Votes being Transmitted by the Commons to the House of Lords Their Lordships did Concur therein And on Fryday the 26. of February 1640. It was Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the High Court of Parliament Assembled That the Lord-Keeper or Master of the Rolls the Two Lord Chief Justices and the Lord Chief Baron and likewise the Chief Clerk of the Star-Chamber should bring into the Upper House of Parliament the Records of the Judgment against Mr. Hampden concerning Ship-Money in each of those several Courts and that a Vacat thereof should be made And that a Copy of the Judgment of the Parliament concerning the Illegality thereof should be Delivered to the several Judges of Assize and that they should be required to Publish the same in all the Circuits Which on the 27. of the same February was done accordingly the said Records being Vacated and the Rolls Cross'd with a Pen in the House of Lords and Subscribed with the Clerk of the Parliament's Hand And soon after several of the before-named Judges were Impeached for the same in Parliament And not daring to stand the Shock some of them as the Lord Chief Justice Finch Fled beyond the Seas and others Absconded And soon after came on the Unnatural Civil-Wars so Destructive to King and Kingdom which though no way Justifiable yet it cannot be denyed but they were not a little Occasion'd and the Animosities of the People blown into an Untameable Flame by these base Traiterous Proceedings of those Sycophant Judges And Woe unto those say Sacred Oracles by whom Offences come However after so many dismal Experiences and fair Warnings and the Miraculous Restauration of His present Majesty our Gracious Soveraign whom God long Preserve a Prince of Incomparable Lenity and Good-natur'd beyond Example it might be hoped that none Preferr'd to the Publick Seats of Justice durst to have Acted â—o contrary to His Royal Incimations as to violate those Laws which He Himself has Sworn to Maintain and Intrusted them to Administer Yet so Base and Extravagant are some as even to abuse the Favours of the Best of Princes and puff't up with Preferment will take no Admonition from the Falls of their Head-strong Predecessors but still presume to sully those Ermins the Emblems of Innocency and Integrity which they wear and adventure on the same Destructive Precipices You have heard how heinously our Prudent Ancestors resented the Violation of their Liberties though by an Act in Tryals of the Free-born People of England Without Iuries Next to which is the Ruffing Hectoring and Over-awing of Juries For What real Difference is there betwixt allowing no Juries at all and Menacing them into a Compliance contrary to Law and their own Consciences with the Corrupt Humours and Time serving Interests of ill Judges Of this Crime the Lord Chief Justice Keeling about the Year 1666. a Time when God's General Judgments on this Sinful Land might have awakened them to greater Circumspection and Uprightness was not only Guilty but Question'd for the same even by That very Parliament which was never extraordinarily Celebrated for bringing Publick Vermine to Punishment Yet such a Sense they had of these ill Practises that in their Journal we find the following Votes on this Occasion Die Mecurii 11º Decembris 1667. THE House Resuming the Hearing of the rest of the Report touching the Matter of Restraint upon Juries and upon the Examination of divers Witnesses in several Cases of Restraints put upon Juries by the Lord Chief Justice Keeling Resolved as followeth First That the Proceedings of the said Lord Chief Justice in the Cases now Reported are Innovations in the Tryals of Men for their Lives and Liberties and that he hath used an Arbitrary and Illegal Power which is of dangerous Consequence to the Lives and Liberties of the People of England and tends to the Introducing of an Arbitrary Government Secondly That in the Place of Judicature the Lord Chief Justice hath Undervalued Vilified and Contemned Magna Charta the great Preserver of our Lives Liberties and Property Thirdly That he be brought to Tryal in Order to Condign Punishment in such Manner as the House shall judge most Fit and Requisite And again Die Veneris 13º Decembris 1667. Resolved THat the Precedents and Practice for Fining or Imprisoning of Jurors for Giving their Verdicts is Illegal Here you see the ill Practices of that Chief Justice were Branded in Parliament and he was ordered to be Prosecuted though by reason of the Houses being Prorogued and he himself not long after Dying in Discontent we do not find there were any further Proceedings made therein At the Sessions for London Sept. 1670. William Penn and William Mead Two of the People commonly called Quakers being Indicted For that they the Fourteenth of August before did with others to the Number of