Court is absolutely false but to this the Judge is a stranger and he knows no more of the Fact than he hath Learned in Court and perhaps by false Depositions and consequently knows nothing 3. The Jury may know the Witnesses to be Stigmatized and Infamous which may be unknown to the parties and consequently to the Court. Fol. 148. To what end is the Jury to be Returned out of the Vicinage where the Cause of Action ariseth to what end must Hundredors be of the Jury whom the Law supposeth to have nearer knowledge of the Fact than those of the Vicinage in General to what end are they Challenged so scrupulously to the Array and Poll to what end must they have such a certain Free-hold and be Probi Legales homines and not of Affinity with the party concern'd to what end must they have in many Cases the View for Exacter Information chiefly to what end must they undergo the Punishment of the Villanous Judgment if after all this they Implicitly must give a Verdict by the Dictates and Authority of another Man under Pains of Fines and Imprisonment when Sworn to do it according to the best of their own Knowledge A man cannot see by anothers Eye nor hear by anothers Ear no more can a man conclude or Infer the thing to be Resolved by anothers Vnderstanding or Reasoning and though the Verdict be right the Jury give yet they being not assured that it is so from their own Vnderstanding are Forsworn at least in foro Conscientiae Fol. 149. And it is Absurd to Fine a Jury for finding against their Evidence when the Judge knows but part of it for the better and greater part of the Evidence may be wholly unknown to him and this may happen in most Cases and often doth Thus far Judge Vaughan whose words I have faithfully Recited and with it shall conclude this Subject Recommending those that would be further satisfied in the Law touching the Power and Duty of Juries to those two Excellent Learned Treatises lately published the one Intituled A Guide to English Juries c. to be Sold by Mr. Cockeril at the Three Legs over against the Stocks-Market the other The Security of English-mens Lives or the Trust Power and Duty of the Grand Juries of England Printed for Benj. Alsop in the Poultrey both which are extreamly well worthy of every English mans Perusal that is liable to be call'd to that Office And now I shall take Leave of the Reader who I hope will join with me and all English Protestants in this Prayer THat Almighty God would preserve our Religion put a stop to the Growth of Popery Confound all their Plots Protect our present Gracious King Defend us both from a Forreign Yoak and Domestick Slavery but continue to us the Enjoyment of our good old Laws Liberties and Priviledges and bring all those to exemplary Justice that have or shall dare attempt to Subvert Diminish or Vndermine them Amen FINIS 1 See Book of Oaths p. 1. 3. 2 Bakers Cron. sol 741. 3 Book of Oaths p. 216. ☞
five Year of our Reign Sententia lata super Chartas The Sentence of the Clergy against the Breakers of the Articles above written IN the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Amen Whereas our Sovereign Lord the King to the Honour of God and of Holy Church and for the common profit of the Realm hath granted for him and his Heirs for ever these Articles above written Robert Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England admonished all his Province once twice and thrice Because that shortness will not suffer so much Delay as to give knowledge to all the People of England of these presents in Writing We therefore enjoyn all Persons of what Estate soever they be that they and every of them as much as in them is shall uphold and maintain these Articles granted by our Sov L. the K. in all points And all those that in any point do Resist or break or in any manner hereafter procure Counsel or any ways assent to resist or break those Ordinances or go about it by word or deed openly or privily by any manner of Pretence or Colour We the foresaid Arch-bishop by our Authority in this Writing expressed do Excommunicate and accurse and from the Body of our Lord Jesu Christ and from all the Company of Heaven and from all the Sacraments of Holy Church do Sequester and exclude NOTES It may be observed that this Curse is left out of our late Printed Statute-Book though inserted at large in that Printed in three Volumns in Queen Elizabeth's days Anno. 1557. There is likewise another like dreadful but more full and express Curse Solemnly pronounced before in the time of King Henry 3d. which being also omitted in our Modern Statute-Book I shall add here for the Readers satisfaction The Sentence or Curse given by the Bishops against the Breakers of the Great Charter IN the Year of our Lord One thousand two hundred and fifty three the Third day of May in the great Hall of the King at Westminster in the Presence and by the assent of the Lord Henry by the Grace of God King of England and the Lord Richard Earl of Cornwal his Brother Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk Marshal of England Humphry Earl of Hereford Henry Earl of Oxford John Earl Warren and other Estates of the Realm of England William Boniface by the Mercy of God Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England F. of London H. of Ely S. of Worcester E. of Lincoln W. of Norwich G. of Hereford W. of Salisbury W. of Durham R. of Exeter M. of Carlile W. of Bath E. of Rochester T. of Saint Davids Bishops apparelled in Pontificials with Tapers burning against the Breakers of the Churches Liberties and of the Liberties or other Customs of the Realm of England and namely of those which are contained in the Charter of the Common Liberties of England and Charter of the Forrest have denounced the Sentence of Excommunication in this Form By the Authority of