have any part or profit thereof There shall be no disturbance of free Elections by face of Arms Malice or otherwise By the Statute called Articuli Super Chartas made in the 28 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King There shall be chosen in every Shire by the Commonalty of the same Shire Three substantial men Knights or other lawful wise and well-disposed Persons who shall be Justices Sworn and Assigned by the Kings Letters Patents under the great Seal to hear and determine where before no remedy was at the Common Law such plaints as shall be made upon all those that do Commit or Offend against any point contained in the great Charter or Charter of the Forrest which were ordained to be proclaimed at four several quarters of the year in full County in every year in every County and to hear the Plaints as well within the Franchises as without and from day to day without allowing any the delays which be allowed by the Common Law and to punish by Imprisonment Ransom or Amercement according to the Trespass No Common Pleas shall be holden in the Exchequer contrary to the form of the great Charter the Marshal of the King's House shall not hold Plea of Free-hold Debt Covenant or Contract made betwixt the King's People but only of Trespasses done within the Verge and Contracts made by one Servant of the house with another The Chancellor and Justices of the King's Bench shall follow the King so that he may at all times have near unto him some that be Learned in the Laws which be able duly to order all such matters as shall come unto the Court at all times when need shall require No Writ that toucheth the Common Law shall go forth under any of the Petit Seals By an Act of Parliament made in the 34 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King Nothing shall be purveyed to the King without the Owners assent By an Act of Parliament made in the Reign of the said King No Tallage or Aids shall be taken or levyed by the King or his Heirs within the Realm without the good will and assent of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Edward the Third Aids granted to the King shall be taxed after the old manner By an Act of Parliament made in the second year of the Reign of the aforesaid King No Commandment under the King's Seal shall disturb or delay Justice No Bishops Temporalty shall be seized without good Cause Justices of Assize shall in their Sessions enquire of the Demeanour of Sheriffs Escheators Bailiffs and other Officers and punish the Offenders No Person shall be pardoned for an Utlary after Judgment without Agreement with the Plaintiff or Outlawed before Judgment until he do yield his Body to Prison By an Act of Parliament made in the 14 th year of the said King It was assented established and order'd that Delays and Errors in Judgments in other Courts shall be Redressed in Parliament by a Prelate 2 Earls and 2 Barons who by good advice of the Chancellor Treasurer and Justices of the one Bench and the other and of the King's Council as they shall think convenient shall proceed to make a good accord and Judgment And that the Chancellor Treasurer Keeper of the Privy Seal Justices of the one Bench and the other Chancellor and Barons of the Exchequer and Justices assigned and all that shall intermeddle in the said places under them shall by the advice of the said Arch-Bishop Earls and Barons make an Oath well and truly to serve the King and his People and by the advice of the said Prelate Earls and Barons to increase or diminish when need shall be the number of the said Ministers and from time to time when Officers shall be newly put in cause them to be sworn in like manner A Declaration by Act of Parliament made in the 25 th year of the said King's Reign What Offences shall be adjudged Treason and if any other Case supposed Treason not therein specified shall happen before any Justices they shall tarry without going to Judgment of the Person until the Cause be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be Judged Treason or other Felony By an Act of Parliament made in the same year No person shall be compelled to make any Loans to the King or charged with any benevolence None shall be Condemned upon Suggestion Imprisoned nor put out of his Free-hold nor his Franchises without Presentment but by the Law of the Land or by Process made by Writ Original at the Common Law nor that none shall be sent out of the Franchise or Free-hold unless he be duly brought to answer and fore-judged by Course of the Law and any thing done to the contrary shall be holden for none By an Act of Parliament made in the 5 th year of the Reign of King Richard the Second None shall enter into Lands where it is not lawful or with force under the pain of Imprisonment and Ransom at the King 's Will. A Penalty is to be inflicted upon a Clerk of the Exchequer which maketh out Process for a Debt discharged By the Statutes of the Fifth and Fifteenth of King Richard the Second where Lands or Tenements are entred and deteined by force the next Justice of the Peace is Impow'red to view the force and by the Power of the Sheriff and County to remove it and Imprison the Offenders and by the Statute of 8 th of H. 6. whether it be entred by force or it be continued and not entred by force may by a Jury impannel'd and their Verdict if the Deteiner hath not been Three years before in quiet possession reseise the said Lands and Tenements and put the party ejected into his former possession A man Impleaded in the Exchequer shall be received by himself or any other to plead his Discharge By an Act of Parliament made in the 12 th year of the aforesaid King The Chancellor Treasurer Keeper of the Privy Seal Steward of the King's House the King's Chamberlain Clerk of the Rolls Justices of the one Bench and the other Barons of the Exchequer and all that shall be called to ordain or make Justices of Peace Sheriffs Escheators Customers Comptrollers or any other Officer or Minister of the King shall be firmly sworn that they shall not make Justices of Peace Sheriffs Escheators Customers Comptroller or any other Officer or Minister of the King for any gift or brocage favour or affection By an Act of Parliament made in the 13 th year of the said King's Reign He that will that Swear he oweth nothing to the King shall be discharged no Bonds or Recognizances shall be taken for the King's Debts By an Act of Parliament made in