Three Hundred in Grace-Church-Street Unlawfully and Tumultuously Assemble c. by reason whereof a great Tumult did there happen in Contempt of the King great Disturbance of the Peace Terror of the People c. And the Jury after having been several times sent back and kept close from the Saturday till the Monday Morning bringing them in Not Guilty Sir John Howel then Recorder of London presumed to Fine the said Jury Forty Marks a Man and to Lye in Prison till paid Being thus in Custody Edward Bushel one of the said Jury-Men brought his Habeas Corpus in the Court of Common-Pleas and upon a long Argument it was Adjudged by the whole Court That the said Fining and Commitment was Illegal Whereupon the said Bushel was Discharged and left to bring his Action for False Imprisonment against the said Recorder Which Case is Reported by Vaughan at that time Chief Justice of the said Court in his Reports Licensed and Approved of by the present Lord Chancellor of England Sir William Scroggs since Lord chief-Chief-Justice of the King 's Bench my Lord North chief-Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas and all the Judges of England But as to the Illegality of any Courts Imposing upon Menacing Fineing or Imprisoning Juries see a small Treatise Entituled The English-Man's Right Printed for R. Janeway 1680. and another called The Grand Iury-Man's Oath and Office Explained Sold by Langley Curtis on Ludgate-Hill both well worthy the Perusal of every True English-Man What Proceedings have been since or rather are at this instant pendent against Judges for Hectoring of Juries and other Illegal Arbitrary Proceedings are too fresh in every Bodies Memory to need a Recital Instead of which I shall rather Insert the Form of the Oath Taken by Judges at their first Admittance to that Office which runs as follows The OATH of a JUDGE In Dorso Claus ' de Anno 20. Edw. 31. Part. Prima YE shall Swear That Well and Truly ye shall Serve our Sovereign Lord the King and His People in the Office of Justice And that ye shall Counsel our Sovereign Lord the King in His Needs And that ye shall not give any
they held Pleas forbidden by the Customs of the Realm to Ordinary Judges and Suitors to hold In this time Colgrin lost his Franchise of Enfangthief because he would not send a Thief to the common Gaole of the County who was taken within his Liberty and not Bailable In this time Buttolph lost his view of Frank-pledges because he charged the Jurours with other Articles than those which belonged to the View and Amerced people in personal Actions where one was not to be amerced by a pecuniary Punishment And accordingly he caused punishments of Death to Criminal Judges for wrongful mortal Judgements and so he did proportionably for wrongful Judgements of a lesser nature As Imprisonment for wrongful Imprisonments and and like for like with the other Punishments for he delivered Thelweld to Prison because he Judged men to Prison for Offences where they ought not to be Imprisoned He Judged Lithing to Prison because he imprisoned Herbote for the Offence of his Wife He Judged Rutwood to Prison because he Imprisoned Old for the Kings Debt Note In those days people were not to be Imprisoned for Debt but only their Goods distrain'd On the other side he Cut off the Hand of Haulf because he saved Armorks Hand who was Attainted before him that he had Feloniously wounded Richbold He Judged Edulfe to be wounded because he Judged not Arnold to be wounded who had Feloniously wounded Aldens In lesser Judgments he did not meddle with the Judgments but Disinherited the Justices and Removed them according to the Points of those Statutes where he could understand that they had Transgressed their Jurisdiction or the Bounds of their Delegacy or Commission or had concealed Fines or Amerciaments or ought that belonged to the King or had Released or Increased any Punishment contrary to Law or procured Pleadings without Warrant c. Thus far Horns Mirrour Now that this Alfred was one of the Wisest and most Renowned Kings that ever this Land was happily Governed by appears as well by the Eulogies given him by the Ancients as those Encomiastick Verses Dedicated to his Memory by a present Ingenious Courtier Sir Winston Churchill Kt. in his Diri Britannici Fol. 140. Who would not follow him into the Field Who cannot choose but Conquer tho' he yield Whose Sword cut deep yet was his Wit more keen Some Fence ' gainst that But this did wound unseen To thee is due Great Elfrid double praise To thee we bring the Laurel and the Bayes Master of Arts and Arms Apollo so Sometimes did use his Harp sometimes his Bow And from the other Gods got this Renown To Reconcile the Gauntlet to the Gown But who did e're with the same Sword like Thee Execute Justice and the Enemy Keep up at once the Law of Arms and Peace And