the Lords of the Session in all time coming and that as well in the case of a total as of a single Vacancy This being the Vote so declaimed against and in contempt whereof and in opposition whereunto some Persons having surreptitiously and fraudulently obtained Warrant Countenance and Authority from the King are so vent'rous as to dare to act We shall both with all the Loyalty and Modesty that becomes a Subject and an honest Man and yet with that freedom and plainness which one who hath no other design save to serve God his King and his Country with uprightness and integrity should value himself upon endeavour to vindicate the Wisdom as well as the Justice of the Parliament in the forementioned Vote In the performing whereof with all that exactness which brevity will allow I shall begin with an account of the first Administration of Civil Justice in the Kingdom of Scotland that we meet with in our Records For the College of Justice consisting of those called the Lords of the Session not having been institute till the Reign of King James the Fifth Anno 1537. The Administration of Justice was before that time not only ambulatory and itinerant but was discharged and executed by such Members of Parliament as the Estates of the Kingdom in their several Sessions elected from among themselves and authorized thereunto Nor had they only their whole Authority from the Estates in Parliament but to speak properly they were Committees of Parliament Authorized to such a Work and Office and accountable to Parliaments for the discharge of the Trusts committed unto them for the Domini electi ad causas whom we so often meet with in the Records of Parliament particularly in those of the Years 1524. 1526. 1528. were such Members as every respective Parliament elected from within their own Walls for the Administration of Justice between the King and his Lieges and between one Subject and another From whence it appears that it not only appertained unto the Parliament to see that Justice was duly administred but that the Right was originally in them of nominating and ordaining the Administrators of it Which makes it very improbable that after rheir having been possessed of such a Right Authority and Jurisdiction for so long time they should so wholly part from and intirely surrender it as upon no Occasion or Emergency whatsoever to leave unto themselves a share or reserve a concern in it Let us add to this That when the College of Justice came to be instituted Anno 1â—37 Parl. 5 King James the 5 th Act 36. though it was Established and Ordained by the Legislative Authority of the King and Estates joyntly and not by an exertion of meer Royal Prerogative yet the Estates in Parliament then Assembled both took upon them and were allowed the Nomination and Choice of the President as well as of all that were then called forth and advanced to be Lords of the Session or College of Justice as appears by the 39. and 41. Acts of the aforementioned Parliament Yea it is further evident from the Records of Parliament that the Estates of the Kingdom did often in succeeding Parliaments Nominate Choose and Impower those very Lords that were actually of the Session to continue in the Administration of Justice which sheweth beyond all rational contradiction that they could much less â—nter upon the Office at first without their being Chosen and Approved by the Estates 〈◊〉 â—arliament Thus Anno 1542. being the first of Mary we find the President with the rest of the Lords of Session Chosen and Impowered a new as Auditores ad causas for the hearing and deciding Civil and Criminal Causes And again we find the Parliament of the Second of Mary Anno 1543. not only ratifying by the Legislative Authority of the Queen and Estates the Institution of the College of Justice but we find the Estates alone nominating and choosing ad causas the President cum caeteris Dominis Sessionis Collegii Justitiae But forasmuch as there was a change given afterwards by Laws to this Course and Method and a new Regulation ordained by subsequent Statutes of the College of Justice wherein both the qualifications of those that are to be Chosen Lords of the Session and the manner of their Approbation are required and appointed We are therefore obliged in the next place to look into those Laws and to examine whether they detract from the Prudence and weaken the Justice of the Parliament in their fore-mentioned Vote or whether they not only Countenance and Suppport but Justifie and Vindicate them And We 'll begin with the 93 Act 6 Parliament James 6 where it being acknowledged That the Nomination of the Lords of the Session belongeth unto the King and that he ought to name such as have the Qualifications there required which are already specified in the aforesaid Vote It is further added That in all time coming when an ordinary Place becomes vacant in the Session the Person nominated thereunto by the King shall be sufficiently tryed and examined by a sufficient number of the Ordinary Lords of the College of Justice for whom it shall be Lawful to refuse the Person presented unto them and that the King in that Case shall