Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	case_n	peace_n	session_n	2,679	5	10.2445	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51706	Concerning penal laws a discourse, or charge at sessions in the burrough of Bridgewater, 12 July, 1680 / by Sir John Mallet, Kt. ...	Mallet, John, Sir, 1622 or 3-1686.	1680 (1680)	Wing M338; ESTC R4353	14,666	22

the greater Felonies are not capable of it I should before I named Felonies have told you of Petty Treason which hath somewhat a higher Name put to it than other Murthers It is when a Servant kills his Master a Wife her Husband or a Clergy-man his Bishop Other Murthers are Felonies As where any by Malice forethought express'd or implyed doth kill any Man Woman or Child this is wilfull Murther and is not capable of ordinary Mercy So is the killing any one by Poyson or Stabbing The killing by sudden Fray and Assault is call'd Homicide or Manslaughter and in some cases it may be capable of Ordinary Mercy If one in doing a lawfull Act happen to kill another it is call'd Chance-Medley or Misadventure And if in his own Defence any man happen to kill another it is by the Law enquirable by Indictment though there be Mercy allow'd of course Rape if a man by force have the Carnal Knowledge of a Woman against her will is a very foul Felony So are the foul Acts of the highest degree of Beastliness Buggery and Sodomy By a late Statute 23 Car. 2. If any person maliciously cut out the Tongue put out the Eyes cut off the Nose or disable or maim any Limb or Member of any of his Majesties Subjects it is Felony without Benefit of Clergy These before mention'd are Felonies against the Person I will Name to you some Felonies that are against your Possessions and Goods Breaking any mans dwelling House in the Night-time with intent to Steal or do any Felonious act there is a very great Felony for which the benefit of Clergy is not allow'd So is the Robbing of a Church And Robbery of any thing from any mans Person in the High-way The Stealing of Cattel or Goods from any mans possession is also Felony but in some cases the benefit of Clergy is allow'd The Stealing of Goods though it be the Goods of a person unknown is Felony by the Law So is the malicious Burning of any mans dwelling House or Stacks of Corn or Hay The Cutting and Stealing Cloth from a Rack is Felony whereof the benefit of Clergy is taken away by a late Statute I have been the shorter in naming these Offences to you because if there be any Offences of Treason or Felony they are commonly so Notorious that they will not escape your presentment though we cannot punish them here but transmit the Examinations of them and the Offenders if any be to other Courts to be proceeded against and punisht There are certain other Offences against Gods Divine Laws which our Laws take notice of to punish with pain and shame though the punishment of that which I shall next tell you of by our Laws is less than the greatness of such wickedness doth deserve These are Perjury and Subornation of Perjury sins and Offences of so deep a dye of guilt that though our Laws have not appointed Capital punishment for them no doubt but God will severely punish them For he that hath said He will not hold him Guiltless that taketh his Name in Vain will much more dreadfully punish that man who breaks both the Tables of his Commandments by a false Oath or by procuring another to Swear falsely Such Perjury oftentimes being the occasion of Murther by false Accusations that may take away the Life or of Oppression and Robbery by taking away the Liberty Estate or Goods by causing heavy Fines and Punishments to be laid on their Neighbours And by such false Oaths and Informations Courts of Justice are abused when it is not possible for any Judges to discern them And hereby unavoidably if Perjury pass for Truth the Law which should be for the protection is turn'd into the destruction of the Subject I hope within this Town there are none such if in any other part of this County or elsewhere anything of this kind be suspected we have nothing here to do with any thing done beyond the limits of your Town But the other Offences of customary Swearing and Cursing are frequent in every place if you find any in your Town who offend therein you may do well to present them that they may be punisht according to the Law which though it inflict but a gentle punishment by paying a little Money for so great Offence that and the Admonition of Friends may reform them and help the poor to whom the penalty by the Law is to be given Our Laws do also punish other Offences against the Divine Laws The Breaking of the Sabbath by Travelling or using Trades or Selling Marketable Wares and labouring on the Sundays For though it be not only Lawful but Commendable and Commanded to follow our Callings six days of the Week yet it is unlawfull except Works of Piety or extraordinary Necessity or Charity to work labour or do our lawful businesses on the Seventh day the Lords day Sabbath or Sunday call it by what Name you please so as you kep it