Michaelmas Term by a Select Grand Jury of the County of Middlesex cause an enquiry to be made although it were to be wished it might be after the antient manner by Articles delivered unto them in Writing to be distinctly answered unto Offences committed against the King and his Crown and Dignity of all Confederacies Champerties Maintenance Trespasses Extortions and Grievances done to the King's Subjects by any Arch-Bishops Bishops Dukes Earls Barons Servants Officers Coroners and Ministers of the King or by any other whatsoever of breach of the Peace denying of Bail on those who ought to be Bailed and of all manner of Oppressions and Grievances of the People When the numerous Justices of Peace in every County being as too many of them Baronets Serjeants and Men of Law Knights Elquires and Gentlemen of good Quality Families Estates and Education are Sworn and imployed not only to be Guardians and Conservators of the Peace of the King and his People to suppress Felonies Riots and the lower and most Common sort of Exorbitancies and Misdemeanors but to take Care of the Execution of many Laws and Statutes committed to their Trust and with the Method and Order appointed by our Laws and Ancient and reasonable Customs of presenting an Inquiry of Grievances by our many Court-Leets Sheriffs Tournes and County Courts Subordinate one under the other to the Superiour Courts of Westminster and they unto their Supream Authority the King It will be the Peoples own fault and neglect of their own Concernments if any Grievances or Oppression pass undiscernable uncomplained of or unpunished or if any Arbitrary Power or Extravagances do invade or break in upon the Nation who by the fence and care of our Laws and many times Confirmed Liberties which for more than 500 years last past have been building repairing and polishing to a perfection more than the Hebrew Greek or Roman Laws did ever attain unto the Laws which God himself made for that peculiar people only excepted And may if by our Sins and Provocations of God Almighty the Inspector of our unparallel'd Misdeeds and Punisher of them when his wrath shall be kindled and have no longer patience the Walls of our Happiness shall not be demolished our Liberties put to the Sword and our Laws led into Captivity be as safe as Humane Prudence and Laws can possibly make them More especially when our Courts of Justice at Westminster-Hall are governed by Judges and Men of great Wisdom and Integrity Sworn to observe the Laws and Judge according to their Direction and our Lawyers at the Bars freely permitted with fitting reference rightly to inform and plead their Clients Cases And the King 's high Court of Chancery the Officina Justiriae under the Teste me ipso of the Watchman under God of our Israel Superintending over them giveth Writs remedial to all that ask for them with helps for extraordinary Emergencies or to allay the Severity of Laws and makes it its business to punish and forbid Frauds and Oppressions The Masters of Chancery Annually stipended by the King formare Brevia originalia remedialia and to be Assistants subordinately to that High and Honourable Court in matters of Accompt and References The Rule of Chancery being ever since the Statute of Westm ' the second made in the 13 th year of the Reign of King Edward the First quod nullus recedat à Cancellaria sine remedio Concordent Clerici and the Officers and Clerks of the Chancery thereunto appointed are from time to time to do their utmost endeavours to provide Remedies for all that Complain Nè Justitia deficeret Conquerentibus And as to lesser Matters of Complaints and often Emergencies Pensioneth by good yearly Salaries 4 Learned and venerable Men of worth called Masters of Requests or Supplicationum libellorum who by turns and courses each Master being deputed to his Month have their audience Twice or oftener in that Time of the King to give Answers to their Petitions And the King in matters wherein any of his Rights and what appertaineth unto him are concerned gives his People leave by Petition or monstrans du droit Traverses oustre les mames c. to obtain what they can prove to be due unto them and where any of his Letters Patents are grievous and against the Law suffers them to be repealed by Writs of Scire facias brought against the Patentees And if any of the People should be so unhappy in the Intrigues or Difficulties of their Cases as they cannot be relieved by any of those provided Remedies from any supposed Arbitrary Power of their Prince or any Illegal oppressing Actions of one Subject against another they have the Liberty of Appeals from the Inferior Courts of Justice to the Superior and in Matters concerning breach of the Peace and of Misdemeanors within the Cognisance of the Justices of Peace may appeal from them to the Justices of Assize and from them to the King and his Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and if not by any of those ways to be relieved are in Cases not concerning Free-hold not debarred their Appeals to the King and his Privy Council where they are the King himself being very often present judiciously and deliberately heard upon all the Pleas and Arguments which the Councel Learned in the Law on both sides can make