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
valent Rehabilitations Abolitions and other sorts and natures of Breves and Instruments enumerated in the Statute of 25 H. 8. ca. 21. And there said to be Infinite with their many times costly Masses Indulgencies Releases and Purgatory favours by which the common kind of Papists are sure in their Contributions and Taxes charged upon them by their wellgaining Superiours or Conductors the wrong way to have themselves and their Families kept and continued poor and low enough without the least of danger of Surfeits or overmuch Satieties especially when they are to live after the excessive Rates of Houshold Provisions and Expences for Food and Raiment now more than formerly exacted to the shame and disgrade of the Protestant Religion by a mighty and insupportable excess of Pride Usury Brocage and Cheating to maintain it Neither are their Numbers or Increase considering their strict Observations of Lent very many Publick Penances Vigils and Fasts and Private Mortisications like to be as dreadful as that of the Children of Israel in Aegypt to the Aegyptians Or of the Moors that had 800 years together Conquered and Overpowred Spain when the numerous Posterity of them were in the memory of Man Banished and sent home again into Affrick upon so severe and short a warning as they were constrained to abandon and leave behind them all their Lands and Possessions and carry only such moveables as a rigorous and short prefixion could allow them Or to cause them to be Transplanted as many of the Irish were by Cromwell in his Hypocritical Zealous and unmerciful Policy from their other more comfortable Provinces in Ireland as Ulster Lymerick and the English Pale into Connaught the worser part of that Kingdom And that there is no foundation to support those Panick Fears which have so greatly and more then needs tormented the Minds of too many of the either over-credulously fearful or over-medling part of the People and being only more supposed than demonstrated to be a Grievance and lying heavy upon some kind of Spirits will be as necessary to be taken out of their Minds and as well becoming a State Policy and the Care of the Soveraign as it was of our King Henry the Third who in the turbulent Commotions of his Barons and their Adherents and the Distresses which were put upon him found it to be no Mountebank's Medicine to Cure and asswage the Distempers of the all-discerning and giddy Multitude by granting out his Commissions into every County to inquire of their Grievances or causes of discontents so as not to excuse or Patronize any one Sort or Sect whatsoever in their maintaining the Unchristian and Damnable Doctrine of Killing or Deposing Princes for Male-Administration of Justice or those that dissent from our truly Loyal and Religious Church of England It may be a thing capable of wonder and fit to be put as a Question to the more Intelligent How it should happen that Fears and Jealousies should so disturb the Minds of such as endeavour to affright themselves and others with the Attempts and Dangerous Doctrines of the Popish Party and the same persons nevertheless to be so calm and silent in the fast-rooted unrepented and offered in publick to be justified groundless ungodly and disloyal Opinions of too many of those that would be called Protestants and accompted Zealots in the Practice and Promotion of it That a King is accomptable to the People for breach of Trust may be deposed and is but Co-ordinate with both his Houses of Parliament and as not content with that which can never be proved to be due unto them would mount a great deal higher and pretend that there is a Soveraignty in the People and that the King is but an Artificial Man set up or appointed by them And suffer a Seditious Book called The Obligation of Humane Laws to be publickly Sold and never complained of when it doth all it can to prove That every man how simple or illiterate soever he be is to be a Judge whether the Law or a Command of his Prince or Superior be good or bad and direct or apply his Obedience unto it accordingly As if they had never heard or read of the folly and dire Effects of Rebellion and Sedition in that of the Spencers in the Reign of King Edward the Second That Allegiance was only due to the Crown and not unto the Person of the Prince being exploded by two Acts of Parliament and the Promoters Condemned of Treason and his Inforced resignation of his Crown to his Son King Edward the Third by the Faction of his Queen and Mortimer and the deposing of King Richard the Second by an over-power of the Army of Henry of Lancaster and his Party occasioned by affrighting him into a seeming voluntary Surrender disallowed and detested by Succeeding Ages Or may we not rather commend and imitate the better temper of the Subjects of this Kingdom before the 23 d year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when in the beginning of her Happy and ever to be praised Government they never started at her Indulgence to the Popish Party or took it ill that she kept an Embassador at Rome and was offered to have the English Liturgy and Reformation established by the Pope's Authority if she would but acknowledge his Supremacy gave Aid to Don Antonio a distressed Popish Prince towards the Recovery of the Kingdom of Portugal and so much assisted Mary Queen of Scotland a Papist and Mother to our King James who if she had survived her was by Inheritance to have been Queen of England against the Presbyterian and Congregational Rebellious Party in Scotland as they called her the Whore of Babylon and publickly Preached that she was an Atheist and of no Religion Or can we do less than deem the English Nation in the Reign of King James to be happy in their enjoyment of so great a Tranquility as to be free from any Suspitions of the Increase of Popery when he was wrongfully accused by Elphiston to have written a little before his coming to the Crown of England a seeming friendly Letter to the Pope and that the Pope had after he came into England sent a Cardinal to Seduce him into the Snares of that Religion wherein although upon reason of State he had given his Royal Protection unto Preston and Warrington two Secular Priests against the Practices of some Jesuits which Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a professed enemy to Popery did allow as a thing not evilly done his afterwards Learned Books and Writings against that Church might have abundantly manifested the folly of such who should but have imagined that he had any Inclination or good Will unto it For it cannot be unknown to you that until the 16 th year and the after succeeding years of the Reign of that peaceable and wise Prince when his Son-in-Law Frederick Prince Elector and Count Palatine of the Rhine had as unhappily as rashly and unjustly taken upon him to be Elected King of
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