from the Camp Issue out Writs of Ease The next English Prince of Renown before the Norman Conquest was King Edgar about the year 960. Amongst whose Noble Acts 't is recorded as none of the least memorable that in his Circuits and Progresses through the Countrey he would take Account of the Demeanour of his Lords and especially of his Judges whom he severely Punished if he found them Delinquents Bakers Chron. Fol. 11. Nor have the best and wisest of our Princes since the Conquest been less ready to give up Ill Judges to just Punishment nor our English Parliaments wanting to bring them to it In the pear 1290. being saith Walsingham p. 54. the 17th year of Edw. 1. Justitiarios ferè omnes de falsitate deprehensos a suo Officio deposuit ipsos juxta merita puniens gravi Mulctâ He finding almost all his Judges guilty of Corruption put them out of their places and Punisht them according to their Demerits with heavy Fines Which the Lord Cook in the Second part of his Institutes Fol. 508. likewise takes notice of and tells us That this was done by a Parliament held after the Feast of St. Hillary and only two Judges scap'd scot-free But how severe the Fines of the other Delinquents were appears in Bakers Chronicle fol. 100. Sir Ralph de Hengham says he Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench for Corruption was Fined 7000 Marks Sir John Lovetot one of the Justices of the Common Pleas 3000 Marks Sir William Brompton 6000 Marks Sir Solomon Rochester 4000 Marks Sir Richard Boyland 4000 Marks Sir Walter Hopton 2000 Marks Sir William Saham in 3000 Marks Robert Lithbury Master of the Rolls in 1000 Marks Roger Leicester in 1000 Marks Hugh Bray Escheator and Judge for the Jews 1000 Marks But Sir Adam Stratton Chief Baron of the Exchequer who it seems had been a notable Bribe-fingerer four and thirty Thousand Marks A prodigious Summe allmost 400 years ago And Sir Thomas Wayland Chiefe Justice of the Common-Pleas being found the greatest Offender of all was Attainted of Felony for taking of Bribes and his Lands and Goods Forfeited as appears in the Pleas of Parliament 18 Edw. 1. And he was also Banisht the Kingdom as unworthy to live in that State against which he had so much Offended Sir William Thorp Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench in K. Edw. the Thirds time having of five several persons received five several Bribes which in all amounted to 100 l. was for this alone adjudged to be Hang'd and all his Goods and Lands Forfeited The reason of the Judgment is entred in the Roll in these words Quia praedictus Willielmus Thorpe qui Sacramentum Domini Regis erga populum suum habuit ad Custodiendum fregit malitiosè falsè Rebelliter quantum in ipso fuit Because that as much as in him lay he had broken the Kings Oath made to the People which the King had Intrusted him withall And so much did the then Collective Wisdom of the Nation respect Judges herein that 't is expresly entred that this Judgment should not be drawn into example against any other Officers who should break their Oaths but only against those Qui predictum Sacramentum fecerunt et fregerunt et habent Leges Angliae ad Custodiendum That is only to the Judges that violate their Oaths having the Laws of England Entrusted unto them This Iudgment was given 24 Edw. 3 d. The next year in the Parliament 25 Edw. 3. Numero 10. it was debated in Parliament Whether this Iudgment was Legal and Nullo Contradicente unanimously it was declared to be just and according to the Law and that the same Iudgment may be given in time to come upon the like occasion Which Case I humbly conceive resolves the Case in Law Point Blank thus That it is death for any Judge wittingly to break his Oath in any part of it This Oath of Thorp is entred in the Roll and is the same verbatim with the Iudges Oath in 18 Edw. 3 The same too as I humbly conceive which our Iudges now a days take and is herein afterwards punctually recited The Oaths of our Iudges of England as they bind them to the due
THE TRIUMPHS OF JUSTICE OVER Vnjust Iudges EXHIBITING I. The Names and Crimes of Four and Forty Iudges Hang'd in one Year in England as Murderers for their corrupt Judgments II. The Case of the Lord Chief Justice Tresilian Hang'd at Tyburn and all the rest of the Judges of England save one banisht in K. Rich. the 2ds Time III. The Crimes of Empson and Dudley Executed in K. Henry the 8th's Days IV. The Proceedings of the Ship-money-Judges in the Reign of K. Charles the First V. Diverse other Presidents both Antient and Modern To which is added VI. The Judges OATH and some Observations thereupon Humbly Dedicated to the Lord Chief Iustice Scroggs Discite Justitiam moniti non temnere Leges LONDON Printed for Benjamin Harris at the Stationers Arms in the Piazza under the Royal Exchange 1681. TO Sir William Scroggs Kt. