Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	attorney_n	chief_a	lord_n	2,812	5	4.0640	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59752	A discourse of the rise & power of parliaments, of law's, of courts of judicature, of liberty, property, and religion, of the interest of England in reference to the desines of France, of taxes and of trade in a letter from a gentleman in the country to a member in Parliament.	Sheridan, Thomas, 1646-ca. 1688.	1677 (1677)	Wing S3225; ESTC R16270	94,234	304

Labor and Thrist are increas'd and that the making Idlers work is in effect an increasing the People And that all such shoud be forc'd into several Work-houses which tho the Parliament has taken into consideration yet for want of Stock is not hitherto put in any forwardness I wil now give you my Thoughts how this may probably be brought about with little or no Charge but to such only as upon prospect of Advantage do change the Scenes of their Lives as by Marriage Imployments Callings c. or by assuming new Titles and Degrees of Honor and consequently as their respective Proportions or Payments are here propos'd they cannot account them burdensom or grievous To perfect this I think it necessary That all Hospitals Alms-houses and Lands for charitable uses be sold more stately and convenient Ones erected into which none but diseased Persons or others perfectly unable to Earn their Living shoud be receiv'd And to the end they might the sooner be Restor'd to Health a convenient number of Physitians Nurses and Tenders ought to be appointed and sufficient Salaries establish'd England to Her great shame is in this Instance much behind Her Neighbors of France and Holland in the Practice of which I know not whether there be more of Charity or of Policy of Heavenly or of Earthly Interest That the several Directions of the Act for raising a Stock be strictly put in Execution That all Fines for Swearing Drunkenness Breaches of the Peace Felons Goods Deodands c. for a certain number of Years be converted to this Use This woud bring in twenty times more than is now receiv'd on these Accounts and may perhaps prevent the late much practis'd trick of finding all Felo's de se mad That all Contributions for maintenance of the Poor which are so considerable that I have bin told in som single Parishes in London they amount communibus annis to Five thousand Pound a Year be added to this Stock And that it be further enacted That every Man at his Admission to Freedom pay one Shilling upon Marriage what he thinks fit above one Shilling Every Clergy-man at Ordination ten Shillings at Instalment into any Dignity twenty Shillings Arch-Deacons three Pound Deans five Pound Bishops ten Pound Arch-Bishops twenty Pound Gentlemen upon Admittance into the Inns of Court ten Shillings upon their being call'd to the Bar forty Shillings when made Serjeants or King's Council five Pound Every Man upon Admission into the Inns of Chancery three Shillings four Pence when Sworn Attorney ten Shillings Lord High Chancellor Keeper Lord High Treasurer and Lord Privy Seal twenty Pound Chief Iustice Chief Baron Chancellor of the Exchequer Master of the Rolls and Atturney General twelve Pound a piece Every of the other Iudges and Barons the Sollicitor-General and the Six Clerks ten Pound a piece The Masters of Chancery and other Officers not nam'd in that or other Courts any Sum not exceeding six Pound a Man as shal be thought convenient by the respective Iudges All Knights five Pound Baronets ten Pound Barons Vice Counts Earls twenty Pound Dukes and Marquesses fifty Pound All Aldermen of London twenty Pound of other Cities and Corporations three Pound Mayors ten Pound All Masters of Arts in Universities twenty Shillings Doctors of Law and Physic forty Shillings of Divinity four Pound Heads and Masters of Colleges five Pound All Executors and Administrators that undertake the Charge two Shillings All Persons entring into Estates either by Descent or Purchase one Shilling over and above one Shilling for every hundred Pounds per annum of such Estate That every Sunday there be Collections in all Churches of the Kingdom which with what shal be receiv'd at the Communion are to be thus appropriated And that all Street Door and other Charitable Doles in broken Meat or Mony as the great Encouragements and chief occasions of Idleness and Vice be forbid under severe Penalties That Briefs be issued thro the Kingdom for voluntary Contributions That the Names of such as shal be eminently Bountiful be convey'd to Posterity by placeing their Coats of Arms and registring their Munificence in the respective Work-houses of the City Corporation or County where they live I do not doubt but in a very short time a Stock woud be thus rais'd sufficient to imploy all the idle Hands in England And tho I believe that after a little while there woud be no need of using Art or Severity in bringing People into these Nurseries of Labor and Industry The Sweets of gain and trouble of Idleness which certainly is not the least of toyls to such as have bin inur'd to Labor or Business being of themselves strong Allurements yet to lay the first Foundation with success I conceive it necessary That both Men and Women who have no visible ways of Maintenance Criminals of what Quality soever punish'd as before in the Discourse of Laws the Children taken out of the Foundlings Hospital as soon as able to do any thing be all sent to these Work-houses That the