holy And if on that day we may not follow our ordinary lawful Callings and Works it is much more unlawful on that day to do what is unlawful to be done at any time by spending that day or a great part of it in Taverns or Ale-houses and with the worst sort of Company when we should be at Church and Divine Service the Omitting to be where we ought to be and being where we ought not to be especially at that time ought to be punisht by the Laws in that case Those who go to Church ought also to behave themselves reverently there If any disturb the Minister in time of Divine Service or Sermon it is a great Offence punishable by the Laws So is the depraving or speaking against the holy Sacrament It would require too long time for me to enumerate all Offences which concern Religion and Divine Worship Some of them are of Ecclesiastical Congnisance some punishable at the Assizes and many of them punishable by Justices of Peace at home who all know the Laws and Statutes in those cases therefore especially of what Justices of the Peace may punish at home without the help of Sessions or Jury I forbear to say any thing here more than what I have already said That which I come next to tell you of is certainly within the Jurisdiction of this Court to enquire and Punish That is to say The Stealing of Goods not exceeding the value of Twelve Pence this by the Law is call'd Pettit Larceny and to be punisht by whipping which Punishment of young Offenders may do good in preventing their greater Thefts and save them from the Gallows There are also many other Offences of publick concernment and some of them of moment to be enquir'd and punisht here If any number of Persons have combin'd together to make Quarrels and break the Peace If any three or more go forward in a Turbulent way to do an unlawful Act it is call'd a Rout. If they go on by force and do an unlawful Act

a few indifferent Ceremonies seeing they agree with us in the main and substantial matters of Doctrine And there hath been some considerable doubt whether those Penal Statutes which at the time of making them were exprest and intended to be only against Popish Recusants shall extend to Protestant Dissenters One other thing I have always thought of which I think is worthy the most serious consideration of all English Magistrates That the ever good and ancient way of Tryal even from the beginning of our English Laws having been by Juries whereof the Great Charter is but Declaration and Confirmation of our common Laws therein which also hath been multitude of times confirm'd by our Statute Laws and Acts of Parliament Justices of the. Peace and others to whom the Ministration of our Laws belong cannot be too careful in any matters left wholly to their Will and Power to hear and determine without Juries I say I think they cannot be too careful to avoid going beyond the Rigor of the Laws or hardly to the utmost Rigor of them For my part I think it hath been no unhappiness to me that whilest I was in Commission of the Peace in the County there was seldom any considerable Complaint made to me wherein I might Judge according to my own Will without a Jury And if there were at any time any such cause brought before me I thought it my best way for fear of exceeding the Laws if it must be thought an Error in me to be as gentle as may be to erre on the gentlest side By such means to prevent and reclaim any from Offending rather than to watch and take all Opportunities to make them feel the extremity of Penal Laws especially where the proceedings are without Jury Yet I acknowledge the Execution of such Laws are very just when the Magistrate doth not exceed the Directions and the Methods of those Laws and Statutes in those cases Though I have observed that some such Laws in King Henry the Seventh's time were of short continuance and soon repealed and two of the Promoters and busiest Executioners of them came shortly after to unhappy ends for their severe Exactions Besides how free soever any Justice may be from having any part of the Moneys yet if he be very active in Levying great Summs of Money by Fines set by himself out of Sessions unless in such other publick manner as may make it appear he hath no share it will be very hard to avoid being suspected thereof how free soever he may be of it I will give you some Observations more of Tryals by Juries They are to be of the same County indifferently chosen and return'd by Sworn Officers and are to be Free-holders or other honest men of good Understanding and sufficient Estate It would seem as strange a thing to see a very mean Jury rerurn'd to try Offenders of very great Quality as for the greatest sort of Persons to be returned and serve in the Tryals of persons of the lowest degree In what Manner and for what Causes the party to be Tryed may except against the Jury or any of them will not be needfull here to mention For my part I think Juries of the Gentry and Yeomandry or men of good Estates with some equality and indifference mixt together to be the best way of Tryal in the world and most