Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	chief_a	law_n	lord_n	7,276	5	3.9306	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58853	The Lord Chief Justice Scroggs his speech in the King-Bench, the first day of this present Michaelmas term 1679 occasioned by the many libellous pamphlets which are publisht against law, to the scandal of the government and publick justice : together with what was declared at the same time on the same occasion, in open court, by Mr. Justice Jones, and Mr. Justice Dolbin.	Scroggs, William, Sir, 1623?-1683.	1679 (1679)	Wing S2122; ESTC R32132	5,141	11

October 23. 1679. I Do Appoint Robert Pawlet to Print this my Speech And that no other Person presume to Re-Print the same WILLIAM SCROGGS THE Lord Chief Justice SCROGGS HIS SPEECH IN THE KINGS-BENCH The first day of this present Michaelmas Term 1679. Occasion'd by the many Libellous Pamphlets which are publisht against Law to the Scandal of the Government and Publick Justice TOGETHER With what was Declared at the same Time on the same Occasion in open Court by Mr. Justice JONES and Mr. Justice DOLBIN LONDON Printed for Robert Pawlet at the Bible in Chancery-Lane 1679. THE Lord Chief Justice SCROGGS HIS SPEECH In the KINGS-BENCH The First day of this Present Michaelmas Term 1679. Occasioned by the many Libellous Pamphlets That are Published against Law To the Scandal of the Government and Publick Justice WITH What Mr. Justice Jones and Mr. Justice Dolbin then declared about the same I Have bound over this Man Richard Radley to his good Behaviour and to appear here this day for saying false and Scandalous words of me which are Sworn to by two several Affidavits viz. William Lewis maketh Oath That on the seventh day of August 1679 there being a Difference between Robert Raylett and Richard Radley he heard the said Richard Radley say to him the said Raylett If you think to have the Money you have overthrown me in go to Weale-hall to my Lord Scroggs for he has received Money enough of Dr. Wakeman for his Acquittal William Lewis Jurat 4º die Septembris 1679. coram me Will. Scroggs Robert Raylett maketh Oath That there was a Tryal at the last Essex Assizes between him and one Richard Radley where he recovered Thirty eight pounds and he happening to be at work on the seventh day of August 1679 over against the house of the said Richard Radley the said Richard Radley told him If you expect the Money you have overthrown me in you may go to Weale-hall for there is Money enough come in now Robert Raylett Jurat 4º die Septembris Anno 1679 coram me Will. Scroggs First I would have all Men know that I am not so revengeful in my Nature nor so netled with this Aspersion but that I could have passed by this and more but that the many scandalous Libels that are abroad and which reflect upon publick Justice as well as upon my private self make it the Duty of my place to defend one and the Duty I owe to my Reputation to vindicate the other And having this opportunity I think this the properest place for both If once our Courts of Justice come to be awed or swayed by vulgar noise and if Judges and Juries should manage themselves so as would best comply with the humour of times 't is falsely said That Men are Tryed for their Lives or Fortunes they live by chance and enjoy what they have as the wind blows and with the same certainty The giddy Multitude have constancy who Condemn or Acquit always before the Tryal and without proof Such a base fearful Complyance made Felix willing to please the people leave Paul bound who was apt to tremble but not to follow his Conscience The people ought to be pleased with publick Justice and not Justice seek to please the people Justice should flow like a mighty stream and if the Rabble like an unruly wind blow against it it may make it rough but the stream will keep its Course Neither for my part do I think we live in so corrupted an Age that no man can with safety be just and follow his Conscience if it be otherwise we must hazard our Safety to preserve our Integrity And to speak more particularly as to Sir George Wakeman's Tryal which I am neither afraid nor ashamed to mention I know that all honest and understanding Men in the Kingdome speaking generally are throughly satisfied with the impartial Proceedings of that Trial taking it as it is Printed which was done without the perusal of one Line by me or any Friend of mine Though by the way I wonder by what Authority that Arbitrary Power was assumed to forbid any Friend of mine the seeing of it before it was put out However as it is I will appeal to all Sober and Understanding Men and to the Long Robe more especially who are the best and properest Judges in such Cases as to the Fairness and Equality of that Trial. For those hireling Scriblers that traduce it who write to Eat and Lye