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE Of His Majesties Court of KINGS-BENCH AT WESTMINTER I Know not to whom I could more properly Dedicate a Treatise of this Nature than to Your Lordship who is at Present Lord Chief Justice of England and have set such remarkable Copies to inferior Magistrates What is here offered is neither Prophecy nor Plaister Lampoon nor Romance but a clear Mirrour retreiv'd out of the Closet of wise Antiquity In which future Administrators of publick Justice would do well to Look For you know My Lord Common-Law runs much upon Presidents And if a Man happen to have none of the best Physiognomies there is no reason why he should straight grow angry and fling stones to break all the Looking-Glasses he meets with only because they represent the true Figure of the Object 'T is a Priviledge we Scribblers that write for Bread hold by Prescription to put any great Bodies name in the front of our Book Princes have not been able to exempt themselves or their Favourites from the Persecution of Dedications nor is there I humbly conceive any Rule made in Your Lordships Court to forbid them Suffer then I beseech Your Lordship this Address to remain a Monument to Posterity of the Sentiments this Age has of Your Lordships Conduct and Merits and witness to all the world how much its Author is Westminster-Hall this 23 of Dec. 1680. Your Lordships most humble Servant Philo-Dicaios THE TRIUMPHS OF JUSTICE OVER Vnjust Iudges c. UNdoubtedly there may be because there has been too often in the World such a thing such a sin such a mischief as Corruption of Iudges that is when by means of Pecuniary or other Bribes or which is all out as bad Threatnings Promises of Reward Malice Revenge hopes of greater or fears of being turned out of present Preferments or any other ill motive They that are appointed and Sworn to Administer equal and impartial Right and Justice are wrap'd aside or Bias'd to serve a Turn or Wreck a private Grudge or to free the Guilty or condemn the Innocent or to lean rather to the one side than to the other or wilfully to declare that to be Law which they cannot but know is not so or to adjudge punishments disproportionate to the Crimes that appear before them or any the like base illegal practises How odious this Vice is to God and Man as being equally destructive to Religion and Humane Society and how severely it has been heretofore punished by both may appear by The Ensuing Examples 1. As to God who is Capitalis Justitiarius Caeli Terrae the Grand never-erring Justitiary of all the World His Sacred Word prohibits nothing more positively nor omplain of any thing lowder or with more repeated importunities Thou shalt not rest the judgment of the poor in his cause Thou shalt take no gift for a gift blindeth the eye of the wise and perverteth the words of the Righteous Ex. 23.6 and 8 ver Thou shalt not rest juegment thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift c. Deut. 16.19 Woe unto them that justifie the wicked for reward and taketh away the righteousness of the righteous from him Isa 5.23 A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosome 't is done you see slyly and in the dark to pervert the ways of judgment Prov. 17 23. Woe unto yee who turn judgment into wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth Amos 5.7 The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upwright amongst men They all lye in wait for bloud they hunt every man his brother as with a net that they may do evil with both hands earnestly The Prince asketh and the Judg gapeth for a reward and the great man uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up the best of them is as a briar the most upright is sharper than a thorn-hedg c. Mic. 7.2 3 4 ver with many of the like Texts 2 As corrupt Judges are thus obnoxious to the Curse of God so hath his Divine Providence not seldome Executed it upon them even in this world by the hands of men Nor indeed is there any thing that can render Kings Gods Vicegerents more Glorious or better establish any state than to keep the Current of Justice clear and unsullied and exemplarily to punish their Subordinate Ministers and especially Judges that shall presume to impoison that Sacred Fountain Several Heathen Princes are Renowned for this wholesom severity 'T is said of Alexander Severus the Roman Emperour that he had such an aversion and abhorrence of unjust Judges that at the very sight of them he would vomit Choler was ready with his fingers to pluck out their eyes-Theatrum Historicum f. 546. The Mighty Monarch Cambyses King of Persia finding that one Sisamnes his Chief Justice Proeses our Author calls him in Latin had receiv'd a Bribe and for the same pronounced an unjust Sentence forthwith caused him to be Executed and curiously flead and with his