agreeable to the ancient Laws of England I do not find that the Clergy-men though there be about nine or ten Thousand of them Free-holders in England reckoning about so many Parishes whereof they are Parsons and Vicars besides other Dignitaries have for above six hundred years been returned or serv'd as Jury-men I am sure in matters Criminal and cases of Blood they were never used as Juries in any such matters except perhaps which I am not very certain of concerning the Statute commmonly call'd the Statute of six Articles made in the Thirty first Year of King Henry the eighth Wherein what is there mentioned and call'd Heresie was thereby made tryable by Jury Of which Statute an honest and worthy Clergy-man Dr. Burnet in his History of the Reformation lately written by him and 23 May 1679. allow'd by the truly honourable Secretary Coventry to be Printed saith thus There was but one Comfort that the poor Reformers could pick out of the whole Act that they were not left to the Mercy of the Clergy in their Ecclesiastical Courts but were to be tryed by a Jury where they might expect more candid and gentle dealing Yet it seems the Clergy which were then of the Popish Religion did shortly after the making of that Statute leave off Juries and proceed in their Arbitrary way of Tryal without them For to remedy their so doing in the thirty fifth Year of the same King another Law was made That no person shall be put to his tryal upon any Accusation of any Offences comprised in the aforesaid Statute of Thirty one Henry Eight but only such as shall be made by the Oath of twelve men before Commissioners authorized and the presentment to be made within one year after the Offence Commited And that no person shall be Committed to prison for any such Offence before he be Indicted thereof I forbear from hence and from much more that might be said from our Laws but chiefly from the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament wherein Christ did refuse to be a Judge in Case of Blood and other Temporal matters to make any Inference or reflection upon any of our Clergy seeing many of them are pleased with employment of that kind But for Juries I have some few short Notes more to observe unto you That after Juries of Tryal are sworn and the Tryal begun I think they should not at all but I am sure they are not ordinarily to be adjourned till the Cause be fully heard and ended And then if they go from the Barr as they may go together if they will before they give their verdict for it may seem to prejudice the freedom which belongeth to them to perswade them not to go from the Barr and consult together in some private place where none may have influence over them And they must have time allow'd them in private till they be all and every one of them agreed before they give their Verdict in the Court. For a Jury of twelve men for tryal of a Cause doth differ from a Grand Jury of Enquiry in this that in all Juries of Tryal all and every one of the Jury must be agreed in the same point without going to the Poll for the Major part of Votes whereas Juries of Enquiry may carry matters before them by the Vote of the greatest number among themselves Now to close this part of this Discourse about Tryals with somewhat concerning Witnesses It hath ever been the good old way warranted by the Holy Scripture and by the Laws and Usage of England that the party accused should know the Witnesses and Informers against him

CONCERNING PENAL LAWS A DISCOURSE OR CHARGE at SESSIONS In the BURROUGH of BRIDGEWATER 12 July 1680. By Sir JOHN MALLET Kt. Recorder there Part thereof being APOLOGIE for GENTLENESS to Protestant Dissenters LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1680. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER IF it hath been a supposal of some Wise men of late That rather than live where all things were lawful it were better dwell where nothing were lawfull but what 's Commanded Which shall be admitted rather than disputed because neither case of that supposal is ever likely to happen in any Christian Countrey It may perhaps by some be thought a happiness to be debarr'd what was used to be the last Liberty of the Unfortunate to VVish or to Petition by such restraint to reduce Thoughts as well as Obedience which is due to all the Ten Commandments to be confin'd only to the Fifth From the like leave of using supposals may it be lawfull to suppose that If some of those whose holy Function should be to teach men all their Duties both to God and Man had instead of Moses been in the Mount they would have pray'd God what sin soever it would be to think so little of God as to hope he would grant their bold request to give them only that one Command of Obeying Magistrates under the Name of Parents and to leave all other Laws to their own dictating how they would have managed such Power by turning Religion and the VVorship of God into setting up themselves or Adoring and Flattery of Princes under the Name of Gods from the Mode of some and the many Absurdities that would be in