Holland or Germany and as I went not with the Duke so my return in his Train was purely accident For my Religion as I was born of Protestant Parents so I was all along bred a Member of the Church of England and by the Grace of God will live and die in this Profession for it is not so much owing to the chance of Education as to my choice being satisfi'd by Reason by Scripture and the Laws of my Country no inconsiderable Argument that of all it is the most purely Christian Since I was seventeen years of Age I have gone duly to Church and several times in every Year receiv'd the Sacrament I did so twice while in Fianders as Dr. Lake and Dr. Doughty the Duke's Chaplains and others can witness and I have done so six times since my return thence there are in this Honourable House that can testify some part of this Truth I have taken the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy eleven times am ready to submit to all further injunctions of Law in matters of Religion have in Disputes encounter'd tho unwillingly with many of the several Orders abroad remain'd unshaken in my Principles This at Ghent putting a Jesuit more zealous than the rest into great Passion made him pronounce me obstinate and declare He cou'd sooner bring over ten of the most rigid Phanaticks of England than hope to make me a Proselyte Now if all this be not sufficient to wipe off the imputation of Popery I consess I am to seek for a clefence Among other 't is objected That by my Interest in his R. H. I got my Brother made a Bishop in opposition to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and contrary to Merit To this I answer That my Brother has been as much and as injuriously though not so publickly defam'd as I that he came off with Honour that a peek between two great Lords of that Kingdom and one of the greatest of this did not only prevent his being sooner promoted but was the occasion of his being bespatter'd with many falshoods and calumnies that few in Ireland deserve it better that what he enjoys he obtain'd not in opposition to though without the recommendation of the chief Governour nor by the mediation of the Duke but of a great Minister in the presence of my Lord Bishop of London from the King 's immediate Grace openly shewn in Council and with a particular mark of His Royal Favour I hope 't is no Crime to honour and revere the Duke as he is a Prince or if a private Man to love and value his innate Worth and Qualities or to have said as it is reported I wish nothing else had been with less Truth That I wou'd hazard my Life and Fortune to do him any lawful and just Service If it be a Crime as I can no ways apprehend of the Brother of my King while publickly pray'd for in all the Churches of the three Kingdoms I confess my self guilty But I am not so wedded to his Interests as to espouse or pursue them if he can have any such contrary to the Duty I owe and ever will pay my Soveraign my Country my Religion and my God. And I do here most solemnly protest as I hope for Heaven if I knew him in any instance a Conspirator or a Traytor I wou'd not only detest but endeavour to bring him to publick Justice and if ever he can be prov'd a Criminal of this nature I will have no more respect nor regard but less for him than I wou'd for any common Offender And therefore without the hopes of Reward or the fears of Punishment I cleclare in the presence of the Almighty if I knew any part of the Papish-Plot or the Persons concern'd in 't I wou'd long since have reveal'd the whole Contrivance But none in their senses can believe that a known Protestant cou'd be made privy to such a Conspiracy to which if necessary might be added that I was in a Country remote from that where the Design is said to be hatch'd I own my self of so extensive a Charity as to love the persons of all honest Men notwithstanding their differing from me in opinion about the Modes and Circumstances of Religion and to be for Liberty of Conscience when consistent with the safety of the state to all quiet and peaceable Dissenters But when 't is urg'd and made use of to other ends or as a Cloak for Rebellion or Treachery I abominate all such Indulgence But I will no longer dwell on this Subject than to mind you of Collonel Mansel's mistake or forgetfulness when he informs this Honourable House That in or about July 1678. I din'd at his Treat for a German Lord in or der to a Design of his upon a Forreign Command and that 2 or 3 days after Ishou'd advise him against it telling him the Duke wou'd very soon have occasion for such Officers First I do say to have said so was no Crime But I easily see through this Artifice 't is to serve as an argument that I understood somewhat of the Plot of which