Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	case_n	court_n	writ_n	2,874	5	9.1804	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60883	The security of English-mens lives, or, The trust, power, and duty of the grand jurys of England explaining according to the fundamentals of the English government, and the declarations of the same made in Parliament by many statutes / published for the prevention of popish designs against the lives of many Protestant lords and commoners who stand firm to the religion and ancient government of England.	Somers, John Somers, Baron, 1651-1716.	1681 (1681)	Wing S4643; ESTC R33648	56,152	169

humane Institution are in Scripture called the Judgments of God who is the God of truth Yet further if any benefit to the King could be imagined by making the Evidence to the Grand Jury publick it could not come in competition with the Law expressed in their Oath which by constant uninterrupted usage for so many Ages hath obtained the force of Law Bracton and Britton in their several Generations bear Witness that it was then practised and greater proof of it need not be sought than the Disputes that appears by the Law-Books to have been amongst the ancient Lawyers whether it was Treason or Felony for a Grand Jury to discover either who was indicted or what Evidence was given them The Trust of the Grand Juries was thought so sacred in those Ages and their secrecy of so great concern to the Kingdom that whosoever should break their Oath therein was by all thought worthy to die only some would have had them suffer as Traitors others as Felons Co. Instit 3d part p. 107. Rulls Indic 771. And at this day it is held to be a high Misprision punishable by Fine and Impoverishment The Law then having appointed the Evidence to be given to Grand Juries in secret the King cannot desire to have it made publick He can do no wrong saith the old Maxime that is he can do nothing against the Law nor is any thing to be judged for his benefit that is not warranted by Law His Will Commands and desires are therein no otherwise to be known He cannot change the legal Method or manner of enquiring by Juries nor vary in any particular case from the customary and general forms of judicial proceedings he can neither abridge nor enlarge the power of Juries no more than he can lessen the legal Power of the Sheriffs or Judges or by special Directions order the one how they shall execute Writs and the other how they shall give Judgments though these made by himself 'T is criminal no doubt for any to say that the King desires a Court of Justice or a Jury to vary from the direction of the Law and they ought not to be believed therein If Letters Writs or other Commands should come to the Judges for that purpose they are bound by their Oaths not to regard them but to hold them for null the Statutes of 2 E. 3.8 and 20 E. 3.1 are express That if any Writs or Commandments come to the Justices in disturbance of the Law or the Execution of the same or of right to the parties they shall proceed as if no such Letters Writs or Commands were come to them And the Substance of these and other Statutes is inserted into the Oath taken by every Judge and if they be under the most solemn and sacred Tye in the Execution of Justice to hold for nothing or none the Commands of the King under the great Seal surely the Word or Desire of an Attorney General in the like case ought to be less than nothing Besides they are strangely mistaken who think the King can have an Interest different from or contrary unto that of the Kingdom in the prosecution of Accused Persons His Concernments are involved in those of his People and he can have none distinct from them He is the Head of the Body Politick and the Legal course of doing Justice is like the orderly Circulation of the Blood in the Natural Bodies by which both Head and Body are equally preserved and both perish by the interruption of it The King is obliged to the utmost of his Power to maintain the Law and Justice in its due course by his Coronation Oath and the Trust thereby reposed in him In former Ages he was conjured not to take the Crown unless he resolved punctually to observe it Brom. p. 1159 Mat. Paris p. 153. Hoved. p. 374. Baker p. 68. Bromton others speaking of the Coronation of Richard the First deliver it thus That having first taken the Oath Deinde indutus Mantello ductus est ad Altare conjuratus ab Archiepiscopo prohibitus ex parte Dei ne hunc Honorem sibi assumat nisi in mente habeat tenere Sacramenta Vota quae superius fecit Et Ipse respondit se per Dei auxilium omnia supradicta observaturum bona fide Deinde cepit Coronam de Altari tradidit eam Archiepiscopo qui posuit eam super caput Regis sic Coronatus Rex ductus est ad sedem suam Afterward cloathed with the Royal Robe he is led to the Altar and conjured by the Archbishop and forbid in the Name of God not to assume that Honour unless he intended to keep the Oaths and Vows he had before made and he answered by God's help he would saithfully observe all the Premises And then he took the Crown from off the Altar and delivered it to the Archbishop who put it upon the King's head and the King thus Crowned is led unto his Seat The violation of which Trust cannot but be as well a wound unto their Consciences as bring great prejudice upon their Persons and Affairs The Common Law that exacts this doth so far provide