one against the other And Remedies also against all the Assaults of Grievances are not difficult to be come at in the Ecclesiastical Courts and Courts of Admiralty where when the Subjects Complaints cannot be remedied they do easily obtain the King's Commission of Delegates to other Judges and if that do not answer their Expectations may have a Commission of Adjuncts to other Judges to be added unto them And in these or other Courts where the Potency of the one part and the Poverty of the other hath disabled the weaker from attending the formalities of Justice or croud of many other Causes he may have a Commission ob lites dirimendas granted by the King out of his High Court of Chancery to some good and wise men to endeavor as much as they can a more speedy Remedy The Dermier Resort last Appeal ultimum refugium of the People in their seeking for Justice being so necessarily Inherent in the Crown as none but they that wear it can justly claim any Right unto it but have always been enjoyed not only by our British Saxon and Danish Kings before the Norman Conquest but all our Kings which Succeeded them And if there they find no help are like enough if therebe cause of Justice in their Complaints not to fail of Relief by Petition to the King when he is assisted with the advice of his Lords and Commons in Parliament All which with many other Laws and reasonable Customs Priviledges and Liberties like so many Cittadels Block-houses Out-works and Strong Castles and Forts which divers of our ancient and reasonable Customs and Acts of Parliament
perswade her or her Learned Successor notwithstanding the Horrid design of the Gunpowder Treason against him and his Posterity and the wiser as they should be and better part of his Subjects Assembled in Parliament to be more than prudentially rigorous to that Party whose Friends in other Countries might retalliate any Severity used to theirs And although she made some fierce and smart Laws to affright those that called themselves Catholicks for principles inconsistent with the Safety of her Soveraignty and its Government which in all these Acts of Parliament appeared to be more against the Emissaries from Rome which came to Seduce and lead them into such dangerous Errors than to forbid any thing that was Innocent in the private Devotions religious and practical part of it that Great Queen and King well understanding that they could not by any Rules of State Justice or Modesty of which Princes when there is not so great Inequality as to give them an absolute Dominion over one another are usually very tender require any Ease or Liberties for Protestants living under other Princes and their Laws when they can neither promise or perform Mutualities or Reciprocations And therefore the Learned King James when the House of Commons in Parliament had Petitioned him to give some stop to the growth of Popery one Cause whereof they assigned to be the Interposition of Foreign Princes Embassadors and Agents in favour of Papists Answered That they might rest secure that he would never be weary to do all he could for the Propagation of the Protestant Religion and Suppression of Popery but the manner and form they were to remit to his Care and Providence who could best consider of times and seasons but his Care of Religion must be such as on the one part he must not by the hot Persecution of our Recusants at home irritate Foreign Princes of a contrary Religion and teach them a way to plague the Protestants in their Dominions with whom he daily interceeded and at that time principally for ease to them of our Profession that live under them And in the 21 th year of his Reign in a Speech which he made in Parliament declared to the Lords and Commons That it was true that at times for Reasons best known to himself he did not so fully put Laws in Execution against Recusants but did wink and connive at some things which might have hindred more weighty Affairs But he did never in all his Treaties agree to any thing to the overthrow and dissolution of those Laws but had in all a chief care of the preservation of that truth which he ever professed for as it was a good Horseman's part not always to use his Spurs and keep strait the Reins but sometime to suffer the Reins to be more remiss So it was the part of a Wise King and his Age and Experience in Government had informed him sometimes to quicken the Laws with Executions and at other times upon just Occasions to be more remiss But as God shall Judge him he never thought or meant nor ever in any word expressed any thing that savoured of it and prayed them to root out Jealousies which were the greatest Weeds in their Garden For certainly to Consiseate two parts of three of a Papist's Lands or disinherit the next Heir if bred up in that Religion can never amount to the avail of Protestants in Transilvania Hungary Bohemia Silesia Moravia Poland Upper or Lower Austria Piedmont Flanders Brabant and the rest of the Belgick Provinces nor under those which were United and Confederate the Hause-Towns Bearne and some other of the Cantons of Switzerland and the bad enough already used Multitudes of Huguenots in France Nor can the Persecution or destroying of the greater part of the Protestants beyond the Seas to gratifie the humerous pretences and causeless fears of the more Imprudent and lesser part of the Protestants of England be by any rule of right reason adjudged to be for the Protestant Interest And upon the like advice and reason may our fears of any Invasion upon our Properties and just Rights disappear and vanish as soon as they shall with any eye of Judgment be but looked upon nor will ever be able to endure the touchstone of Truth when our Liberties are so Impregnable and fortified by very many of our good Laws and Liberties and by our Magna Charta and Charters de