I am as ignorant as any man living beyond what I have since learnt from the Prints and publick Fame In the next place I do utterly deny I ever said the words because I do not know the Duke had any such Design and am certain I connot invent Besides by many circumstances needless here to mention that Dinner was after the Courts return from Windsor and consequently after the breaking forth of the Plot. I desire the Gentleman wou'd recollect himself at that time he was very great and intimate with a Roman Catholick H. N. from whom if he heard not the words as I am not apt to imagine I am confident he dream'd them He cannot be ignorant that I knew why he was disbanded in Ireland c. and that I always declin'd not only as having no Interest but as unwilling for other reasons to introduce him to the Duke as he often press'd and therefore he made his application to others but with as ill success And now give me leave I beseech you Mr. Speaker to answer an Objection that I shou'd have prescrib'd a way how the King shou'd live without Parliaments I am so far from entertaining such a thought that I ever esteem'd the Constitutions of England by King Lords and Commons the happiest kind of Government in the world and if the discourse called The Rise and Tower of Parliaments c. be mine of which many will have me the Author the reading it wou'd be of this a sufficient Confutation In that Parliaments are magnifi'd their power rather enlarg'd than lessen'd and their frequent meetings recommended as most convenient In a word whatever Character my Adversaries have given of me I am not a Protestant in Masquerade I can neither Lie nor Dissemble I am really what I profess and as the word is commonly taken no lover of Arbitrary Government in any single or complicated Body As to
Discovery to make the House was ready to receive it To this he reply'd That as to the Plot he cou'd have none but he had another relating to himself viz. To know what was his Crime and who his Accusers and that he might according to the Laws of the Land answer for himself To this was said They knew his Parts were not much short of the Person 's he succeeded and that he must not think to impose upon so great and wise an Assembly by studi'd Words and Speeches Mr. S. reply'd If he cou'd he wou'd not endeavour by any Rhetorical flourishes to deceive them with Falshoods That he design'd nothing but Truth very plainly worded That he hop'd their Justice would give him leave to vindicate himself and shew the unreasonableness of running down a Man upon general Sarmises and malicious Reports or of concluding him guilty before he was Heard or Convicted Hereupon he was order'd to withdraw and after some short Debate call'd in and allow'd the Favour he desir'd but with Caution not to be tedious Being thus permitted he began the following Speech out of which he omitted very little and is the same in Substance with what he writ in several Letters to Members of the Committee appointed for his Examination viz. The Lord Aunesley Sir R. Clayton and Sir Rovel Gwin The Speech of Mr. Tho. Sheridan after his Examination before the late House of Commons On Wednesday the 15th of December 1680. T Is I confess Sir a great Misfortune to fall under the Displeasure of the Honourable House of Commons it is a Burden no Man tho' never so great is able to bear It cannot then be a wonder if so inconsiderable a Person and of so little strength as I shou'd stoop under the weight Not that I fear any Danger to my Person but grieve for the wounds it gives my Reputation which I have always valu'd above my life and that it might be preserv'd spotless I have ever made it my study to keep a good Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man And Therefore I little expected to be brought as a Criminal to This Bar or any Tribunal But I am convinc'd Innocence is no security against the Darts of Envy or Malice and that he who will hazard his Body or his Soul may take away the Life and Fame of any one at pleasure 't is to men of such principles I owe my present Trouble I do not say this to reflect upon any Member of this Great and Honourable Assembly My Evil is from without Doors and I know the Authors and the Contrivance so well that if it were convenient I cou'd name them and trace the whole Chain Link by Link to the first hammer'd by Prejudice and particular Interest I do not wonder that in the present Circumstances you shou'd have one Ear open to all reports that any way relate to the publick this is due to your Station and to your Prudence And because Justice and your Honour require it I as little doubt your reserving the other Ear for the Pleas and Defence of the Accus'd or that you will Condemn any Man unheard Upon this