for Princes That having their minds free from cares of preserving themselves they may rest assured that no Acts Words or Designs that may bring them into danger can be concealed from the many hundreds of men who by the Law are appointed in all parts of the Kingdom watchfully to take care of the King and are so far concerned in his safety that they can hope no longer to enjoy their own Lives and Fortunes in peace than they can preserve him and the good Order which according to the Laws he is to uphold It is the Joynt Interest of King and People that the Antient Rules of doing Justice be held sacred and inviolable and they are equally concerned in causing strict Inquiries to be made into all Evidences given against suspected or accused Persons that the Truth may be discovered and such as dare to disturb the Publick Peace by breaking the Laws may be brought to punishment And the whole course of Judicial Proceedings in Criminal Causes shews that the People is therein equally concerned with the King whose Name is used This is the ground of that distinction which Sir Ed. Coke makes between the Proceedings in Pleas of the Crown and Actions for wrongs done to the King himself Co. 3d. Inst pag. 136. In Pleas of the Crown or other common offences nusances c. principally concerning others or the Publick there the King by Law must be apprised by Indictment Presentment or other matter of Record but the King may have an Action for such wrong as is done to himself and whereof none other can have an Action but the King without being apprised by Indictment Presentment or other matter of Record as a Quare impedit Quare incumbravit a Writ of Attaint of Debt Detinue of Ward Escheat Scire fac pur repealer patent

these Juries upon all general Issues pleaded in Cases Civil as well as Criminal to judge both of the Law and Fact See the Reports of the Lord Chief Justice Vaughan p. 150.151 So it is said in the Report of the Lord Chief Justice Vaughan in Bushel's Case that these Juries determine the Law in all matters where Issue is joyned and tried in the Principal Case whether the Issue be about a Trespass or a Debt or Disseizin in Assizes or a Tort or any such like unless they should please to give a special Verdict with an implicite faith in the Judgment of the Court to which none can oblige them against their Wills These last 12 must be Men of equal condition with the Party Indicted and are called his Peers therefore if it be a Peer of the Realm they must be all such when Indicted at the Suit of the King and in the case of Commoners every Man of the 12 must agree to the Verdict freely without compulsion fear or menace else it is no Verdict Whether the case of a Peer be harder I will not determine Our Ancestors were careful that all men of the like condition and quality presumed to be sensible of each others infirmity should mutually be Judges each of others lives and alternately tast of Subjection and Rule every man being equally liable to be Accused or Indicted and perhaps to be suddenly judged by the Party of whom he is at present Judge if he be found innocent Whether it be Lord or Commoner that is Indicted the Law intends as near as may be that his equals that Judge him should be his Companions known to him and he to them or at least his Neighbours or Dwellers near about the place where the Crime is supposed to have been committed to whom something of the Fact must probably be known and though the Lords are not appointed to be of the Neighbourhood to the Indicted Lord yet the Law supposes them to be Companions and personally well known each unto other being presumed to be a small number as they have anciently been and to have met yearly or oftner in Parliament as by Law they ought besides their other meetings as the hereditary Councillers of the Kings of England If time hath altered the case of the Lords as to the number indifferency and impartiality of the Peers it hath been and may be worthy of the Parliaments consideration and the greater duty is incumbent upon Grand Juries to examine with the utmost diligence the Evidence against Peers before they find a Bill of Indictment against any of them if in truth it may put their Lives in greater danger It is not designed at this time to undertake a discourse of Petit-Juries but to consider the Nature and Power of Grand Inquests and to shew how much the Reputation the Fortunes and the Lives of English Men depend upon the Conscientious performance of their Duty It was absolutely necessary for the support of the Government and the safety of every Mans life and interest that some should be trusted to inquire after all such as by Treasons Fellonies or lesser Crimes disturbed the peace that they might be prosecuted and brought to condign punishment and it was no less needful for every mans quiet and safety that the trust of such inquisitions should be put into the hands of Persons of understanding and integrity indifferent and impartial that might suffer no man to be falsely accused or defamed nor the lives of any to be put in jeopardy by the malicious conspiracies of great or small or the Perjuries of any profligate wretches For these necessary honest ends was the institution of Grand Juries Our Ancestors thoughtit not best to trust this great concern of their Lives and Interests in the Hands of any Officer of the King 's or in any Judges named by him nor in any certain