for Bread I intend to meet with them another way for they are onely safe whilst they can be secret but so are Vermine so long onely as they can hide themselves And let their Broakers those Printers and Booksellers by whom they vend their false and braded Ware look to it some will be found and they shall know that the Law wants not power to punish a Libellous and Licentious Press nor I a Resolution to execute it And this is all the Answer is fit to be given besides a Whip to those Hackney Writers and dull Observators that go as they are hired or spurred and perform as they are fed who never were taught If there be any sober and good Men that are mis-led by false Reports or by subtilty deceived into any misapprehensions concerning that Tryal or my self I should account it the highest pride and the most scornful thing in the World if I should not endeavour to undeceive them To such Men therefore I do solemnly declare here in the Seat of Justice where I would no more Lye or Equivocate than I would to God at the Holy Altar I followed my Conscience according to the best of my Understanding in all that Trial without Fear Favour or Reward without the Gift of one Shilling or the value of it directly or indirectly and without any promise or expectation whatsoever This I say to honest men that know me not if any that do know me needed this they should not have had it for they use me Ill he that knows me and doubts so long thinks it an even wager whether I am the greatest Villain in the World or not one that would sell the Life of the King my Religion and Countrey to Papists for Money And he that says great Places have great Temptations has a little if not a false Heart himself for no Temptation is big enough for a sin of this Magnitude I would not have the Papists now make any false Conclusions from what I say that because I reprove the insolence of some mens Tongues and Pens concerning this Tryal they should thence infer they have not had or at least cannot expect fair play because some foolish men cry out of their acquittal and think there is no Justice where there is no Execution They have had fair Tryals and some that have suffered have had the ingenuity to confess it and they shall still be tryed according to the Evidence and the probability and credibility it carries with it But this I must say he that

thinks there is no Plot is blind with prejudice or wilfully shuts his Eyes The Priests and Jesuits had a design to root out the Protestant Religion and bring in Popery and that is directly to overthrow the Government and to effect this that they would kill the King were there no more their Doctrine and Practises go very far to prove it and he that sayes the contrary is as much out as where in a printed Pamphlet he too confidently asserts that in all their Papers that were searched there was not one ill Letter found or any thing that was suspitious Colemans Letters and the Letter found amongst Harcourts Papers will never be answered not by saying that a meeting so exactly appointed with all cautions imaginable as not to appear too much about the Town for fear of discovering the design which in its own Nature requires secresie that this was only a meeting to choose an Officer And yet to affirm that this is not so much as suspitious at least is a confidence that the Ingenuity of a Jesuit only will undertake to own However in the mean time the extravagant boldness of mens Pens and Tongues is not to be endured but shall be severely punished For if once Causes come to be tryed with Complacency to popular opinions and shall be insolently censured if they go otherwise all publick Causes shall receive their Doom as the multitude happen to be possest and at length every Cause shall become publick if they will but espouse it at every Sessions the Judges shall be arraigned the Jury condemned and Verdicts overawed to comply with popular noise and undecent shouts There are a sort of men I doubt that too much approve and countenance such Vulgar wayes and count it Art and Stratagem that embrace all sorts of Informations true or false likely or impossible nay though never so silly and ridiculous they refuse one so shall all Addresses be made to them and they be look'd on as the only Patrons of Religion and Government though they should have but little of the one and would maintain the other only so far as their own share in it comes to These Sir Politicks if such there are deceive themselves as much as they do others and are not what they imagine themselves to be with understanding and honest men no not with those they think they gull neither for they use them to serve their purposes as they think they serve others and if ever time shall serve 't will prove so Let us pursue the discovery of the Plot a Gods Name and not baulk any thing where there is danger or