Foresta more than Thirty times confirmed by Acts of Parliament for those great Charters were never singly or by themselves so many times confirmed by Acts of Parliament When by that excellent Law and Charter freely granted in the Ninth year of the Reign of King Hen. 3. No Freeman may be taken or Imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold Liberties or free Customs be Outlawed or Exiled or in any manner destroyed but by the lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land no man shall be amerced for a small fault or if for a greater saving to him his Contenement and a Merchant saving to him his Merchandize Earls and Barons shall not be amerced but by their Peers the King will not sell deny or defer any Man either Justice or Right No Man of the Church shall be amerced after the quantity of his Spiritual benefit but after the quantity of his Lay-tenement and the quantity of his Offence and a Villain shall not be amerced but saving his Wainage and that all things done to the contrary shall be void Sureties or Pledges shall not be Charged for any Debts of the King if the Debtor hath Goods and Chattels to pay the Debt and is ready to pay None shall be Distreined for more Service than is due Common Pleas shall not follow the King 's Court. Those that do commit Redisseisin shall be Imprisoned and not delivered without special Commandment of the King and shall make Fine to the King for the Trespass By an Act of Parliament made in the Third year of King Edward the First none shall be attached by any occasion nor fore-judged of life or limb nor his Lands Tenements Goods or Chattels seised into the King's hands against the form of the Great Charter and the Law of the Land No City Burrough or Town nor any Man shall be amerced without reasonable Cause and according to the quantity of his Trespass that is to say every Freeman saving his Free-hold and Merchant saving his Merchandize a Villain saving his Gainure and that by his or their Peers By an Act of Parliament made in the 25th year of his Reign The King will take no Aids or Prizes but by the Common consent of the Realm saving the ancient Aids and Prizes due and accustomed Aids and Taxes granted to the King shall not be taken for a Custom No Officer of the King by themselves or any other shall maintain Pleas Suits or Matters hanging in the King's Court for Lands Tenements or other things to
the Second year of King Henry the Fourth An Assize shall be maintainable against the King 's Patentee of Lands without any title found for the King by Inquisition By an Act of Parliament made in the 4 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King a special Assize shall be maintainable against a Disseisor by force Riots Routs and unlawful Assemblies are forbid by a Statute made in the 13 th year of the aforesaid King's Reign and the Justices of Peace near adjoyning Impowred to hear and determine the Offences and if they cannot are to certifie the King and his Council thereof By an Act of Parliament made in the second year of the Reign of King Henry the 5 th Commissions are to be from time to time awarded to Inquire of the defaults of the Justices of Peace Justices of the Assize Sheriffs and under-Sheriffs in not suppressing and punishing the same By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of King Richard the Third the Justices of Peace may let Prisoners to mainprize that are Arrested or Imprisoned for light suspition of Felony or by Malice and no Sheriff or other Officer shall seize the Goods of a Prisoner until he be attainted By an Act of Parliament made in the 23 th year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth A Jury Convicted of giving a false Verdict if it be for any thing demanded above the value of Forty pounds and concerneth not the Jeopardy of a man's life shall forfeit Twenty pounds a piece the one half to the King and the other to the Party that will sue for the same and Five pounds a piece if the thing demanded be under the value of Twenty pounds and every one of them in the one Case and the other make fine and ransom by the discretion of the Judges before whom such false Verdict was given never after be of any Credence nor their Oaths accepted in any Court By an Act of Parliament made in the 32 year of the said King wrongful disseifin shall be no dissent in Law except the Disseisor shall have been five years in quiet Possession without entry or continual Claim of those who have lawful Title thereunto The Barons of the Exchequer are by an Act of Parliament made in the 33 th year of the aforesaid King Authorized by Bills of Equity in the Exchequer Chamber to acquit discharge or moderate all Recognizances Debts Detinues Trespasses Wastes Deceipts Defaults Contempts and Forfeitures Treasons Murders Felonies Rights Titles and Interest as well of Inheritance as Free-hold only excepted according to Equity and good Conscience By an Act of Parliament made in the 5 th and 6 th year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth Great Penalties were laid upon those that should buy or sell Offices concerning the Administration of Justice or any Offices belonging to the King all Contracts Bonds Promises Covenants and Bargains to be void both as to the Buyer and Seller and the taker of any Gift or Promise to forfeit his Nomination and Interest therein By an Act of Parliament made in the 31 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Three Proclamations shall be made in every Action Personal where an Exigent is awarded and the Defendant before the allowance of any Writ of Error or Reversal of the Utlary shall be bound to answer the Plaintiff and satisfie the Condemnation By an Act of Parliament made in the 43 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid Queen Every Sheriff Under-Sheriff or other Person making any