Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A31499
|
Certaine observations upon the tryall of Leiut. Col. John Lilburne
|
Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.
|
1649
(1649)
|
Wing C1715; ESTC R12622
|
13,558
|
20
|
Reasons first because before the late Kings death all the Lawes and process of the Lawes run in his name therefore it was not possible in the old forme to try him but now the Lawes and process of the Law run in the name of the Common-wealth of England or the Keepers of the Liberties of England 2. Before his death all binding perminent Lawes in all late ages were past by King Lords and Commons and treason was onely committable by the Letter of the Law against the King but now that is changed and the Commons become the supream Authority and so declared by their Representatives at least by those that so judge themselves and by two special Acts made by them upon which Mr. Lilburn was arraigned for Treason and printed in his Tryal page 87.88.89 c. dated the 14. of May 1649. and the 17. of June 1649. they declare it to be treason in any person that shall maliciously or advised publish by writing printing or openly declaring that the said Government is tyrannicall usurped or unlawfull or that the Commons in Parliament assembled are not the supream Authority of this Nation or shall plot contrive or endeavour to stir up or raise force against the present Government or for the subversion or alteration of the same or shall plot contrive or endeavour to stir up any mutiny in the Army or shall withdraw any Souldiers or Officers from their obedience to their superiour Officers or from the present Government or shall procure invite aide or assist any forraigners or strangers to invade England or Ireland or shall adhere to any forces raised by the Enemies of the Parliament or Common-wealth of England now it is impossible any Law can be more severe then to make words treason and therefore no necessity now can be pleaded to set up a high Court of Justice to try the arrantest Cavalier in the world who can be reputed at worst no more then a Traitor for which the Lawes declared by themselves already provides a punishment and a Cavalier is an English man and thereby by Law ought to have the priviledge of any other English Traitour and little doth men know the danger of breaking down banks or pulling up universall Land-marks though it be in cases of highest and greatest enemies which the people of Athens as Sir Walter Rawly fully declares felt sufficiently under their thirty Tyrants who had no way to introduce their tyranny upon the people but in the subversion of their Lawes and Freedoms by making examples first upon those offenders the people most hated but then a little space the Tyrant pleaded those presidents and by little and little made the people taste of the same sauce but it is hoped that now after the full alteration of the Common-wealth and Acts of Treason declared thereupon if any shall dare though authorized by Parliament to be Judges in an High Court of Justice now to take away any mans life or estate but shortly they shall lose their heads as Traitors therefore as Empson and Dudly did who had an Act of Parliament made by King Lords and Commons to bear them out and yet by vertue of it never tooke away any one mans life but onely medled with estate and as for the Earl of Bedfords Act for drayning that sets up a High Court of Justice I am confident of it upon examination it will be found some bribing Lawyer Chareman mis-informed and surprized at an house to passe it and therefore I shall now conclude all according to my promise with the Copy of Mr. Lilburns letters to the Speaker of the 1. Decemb. 1649. which thus followeth For the Honourable William Lenthall Esquire Speaker to the Knights Citizens and Burgesses assembled in Parliament These Present HONOURED SIR TRuth and Justice are two of the main attributes of God with the practises of whom he hath declared himself to be well pleased and which he will advance and set up in his own time maugre the malice of all that do oppose them Sir I know you would be thought a lover of them and out of that consideration I now write unto you So it is Sir that I am an English-man born bred and brought up and I hope so to live and so to dye and by vertue of being an Englishman I am entailed to all the Liberties and Freedomes that the Lawes and good customes of England will afford to any of her children whomsoever and besides the series of all my actions from my childhood to this very day have been constant demonstrations that I love and honour all those her just boundaries that distinguish meum and tuum that supports just Magistracy and teaches subjection her due bounds and that most equally dispenseth justicte indifferently unto all and that I hate and abhor all subverting and Levelling of the just Lawes Liberties and Freedomes thereof to any mans will whatsoever never coveting in my own private thoughts or reason any other rule to judge or bee judged by but that righteous one of Jesus Christ to do as you would be done to And because by reason of mans corruptions there is more difficulties and niceties in the Laws of the Land of my nativity and abode then