assurance it is that I am bold to beg with all due respect and reverence that I may have liberty to speak for my self without interruption If you are pleas'd to grant me this favour I will use it as fully and briefly as I can for your satisfaction and my own vindication I have been represented I hope without offence I may say traduc'd for so I can make it appear for a person of no Fortune a Papist a second Coleman and what is more rediculous tho' not more false a Jesuit and the Duke's Confessor In clearing my self from these Aspersions I must be sorc'd to say something which nothing but necessity that either has none or breaks all Laws can excuse from vanity As that I was born a Gentleman of one of the Antientest Families and related to many Considerable in Ireland in one County there is a Castle and a large Demean and in another a greater tract of Land for several Miles together yet known by our Name I need not say who was the head or chief 't is too much that my Grandfather was the last that enjoy'd the Estate and that my Father left an Orphan in the beginning of King Jame's Reign soon found himself dispossess'd and expos'd to the World that whole County with five others in Vlster being intirely escheated to the Crown My Parents Protestants my Mother a Gentlewoman of England of good Fortune a Foster who for my Fathers sake quitted her Country and her Relations both fam'd for honesty for their Loyalty and Sufferings in the late Rebellion when my Father scap'd twice narrowly with his Life and at last was forc'd to fly for relieving and protecting both the Fortunes and Persons of very many English To my Birth I had a suitable Education I have some slender pretence to Letters am not altogether a Stranger to the Civil-law nor the Laws of England the means intended for my Livelihood But without my seeking or knowledge some Friends procur'd for me the Collectorship of the Customs of Cork and the management of most of the Inland Revenue of that County This Imployment and the Accidents attending it together with that of the East-India Prizes and others in the last War with Holland put into Kinsale enabl'd me to bring for my own proportion of Advance-money for the present Revenue-Farm of Ireland 9532 l. as appears upon Record in the Chancery of England and being by a Brother of mine then here without my privity or desire engag'd in this undertaking and a stranger to all the Partnership excepting one June last was three years I sold my Interest for 4000 l. profit This Money I imploy'd in Corporation and Church-Leases in Mortgages and other Securities at 10 l. per cent the Interest of that Kingdom And after this account if I have no visible real Estate I hope no man can doubt but that I may live independently tho' besides I happen to be a younger Brother so far from beinâ—â— prejudice that it 's possible to prove my advantage being design'd the Heir of two elder Brothers who neither have nor are like to have any Children The Bills of Exchange drawn and remitted to and from Ireland by Sir John Frederick and Company Mr. D. Arthur and other known Merchants will shew my proper Fond and no Man's Bounty supported my Expences and therefore because I can with great Truth I do the more freely declare That I neither have nor ever had any Relation to the Duke or Dutchess of York as a Servant or Dependant a Sallary-man or Pensioner and was so far from succeeding Mr. Coleman that his Employment never enter'd into my Thoughts taken up with Affairs of a far different nature My Journey to Flanders was no way criminal and in a great measure the effect of curiosity having before seen very little of that Countrey
the Letter subscrib'd by Fitz James I do sincerely protest I have no Acquaintance with any of the Name nor ever saw the Hand before nor the intended Messenger C. who not finding me left it with the Maid-Servant But in this there is nothing Criminal As to the Computations they are a Transcript from a Paper of Sir Peter Petts containing the number of Conformists Non-conformists and Papists throughout England taken by the Bishops order in or about the time of the General Indalgence and by him produc'd presently after the Plot upon the talk that there were fifty thousand Papists able to bear Arms within Temple-Bar and about Westminster a number near double to what at the taking this survey they were found Men Women and Children in the whole Kingdom For the Copy of my Cousin Wilsons writing I confess it the only thing I endeavour'd to evade having ingenuously and without reserve answer'd all other questions That individual Paper I never saw before the preceding night when meeting it in the Drawer of my Bed-Chamber always open whether I am at home or abroad I laid