great numbers of People going out of this Kingdom Scotland and Ireland to other Parts of Europe be restrain'd and none be spirited into the West-Indies or suffer'd to go abroad unless to trade That such as by Infirmity or Age are absolutely disabled among which neither the Lame nor the Blind are to be reckon'd be maintain'd and confin'd within the public Hospitals That every Constable in whose ward or Precinct any Beggar is found forfeit twenty Pound and the Person or Persons entertaining or lodging any five Pound to the Use of the Work House That those who are commonly sent to the House of Correction or Bridewel and those found Guilty of Petty Larceny be sent to the Work-House For that indeed Whipping the Punishment intended for their Amendment does but take away the sense of Shame and Honor rendring them Impudent and Incorrigible in their Iniquities But granting its operation so forcible as to be able to reclaim them yet certain it is that its best effect is but to hinder them from doing further Mischief whereas by this Course not only that will be avoided but a considerable profit redound to the Public To these also shoud be added all Prisoners for Criminal matters tho acquitted if by Circumstances they appear suspicious it being reasonable to conclude som Rogues and Vagabonds tho the evidence required by strictness of Law be not strong enuf to Convict them Hither likewise are all to be sent who for trivial inconsiderable causes and somtimes out of pure Malice are thrown into Prisons and there forc'd to spend the remainder of their miserable Lives the exorbitant extortion of Fees and the merciless rage of their Enemies swelling their Debts beyond the power or hopes of Satisfaction whereby they becom not only useless but a burden to the Common-wealth And because the Benefit of Clergy was introduc'd for the advancement of Learning in the ruder dayes of our Ancestors and that there is now no such

it woud be for the advantage of al That the Parliament woud exert its antient Power In regulating the many Abuses crept into inferior Courts Into which if there was ever need of looking there is now at this day when the complaints are loud By which tho perhaps Mole-hills may be made Mountains Yet al this Smoak cannot be without som Fire This I have bin told for certain That their Iudgments are founded as much upon Rules or interpretations of Statutes of their own pleasure introduc'd by the intrest of Lawyers and Officers as upon the strict letter of the Lawes in which your Education tho not your Practice and your long Observation has made it superfluous for me to particularise the many Irregularities in the administration of Iustice which woud fil a larg Volum But to begin with the Courts I think it were convenient that each of the Four at Westminster shoud be reduced to their antient Practice and not suffered to Encroah upon one another to the Subjects great vexation who often quits his Cause rather than follow it thro al the mazes of the several Courts where at last after som years tossing by Writs of Error c. from Post to Pillar if his mony does but hold out to make the Lawyers that sport he may sit down by his loss or have recours to the Arbitriment of two honest Neighbors which at first had bin the speediest and cheapest way of justice In antient days the Kings Bench intermedled only with the Pleas of the Crown But now an Ac Etiam ushered in by a feignd assertion of Force and Arms and by supposing the Defendant to be in Custodia Marescalli or the Plaintiffe privileg'd som other way in that Court robbs the Common Bench whose jurisdiction even by Magna Charta is of al Common Pleas between Party and Party The Common Bench by practice of Atturneys not to be behind hand has likwise of late days introduced an Ac Etiam and several Debts or Promises are suppos'd with intent to bind the Subject to special Bail wheras I am confident it cannot either by Common or Statute Law be evinced that antiently special Bail or a Capias before Summons was in any action required and that therfore it is a meer invention to get mony and to vex and impoverish the Subject The Exchequer was only to hold Plea of such Actions where the Plaintiff was really indebted to the King and perhaps too not able otherwise to pay it or where the Parties were by their Priviledg to plead or to be impleaded in that Court But now by falsly suggesting They are indebted to the King and not able to pay him but out of the thing in demand they are suffered to su in that Court alleadging a Quo minus c. in their Declaration But before such Irregularities were introduced it was not so much Law as Honesty Prudence and skil in Arithmetick that were the necessary Qualifications of the Barons In which Court a Chancery was erected to moderate the Rigor of the Fines and Amerciaments estreated into that Court and to extend to the Kings Debtors those favors which the Barons coud not shew The Causes then remaining for the High Court of Chancery were the Penalties and Forfeitures between man and man which at Common Law were du and al other Causes that for want of Evidence were no where els tryable But such have bin the mighty contrivance of the Practisers in that Court that they have found out a way for the Trial of al Causes there where notwithstanding a mans pretence in his Bil That he wants Witnesses tho that be but a tric to intitle the Court to the action after he has Obliged the Defendant to swear against himself contrary to