number of men during life lest they should be awed or influenced by great men corrupted by bribes flatteries or love of power or become negligent or partial to Friends and Relations or pursue their own Quarrels or private Revenges or connive at the Conspiracies of others and indict thereupon But this trust of enquiring out and Indicting all the Criminals in a County is placed in men of the same County more at least than Twelve of the most honest and most sufficient for Knowledge and Ability of Mind and Estate to be from time to time at the Sessions and Assizes and all other Commissions of Oyer and Terminer named and returned by the chief Sworn Officer of the County the Sheriff who was also by express Law anciently chosen annually by the people of every County and trusted with the Execution of all Writ and Processes of the Law and with the power of the County to suppress all Violences unlawful Routs Riots and Rebellions Yet our Laws left not the Election of these Grand Inquests absolutely to the Will of the Sheriffs but have described in general their Qualifications who shall Enquire and Indict either Lore or Commoner They ought by the old common Law to be lawful Liedg● people of ripe Age not over aged or in firm and of good Fame amongst their Neighbours free from all reasonable suspicion of any design for himself or others upon the Estates or Lives of any suspected Criminals or Quarrel or Controversie with any of them They ought to be indifferent and impartial even before they are admitted to be sworn and of sufficient Understanding and Estate for so great a Trust The ancient Law-Book called Briton See Brit. p. 9 and 10. of great Authority says The Sheriffs Bailiffs ought to be sworn to return such as know best how to enquire and discover all breaches of the Peace and lest any should intrude themselves or be obtruded by others they ought to be res turned by the Sheriff without the Denomination of any except the Sheriffs Officers And agreeable hereunto was the Statute of 11. See 11. Hen. 4. H. 4 in thnse words Item Because of late Inquests were taken at Westminster of persons named to the Justices without due Return of the Sheriff of which persons some were outlawed c. and some fled to Sanctuary for Treason and Felony c. by whom as well many Offenders were indicted as other lawful Liedge people of the King not guilty by Conspiracy Abetment and false Imagination of others c. against the course of the common Law c. It is therefore granted for the Ease and Quietness of the People that the same Indictment with all its Dependances be void and holden for none for ever and that from henceforth no Indictment be made by any such persons but by Inquest of the Kings Liedge People in the manner as was used c. returned by the Sheriffs c. without any denomination to the Sheriffs c. according to the Law of England and if any Indictment be made hereafter in any point to the contrary See Cooke Instit 3d

satisfaction of their Consciences Every man whilst he lives innocently doth under God place his hopes of security in the Law which can give no protection if its due course be so interrupted that frauds cannot be discovered Witnesses may as well favour offenders as give false testimony against the guiltless and if they by hearing what each other saith are put into a way of concealing their villainous designs there can be no legal Revenge of the crimes already committed Others by their impunity will be encouraged to do the like And every quiet minded person will be equally exposed unto private injuries and such as may be done unto him under the colour of Law No man can promise unto himself any security for his Life or goods and they who do not suffer the u●most violences in their own persons may do it in their Children Friends and nearest Relations if he be deprived of the remedies that the Law ordains and forced to depend upon the Will of a Judge who may be and perhaps we may say are too often corrupted or swayed by their own Passions Interests or the Impulse of such as are greater than they This mischief is aggravated by a commonly received Opinion that whosoever speaks against an accused person is the Kings Witness and the worst of men in their worst designs do usually shelter themselves under that name whereas he only is the Kings Witness who speaks the truth whether it be for or against him that is accused As the Power of the King is the Power of the Law he can have no other intention than that of the Law which is to have Justice impartially administred and as he is the Father of his People he cannot but incline ever to the gentlest side unless it be possible for a Father to delight in the destruction or desire to enrich himself by the confiscation of his Childrens Estates If the most wicked Princes have had different thoughts they have been obliged to dissemble them We know of none worse than Nero but he was so far from acknowledging that he desired any mans condemnation that he looked upon the necessity of signing Warrants for the execution of Malefactors Sne. Vit. Ner. Vtinam nescirem letteras as a burthen and rather wished he had not learnt to write than to be obliged to do it They who by spreading such barbarous errours would create unto the King an interest different from that of his People which he is to preserve whilst they pretend to serve him in destroying of them they deprive him of his honour and