Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	court_n	king_n	writ_n	2,416	5	9.3359	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

made after Treasons Felonies c. that there were none to be found in his Kingdom and that whosoever is accused might be able to answer so well and truly for himself as to shew the Accusation to be erroneous or false and to be acquitted of it Something of this appears in the common Custom of England that the Clerks of the Kings Courts of Justice when any man hath pleaded not guilty to an Indictment prays forthwith that God would send him a good deliverance The Destruction of every Criminal ●s a loss to a Prince and ought to be grievous to him in the common regard of humanity and the more particular Relation of his Office and the name of Father The Kings Interest and Honour is more concerned in the Protection of the Innocent than in the punishment of the Guilty This maxime can never run them into excesses for it hath ever been lookt upon as a mark of great Wisdom and Virtue in some Princes and States upon several occasions ●o destroy all Evidences against Delinquents and nothing is more usual than ●o compose the most dangerous distempers of Nations by Acts of general Amnesty which were utterly unjust if it ●t were as great a crime to suffer the Guilty to escape as to destroy the Innocent We do not only find those Princes represented in History under odious Characters who have basely murthered the Innocent but such as by their Spies and Informers were too inquisitive after the guilty whereas none was ever blamed for Clemency or for being too gentle Interpreters of the Laws Tho. Trajan was an excellent Prince endowed with all hereical Virtues yet the most eloquent Writers and his best friends found nothing more to be praised in his Government than that in his time all men might think what they pleased Tacit. lib. 1. Hist and every man speak what he thought and he had no better way of distinguishing himself from his wicked Predecessors than by hanging up the Spies and Informers whom they had employed for the discovery of crimes But if the punishment of Offenders were as universally necessary as the Protection of the Innocent he were as much to be abhorred as Nero and that clemency which is so highly praised were to be lookt upon as the worst of vices and those who have hitherto been taken for the best of Princes were altogether as detestable as the worst Moreover all humane Laws were ordained for the preservation of the Innocent and for their sakes only are punishments inflicted that those of our own Country do solely regard this was well understood by Fortes●ue who saith Fort. de Laud. Leg. Ang. ch 27. Indeed I could ●ather wish Twenty Evildoers to escape death through ●itty than one man to be unjustly condemned Such Blood hath cried to Heaven for Vengeance against Families and Kingdoms and their utter destruction hath ensued If a Criminal should be acquitted by too great lenity caution or otherwise he may be reserved for future Justice from Man or God if he doth not repent but 't is impossible that satisfaction or reparation should be made for innocent Bloodshed in the forms of Justice Without all question the Kings only just Interest in the Evidence given against the party accused and in the manner of taking it is to have the truth made manifest that Justice may there upon be done impartially And if accusations may be first examined in secret more strictly and exactly to prevent Fraud and Perjury than is possible to be done in open Court as hath before appeared then 't is for the Kings benefit to have it so And nothing done in or by a Court about the Trial of the accused is for the King in the sense of our Law unless it some way conduce to justice in the case The Witnesses which the Prosecutor brings are no further for the King than they tell the truth and the whole Truth impartially and by whomsoever any others may be called upon the Enquiry or the Trial to be examined if they sincerely deliver the truth of the matters in question they are therein the Kings Witnesses though the accused be acquitted by reason of their Testimonies If such as are offered by the Attorney General to prove Treason against any man shall be found to swear falsly maliciously or for Reward or Promises though they depose positively facts of Treason against the accused yet they are truly and properly Witnesses against the King by endeavouring to prevent Justice and destroy his Subjects Their Malice and Villany being confessed or proved the Kings Attorny ought ex Officio to prosecute them in the Kings name and at his suit for their Offences against him in such Depositions pretended to have been for him and the legal form of the Indictment ought to be for their swearing falsly and maliciously against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity The Prosecutors themselves notwithstanding their big words and assuming to themselves to be for the King if their prosecution shall be proved to be malicious or by Conspiracy against the Life or Fortune of the accused they are therein against the King and ought to be indicted at the King's Suit for such Prosecutions done against his Crown and Dignity And if an Attorney General should be found knowingly guilty of abetting such a Conspiracy his Office could not excuse or legally exempt him from suffering the villanous judgment to the destruction of him and his Family 'T is esteemed in the Law one of the most odious Offences against the King to attempt in his name to destroy the Innocent for whose Protection he himself was ordained Qu. Elizabeth had the true sense of our Law Co. Inst 3d part p. 79. when the Lord Burleigh upon Sir Edward Coke her then Attorney's coming into her presence told her this is he who prosecutes pro Domina Regina for our Lady the Queen and she said she would have the form of the Records altered for it should be Attornatus Generalis qui pro Domina veritate sequitur The Attorney General who prosecutes for our Lady the Truth Whoever is trusted in that employment dishonours his Master and Office if he gives occasion to the Subjects to believe that his Master seeks other profits or advantages by Accusations than the common Peace and Welfare He ought not to excite a jealousie in any of their minds that confiscations of Estates are designed or desired by any of the King's Ministers whosoever makes such advantages to the Crown their principal aim in accusing are either Robbers and Murderers in the Scripture sense in seeking innocent Blood for gain or in the mildest Construction supposing the Accusation to be on good grounds they shew themselves to be of corrupt minds and a scandal to their Master and the Government Profit or loss of that kind ought to have no place in judicial proceedings against suspected Criminals but truth is only to be regarded and for this reason the judgments given in Court of