the Common Law that of Nature Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum which seems to be the possitive intent of Magna Charta he takes out a Commission to Examin Witnesses In the Civil Law the Complainant if required is obliged as wel as the Defendant to swear the Truth of the Bill and sure that is as fitting to be don in the King 's great Court of Equity and Conscience as in the ordinary Courts of Iustice in other Nations Nor woud it be amiss That al Witnesses shoud in that Court as wel as others give their Testimony Viva voce and that there shoud be som unalterable Rules both for the Officers of the Court and the Clients since Conscience and right Reason are alwayes the same and unalterable which woud prevent the Reversing of Decrees a tacit Confession They were unjust and other Inconveniences too many to be recounted only One is so notorious I cannot pass it by The assuming a Power of Impeaching Iudgements at Common-Law which the Statute declares to be Premunire Another Practice as inconvenient as any is The Iudges giving too great an Authority to a former Iudges Report or Opinion It were to be wish'd That in the rest of the Courts the present Practice of the wise Lord Chancellor Finch were observed who considering That a Report is founded upon such Reasons as are not with the Report convey'd to us that only stating in brief the matter of Fact and that the Case is alterable by any one Accident rightly infers That no Report but the Reason of the present Case squared to the Rules of the Law ought to guide his Iudgment To this may be added That in every Court there shoud be a setled Number of Clerks Attorneys Lawyers as wel as Iudges That these how just soever shoud not continu above three Years in any one Court Whatever the Sherifs Power was formerly sure I am That exercised by the Iudges exceeds what now they are possest of and yet the Wisdom of former Ages thought not fit to intrust the former two years together That they shoud be oblig'd to give an Account in public of al their proceedings at the expiration of the said time That they be under a pecuniary Mulct besides an Oath to administer justice impartially in imitation of God who to mind them of their great Duty graces them with his own Title saying Ye are al. Gods and therfore must do as I do ye shal not regard in judgment the Power of the Mighty nor the Distress of the Poor That the Iudges Lawyers Atturneys and Clarks shoud have out of the public Revenu sufficient establisht Salaries To take no Fees or Gratuity whatsoever directly or indirectly It not seeming reasonable that the people shoud pay any thing for Iustice But as that Charge may be included in the public Taxes That no Offices whatsoever be Sold and nothing but Merit to intitle any man For if Offices be purchased by the interest of Friends or Mony it is unreasonable to expect That Iustice too may not be bought and sold And for this Reason it is as fit to make Laws against this practice in others as against Simony in the Clergy No man to have two Offices or to act by Deputy

in the South are chosen for the North and therefore are to the injury of the People as much strangers to the affairs of the Places for which they serve as those two points are distant from each other That they pass Laws witness that against Irish Cattel c. not for the common good but to shew their interest and power to mischief a man they hate or to revenge som receiv'd or supposed Injuries or Affronts That therefore it is necessary to dissolve This as not being a free Parliament and to cal a new one That to do so frequently is most agreeable to Reason and to former Statutes And to that end several Causes are prepared to put a Difference between the two Houses in point of Iurisdiction c. But such as more seriously weigh things may I hope be convinc'd These are the groundless surmises of som and false suggestions of others discontented and il dispos'd persons the old disturbers of our Israel's Peace who delighting to Fish in troubled Waters endeavour once more to put al into a flame of tyranny and confusion to see what Fish they may by that treacherous Light bring to their OWn Nets That it is idle to imagin the Court the best refiner of wit and Languag shoud not have as piercing a fore-sight as the Country That being allow'd they must be sensible of the fatal consequence of a divided Hous or Kingdom their loss is at least as great as any others their Al is at Stake 'T is therefore contrary to their Interest which never lies consequently to their practice to endeavor Parties 'T is irrational no less than scandalous to conclud Because som mens sense by second thoughts and fuller consideration of things is alter'd that therefore they are brib'd as if personages of so much Honor Wisdom and public spiritedness coud be induc'd by any sinister practices or by-respects to betray their Country and intail upon themselves and their posterities more lastingly than they can their Estates great and inexpressible Calamities And can it be supposed the Ministers have so little understanding as not to foresee that the taking off violent Members any other way than by conviction of their Errors were endlesly to encrease their Numbers and Hydra-like by cutting off one Head to give occasion to the sprouting up of many Nor is it less absur'd to beleive the Parliament when they find the conveniences the reason of Statutes ceased wil not repeal them 'T is no affront to their Iudgments nor