it uppermost with purpose of inquiring how he came by it and whether he knew the Author but not seeing him till next day in presence of the Members sent to search my Lodgings I cou'd not ask him and was surpriz'd to have so Indiscreet and Reflective a Paper found in his hand and among mine 'T is true that about three weeks before I found another of the same Contents in an old crabbed hand to me unknown which after I had read and concluded it might possibly be left by some of my Acquaintance in their Visits and being unable to guess at the person not knowing how long it had layn there being dated above a Month before I immediately threw it into the Fire Yet in this Paper which has made so great a noise there is neither Felony nor Treason and being the Act of another and never by me publish'd having neither Sub nor Super Scription nor Writ to nor from me nor Copy'd by my order cannot I presume be a Libel nor I hope imputed to me to whom it came perfectly by Accident If it were lawfull to speak ones guesses from the Contents it shou'd seem to have come from a Learned Gentleman one of your own Members then in the Country skill'd in the Spanish Tongue to which both my Cousin and I are perfect strangers nor was either of us out of London then or for some time before If I cou'd as well hit upon the Person as his Quality I wou'd give a more satisfactory account of this matter and I hope this Honourable Assembly will the sooner credit me when they reflect that upon seeing another Paper of my Kinsmans writing I wou'd not by a Lie deny this to be his hand As for my writing to Mr. Gadbury I refer my self to the Letter in Sir William Waller's hands I have told you the accidental occasion I desir'd from him whose Acquaintance I knew large even among the Members of that Parliament the most material of publick News I neither ask'd for Schemes or Figures I have ever laugh'd at the idle and ridiculous Art of Judicial Astrology invented at least practis'd to impose upon and pick the Pockets of the Ignorant and the Credulous And now as to the Cause of my Commitment The story Dr. D. told me as News of Peter Norris his knowing as much of the Plot as any man in England his going or being gone into France to fetch a Priest to be a Witness I can only say as near as I remember I gave the same account to Mr. Secretary not as an Informer but as News for not being look'd upon as such I was not desir'd to Swear nor cou'd I to a hear-say In this I call Heaven to witness I had no Sinister design but an Honest intention of having the full Truth brought to Light Nor do I know nor have I any reason to believe that Mr. Secretary's after proceedings were from any other principle Upon my telling him the Name of Norris and his saying he had never before heard it and commanding me to send the Doctor to him or the others Description As soon as I met with the Doctor which was several days after this Discourse and he as not knowing Mr. Secretary resusing to go I desir'd from him the Description which sometime after he brought me I gave or sent to Mr. Secretary for I cannot tell whether But of this I am certain that all I knew of the Affair was from the Doctor only and that I never communicated it to any but Mr. Secretary and that by what I writ under the Description appears to be near a Month after Norris his departure and consequently cou'd not be design'd to stop his Journey or prevent the Priests coming over or obstruct the fuller discovery of the Plot which no man living desires more than my self believing it the Interest of every honest Subject and Protestant out of which number I cannot be excluded to have all in 't from the highest to the lowest punish'd according to merit and that tranquility it has so long disturb'd re-settl'd in the Kingdom And now I hope none of the Members of this Honourable House can imagine I cou'd be guilty of so Horrid a Crime as having any knowledge of the Priests being poison'd as is suspected or given out he might be I am so ignorant of this or any part of the Conspiracy that I do not so much despise as decline because not needing it the generous offer of Mr. Speaker or other Members Intercession for my Pardon Lacknowledge as I ought the Favour with all fitting respect but I thank God I am so Innocent that I dare as now I do challenge the whole World to make out one partisular where in Word or Action in the whole course of my life I have done or spoken falsly or unjustly and yet no man ever suffer'd more Calumnies without any cause or the least shadow of Truth beyond the witty malice of those whose Eyes are blinded and Consciences sear'd by Envy and Intetest who from pretended Friends are become my real Adversaries contrary to Reason and Justice