skin cover'd the Common Seat of Justice and Constituted Otanes the said Sisamnes's own Son Judg in his Room That so beholding daily those Reliques of his justly-punisht Father It might serve as a Memento to him to act more uprightly Chronicon Carionis l. 2. p. 19. But not to search so far off our own Nation affords us perhaps the most notable and numerous Examples of Royal Justice in this kind of any in the world For we find it Recorded in that Antient Law-Book Entituled The Mirrour of Justices most of which is said to be Compiled before the Conquest and Augmented by the Learned Andrew Horn in the Reign of K. Edw. the Ist and which is often Cited by the Famous Lord Coke and to this day continues in good Repute amongst Lawyers That King Alfred a Renowned Saxon-Prince who Governed this Realm about the Year of our Lord 900. did in one years space bring to Condign punishment no fewer than four and forty of his Justices so the Law Terms those we call Judges and this was long before either Justices of the Peace Establisht or the Courts fixed at Westminster But
Justice was in those days Administred in the Countrey in Neighbouring Courts which yet as appears by the nature of the offences alledged against them had jus vitae necis power of life and death and so may properly be called Judges whose Names and particular Crimes here follow in the words of that worthy Author p. 296. of the French and p. 239 of the English Edition It is an abuse that Justices and their Officers who kill People by false judgment be not destroyed which King Alfred caused to be done who caused Forty four Iustices in one year to be hanged as Murderers fer their false judgments 1. He hanged Darling because he judged Sidulf to death for the retreat of Edulf his Son who afterward acquitted him of the Fact 2. He hanged Segnar who judged Ulf to death after sufficient acquittal 3. He hanged Cadwine because that he judged Hachwy to death without the Consent of all the Jurors for whereas he had put himself upon a jury of Twelve-men because that three would havesaved him against the Nine Cadwine removed the three and put others upon the jury upon whom Hachwy put not himself 4. He hanged Cole because he judged Ive to death when he was a Mad-man 5. He hanged Malme because he Judged Prat to death upon a false suggestion that he committed the felony 6. He hanged Athulf because he caused Copping to be hang'd before the Age of one and twenty years It was against Law then but now nequitia supplet Aetatem 7. He hanged Markes because he judged During to death by twelve men that were not sworn 8. He hanged Ostline because he judged Seaman to death by a false Warrant grounded upon false suggestion which supposed Seaman to be a Person in the warrant which he was not 9. He hanged Billing because he judged Leston to death by fraud In this manner he said to the People sit all ye here but he who killed the man and because that Leston did not sit with the other he commanded him to be hanged and said that he did assist where he knew he did not assist to kill the Party 10. He hanged Seafoul because he judged Ording to death as not answering 11. He hanged Thurston because he judged Thurgner to death by a Verdict of Inquest taken ex officio without Issue joyned 12. He hanged Athelston because he judged Herbert to death for an offence not mortal 13. He hanged Rambold because he judged Leschild in a Case not notorious without Appeal and without Indictment 14. He hanged Rolf because he judged Dunston to dye for an escape out of prison 15. He hanged Frebern because he judged Harpin to dye whereas the July were in doubt of their verdict for in doubtful cases one ough rather to save than condemn 16. He hanged Seabright who judged Athebrus to death because he had discharg'd one that had given a false judgment in a Case Capital 17. He hanged Hale because he saved Tristrain the Sherif from death who took to the Kings use from another goods against his will for as much as any such taking from another against his will and Robbery hath no difference 18. He hanged Arnold because he saved Bailifs who robbed the people by colour of Distresses some by selling Distresses such and others by extortion of Fines because between such tortious Acts and Robbery there was no difference 19. He hanged Erkinwald because he hanged Frankling for nought else but because he taught to him who vanquished him by Battle-mortal to say the word Cravant 20. He hanged Bermond because he caused Garbot to be beheaded by his judgment in England for that for which he was outlaw'd in Ireland 21. He hanged Alkman because he saved Cateman by colour of Disseisin who was Attaited of Burglary 22. He hanged Saxmond because he hanged Barold in England where the Kings Writ runneth for a fact which he did in the same Land where the Kings Writ did not run 