present another and that so often until the Person presented be found qualified But seeing this Act may be said to have passed in the minority of King James and the force of it be thereupon endeavoured to be eluded We will therefore consult Act 134. Parl. 12. James 6. wherein besides a Repetition and a Confirmation of all that is mentioned and ordained in the former Act there is further added That none shall be received to any Place of Senator in the College of Justice unless he be sufficiently tryed by the whole College of Justice Now as those are the Laws relating unto and regulating the Nomination Examination and Approbation of the Ordinary Lords of the College of Justice the Practice hath been in all Times conformable thereunto So that the First Parliament of King Charles the Second which through the prevailing of the like Folly and Madness in Scotland which then reigned in England rob'd the Kingdom of many of its Rights and Privileges to increase and inlarge the Prerogative of the Crown yet they were so â—ender of making any Innovations in his particular that by their Second Act of that Parliament they Ordain The Nomination of the Lords of Session to remain as in former Times preceding the Year 1637. And accordingly we find as there have been several who upon single Vacancies in Former Reigns had been rejected by the Lords of the College of Justice though nominated by our Kings So there was one Sir William Ballanden whom Charles the Second had nominated and recommended who upon examination by the rest of the Lords was refused and rejected as a Person not Qualified according to the Statutes of the Realm Is it not therefore unreasonable to be imagined That the King who
THE LATE PROCEEDINGS AND VOTES OF THE PARLIAMEMT of SCOTLAND Contained in an ADDRESS Delivered to the KING Signed by the Plurality of the Members thereof Stated and Uindicated Scilicet res ipsa aspira est at vos non timetis sed inertia mollitia animi alius alium expectantes cunctamini videlicet diis immortalibus confisi qui hanc rempubl in maximis saepe periculis servavere At non votis neque suppliciis muliebribus auxilia deorum parantur Vigilando agendo bene consulendo prospere omnia cedunt ubi socordiae tete atque ignaviae tradideris nequicquam deos implores irati infestique sunt Cato apud Salust GLASGOW Printed by Andrew Hepburn Anno Dom. 1689. THE LATE Proceedings and VOTES OF THE PARLIAMENT OF SCOTLAND c. TO remain silent under the Aspersions which some busy but either weak or ill Men are endeavouring to fasten not only upon the Proceedings but upon divers of the most Honourable and Loyal Members of Parliament were to be no less treacherous to his Majesty than careless of the Reputation of that whole Illustrious Body as well as of the Integrity of those Persons who are said to have so much influenced the Transactions of it and whose chief Crime with those that Malign and Traduce them is their having expressed so much Affection and Zeal for His Majesty's Person and Service And as the representing their Actions in a true Light is all that is needful both to justify and commend them so whosoever will be at the pains to examine them will find them adjusted to all the Rules of Law Religion and Policy And as it is not to be doubted but that whensoever the Parliament Assembles they will both vindicate their Proceedings in Customary and Legal Methods and exert that Authority which is essential to them over those of their own Members by whom they have been slandered so all that is now to be endeavoured in their behalf is to vouchsafe unto the English Nation to whom they have been misrepresented such a brief Account of their Transactions with the Occasions Reasons and Motives of them as may not only manifest the Wisdom and Loyalty of that Parliament but demonstrate beyond all contradiction that the only design they have been pursuing was to preserve and maintain His Majesties Honour secure and establish him an Interest in the Love and Hearts of his People and make His Throne firm and durable It is too evident either to be denied or Apologized for that all the Laws Priviledges and Rights of the Kingdom of Scotland have under the Late Reigns been not only Usurped upon and Invaded but Subverted and Overthrown For by gradual Inlargements of the Prerogative beyond what was allowed by the Rules of the Constitution and the Statutes of the Realm the legal and regular Monarchy of the Nation was swelled into an Arbitrary and Despotick Power So that all the Franchises and Rights which by Original Contracts and Subsequent Laws had been reserved unto the People were either overthrown or enjoyed precariously And we are compelled to say that the Coalition of Scotland with England under one Monarch without a Union between the Two Nations into one Legislative Body and Civil Government hath given great advantages to our Late Princes of treating us with a Rigour and Loftiness that our Ancestors were not accustomed unto And though a small Acquaintance with the Politicks might have instructed the English that whatsoever received a first Impression amongst us would sooner or later obtain a second Edition