But surther none can believe I cou'd keep any dangerous Correspondence when it s well known that for these three years and a half all my Letters were no otherwise Directed than for me at the Reyal Coffee-house Besides it appear'd at the Committee by Norris his own Papers that this Priest Dowdall whose Name I never heard before died september laft was twelve month eight months before I heard there was such a man in the World as Norris and at a time when I was in another Country And since you have thought fit to acquit Dr. D. who was my Author and Principal and who own'd himself a Roman Catholick I hope you will not think it equal that I a known sincere Protestant and but an Accessary should stand Committed and Committed after such
a manner as neither Felon nor Traytor not only Accus'd but Convicted cou'd suffer a closer Confinement And here Mr. Speaker I intreat your leave to ask Pardon if at the Committee my Behaviour has offended any of the Members of this Honourable House and to say whatever heat I express'd was the effect of Passion to which I was mov'd by hearing several of them in publick as at Locketts and other Eating and Coffe-Houses had call'd me Papist and a second Coleman with other Aspersions I cou'd not bear without Resentment To this was added my being commanded a Messenger for Dr. D. an Office beneath me and wherein I could not expect to be sucoesful not knowing whether he wou'd appear without Compulsion I hope it will not be accounted an unexpiable Crime for a Gentleman of more Years and Discretion than I can pretend to to shew himself disturb'd at a conceiv'd Indignity or Affront and in hopes it may not be accounted so hainous I do once more with all due Submission beg Pardon There is one thing more I cannot without trouble touch upon the Reflections the Written Votes very different from the Printed bring upon my Reputation In those 't is said it appears that I have succeeded Mr. Coleman than which there never was a more groundless false or malicious invention And also that I question'd your Authority and said your Proceedings look'd like the late Rebellion However Sir William Roberts came to make the Report my words were to Sir John Morton in another Room and to him I appeal whether they were not thus Upon his advising that I shou'd fare the better if I freely shew'd my Papers I told him I wou'd not hide one nor dispute their Power though I had heard others did and that the Seizing Closets and Writings was not only Illegal but look'd upon as one of the Causes of the last Rebellion thereupon he wish'd I had not said the Words I reply'd I ment no harm by those Objections and notwithstanding my mentioning them they shou'd find in me a readiness to obey and an intire submission and added if they were offensive I unsaid them and ask'd his Pardon as I now humbly do from the whole House if I am thought herein to have offended And to do Sir John Justice he was pleas'd to promise he wou'd take no notice of the Discourse unless commanded to whom with the rest of the Committee I refer myself whether of my own accord I was not going along with them when I met your Messenger If I had been guilty of any Crime I had not only Warning but Threats and Advices to fly many days some Weeks before when I was told by Letters from unknown hands and by several persons of Honour and Quality that I was design'd to be brought into trouble I need not in this place say for what reason And here I cannot by the way but take notice of a Report made by Justice Warcâ—p at this Bar and spread at Coffe-Houses that he shou'd have Search'd Mr. Sheridans Lodgings and there found only a parcel of Popish Books whereas he never was in mine but at Mr. Brunetly's House an Italian Merchant whose Books chose must have been and therefore I hope this was some Clarks rather than his mistake And now Once no Man can be plac'd beyond the reach of Malice and the Devices of the Wicked and that I happen to be brought hither as a suppos'd Criminal I am extreamly pleas'd I have the good fortune to meet with so wise and equil Judges as compose this August and Honourable Assembly where I am so far from sears that I do not doubt but upon an exact Scrutiny and an Impartial Examination my having been so infinitely and so wrongfully expos'd to the publick will be so far from gratifying my Adversaries unjust defires that they will not only be deseated but my self greatly advantag'd and therefore I leave my Cause at the Footstool of your Justice and willingly submit to your Pleasure and Determinations praying no other favour than what I am sure you wou'd grant without asking your full Consideration of the whole Matter your speedy Condemnation or Acquittal as I shall be found Guilty