Almighty God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and of the Glorious Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of all Apostles and of all Martyrs of Blessed Edward King of England and of all the Saints of Heaven We Excommunicate Accurse and from the Benefits of our Holy Mother the Church we Sequester All those that hereafter willingly and maliciously deprive or spoil the Church of her Right And all those that by any Craft or Wiliness do Violate Break Diminish or Change the Churches Liberties and free Customs contained in the Charters of the Common Liberties and of the Forr est granted by our Lord the King to Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates of England and likewise to the Earls Barons Knights and other Freeholders of the Realm And all that secretly or openly by Deed Word or Council do make Statutes or observe them being made and that bring in Customs or keep them when they be brought in against the said Liberties or any of them the Writers the Law-makers Councellors and the Executioners of them and all those that shall presume to judge against them All and every which Persons before mentioned that wittingly shall commit any of the Premises let them well know that they incurr the foresaid Sentence ipso facto i. e. upon the Deed done And those that Commit ought ignorantly and be admonished except they reform themselves within 15 dayes after the time of the admonition and make full satisfaction for that they have done at the will of the Ordinary shall be from that time forth wrapped in the said Sentence and with the same Sentence we burden all those that presume to disturb the Peace of our Soveraign Lord the King and of the Realm To the perpetual Memory of which thing we the foresaid Prelates have put our Seals to these presents So Zealous were our Ancestors to preserve their Liberties from encroachments that they employed all the strength of humane Policy and Religious Obligations to secure them intire and inviolate And since this Act is still in as much force as the Act against Conventicles I cannot fadome the Reason why our Prelates should not as well hold themselves obliged twice a Year to accurse the Infringers thereof as to Prosecute Protestant Dissenters However we may note that by this Statute Chap. 2. it is expresly provided that if any Judgments be given from that time forwards against any of the points of Magna Charta they shall be annull'd and holden for nought therefore Quaere whether the conviction of Protestant Dissenters by a Justice and spoiling them of their goods without any Trial and Conviction by a Jury which is expresly against the 29 Chapter of Magna Charta ought not to be taken notice of and redress'd and the original Promoters thereof to be Curs'd by my Lords the Bishops as aforesaid A Statute made Anno 34 Edw. 1. commonly called de Tallageo non Concedendo CHAP. I. The King or his Heirs shall have no Tallage or Aid without consent of Parliament NO Tallage or Aid shall be taken or Levied by Us or our Heirs in our Realm without the good Will and Assent of Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land CHAP. II. Nothing shall be purveyed to the Kings Vse without the Owners consent NO Officer of ours or of our Heirs shall take Corn Leather Cattel or any other Goods of any manner of Person without the good Will and Assent of the Party to whom the Goods belonged CHAP. III. Nothing shall be taken of Sacks of Wooll by Colour of Maletot NOthing from henceforth shall be taken of Sacks of Wooll by colour or occasion of Maletot CHAP. IV. All Laws Liberties and Customs confirmed WE Will and Grant for Us and our Heirs That all Clerks and Lay-men of our Land shall have their Laws Liberties and free Customs as largely and wholly as they have used to have the same at any time
great or highly in favour at Court but sooner or later they hit him and it proved his Ruine Take a few examples King Edw. the second dotes upon Pierce Gaveston a French Gentleman he wastes the Kings Treasures has undeserv'd Honours conserred on him affronts the antient Nobility The Parliament in the beinning of the Kings Reign Complains of him he is banisht into Ireland The King afterwards calls him home and marries him to the Earl of Glocesters Sister the Lords complain again so effectually that the King not only consents to his second Banishment but that if ever he returned or were found in the Kingdom he should be hâ—ld and proceeded against as an Enemy to the State Yet back he comes and is received once more by the King as an Angel who carries him with him into the North and hearing the Lords were in Arms to bring the said Gaveston to Justice plants him for safety in Scarborough Castle which being taken his Head was Chopt off In King Richard the Seconds time most of the Judges of England to gratifie certain corrupt and pernicious Favourites about the King being sent for to Nottingham were by Perswasions and Menaces prevailed with to give false and Illegal Resolutions to certain questions proposed to them declaring certain matters to be Treason which in truth were not so For which in the next Parliament they were called to Account and Attainted and Sir Robert Tresilian Lord Chief Justice of England was drawn from the Tower through London to Tyburn and there Hanged As likewise was Blake one of the Kings Council and Vske the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex who was to pack a Jury to serve the present Turn against certain Innocent Lords and others whom they intended to have had taken off and five more of the Judges were Banisht and their Lands and Goods forfeited And the Archibishop of York the Duke of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk three of the Kings Evil Councellors were forced to fly and died