23. He hanged Alflet because he judged a Clerk to death over whom he had no Cognizance 24. He hanged Piron because he judged Huntiny to death because he gave judgment in Appeal before the forty days pendant the Appeal by a Writ of false judgment before the King 25. He hanged Delani because he caused Eldons to be hanged who kill'd a man by misfortune 26. He hanged Oswin because he judged Fulcher to death out of Court 27. He hanged Mucdin because he hanged Helgrave by warrant of Indictment not special He hanged Horn because he hanged Simin at days forbidden 29. He hanged Wolmer because he judged Grant to death by colour of a Larceny of a thing which he had received by Title of Bailment 30. He hanged Therberne because he Judged Osgot to death for a Fact whereof he was Acquitted before against the same Plaintiffe which Acquittance he tendred to averre by Oath and because he would not averre it by Record Therbern would not allow of the Acquittal which he tendred him 31. He hanged Wolston because he adjudged Howbert to death at the suit of the King for a fact which Howbert confest and of which the King gave him his Pardon but he had no Charter thereof nevertheless he vouched the King to Warrant it and further tendred to averre it by Enrollment of the Chancery 32. He hanged Oskitell because he Judged Cutlinge to death by the Record of the Coroner where by Replication allowable the Plea did not hold And the Case was such Cutling was taken and Tortured so much as he confessed he had Mortally offended only to be quitted of the pain and Oskitell adjudged him to death upon such his Confession which he had made to the Coroner without trial of the truth of the Torture or the Fact And further the said King caused the Coroners and Officers Accessories to be apprehended who hanged the people and all those that might have hindred the false Judgment and did not hinder the same in all cases For he hanged all the Judges who had falsely saved any man guilty of Death or hath falsely hanged any man against Law or any reasonable Exception He hanged the Suitors of Calevot because they had adjudged a man to death in a case not notorious although he were guilty thereof for no man can Judge within the Realm but the King or his Commissaries except those Lords in whose Lordships the Kings Writ doth not run He hanged the Suitors of Dorcester because they Judged a man to death by Jurors in their Liberty for a Felony done out of it and whereof they had not the Conusance by reason of forraignty He hanged the Suitors of Cirencester because they kept a man so long in Prison that he dyed in prison who would have acquitted himself by Forraigners that he offended not Feloniously 'T is supposed these Suitors of each place were Four in Number which compleats the number of 44. Hanged in all In his time also the Suitors of Doncaster lost their Jurisdiction besides other Punishments because
Iudgments were not given till the 15 of Feb. following which is a Quarter of a Year 'T is also to be observed That several of these Iudges were very unwilling to give their Corrupt Opinions but were menaced and violently drawn thereunto by the Duke of Ireland and others And at their Trials they severally Alledged That in part Violence had been offered to their Persons because they had deferred the delivery of their Opinions But as Fear or Cowardice is no Plea for delivering up of the Forts or Bulwarks of the Kingdom so neither is it for basely betraying our Rights and Liberties These Allegations of being threatned from their Duty could not excuse them from the Rope but how much more then do they deserve it who shall presume to do as bad things or worse without any Menaces at all but wilfully and presumptuously purely out of their own base inclinations But Tresilian was not the onely Iudge which our English History even since the Conquest mentions to have been executed for irregular Practices For in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh a Wise but Avaritious Prince there were two Gentlemen of the Long Robe that for private Interest and to serve the Kings present Turn were ready to dispence with their Oaths and the known Fundamental Laws But as they liv'd hated during his time so they died unlamented under his Successor being given up a necessary Sacrifice to Publick Iustice. Their Names were Sir Richard Empson Knight and Edmund Dudley both saith Sir Richard Baker fol. 247. Lawyers and both of them Barons of the Exchequer and Iustices of the Peace throughout England Dudley of a good Family but Empson the Son of a Sieve-maker So true is that Remark of the Poet Mendico asperius nihil est cum surgit ad Altum There is no Person in the World more Haughty or an Apter Tool for Oppression than a Beggars Bratt or some base Mechanick Butcherly Off-spring when undeservedly flush't with