to their-Loyalties so to alter with the times an obstinacy in the contrary resolution woud indeed be a disparagement to their Understandings That it is to be hop'd the Wisdom of the Parliament is such as not to quarrel for trifles after the manner of Women or Children That they wil lay aside al partial regards and without heats or personal reflections intend the great Work the common safety recollecting that they were the home bred Divisions more than the Conqueror's Forces that occasion'd Harold's Overthrow and England's intire Subjection to the French even those very Men who invited William suffer'd in the Ruin So just and natural it is To love the Treason and hate the Traytor Does not every Man know That the Power of whol France is greater than that of a part that of Normandy could be That William can't be suppos'd to have been more watchful to seize the Prey than Lewis is who perhaps has set those very Men at least their Leaders on work that openly pretend most to oppose his Desines while in the mean time by sowing underhand Discords and Fears among the People they best promote his Purposes 'T is no unheard-of Practice for Politicians as well as Water-men To look one way and Row another But I hope no cunning Achithophel will be able to divert the Parliament from the great Business of this Conjuncture When they have don That I wish they woud think it worth their Labor To look into the Laws and observe what of them are fit to be repeal'd and what continued The Happiness of a State consists in a regular Form of Goverment by just and equal Laws few and plain fitted to the most ordinary Capacities These Qualifications are as necessary to the well-being of the People as that of Promulgation was ever accounted to the essence of a Law But such is the Fate of England that the Laws are almost numberless which makes them unpossible to be remembred and what is worse are so very intricat that they may more reasonably be looked upon as the devices of cunning men to entrap the simple than as the Rule by which al are to square their Actions and their Lives And what is yet worse They were never promulgated tho provided for by those Statutes that enact the reading of som of them in Cathedrals at least once a year and of others four times Is it fit or just Men shoud be punished by Laws they neither know nor can remember There is no one intire Body of Laws That of the Statutes is so tedious and som yet remain in the Parliament Rolls not printed that it can hardly be read over in a months time tho an hundred times reading wil not enable a man to remember them and yet he may suffer for not observing what he has not or if he had coud not remember But what is the greatest Evil If they coud remember they coud not understand since the very Iudges who have not only been bred at the Feet but are themselves the Gamaliels of the Law and much more are wont to spend whol Terms in the reconciling and expounding of particular Statutes And it often happens That after these long Advisements they being divided in their Opinions the Parties concern'd wearied in those Toyles endeavor after all their Cost and Labor to quit their Right or impatiently expect the making of new and more intelligible Laws These great disorders have bin occasion'd by several conspiring accidents length and warping of Time crooked Interests of some Lawyers and the continual Wars Forreine or Domestick with which this Country has bin harassed I might say since the Invasion of the Romans c. But to com nearer our own times since the Conquest since the first making of these Acts England has not enjoyed one half Century an intire Peace To which unhappiness I know not whether the vexation of the Law or Bigottre of Religion have contributed most I do not doubt but in other Ages they were as sensible of the Evil as we are in this But the same Accidents continuing rendered it remediless Edward the Confessor regulated the Saxon Laws but his care prov'd of little advantage after the coming in of the Conqueror who desining to set up a new Form more agreeable to the Customs of Normandy or his own Will made himself deaf to the peoples desires of being govern'd by the Rules of that holy Prince who was deservedly Sainted no less for his Zeal and love of Iustice in

matters of Law than for his strictness of Life in those of Religion From the Conquerors time downwards there have bin attempts of this kind almost in every Kings Reign But the Wars and Divisions and consequently Dissolutions that often happend between the Kings their Parliaments somtimes Lords somtimes Commons about the Liberty of the Subject or Prerogative of the Crown not without good reason concluded to have bin set on foot by the crafty Lawyers by this time grown considerable prevented bringing to pass the intended Reformation of the Law I wil not insist upon al the Kings Reigns where this was desin'd nor go farther back than Henry the Eight's time when ingenious Sir Thomas More was by him set on work to fram a Model But the succeeding accidents frustrated that attempt the Troubles and Revolutions that continued during the Reigns of Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth hindred this work which at wise Burleigh's advise was resolved on by the later Queen The learned King Iames determined to finish it and the knowing Sir Francis Bacon was pitched upon to fram a Schem of new Laws or model the old But the discontents about Religion with the greater artifice of the