miserable Fugitives in Forreign Parts In the beginning of King H. the 8ths Reign Sir Richard Empson Knight Edmond Dudley one of the Barons of the Exchequer having by colour of an Act of Parliament to try People for several Offences without Juries committed great oppressions were proceeded against in Parliament and lost their Heads In the 19 Year of the Reign of King James at a Parliament holden at Westminister there were shewn saith Bakers Chron. Fo. 418. two great Examples of Justice which for future Terrour are not unfit to be here related one upon Sir Giles Mompesson a Gentleman otherwise of Good parts but for practising sundry abuses in erecting and seting up new Inns and Ale-houses and exasting great Summes of Money of people by pretence of Letters Patents granted to him for that purpose was sentenced to be degraded from his Knighthood and disabled to Bear any Office in the Common-Wealth though he avoided the Execution by Flying the Land But upon Sir Francis Mitchel a Justice of Peace of Middlesex and one of the Chief Agents the sentence of Degradation was Executed and he made to ride with his face to the Horse tail through the City of London The other Example was of Sir Francis Bacon Viscount St. Albans Lord Chancellour of England who for Bribery was put from his place and Committed to the Tower In King Charles the firsts time most of the Judges that had given their opinions contrary to Law in the Case of Ship-Money were call'd to Account and forced to Fly for the same And in the 19th year of our present Sovereign the Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellour of England being questioned in Parliament and retiring thereupon beyond the Seas was by a special Act Banished and Disabled In a word it was well and wisely said of that excellent Statesman Sir William Cecil Lord Burleigh and High Treasurer of England That he knew not what an Act of Parliament might not doe which Apothegm was approved by King James and alleadged as I remember in one of his published Speeches And as the Jurisdiction of this Court is so transcendent so the Rules and Methods of Proceedings there are different from those of other Courts For saith Cook 4. Instit fo 15. As every Court of Justice hath Laws and Customs for its Direction some by the Common Law some by the Civil and Canon Law some by Peculiar Laws and customes c. So the High Court of Parliament suis propriis Legibus Consuetudinibus Subsistit Subsists by it's own Peculiar Laws and Customs It is Lex Consuetudo Parliamenti the Law and Custom of Parliament that all weighty matters in any Parliament moved concerning the Peers or Commons in Parliament assembled ought to be determined adjudged and discussed by the Course of the Parliament and not by the Civil Law not yet by the Common Laws of this Realm used in more Inseriour Courts Which was so declared to be Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Parliaments according to the Law and Custom of Parliament concerning the Peers of the Realm by the King and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the like pari ratione for the same reason is for the Commons for any thing moved or done in the House of Commons and the rather for that by another Law and Custom of Parliament the King cannot take notice of any thing said or done in the House of Commons but by the Report of the House of Commons and every Member of the Parliament hath a Judicial place and can be no Witnâ—â—â— And this is the Reason that Judges ought not to give any opinion of a Matter of Parliament because it is not to be decided by the Common Laws but Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Parliamenti according to the law and Custom of Parliament And so the Judges in diverse Parliaments have confessed And some hold that every offence Committed in any Court panishible by that Court must be punished proceeding Criminally in the same Court or in some higher and not any Inferiour Court and the Court of Parliament hath no higher Thus Cook Great complaints have been made about a late House of Commons sending for some Persons into Custody by their Serjeant at Arms but certainly they did no more therein then what their Predecessiors have often done every Court must be supposed Armed with a power to desend it self from Affronts and Insolencies In all Ages when the House has appointed particular Committees hath it not been usual to order that they shall be impower'd to send for Papers Persons and Records But to bring Men to a sober Consideration of their Duty and Danger I shall give a few Instances besides those before mentioned of what the House of Commons hath done in former Ages 1. Anno 20. Jacobi Doctor Harris Minister of Bletchingly in Surry for misbehaving himself by Preaching and otherwise about Election of Members of Parliament upon complaint was called to the Bar of the House of Commons and there as a Delinquent on his Knees
Faces with confidence without a Protection either in or out of Parliament Who are no less apprehensive of a Bayliff than of the growing greatness of the French and dread not Popery half so much as an Out-Lawry Will you secure them within the Walls of the house of Commons who were better secured within the Walls of a Common Goal Who can never pay their debts Contracted by their Prodigality but out of your Purses and must run you in to get themselves out of their Mortgages These mens fear of being dissolved makes them submit to any thing rather than be left to the unmerciful Rage of their hungrey Creditors who have so long fasted for their money For all such persons though some of them may be lookt upon as honest fair-Conditioned Gentlemen and good House-keepers are in danger of being Tempted to repair the decays of their own private Fortunes by the Ruine of the Publick Moreover