Preferment The King made odd Use of these Two Instruments They turn'd sayes Baker Law into Rapine And most certain it is that many ill Things they did But the better to colour their vile Practises a Statute was Provided to Justify their Invasions on the Liberties and Properties of their Fellow-Subjects We will give you an Account of this Matter in the very Words of that Great Oracle of our Law Sir Edward Cook But first hear how Sir Richard Baker in his Chronicle fol. 247. represents them Their Manner was saith he to cause divers Subjects to be Indicted of Crimes and then presently to Commit them and not Produce them to their Answer but suffer them to Languish long in Prison and by sundry Artificial Devices and Terror extort from them great Fines which they termed Compositions and Mitigations Neither did they towards the End observe so much as the Half-Face of Justice in Proceeding by Indictment but sent forth their Precepts to Attach Men and Convent them before Themselves and some Others at their private Houses and there shuffle up a Summary Proceeding by Examination Without Tryal by Iury assuming to themselves to deal both in Pleas of the Crown and Controversies Civil Then did they also use to Enthral and Charge the Subjects Land with Tenures in Capite by finding False Offices refusing upon divers Pretexts and Delayes to admit Men to Traverse those False Offices Nay contrary to all Law and Colour they maintain'd That the King ought to have the Half of Mens Lands and Rents during the Space of full Two Years for a Pain in case of Outlawry They would likewise Ruffle with Jurors and enforce them to Find as they would Direct And if they did not then Convent Imprison and Fine them These and many other Courses they had of Preying upon the People and had ever a Rabble of Promoters and Leading Jurors at their Command so as they could have any Thing found either for Fact or Valuation Thus far the Historian Now take the Relation of the Reverend Judge Cook in his ever-valuable Works Commenting in the Second Part of his Institutes on that GOLDEN Nine and Twentyeth Chapter of Magna Charta which being of Inestimable Value I take it for granted no True English Man will any more grudge the Reading than I do the Recital of it and I wish it might every Market-Day be repeated with a Speaking-Trumpet in every Town and Corporation of this Kingdom The Words run thus Nullus Liber Homo c. No Free-Man shall be Taken or Imprisoned or Disseised of his Free-Tenement or Liberties or Free-Customs or be Out-law'd or Exil'd or in any manner Destroy'd Nor will we pass upon him nor send any to pass upon him But by the Lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land We will Sell to none we will Deny to none nor to any delay Justice or Right Discoursing I say upon this most Comprehensive Text the Corner-Stone of all our English Freedoms my Lord Cook 2 Instit fol. 51. thus expresses himself Against this Antient and Fundamental Law and in the Face thereof I find an Act of Parliament made 11 H. 7. Cap. 3. That as well Justices of Assize as Justices of the Peace without any Finding or Presentment by the Verdict of Twelve Men upon a bare Information for the King before them made should have full Power and Authority by their Discretions to Hear and Determine all Offences c. And Fourth Part Instit fol. 39. he gives a further Account of and Recites this Act thus There was an Act of Parliament made in the 11 H. 7. which had a Fair Flattering Preamble pretending to avoid divers Mischiefs which were 1. The High Displeasure of Almighty God 2. The great Let of the Common-Law And 3. The great Let of the Wealth of this Land And the Purview of that Act tended in the Execution contrary Ex Diametro viz. To the Displeasure of Almighty God The great Let nay the utter Subversion of the Common-Law and The great Let of the Wealth of this Land Which Act followeth in these Words THe King our Soveraign Lord calling to his Remembrance That many good Statutes and Ordinances be made for the Punishment of Riots and unlawful Assemblies Reteinders in giving and receiving of Liveries Signs and Tokens unlawfully Extortions Maintenances Imbracery Excessive taking of Wages contrary to the Statute of Labourers and Artificers the Vse of unlawful Games Inordinate Apparel c. to the displeasure of Almighty God c. notwithstanding that generally by the Iustices of the Peace in every Shire within this Realm in the open Sessions it is given in Charge to inquire of many Offences committed c. and divers Inquests thereupon straightly Sworn and Charged before the said Iustices to inquire of the Premisses and therein to present the Troth which they letted to be sound by Imbracery Maintenance Corruption and Favour by occasion whereof the said Statutes be not nor cannot be put in due Execution For Reformation whereof