or Innocent The next Day after his Speech Mr. Sheridan was freed from his Close Restraint and his Confinement made more Tolerable by the Liberty of Conversing with whom he pleas'd A Committee was appointed to examine whether the Paper found loose in his Chamber were of his Own or Nephew's Writing though sor it as a Breach of Priviledge the Lâ—st had been Committed Five Days before Where by the way it may seem odd That Copying a Letter without Divulging it because therein a Member of the House was reflected on shou'd be a Crime deserving so severe a Treatment as the Commitment of a Young Gentleman of the Temple who Though he own'd it his Hand and declar'd he Transcrib'd it for his own Use as a thing Pleasing and Witty in the Stile and Composition was yet notwithstanding commanded in their Presence to Write Three or Four Lines which he did with that Speed that they cou'd not but be satisfy'd he did not Counterfeit Some Malicious Persons will have it that his Crime was his Relation to Mr. Sheridan At this Committee both the Uncle and the Nephew were treated first Civilly and after Roughly enough the One threatned with the Pillory c. the Other with an intended Report to the House of his being a very dangerous Person To which he reply'd That he was sorry such an Opinion was taken up without any Ground that he cou'd not prevent their Pleasure only desir'd They would do as they would be done unto and consider that he was as true a Protestant as any in the Church of England and as Honest a Man as any in the Kingdom that he Defy'd the disproving of either of those Two Truths and if such Men were Dangerous none were otherwise but Fools and Knaves But what-ever was the Cause 't is observable that this Report was never made tho' the Committee Sate Thursday the Sixteenth of December After this he was often told by several Persons That they heard his Name wou'd be inserted amongst the Papists in the design'd Bill of Banishment An Artifice too weak to srighten one of less Courage who cou'd not but be assur'd so unreasonable a Clause was unlikely to pass the whole House of Commons or if it shou'd it wou'd not the King and Lords the Great Conservers of Justice and the Supreme Tribunal of England Having stood Committed Eifteen Dayes at great and excessive Charges and after all Inquiries and Searches nothing Criminal being found against him he was by some Friends as well Members as others together with his Cosin that they might not seem Stubborn prevail'd upon to Petition for their Releasement but to no purpose some angry Members opposing the Reading of their Petitions I am consident this cou'd not be the Sense because not agreeable to the Justice tho'
perhaps to the Orders and Rules of the whole House yet thereupon they were laid aside Mr. Sheridan having now too much Cause to conclude he was not like to be Releas'd during that Session since it was not in his Power to answer the Expectations or Desires of some Persons resolv'd to seek his Remedy by a Habeas Corpus upon a Statute lately made to prevent Illegal and Arbitrary Imprisonments from which if he cou'd not be freed he hop'd from the Twelve Judges and the Chancellor if refus'd to recover Six Thousand Five Hundred Pounds Penalty to Support and Ease his Expence But the Dread of the House of Commons wou'd not suffer any of the many Counsellors or Sollicitors he consulted to intermeddle in the Matter Nevertheless he was not discourag'd but of himself pursu'd it tho' without Precedent and contrary to the Advice of most of his Friends I am loath to tell you how very Nicely some say Fearfully the Judges proceeded in this Affair most desiring further time and after avoiding being spoken with unwilling to Deny and not daring to Grant. But I were Unjust if I did not let you know that some wanted not courage as my Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Jones Sir Job Charleton and Sir Richard Weston who as oblig'd by Law and Conscience his Oath and a late Statute to his immortal Honour at the first word granting the Writ made further Application to the others unnecessary Sir William Dolben and Baron Gregory were out of Town or unconsulted Of the rest I will say no more at present only tell you Mr. Sheridan is advis'd to bring his Action against several particularly against Sir Francis North and Judge Raymond The last of these two thinking fit to ask the Commons advice in this particular instance of doing that justice to a Subject which all Judges are sworn neither to Deny nor Delay An Act of an extraordinary Nature and without Precedent for a Judge to expect Directions in the Execution of his Trust from the House of Commons who are no Court of Judicature and who if the Case had been dubious as here