amongst them yet they seem'd either not to have foreseen or at least not to have resented it until the Original of King Jame's Absolute Power in Scotland which all Men were bound to obey without reserve was copied over in England in his Claim of Soveraignty in dispensing with those Laws that were the Fence about their Safety It was from the unconcernedness which the English have too often testified not to say the countenance they have given in Relation to the Usurpation of our late Kings over the Laws and Liberties of Scotland that those Princes have despised the Applications made unto them as well by Parliaments as by the Nobility and Gentry for redressing their Grievances and that the Nation remained so long discouraged from relieving it self in those Methods that were left it And as the Scots did for many Years sadly feel and experience into what Excess their Kings grew up in Usurping upon their Laws and Liberties from a hope and confidence of being justified and supported in those Invasions by the Strength and Treasure of England So the English cannot be altogether insensible how Charles the Second not only confronted their Bill of Exclusion in England with an Act in Scotland for the Hereditary Succession of his Brother but what large Breaches he was encouraged to make upon their Rights and Priviledges after his having obtained an Assistance of 22000 Men to be enacted and granted unto him by Law in Scotland and those to be used in what places and upon what occasions he should please to imploy them Nor are we able sufficiently to express our Obligations to His Present Majesty who being extremly sensible that our remaining disunited in our Governments and two distinct Monarchies though link'd together under one Monarch hath been one of the great Occasions and chief Sources of our common Miseries and Oppressions and being desirous both to redeem us from the illegal Sufferings we have already felt and to obviate those which might break in upon us under future Reigns hath therefore invited the Nations to such an Union of strength Councils and Legislative Authority as may render them a Defence to each other and not Instruments and Tools of enslaving one another and a mutual Prey Which as all wise and good Men do earnestly long for so the common Interest of the two Nations obliges them speedily to endeavour But we are forced to add that besides the Encouragement which our late Princes have assumed unto themselves of Usurping upon the Rights and Liberties of Scotland from an expectation of being supported in it by the Power and Wealth of England There is another Cause unto which much of their Invasion upon the Scot's Priviledges is to be ascribed and unto which we are forced to resolve many of our Miseries as the Spring whence they have flowed For upon the Succession of our Kings to the Crown of England and their fixing their Royal Abode and Regal Seat in that Kingdom they are thereupon fallen into a Method of deriving their knowledg of Scotish Laws and Customs of being informed of the Grievances of that Nation and of receiving Impressions of Persons and Things from one or two Ministers chosen to reside about them and in order thereunto advanced into Places of Honour and Trust and who too often have been found to want either the Honesty Wisdom or Courage requisite in those upon whom so much comes to be devolved Surely the World hath had sufficient Evidence in
first and for a long tract of time afterwards they were not so much as a Committee of Articles of and to that Parliament by which they were chosen and of which they were Sitting and actual Members but were only so in reference to the next Parliament that should succeed against whose meeting they were to prepare such things as they should judge to be most fit and expedient to be then taken into consideration but still with a right as well as with a liberty reserved to that future Parliament not only to receive or reject what should be thus maturated and offered unto them but to admit whatsoever Overtures they pleased that should be made unto any of the Members of their own House It was the Ancient Custom and Practice of Scotland that the Sitting Parliament antecedently to its Dissolution and Separating elected so many from among themselves who were in the interval betwixt that and the next Parliament to make inquiry into the necessities of the Lieges and into the State of the Kingdom and accordingly to draw up and prepare such Overtures as should carry that relief and remedy in them which might give a redress unto Grievances be a meanâ— of preserving the Nation in safety and of promoting the prosperity of the Subjects Now from this harmless beginning of the Committee of Articles it hath through the Usurpation of our Kings especially after their Succession to the Crown of England and the remove of their Royal Abode thither and through the officiousness of publick Ministers to the Prince and treachery to their Countrey grown up at last to that exorbitancy that it is not only become burthensome but intolerable For by reason of the Parliaments coming at last to commit the inspection into all Affairs and