Warrant for the Summons Arrest or Attaching of any Person or their Goods to appear in any of the Courts of Westminster or procuring it without Original Writ or Process to warrant the same being Convicted thereof shall be Imprisoned without Bail or Mainprize until they shall have paid the party grieved Ten pounds with all his other Damages and Twenty pounds a piece for their Offence to the Queen and for the avoiding of Vexatious Actions where any recovery is had for Debt or Damages for less than Forty shillings or not above no more Costs shall be awarded by the Judge than the Debt or Damages recovered And by the Law Writs of Habeas Corpus una Cum die Causa Captionis are granted by the Courts of King's-Bench or Common Pleas when any are Imprisoned by the King or any other without Cause shewed to be Bailed if the Cause shall not appear to be Just and Legal And if any Man Imprison any of the King's Subjects without just Cause or enter upon or take away any of their Estates against the Tenor of our Magna Charta and Charta Forestae and many of our other excellent Laws and reasonable Customs he may although it be by the King's Command if not legal be punished for the same And our Magna Charta and Liberties are so Bulwarked and Fortified as every man may have reason enough to be assured That the People of England and Wales cannot upon any Emergencies and Violations of Laws want relief or Redress When the Justices in Eyre Instituted by King Henry the Second to ride their Circuits until they were by King Edward the Third changed into those of Assizes who in their Vernal and Autumnal Circuits carrying the King's Justice and Care of it into every Shire and County of England and Wales to prevent as much as might be their Travels and Expences to seek it farther from home did amongst many other Articles and Matters concerning the King and his People give in Charge to the Grand Juries of the several Cities and Counties of their Circuits which were Men of good Estates Knowledge Experience and Concerns Sworn to present what they should be charged to Inquire of and direct them to Inquire and present false Weights and Measures Lands seized into the King's hands which ought not to be seized or being ordered to be restored were not of those that were amerced without reasonable Cause and not according to the Offence or by their Peers without a saving to their Contenement a Merchant without a saving to him his Merchandize and a Villain without saving his Waynage and not by the Oaths of good and lawful Men of the Neighborhood if any Earls and Barons were amerced but by their Peers and after the manner of their Offences and if any Man of the Church be amerced otherwise than according to his Lay-Tenement and after the quantity of his Offence and by the Statute of Marleborough made in the One and fiftieth year of King Henry the Third of all other the breaches of the Laws and Liberties granted by Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forrest and other Articles and Matters to be Inquired of given unto them in Writing and upon their Oaths to answer distinctly what they did know Affirmatively or Negatively When the Judges of the Court of King's Bench who do yet retain the power of Justices in Eyre do in every Easter and
have in the making of other Laws from time to time been careful upon all occasions to erect and build to help to guard and protect their Liberties Rights and Priviledges together with the very great care which the Judges restraining all non obstantes of Acts of Parliament and Regal Dispensations unto what the Law allows or to the King 's particular Concernments do take in all their Judgments and Decisions Expositions Applications and Interpretations of Laws to assist and support the just Rights and Proprieties of the Subjects in their Lands and Estates and not in the least to prejudice them in their Common Assurances by Fines and Common Recoveries The Severity used by divers of our Kings in the Punishment of Briberies Extortions or Byassed and Illegal flattering Opinions of Judges The Oaths of the Lords and others of the King 's Privy Council who are usually the Greatest Noble and most concerned Men of Estate and Interest of the Nation Oath of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England well and truly to serve the King and his People and to do right to all manner of People according to the Law and Usages of the Realm Oaths of the Judges to do equal Law and execution of Right to all the King's Subjects rich and poor without having regard to any Person to deny no man Common Right by the King's Letters nor none other Mans nor for none other Cause Oaths of the King's Serjeants at Law well and truly to serve him and his People and as duly and hastily speed such Matters as any Man shall have against the King in the Law as they may lawfully do without delay or tarrying the Party for his lawful Process The Oaths of other Serjeants at Law well and truly to serve the King and his People and truly Counsel them Oaths of the Justices of Peace to do equal right to the Poor as to the Rich after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and Statutes thereof made Oaths of the Sheriffs to do right to Poor as well as Rich in all that belongeth to their Office to disturb no Man's Right nor to do wrong to any Man And the Oaths of the Escheators Clerks of the Chancery and Coroners with the Oaths of the Officers of Courts Under-Sheriffs and Bailiffs well and to execute Justice All which several Degrees of Men in the Nation would be as unwilling as any others to have the Lives Liberties and Estates of themselves and their Posterities or dearest Relations sacrificed to a lawless and unlimitted Power of their Kings and Princes And the Oaths of our Kings at their several Coronations to conserve the Liberties of the People and