the Choosing of such broken Fortunes decays Trade and ruins whole Families insomuch that I have known it drive many men contrary to their own Inclinations to wish never to see Parliaments more in England In a word if Beggers ever come to be your Representatives how can they Judge what is expedient for the Nation to spare whose only Care is to get a piece of money to spend 4. As you are not unadvisedly to Choose such as retain to the Court at home so much less are you to Elect any such as have their dependance upon Forreign Princes or States these are under strong obligations to see you ruined for your own Reason will tell you that no Forreign Power will prodigally throw away his Pistoles where he expects not an Harvest answerable to his Seed 'T is possible this Caution may not be unnecessary for 't is more than suspected that there are some such degenerated Englishmen who having forsaken he Interest of their Native Countrey have sold themselves to an Outlandish Interest that they may the better gratify their own Ambition and those Potent Lusts which their own meaner Fortunes could not otherwise seed and satiate 5. Be not over-fond to receive Bribes and Gratifications from persons that would fain make a prey of you and by their purses lavish treats and entertainments would allure you to prostitute your voices for their Elections you may be assured they would never bid so high for your Suffrages but that they know where to make their Markets Chuse the worthy unwilling person before the complemental unworthy man whose extraordinary forwardness prognosticates he seeks not your good but his own seperate from the publick Let us not play the fools or knaves to neglect or betray the Common Interest of our Country by a base Election let neither Fear Flattery nor Gain Biass us Consider with your selves what losers you will be if to laugh and be merry one day the person you choose should give you and your children occasion to mourn for ever after Say not he 's but a single person one man cannot do such hurt Silly men what if all other places should be as bad as your selves then all the house would be of a peice and besides don't you know that sometimes a single man has carried a Vote which perhaps was no less mischeivous than Irretrievable think how Justly the gallant antient Heathens may upbraid this baseness of us Christians when as they sacrificed many of their children nay and oftentimes their own Lives for the good of their Country so on the contrary do we sacrifice or at least Happ-Hazard both our Religion Lives Children and Countrey for the Swinish pleasure of a day or two's debauchery 6. Make not your publick choice the Recompence of private Favours 't is not pleasing a Neighbour because rich and powerfull but saving of England that you are to regard Neither pay nor return private obligations at the cost of the Nation Sir John is a pretty Gentleman and treats people Civilly and my Landlord is a good man and has been kind and Esquire such an one is our next Justice of peace but yet I will not give my voice contrary to my conscience or have an hand in a choice that may ruine my Country to gratify any or all of them Let not such engagements put you upon dangerous Elections as you Love the Liberties and the Freedom of your Posterity But tell them in this affair they must hold you excused for that the weight of the matter will well bear it this is your Inheritance all may depend upon it 't is a more Modest request if they would desire you to give them that Freehold and Estate that qualifies you for an Elector than to press you to be for a man that in your conscience you think unfit or not so fit as his Competitor for so weighty a Trust Men don't use ro Lend their Wives or give their Children to satisfie personal Kindnesses nor ought you to make a Swop of your Birthright and that of your Posterities too for a mess of pottage a Feast or a lusty Drinking bout there can be no proportion here and therefore none must take it ill that you use your freedom about that which in its constitution is the great Bulwark of all your antient Liberties 7. Have a care of Ambitious men and non-Residents such as Live most about the Town and not with their Estates in the Country These seek Honours and Preferments above and little or never embetter the Country with their expences or Hospitality for they are too much for themselves to Act vigorously for the advantage of their Country or if in the house they do for a while Swagger a little and Speak it briskly 't is only that the Court may take notice of them and take them off by some preferment and then these false Patriots shall be the only sticklers for unbounded Prerogative 8. Be resolved against all Temptations to choose no Minors What will you be content with sucking Statesinen and Beard-less Politicians and Rehoboams Counsellors then expect for well you deserve to be lasht with Scorpions Can you Judge them fit to dispose of your Liberties Lives Estates and Religion who cannot legally dispose of their own Estates or themselves What security can they give you that they will not give away yours and you whose Bond in the eye of the Law will not betaken for 40 s but sure your own experience of what such young Green Persons have been and done in former Parliaments hath I hope learned you sufficient wisdom not to chuse the like again 9. Elect no prodigal or Voluptious persons for besides that such are not regular enough to be Law-makers they are commonly Idle and though possibly they may wish well to your Interest yet they will rather lose it than their Pleasures they will scarce leave one of their Nightly Revellings to give you their attendance and Service next day and therefore they are not to be relyed upon And upon this occasion I shall borrow the words of