there is in the plain and easie to be understood law of civill behaviour that the wife and righteous God of heaven and earth hath given and dispensed in the volumn of truth viz. the Old and New Testament to the sons of men but especially to all those that desire to approve their hearts unto him therefore I say in regard of the intricacie of the Laws of England especially in the practick part of them I have heartily laboured in my sphere and private condition as much as I could to attain unto the knowledg of so much of it as might be a safe guide unto me in my conversings with my neighbours country-men and brethren and truly it hath been my maxim that amongst men there was no safety for me but in walking in a rationall conformity to the dictates of the just and good old plain Laws of England but of late many men supposed I was mistaken and I confesse I was in great hazard of bodily destruction for doing my duty in walking in conformity to the clearest dictates that either the law of Reason which is the soveraign law of God or the clearest and most highly priz'd Laws of this Nation could dictate to a conscientious inquisitive and ingenious soul who holds it for the most indispensable maxim that ever the wise God of heaven and earth established amongst the sons of men That evill must not nor ought not to be done by any that good may come thereby But the greatest good that I can do is to be readily obedient to the pleasure will or command of him that is absolutely soveraign over both my soul and body although my body should perish in the conformity to my duty Sir I say I thought I had been safe enough when I walked by the dictates of
was the Treasurer and I must go to him for my admittance and to his chamber I went and he being abroad I acquainted Mr. Raddon his servant with my businesse and paid 3l 6s 8d to him who desired me in the afternoon to call and I should have my admittance under his Masters hand who it seems refused it and thereupon I waited upon Mr. Prideaux himself the next morning and found him something waspish and did at present positively deny me admittance making thereby the quarrell personall betwixt him and me in denying me a free and legall man of England liberty to study the Law of the Land of my Nativity in the place appointed for that end although if I transgresse it and that through ignorance Mr. Prideaux in all likelihood will be as he hath been already the irrationall malicious prosecutor of me to take away my life Oh Sir will not rationall and unbyassed men blush at the knowledge of the irrationality of this malicious man whom I could easily strip and whip to the purpose with my pen but I have no desire to do it if by this Epistle I can avoid it and enjoy my right And therefore Sir I entreat you to oblige me so far unto you as effectually perswade Mr. Prideaux not further unavoidably to necessitate me to that which I am sure will be neither honourable for him nor much profitable for my self For the Law by Gods assistance I am resolved to study unlesse Mr. Prideaux will get an Act made that I shall not be hanged for transgressing of it And truly Sir I shall further proffer this to Mr. Prideaux that he may clearly see I have no minde to quarrell with him unlesse he force me to it that if he please to be an effectuall instrument speedily to help me to my mony which is really my propriety now detained from me and destroyed by Sir Arthur Haslerigge I will trouble Mr. Prideaux no more for my Admission at the Temple or if he will not do that then in regard of my acquaintance there which I hope will much help and teach me and the conveniency of the place in the nighnesse of it to my family I desire he will let me for my money peaceably enjoy a chamber from those I can take it of or buy it from to study the Law in a private way for my own content and recreation and I will neither trouble him nor any of his Associates any more for my admission into their Society of the Temple And in the first place I earnestly beseech you to let me enjoy your utmost assistance for the procuring of my money down upon the nayl either from Sir Arthur Haslerigge or from the estate of the late Lord Coventry my chiefest unjust Judge upon whom it was once decreed and ordered to be fixed upon And truly Sir in pure justice I know not so clearly elsewhere to seek it as from one of their two hands Sir I beseech you seriously ponder and consider of my condition which truly and unfeignedly is this I must either sit down in peace and silence and so I and mine must unavoidably perish for want of my mony which is my earthly all or else I must nolens volens be compelled to bussle again for it though I apparently run the hazard of being hanged thereby judging it more righteous Naboth-like to perish in the preservation of my own right then be my own Executioner in suffering my self to starve Sir for your promised speedy and hearty assistance in these particulars I shall be very much obliged to remain Sir Yours in all just wayes heartily to serve you individually or generally JOHN LILBVRN From my habitation at Winchester House in Southwark the 1. of Decemb. 1649. I shall make bold to wait upon you two or three dayes hence for your answer herein