dignity Justice is done in all places in the name of the chief Magistrate it being presumed that he doth embrace every one of his Subjects with equal tenderness until the guilty are by legal proofs discriminated from the Innocent and amongst us the Kings name may be used in civil cases as well as criminal But it is as impossible for him rightly to desire I should be condemned for killing a man whom I have not killed or a Treason that I have not committed as that my Land should be unjustly taken from me by a judgment in his Bench or I should be condemned to pay a debt that I do not owe. In both cases we sue unto him for Justice and demand it as our right We are all concerned in it publickly and privately and the King as well as all the Officers of Justice are by their several Oaths obliged in their respective capacities to perform it They are bound to give their assistance to find out Offenders and the Kings Attorney is by his Oath to prosecute them if he be required and he is not only the Kings servant in such cases but the Nations or rather cannot otherwise serve the King than by seeing Justice done in the Nation Whensoever any man receives an injury in his Person Wife Children Friends or goods the King is injured in as much as he is by his Office to prevent such mischief and ought to be concerned in the Welfare of every one of his Subjects but the parties to whom the injuries are done are the immediate sufferers and the prosecution is principally made that they may be repared or revenged and other innocent persons secured by the punishment of Offenders in which the King can be no otherwise concerned than as he is to see his Office faithfully performed and his People protected The Kings suit therefore is in the behalf of his People yet the Laws leave unto euery man a Liberty in case of Treasons Murthers Rapes Robberies c. to sue in the Kings name and crave his aid or by way of appeal in his own The same Law looks upon Felons or Traitors as publick Enemies and by authorizing every one to pursue or apprehend them teacheth us that every man in his place ought to do it The same Act whereby one or a few are injured threatneth all and every mans private interest so concurs with that of the publick that all depends upon the exact preservation of the Method prescribed by the Law for the impartial inquisition after suspected Offenders and most tender care of preserving such as are innocent As this cannot possibly be effected without secret and separate examinations the forbidding of them is no less than to change the Course which is enjoyned by Law confirmed by custom and grounded upon reason and Justice If on the other side any man believe that such as in the Kings name prosecute suspected Delinquents ought only to try how they may bring them to be condemned he may be pleased to consider that all such persons ought according unto Law to produce no Witness whom they do not think to be true No Evidence which they do not believe good nor can conceal any thing that may justifie the accused No trick or artifice can be lawfully used to deceive a Grand Jury or induce them to find or reject a Bill otherwise than as they are led by their own Consciences All Lawyers were antiently sworn to put no deceit upon the Courts for their Clients sake and there are Statutes still in force to punish them if they do it but there is an eternal obligation upon such as are of Counsel against persons accused of crimes not to use such arts as may bring the innocent to be condemned and thereby pervert that which is not called the judgment of man but of God because man renders it in the stead and by the Commandment of God such practises exalt the Jurisdiction of Tribunals but infect and pollute them with that innocent Blood which will be their over-throw And least of all can it be called a service to the King since none could ever stand against the cry of it This is necessarily implyed in the Attorney general his Oath to serve the King in his Kingly Office wherein the Law presumes he can do no wrong But the greatest of all wrongs and that which hath been most destructive unto Thrones is by Fraud to circumvent

mischiefs will be done whilst it is by their own confession uncertain whether they are any ways deserved by such as suffer them to the utter overthrow of all Justice If the word Probable be taken in a common rather than a nice Logical sense it signifies no more than likely or rather likely than unlikely When a matter is found to be so the Wager is not even there is odds upon one side and this may be a very good ground for betting in a Tennis Court or at a Horse race but he that would make the Administration of Justice to depend upon such Points seems to put a very small value upon the Fortunes liberties and reputation of men and to forget that those who set in Courts of Justice have no other business there than to preserve them This continues in force tho in a Dialogue between a Barrister and a Grand Jury man published under the Title of the Grand Jury Mans Oath and Office it be said p. 8. and 9. That their work is no more than to present Offences fit for a Tryal and for that Reason give in only a Verisimilar or probable charge and others have affirmed that a far less Evidence will warrant a Grand Juries Indictment than a petit Juries Verdict For Nothing can be more opposite to the Justice of our Laws than such Opinions All Laws