Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	john_n	lord_n	richard_n	7,530	5	9.7014	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88251	The second letter from John Lilburn Esquire, prisoner in Newgate to the Right Honourable John Fowke, Lord Major of the city of London.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2179; Thomason E706_5; ESTC R211024	2,233	7

The Second LETTER FROM JOHN LILBURN Esquire Prisoner in Newgate TO THE Right Honourable JOHN FOWKE Lord Major of the City of LONDON LONDON Printed in the Year 1653. To the Right Honourable John Fovvk Lord Major of the City of London these humbly present SIR I Was committed to this prison by your Warrant and I am now informed that sundry Witnesses are summoned to give evidence to the grand or first Jury against me upon which they may have seeming ground for finding some Indictment without which it is known I cannot be further proceeded against It hath been an evil custom for many Ages taken up meerly upon Prerogative Interests and that without Law Reason or any Statute or Act of Parliament to warrant it for the Grand or first Jury upon return of private Chamber-examinations of parties or witnesses to find the first Indictment against the prisoner without his privity or being called to give his just Challenge to the Witnesses Testimony which Indictment so found or presented billa vera can be no less then a Condemnation without publike or open Examination of the first contrary even to the laudible practice of the ancient Heathen● Rom●n Judges as is most excellently set forth by the Evangelist Luke in the Acts of the Apostles chap. 24.16 in the Case of Paul upon his Appeal to Caesar And suitable to this another Heathen Writer could say Quis aliquid Statuerit altera part● inaudita equum licit Statuerit injustus est That is to say Whosoever judgeth any cause or party unheard though the Sentence be agreeable with Law yet in so judging is unjust And this favour in case of Treason was not denied to Major Rolf upon his Tryal in Hampshire in case of high Treason about 4 years since before the Lord chief Ba●on Wilde as is well known to Judge N●cholas and Mr. John Maynard then of Councel with Major Rolf But Major Rolf with His Councel was admitted to be present in open Court upon the Examination of the Witnesses produced against him before the grand Jury there and to give his legal exceptions to the Witnesses By meanes of which the prisoner Rolf was freed And in case of Fellony I am well informed that at Carlisle Assizes about 1642. by Sir R●bert Heath the like favour and justice was gran●ed to sundry prisoners as their legal Right to the preservation of their lives For then there were sundry of Sir Richard Grimes Tenants committed to Carlisle prison by their said Masters procurement and a Rogue called Burney there kept in prison likewise for Fellony and therein maintained by Sir Richard Grimes to give evidence upon the prisoners Tryal as an Approver wherewith Judge Heath being informed at the prisoners Suit The Witnesses against them at the Bar in open Court were examined by the Grand Jury in presence of the prisoners and upon the prisoners legal Exceptions and Challenge the Rogues Evidence was waved and the prisoners acquitted by the Grand Jury and so their lives never came in jeopardy I being a free born English-man I hope shall not be denied that right granted of course to prisoners charged with higher crimes then I am And that the Grand Jury being to return their Indictment against me upon their Oathes I expect the like justice from them and you which if denied will render both you and them unjust men As before by the practice of the Heathens and the Judges and Sages of the Law of this Nation is cleerly made out and approved of God Therefore I desire you before any Witnesses be judicially sworn and examined before the Grand Jury against me That I may be present and allowed with my Councel to give my legal Exceptions against them and that no Witnesses may be examined against me but in open Court in the face of the free people of England So having my Accusers face to face I may have license to answer for my self concerning the Crime laid against me Sir The bloud thirsty Jewes could not neither do we finde they offered to procure Pontius Pylate the Roman Judge to examine Witnesses against Christ otherwise th●● 〈◊〉 the publike Judicatures and in the very presence of Christ I further desire you to assigne me Counsel being my absolute Right by Law to advise consult and be assistant to me in matter of Law upon my Trial as was granted to the Earl of Strafford in case of High Treason upon his Trial by his Peers in Parliament to Duke Hamilton an Alien to the Earl of Holland an English Peer and to the Lord Capel in Case of High Treason upon their trial before the High Court of Justice and to the above-named Major Rolfe in case of Treason at the Assizes or Goal-delivery in the aforesaid County of Hampshire and to Vaux the Lawyer in case of Felony upon his trial for his life in the Reign of the late Queen Elizabeth as is by Judge Cook in Vauxes Case of Appeals learnedly set forth and which was granted to my self at Oxford by the Cavalier Judges there as my Right by Law when I was there arraigned for my life upon an Indictment of High Treason My Lord I have prevailed with my Father and some other my honest friends to be the Bearers hereof to your Honour to receive such an answer from you as you need not hereafter at the Bar of Justice to be ashamed of So with my service presented to you intreating you seriously to remember the Punishment of the Arbitrary Lord Major of London in King Richard the seconds time mentioned in the last Page of the first Edition of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne's Plea in Law I rest Newgate this 10th of July 1653. Yours if you be Englands real Friend JOHN LILBURNE I humbly desire your Lordship to communicate this to the Sheriffes of London READER THis Letter being presented to his Lordship by Master Lilburnes Father and four other of his friends his Lordship having read the same returned this Answer GENTLEMEN I See what it is he desires and for my part I do declare unto you that I shall not go about to hinder him of any thing that is his Right but this he desires I cannot do alone I shall to morrow being the Sessions communicate this Letter to the Recorder and the Sheriffes and he shall have my best assistance And so wish'd his Father to repair to the Sessions to receive an Answer from the Bench. FINIS