preparing all remedies unto Grievances into a few hands and those to be unchangeable during a whole Session Our Late Monarchs obtained such a handle whereby they might incroach upon the Jurisdiction of Parliaments and the Liberties of the People that they soon improv'd it to the eluding of all the good that the Kingdom was to expect from Parliaments and to the making those who were designed to be the means of our safety become the Instruments of our Ruin. For the accomplishment whereof and the more effectual rendring the Lords of Articles Vassals unto the Monarch's Will and Tools for executing his Pleasure they first prevailed to have the Officers of State admitted into that Committee as Supernumeraries and that without being Nominated and Elected by the Estates in Parliament they should have a right to sit there Ratione Officii by vertue of the Imployments they held in the Government For King James the Sixth being by the adulation of the English Bishops brought intirely over to their Interest as well as to their Opinions about Church Discipline and Worship and having a mind in requital to the Church of Scotland for all the kindness they had expressed to him both in his Infancy and riper years to obtrude upon them the English Ceremonies he did in order to the more easie effectuating of it flatter cajole and bribe as well as huff and awe the Parliament Anno 1621. to allow the Officers of State to Sit as Supernumeraries without being chosen in the Committee of Articles And thus he forced those Innovations commonly known by the Name of the Five Articles of Perth upon the poor Church of Scotland having by those Supernumerary Officers not only so moulded the Committee of Articles as to pass and present them but thereby laid the Foundation of their being ordained and enacted in the House And to make the Lords of Articles yet more grievous and intollerable King Charles the First whose invasions upon the Rights and Liberties of his People proved Fatal both to him and them overthrew the Ancient Method of their Elections and brought the choice of them into such a Channel as could issue in no less than Tyranny in the Soveraign and Slavery in the Subjects For whereas by Law and Custom the Lords were to choose the Lords and the Barons to choose the Barons c Charles the First did in his Parliament held Anno 1633. when he was in the heigth of his Greatness change and innovate this Method and having divested the whole respective Estates of choosing severally their respective Commissioners he assumed a Power to himself with a right of consigning it over to his Commissioner in Parliament for chusing Eight Bishops consigning to the said Eight Bishops a Power of chusing Eight Noblemen and restraining to the said Eight Noblemen together with the aforesaid Eight Bishops a Power of choosing Eight Barons and Eight Burgesses and that these in conjunction with the Officers of State as Supernumeraries should be the whole and sole Lords of Articles exclusive of all others Finally to render that Committee yet more insupportable the sole Right as well as Liberty of bringing in Motions of making overtures for redressing Wrongs and of proposing means and expedients either for the relief or the safety and benefit of the Subject is intirely restrained unto and lodged wholly in this Committee Neither is it by our late Practice lawful for any Member or Members that are not of that packt Club and Society to make the least proposal or motion either for the repealing of an ill Law or for the enacting of a good So that I would now hope that the meer representing of this Committee of Articles as it is now transformed and degenerated from what it formerly was is enough to justify the Vote of the present Parliament about the having that grievance redressed and to vindicate them from the Obloquie they have lain under for insisting upon having Parliaments loosened from those Fetters For where is the Liberty of Speech and Voting essential to a Legislative Body if Parliaments must be thus muzled How-is a Kingdom eluded out of all the good that they expect from any Parliament if their Representatives may neither lay open their Sores nor offer Plaisters in order to their Cure How miserably would things have proceeded in the late Meeting of Estates if nothing was to have been before them but what a Committee where Eight Scotch Bishops were to have the Electing of Eight Noblemen and they together the chusing of the rest with King James's Officers of State Supernumerary that should have prepared Overtures for that Great and Illustrious Assembly I dare say That the being bound up to such a Method would have more effectually secured the Throne to King James than all the Swords of his Partizans Nor can Parliaments be designed for any thing under such a Constitution of a constant Committee with the Officers of State Supernumerary but to enlarge the Prerogative of the Crown and to levy Money from the People But Blessed be God His Majesty wants not Inclination to deliver his People from this and from all other Grievances but only wants Persons about him to set them in that Light that he may discern them