in doubtful Cases direct a suspension of Judgment or a sentence in favour of the Accused person But if this were hearkened unto Grand Juries should upon their Oaths affirm they judge him Criminal when the Evidence is upon such uncertain grounds that they cannot but doubt whether he is so or not It cannot be hereupon said that no Evidence is so clear and full but it may be false and give the Jury occasion of doubts so as all Criminals must escape if no Indictment ought to be found unless the proofs are absolutely certain for it is confessed that such Cases are not capable of an infallible Mathematical demonstration but a Jury that Examines all the Witnesses that are likely to give any Light concerning the business in question and all Circumstances relating to the fact before them with the Lives and Credit of those that testify it and of the Person accused may and do often find that which in their Consciences doth fully perswade them that the accused Person is guilty This is as much as the Law or their Oath doth require and such as find bills after having made such a Scrutiny are blamless before God and Man if through the fragility inseparable from humane nature they should be led into Error For they do not swear that the bill is true but that they in their Consciences believe that it is so And if they write Ignoramus upon the Bill it is not thereby declared to be false nor the Person accused acquitted but the matter is suspended until it can be more clearly proved as in doubtful Cases it alwaies ought to be Our Ancestors took great Care that suspicious and probable Causes should not bring any Mans Life and Estate into danger For that reason it was ordained by the Stat. 37. Ed. 3. Cap. 18. That such as made suggestions to the King should find surety to pursue and incur the same pain that the other should have had if he were attainted in case their suggestion be found evil that then process of the Law should be made against the Accused This manner of Proceeding hath its root on eternal and universal Reason The Law given by God unto his People Deut. 19. allotted the same Punishment unto a false witness as a Person convicted The best disciplined Nations of the world learnt this from the Hebrews and made it their Rule in the administration of Justice The Grecians generally observed it and the Romans according to their Lex Talionis did not only punish death with death but the intention of committing Murther by false Accusations with the same severity as if it had been effected by any other means This Law was inviolably observed as long as any thing of regularity or equity remained amongst them and when through the wickedness of some of the Emperours or their favourites it came to be overthrown all Justice perished with it A Crew of false Informers brake out to the destruction of the best men and never ceased until they had ruined all the most eminent and antient Families Circumvented the Persons that by their Reputation Wealth Birth or Virtue deserved to be distinguished from the common sort of People and brought desolation upon that victorious City Tac. Ann. 3. Tacitus complains of this as the cause of all the mischiefs suffered in his Time and Country By their means the most Savage Cruelties were committed under the name of Law which thereby became a greater Plague than formerly crimes had been No remedy could be found when those Delatores whom he calls genus hominum Publico exitio repertum Tac. Ann. 4. poenis quidem nunquam satis coercitum were invited by impunity or reward and the Miserable People groaned under this calamity until those instruments of iniquity were by better Princes put to the most cruel though well deserved deaths The like hath been seen in many Places and the domestick quiet which is now enjoyed in the Principal parts of Europe proceeds chiefly from this that every man knows the same Punishment is appointed for a false Accusation and a proved crime It is hardly seven years since Monsieur Courboyer a man of quality in Brittany suborned two of the King of France his Guards to swear Treasonable Designs against La Motte a Norman Gentleman The matter being brought to Monsieur Colebert he caused the Accused Person and the witnesses to be secured until the fraud was discovered by one of them whereupon he was pardoned La Motte released Courboyer beheaded and the other false Witness hanged by the Sentence of the Parliament of Paris Though this Law seems to be grounded upon such foundation as forbids us to question the equity of it our Ancestors for Reasons best known unto themselves thought fit to moderate its Severity by the Statute of 38. Ed. 3. Cap. 9. yet then it was enacted and the Law continues in force unto this day That whosoever made complaints to the King and could not prove them against the defendant by the process of Law limited in former Statutes which is first by a Grand Jury he should be imprisoned until he had made gree to the Party of his damages and of the slander he suffered by such occasion and after shall make fine and ransom to the King which is for the Common damage that the King and his People suffer by such a false accusation and defamation of any Subject And in the 42. Ed. 3. Cap 3. To eschew the Mischiefs and damage done by false Accusers 'T is enacted that no man be put to answer such suggestions without presentment before the Justices i. e. by the Grand Jury It