Suspition upon reasonable grounds but not so overdo it as to shew our Zeal we will pretend to find what is not nor stretch one thing beyond what it will bear to reach another nor count him a Turn-coat and not to be trusted that will not betray his Conscience and understanding that will not countenance unreasonable boldness nor believe incredible things Least we fall into what we justly condemn in the Papists cruelty and vain credulity such courses cannot be the result of honest Intentions but shrewdly to be Suspected rather a Disguise in pursuing one Villany to commit another For my own part without any other meaning or reservation whatsoever I freely and heartily declare I will never be a Papist nor a Rebel but will to my power suppress Popery as an open Enemy and Faction as a secret one No Act of Oblivion ought to make us to forget by what wayes our late troubles began when the Apprentices and Porters mutined for Justice in their own sense And though I am morally certain that no such effect will follow as did then yet the like insolence ought not to be suffered for the example past and to come The City of London I mean the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and generally all men of value and worth there I think in my Conscience are at this Day as Loyally and Religiously disposed to defend the King and the Government and maintain the true Protestant Religion to their utmost as any former Age whatsoever can shew and I know the King thinks so too and is therefore really and heartily as kind to them And therefore though our Jealousies may be many our fears need not be so For whosoever they are that design disturbances and publick Dissentions for private Ends will find they are rather troublesome than dangerous and the greatest mischief they will be able to effect will be upon themselves In short it is the proper business of this Court and our Duties that sit Judges here to take care to prevent and punish the mischiefs of the Press For if men can with any safety Write and Print whatever they please the Papists will be sure to put in for their share too so that what between them and the Factious and the Mercenaries that Write for him that hires and for what they are hired we shall be infected with the French Disease in Government and be overrun with Lies and Libels which agrees neither with English mens honesty nor Courage who were wont to scorn to say what they durst not own Mr. Justice Jones We have a particular Case here before us in a matter of Scandal against a great Judge the greatest Judge in the Kingdome in Criminal Causes and it is a great and an high Charge upon him And certainly there was never any Age I think more Licentious than this in aspersing Governors scattering of Libels and Scandalous Speeches against those that are in Authority And without all doubt it doth become this Court to shew their Zeal in suppressing it I am old enough to remember and perhaps feel the smart of it yet the beginning of the late Rebellion for a Rebellion it was and deserves no other name I know it had the forerunner of such Libels and Scandals against the Government as this is and it followed almost to the subversion of the happiness of the Kingdome As for the Tryal hinted at in this Affidavit I was not present at it my self I was detained by my usual infirmity so that I could not attend that Service nor indeed have I read the Relation of it in Print so considerately as to give a Judgement upon it But I am very Confident upon my knowledge of the Integrity of my Lord and the rest of my Lords the Judges that were there for there were all the Chief Judges and almost all my Brothers that that Tryal was managed with exact Justice and perfect Integrity by them And therefore I do think it very fit that this Person be proceeded against by an Information that he may be made a publick Example to all such as shall presume to Scandalize the Government and the Governours with any false aspersions or accusations Mr. Justice Dolbin I am of that mind truely and am very glad we have Lit upon one of the Divulgers of these Scandals I was present at that Tryal and for my part I think the Scandal to my Lord Chief Justice was a Scandal to us all that were there for if he had misbehaved himself in such a manner as some have reported we had been strange People to sit still and say nothing or not interpose to rectifie wherein be did amiss And therefore I desire this man may be proceeded against for an Example to others THere is now in the Press the Tryal Conviction and Condemnation of William Atkins and Andrew Bromige two Romish Priests before the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs at Stafford Assizes last Together with the tryal of Charles Kern a Bomish Priest at Hereford Assizes last Printed also for Robert Pawlet at the Bible in Chancery Lane