Lawyers then more numerous diverted that glorious Enterprize Some living were Actors others Spectators of the Troubles that have since happen'd which gave way not to a Reformation but Confusion of the Laws and yet the Long Parliament or rather Conventicle knowing their great and good Master purpos'd it resolv'd upon a new Method of Laws But the Idol themselves had set up as a just reward of their Treason prevented this by turning them out of doors with their beloved Magna Charta calling it in Contempt Magna f Too many in other Countries no less than this have wholly lost their Freedom by endeavoring to enlarge it beyond Law and Reason as it has also somtimes befallen ambitious Princes who striving to augment their Power and Dominions beyond the boundaries of Iustice have instead of new Acquists forfeited their antient and lawful possessions The Gardiners Ass in the Apologue desining to mend himself by changing Masters found at a dear-bought experience none so kind as the first The Observation of the Evil of those days has given us reason to believe That wisdom best which is learnt at the cost of others and to remember the Wise mans advice Meddle not with those who are given to change This I speak as to the Fundamental of the Government which can never be alter'd by the Wit of Man but for the worse But the Superstructures of Hay and Stubble are grown so cumbersom and rotten that they are fit for nothing but the Fire Though I am far from giving credit to any prediction or Prophecy but those of Holy Writ yet I can't but remember you of that old Latin one Rex albus c. on which you know our wishes taught us to fix a pleasing interpretation This hint wil bring to your mind what perhaps has not been there almost these thirty Years That both for his Innocence and the accidental Snow that fel on his Herse the late King Charles was that white King who for some time was to be the last in England That afterwards his Son shoud from beyond the Seas return to the possession of his Crown and that in his dayes Religion and Laws shoud be reform'd and setl'd upon the eternal Foundations of Truth and Iustice. The fulfilling of this Prophesie now wil seem as miraculous an Effect of Providence as that of our Soverain's Restauration and wil as much eternize the Wisdom of the Parliament as the other their Loyalty What remains of this undon we might hope to see finisht as old as we are if they woud be pleas'd to espouse it heartily and defend themselves against the noyse wranglings and opposition of the Lawyers and Clergy who are no more to be consulted in this Case than Merchants concerning Exchange c. because as the Wise Syracides observ'd their Interest woud byass them There is saith he that counselleth for himself beware therefore of a Counsellor and know before what need he hath for he wil counsel for himself There was Law before Lawyers there was a time when the Common Customs of the Land were sufficient to secure Meum and Tuum What has made it since so difficult nothing but the Comments of Lawyers confounding the Text and writhing the Laws like a Nose of Wax to what Figure best serves their purpose Thus the great Cook bribed perhaps by Interest or Ambition pronounced that in the Interpretation of Laws the Iudges are to be believed before the Parliament But others and with better Reason affirm That 't is one of the great Ends of the Parliaments Assembling To determin such causes as ordinary Courts of Iustice coud not decide The Laws of England are divided into Common and S●●ate Law the Common are antient Customes which by the unanimous and continued usage of this Kingdom have worn themselves into Law Statutes are the positive Laws of the Land founded on particular accidents and conveniences not provided for by the Common Law Civil and Canon Law are of no force but as they are incorporated into the body of one or other of these Laws if either may be call'd a body which has neither head nor foot For they lye scatter'd in som few books Bracton Littleton Glanvil Fleta Cook Plouden Dier Crook c. their Commentaries or Reports or rather in the arbitrary Opinion of the Iudges or som celebrated Lawyers For nothing is in this Trade certain or regular what one gives under his hand for Law another gives the direct contrary Iudgments and Decrees reverst as if that coud be just one day that is unjust another and why in England must Law and Equity be two things Since Reason Conscience in all other parts of the World are one and the same and why cannot Laws be so plainly worded as that men of common sence may without an interpreter discover the meaning if they be not so order'd speedy and exact justice wil at best be retarded But you 'l tel me there woud be no need to complain if men woud follow Christ's advice If any man wil sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also the Reason was so plain that it was needless to express it viz. least the Lawyer shoud com between and strip you naked even of your shirt This you see is prudence as wel as Religion as indeed al Christs precepts are in the very affairs of this World Whatsoever was true of the Iewish Lawyers the present practise of some of ours renders them Obnoxious to the censures of the sober the curses of the passionate most men agreeing that to go to Law is like a Lottery or playing at Dice where if the game be obstinatly pursu'd the Box-keeper is commonly the greatest Winner But since som men wil be fools or knaves why shoud not the