observe all the good Laws made by their Royal Progenitors and Predecessors with the Impossibility that ever the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled will consent to the abrogating of any of the aforesaid Laws and reasonable Customs be felones de se or deliver up themselves and their Posterities to the absolute Will and Pleasure of their Succeeding Kings and Princes may abundantly evidence how safely and securely the Property and Liberties of the People until Rebellion foolishly fancied Fears and Jealousies with their Discords distrust and plundering of one another shall put them under such another yoke as Oliver Cromwell had cheated them into may rest and are like inviolably to continue for ever protected against any the Incroachments of Arbitrary Power whilst they live under their King 's ancient Government Of which His late Majesty was so careful and so willing to dislodge all manner of Jealousies out of the Minds of his Subjects as he did in the Third year of his Reign give his Royal Assent as they call'd it unto their Petition of Right and made it an Act of Parliament wherein he not only Confirmed their Magna Charta and Charta Forestoe but the Act of Parliament assented unto by King Edward the First De Tallagio non Concedendo The Act of Parliament made in the First year of the Reign of King Edward the Third cap. 6. The Act of Parliament made in the 25 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King That no Man should be compelled to make any Loans to the King against his will The Statutes of the 28 E. 3. ca. 3. 37 E. 3. ca. 18. 38 E. 3. ca. 9. 42 E. 3. ca. 3. 11 R. 2. ca. 9. 17 R. 2. ca. 6. and 1 R. 3. ca. 2. Charged all his Officers and Ministers to serve him according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as they tendered the Honour of his Majesty and the Prosperity of the Kingdom Banished as he hoped for ever all their Fears of the Infringing of their Liberties and given cause of Content to them and that Parliament to such a satiety such a fulness and nè plus ultra as unless they would have been Consortes Imperii and require to have a share in his Regality and Government there was no more to be asked or requested of him or granted by him Imprisoned shortly after in the Tower of London John Earl of Clare and the greatly Learned Selden for but having Copies in their Custody of some Florentine and Foreign Laws and Customs proposed by Sir Robert Dudley a Titular Duke of Tuscany to be imitated by him here in England as a means to raise Money by Impositions laid upon the People and caused his Attorney General to exhibit a Bill against them in the Star-Chamber for Disquieting his Subjects with Fears and Jealousies And was so ready from time to time to Condescend to their Infirmities and give Satisfaction to them in all their Concerns and Scruples as he suffered those two great Cases of the Habeas Corpus and the Ship Money wherein his necessary Prerogative for the good of himself and his People was not a little concerned to be publickly and solemnly argued in the Course and Method of the Laws in foro Contradictorio before the Judges and shewed no displeasure afterwards but much kindness unto Justice Hutton and Justice Croke who in the Case of the Ship Money had in their Arguments and Opinions delivered thereupon against him in the Exchequer Chamber dissented from all the rest and greater number of the Judges And His now Royal Majesty treading the good old Paths of Queen Elizabeth his Grandfather King James and his Royal Father doth in all Matters of difficulty in the absence of Parliaments where the Laws and Justice of the Nation are likely to be more than ordinarily concerned consult and advise with the Judges hath not long ago Superseded one of them for some harsh usage and discontent given to the Countrey in his Circuits and takes all the care he can to choose and make Judges and his Learned Council at the Law out of the most able honest experienced and eminent practisers of it and hath but lately in several of his Speeches in Parliament declared and promised that he would give his consent unto any good Laws
Disasters both in Church and State have been great Additions and Kindle Coles which have made not only many that have some Learning and are ex meliori luto better born and bred but the Mechanick and Illiterate part of the People to take themselves to be a kind of State-Menders and to make their small Capacities the rule and measure of their foolish Prognosticks and are as like to hit the white or mark as he that stands without the Doors of an House a mile off it and undertakes of himself without the help or Information of the Inhabitants to know what is every day and night hour or minute thereof done within the House or as some Mountebank Physitian who without the Aid or Sight of the Patient or any Inquiry into the Symptoms Indications or Progress of the Disease should promise a never-failing Cure of his Sickness or Distemper and may as little deserve his Fee as a Lawyer who should adventure to give his Opinion or direct his Client how to proceed in his Action or Suit without any knowledge at all of the Fact So as those State Almanack-makers by such an Extravagant and incertain Ephemeris would do well to be more modest and cautious in their Opinions and not to expose the Honour of their King and Soveraign to the foolish and ill-digested Censures of themselves and others and make themselves the Conduit-Pipes to convey their Follies to the more Ignorant part of the People who although by God's mercy to a causeless murmuring Nation from the Winter to the Spring from the Spring to the Summer from the Summer to the Autumn and from the Seed time to the Harvest when the Valleys sing and the Earth is loaden with the Increase thereof and so all along not for one but many years together