Civil matters may be imagined rather than said But if they please to consider the Names Father and Mother there used seem as well a Prophecy as a Law that Princes should be Nursing Fathers of the Church as well of the tender and weak as of the strong Children of it As the best Princes have alwayes accounted it their greatest Glory to become and be call'd Fathers of their Countrey for their Love Protection and well Governing their People by those Lawes which by ancient Usage or prudent Legislation are found to be agreeable and Good thereby Government would be as well Firm and Honourable as also Easie and Pleasant both to Prince and People who would strive to excell each other the first by Princely Condescensions of Love the other by returns of faithful and loving Duty Such certainly would be the Condition of these Kingdoms under the Government of our King who by his Own most Noble Goodness deserves the Character of being the best Prince now living on the Earth if those whose sacred Professions of Religion Law and of giving Councel all which Qualities when well and justly used may be accounted Sacred as it is hoped some of those who are to give Counsel considering Honesty therein is the true way to be Honourable would be so honest in their Advices to his Majesty and their Administrations under him in whatsoever may concern Religion Law Safety and the good both of King and People as to preferre the inseparable common Interest of both before their own or any private advantage All inferior Ministrations would then surely go well or easily be set right if those higher Powers bestow the Influence of their care and good Example on them Amongst other things how low and small soever the ordinary course of Justice may seem there having been some misreports and private Censures of something lately said in a Discourse or Charge at Sessions for a Town therein mentioned concerning the Ancient and yet good way of Tryal by Juries A Friend of our English Laws having a true Copy of what was there said gives it to you which the Author of that Discourse would not else yield to publish He in that Discourse and the Friend who writes this Advertisement might say much more in Commendation of the Common Laws of England above the Civil or any other Celebrated Laws of Church or State or any other place had not the Excellent Preface of the Learned Sir John Davys to his Reports and the Cases there especially that of Premunire in the End of his Book saved the labour of repeating what may be not only necessary for all our Lawyers to know but delightfull for every Gentleman who may think himself concern'd in our English Laws to read there they and the Civilians and our Clergy also if they please may find by what our Ancestors answer'd when a Course of proceeding in Criminal Causes according to the form of the Civil Law was propounded and in another Case when in former Ages an Alteration of the Common Law was endeavour'd how concernedly they express'd their Love to the Laws of England A DISCOURSE OR CHARGE at SESSIONS In the BURROUGH of BRIDGEWATER 12 July 1680. Gentlemen my very good Friends now Return'd and Sworn of the Grand Jury for this Burrough of Bridgewater IT is now many years since by the desires and voluntary free choice of your Corporation I have been your Recorder And according to my duty I have been often present at your Sessions And as it is the Custom of all Courts of Justice and Sessions for one of the Justices in the Counties and for Recorders in their Towns by some discourse to the Grand Juries to say something of the Occasion of their Meeting and some general Recommendation of the Laws of England and to give in Charge the most material Articles to be Enquired and to Exhort the Juries to make Presentments with due care and regard to their Oaths and the Laws as the Cases shall require I have on these former Occasions here spoken my minde truely and freely But as often as it hath been my part to say any thing here or elsewhere in publick I have very seldom used or had the leisure to set down in Writing what I should say Yet now two or three dayes before my coming hither having consider'd some Inconveniencies which of late time have hapned and may happen to my self as well as others by mistakes or misreports to prevent which in what I have to say I have learnt from the care of Ecclesiastical persons and our Clergy in their Discourses at their Visitations as well as their Sermons to write what I have to say and with your leave to read and make use of my Paper in saying to you what I have here written Though since the short time I have had to think of it other occasions have hindred me from dressing this Discourse with any Exactness of Method or Language but instead of being curious it shall be plain and true Gentlemen This hath alwayes been accounted one of the most considerable good Towns of this County in respect of its Scituation Bigness the good Condition of the Inhabitants of it and heretofore and at this present well esteem'd for Trade being one of the best Markets in this County to