himself confess'd it was not ought rather to apply himself to the rest of the Judges to His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council or to the House of Lords the last Resort of Appeals in the Kingdom I will pass by this Judge's Servants denying his being within and sending as I am inform'd for Sir Thomas Stringar a Justice of the Peace to examine the Gentleman that Sollicited Mr. Sheridan's Business and the Witnesses whether they were Protestants and wou'd take the Oaths of Allegiance c. which they being Members of the Church of England offer'd to do to his great disappointment At length after Twelve Days strugling with Difficulties not only with the Judges but with inferior Officers the Serjeant at Arms was serv'd with the Habeas Corpus who therewith acquaints the House They after three days Debate and thrice reading over the Statute finding all so plain cou'd not but leave the Serjeant in Obedience to the Writ to carry his Prisoner before the Judge who appearing with Mr. Sheridan the Baron took the Names of three substantial Persons by him produc'd for Bail declaring he wou'd send to the Speaker and Attorney-General and if on Monday following the utmost time allow'd by the Act nothing more appear'd against the Prisoner he shou'd then between three and four a Clock receive the benefit of his Habeas Corpus But the Prorogation in the Morning prevented the Execution of the Baron's intentions and set Mr. Sheridan and his Kinsman Wilson at liberty after almost five Weeks expensive Confinement who in all probability had lain in Custody during that Session how long soever if a Habeas Corpus had not been then procur'd Upon which after Mr. Sheridan had been discharg'd his Kinsman expected likewise his Releasement there being no hopes his Petition wou'd be read since so often oppos'd by Mr. C. tho Mr. Godolphin upon whose account he is said to have been committed sent word he was sorry he shou'd on his score be so great a Sufferer and promis'd upon any others Motion to see and that for his Liberty Of which many of that House thought he had done nothing worthy the Forfeiture And because you have heard by the written Votes that it did not appear to Baron Weston that Mr. Sheridan was committed by the House of Commons when he granted the Writ you have here sub-joyn'd a true Copy of his Petition and Warrant thereunto annex'd and deliver'd to the Baron To Sir Richard Weston Knight One of the Barons of His Majesties Court of Exchequer The Humble Petition or Request of Thomas Sheridan Shewrth THat Your Petitioner was on the Ninth of December last Committed by one and the same Warrant and upon the same Account with Dr. D. who was Releas'd within Two Days after into the Custody of the Serjeant at Arms attending the House of Commons That Your Petitioner humbly conceives he ought to be Bail'd neither Felony nor Treason nor any other Crime nor Breach of Priviledge being laid to his Charge as by the Copy of the Warrant of his Commitment here-unto annexed does appear He therefore Humbly prays to have His Majesties Writ of Habeas Corpus according to the Statute made Tricesfimo Primo of the now KING And Your Petitioner shall Pray c. The Copy of the WARRANT By Vertue of an Order of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament this Day made Thrse are to Will and Require you to keep in safe Custody the Bodies of Mr. Sheridan and Mr. D. separately and apart DURING THE PLEASURE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS And you are not to suffer or admit any Person to them other than such as shall have Occasion to bring them Necessaries And for your so doing this shall be your Warrant Hereof fail you not as you will answer the Contrary at your Peril Given under my Hand the Ninth Day of December 1680. William Williams Speaker To John Topham Esquire Serjeant at Arms c. It is very obvious and natural to observe from recounting to you this Case that the Great Charter of England or Magna Charta was little thought of or that I am much mistaken in its meaning since nothing is more expresly forbid than that any Man shou'd be Imprison'd or Dissâ—iz'd of any part of his Free-held Goods or Chattels among which are to be reckon'd all things a Man is Law fully possest of whether Letters Papers or other Matters without due process of Law. Py 25 Edw. 3. c. 4. it was Enacted That none shall be taken by Petition or Suggestion made to the King or to his * The Parliament is â—â—neâ— the King 's Great Council Council unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of good and lawful People of the same Neighbourhood where such Deeds be done in due manner or by Process made by Writ Original at the Common Law and that â—â—ne be put out of his