they might understand how often they have sinned against the Divine Mercy and Providence by their Complaints of the weather too hot too cold too wet too windy too dry so as scarce one day in every ten of the year can get an universal liking or good word of the ways of God's Providence and should when they have found themselves every year so often and so greatly mistaken be once ashamed and forsake that unquietness of Spirit will not withstanding not only continue those their mis-doings and humours in the Case of God Almighty as a Custom or Privilege belonging to their Farms and Husbandry but in the height of all their Peace without which their Plenty would be blasted so very much traduce scandalize and mislike the Royal Cares of their King and God's Vicegerent and be so unjust and unreasonable in their Complaints and fault findings as though they sit under their own Vines eat the fat of the flock lye down upon their beds of Ivory sing to the Harp rise up to play enjoy a Peace and Plenty to a Surfeit and the Envy of all their Neighbours and may Weekly read and hear of the Miseries and Sufferings of many Neighbour Nations by Wars and Invasions of one another yet they must never be contented but be every day and very often in every day finding fault with the Government As if the Government of the King and the Government of the King of Kings as to the weather were always to be blamed Whilst they ought rather to be so careful of themselves and their Posterities as to abominate those foolish ways of censuring Authority and to take heed that God do not Punish us for our unthankfulness and abusing his so many and all sorts of Mercies under a Prince Who besides all his other Royal Cares and Concessions added unto those of his famous great Ancestors and Predecessors Kings and Queens of this Realm for the Preservation of his Peoples Liberties and Properties did no longer ago than in the 31 th year of his Reign for the better securing of the Liberties of his Subjects in their Persons and prevention of Imprisonments by sending them in Custody to some of the Islands consented unto an Act of Parliament under great Severities Forfeitures and Penalties to be inflicted upon such as should Imprison or Detain any Man after an Habeas Corpus brought as well in the Vacations as Terms And so far extended it as upon the Committing of any Man Prisoner by himself or the Lords of his Privy Council Lord Chamberlain or other great Officers of his Houshold they are allowed to be Bailed by the King's Justices of his Superiour Courts of Justice although when they themselves shall as they do often Commit or Imprison any man by their Delegated and Derivative Power from the King only they are not at all obliged to discharge any such Offenders upon Writs of Habeas Corpus And by that and those multitudes of former Provisions which our Kings and their Laws have made for the good and safety of their People from all the incursions of Arbitrary Power should not forget that there is not so much as an Imaginary fear or danger that any Subject of England can be injured by any Arbitrary Power or otherwise for which a present and sudden Remedy may not be quickly had or provided and that it is now a received Maxim in our Common Law That the King can do no wrong and that id potest quod de Jure potest So that there are very few unless such as would have the King to be as liable which our Laws did always forbid to Coertions Arrests or Punishments as the most ordinary or meanest of his Subjects are or ought to be or can be so ignorant in the course or Proceedings of our Laws but may understand That if he should cause any to beat or do any Injury or Trespass to any of his Subjects the Parties or Agents are by his and our own Laws to be responsible for it And believe that King James who had reason to understand Government and Affairs of State better than such kind of People did not err or say amiss in his Answer in the 19 th year of his Reign to a Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament when he declared unto them That None could have Wisdom to Judge of things of that Nature but such as are duely acquainted with the particulars of Treaties and of the variable and fixed Connexions of the Affairs of State together with the knowledge of the Secret ways ends and intentions of Princes in their several Negotiations otherwise a small mistaking of Matters of that Nature might produce more and worse effects than can be Imagined And remember that if Impossibilities could be possible and every one that foolishly fancies himself to be able could be able to manage or Judge of State Affairs yet we have no Laws that do allow every Man Coblers and Illiterate men not excepted to be a Statesman And that St. Jude reprehending those that despised Dominions and speak evil of Dignities gives us the Original from whence it comes for that they speak evil of those things they know not And
therefore if they would but once resolve to be more obedient seek and embrace Peace and Humility more than they do and follow the Council of the Apostle St. Paul to abstain from those that make Divisions And not take every thing that they do hear from foolish lying or malitious Tongues rackets and rebounds to be a certainty of Truth when there is nothing at all to support it unless they will acknowledge that their understanding memories and senses are by the vain and incertain Imaginations of Fears and groundless Jealousies misguided and led into a Frenzy or otherwise that they would under those Pretences hide and cover their very wicked Designs until they can be effected and seduce as many as they can into their Party to help to go through with it might acquiesce in the Opinions Duty Allegiance Understanding Reason and Sense of many Counties Cities and Boroughs of this Kingdom who upon the reading of his Majestie 's Declaration shewing the Reasons and Causes of his Dissolving the last Parliament and His Majestie 's firm and fixed resolution to maintain the Religion and Monarchical Government of this Kingdom now by Law established have by their many several Addresses made their dutiful acknowledgments for His Majestie 's Grace and Favour therein and the happy Government Peace and Plenty wherein they have lived since His Majestie 's happy Restauration humbly offering to defend the Rights and Prerogative of his Crown with their Lives and Estates and concurring with them therein Believe that when they have tired themselves with their feaverish Dreams and Fancies and are awake and shall come to themselves they will upon a more knowing and sober inquest readily find that there are more Dangers and Mischiefs like to happen by Atheists Debauchees and Latitudinarians not a few of the Sectaries and no small number of the wild headed Opinion-Mongers whose giddy Notions makes every thing that tends to their Interest or Conveniency to be Religion enough and are so near Neighbours to Popery as if not speedily prevented are like to gulf into it than there is of any Inundation of Arbitrary Power or of the Common sort of Unjesuited Popery and that Popery it self would much abate if the Atheists Latitudinarians and Debauchees and the daily Quarrellers with our Church and State Government would better regulate their Brains and not make themselves so much as they have done the Seminary Seed-Plot and Nursery of it And it may be a wonder beyond the Seven Wonders of England and more than an hundred added thereunto That by a strange Effascination so great a part of the Nation after that they might well have understood his just and happy Government all the time of his Reign had most wickedly Rebelled against His late Majesty their Soveraign vanquish'd and procured him in the hopes of Peace to deliver up unto them the remainders of his Strength and Garrisons Viz. Oxford Newark Worcester and Wallingford Imprisoned notwithstanding and hunted him to Death and brought him upon a Scaffold before his own House or Palace at White-hall to be barbarously Murthered Where he declared to the Soldiers Army Officers and Spectators after he had received the blessed Sacrament Administred unto him by the Pious and Reverend Dr. Juxon Bishop of London and performed his other Devotions Preparatory to a near approaching Death in his dying and last words which ought to be believed by all that had any thing of Humanity or were ever but Christ'ned That as to his Religion He died a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England and found it left him by his Father That he desired the Peoples Liberty and Freedom as much as any body whosoever but he must tell them that their Liberty and Freedom consists in having of Government those Laws by which their Lives and their Goods may be most their own It is not for having share in Government that is nothing pertaining to them A Subject and a Soveraign are clear different things and therefore until they do that I mean that you do put the People in that Liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves It was for this that now I am come here if I would have given way to an Arbitrary way for to have all Laws changed according to the Power of the Sword I needed not to have come here And therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the Martyr of the People That in stead of a never enough to be repeated Repentance with as much satisfaction as was possible to make it available not by sowing the Seeds of another Rebellion they should be so Sottish which is more than a Frenzy or Lunacy which sometimes alloweth Intervals of understanding of c 〈…〉 g again unto themselves as not only to continue those Fears and Jealousies but to hatch new and greater Additions unto them which in most of the seduced Multitude can have no other Ground or Foundation than their Ignorance Folly and Illusion and in the lesser number of that Party their Villany Treason and a Propensity to Act ever again a second Rebellion to support them Can they read or hear that the Turks or Mahometans in their ignorance do no sooner find the least piece of Paper or any other thing with any writing upon it but fearing that it may be some note or discovery of their Sins which might be carried to God Almighty or their great Prophet Mahomet do make as Besâ—equius relateth all the hast they can to burn or destroy it And at the same time write and hire to write print publish and permit to be Cryed and Sold in the Streets Pamphlets and Books to justifie as much as they can their Perjuries Sedition Treason Rebellion and the Murther of His Majestie 's Royal Father with all manner of Invectives against the Government of Church and State do they read or hear that Athâ—ns once the glory of Learning and Wisdom is by her variety of Humours and change of Government do what the Sage Solon could now become a poor â—iâ—â—er Town under the Ottoman's boundless Arbitrary Power and Slavery and that the stout hearted Spartans without their Ephori or King-Comptrollers are now under as sad and slavish a condition and yet persist in their restless murmurings Or can they find any Reason or Justice or so much as a colour of either of them to charge an Arbitrary Power or faults of Government upon their King or Soveraign when they will so little obey his Laws and Statutes as they do all they can to contemn over-turn trample upon and change them from better to worse from the best of Monarchies to the worst of Anarchies When their King can do no more than make or ordain good and wholesom Laws which with our former Laws are as Sir Edward Coke hath said the Quintessence or best of all Laws in the World and his Subjects will not obey them or the directions and care of his