Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	offence_n	peace_n	session_n	2,850	5	9.9973	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88233	A plea at large, for John Lilburn gentleman, now a prisoner in Newgate. Penned for his use and benefit, by a faithful and true well-wisher to the fundamental laws, liberties, and freedoms of the antient free people of England; and exposed to publick view, and the censure of the unbyassed and learned men in the laws of England, Aug. 6. 1653.	Faithful and true well-wisher to the fundamental laws, liberties, and freedoms of the antient free people of England.; Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2158; Thomason E710_3; ESTC R207176	34,122	24

the third the usurper and by reason of the extraordinary many troubles of his reign and the ignorant Regal time in which he lived considered he had a thousand times more grounds to be arbitrary and discretionary in his proceedings with the people of England then the late decapitated Parliament had yet he summoned a free Parliament who sate peaceably and quietly without the force or purging of souldiers and after that several Juries at Assizes and Sessions by corruption and savour had refused to finde persons that were judicially proved guilty before them of breach of penal laws as in full and free Parliament by King Lords and Commons is avowedly declared an Act of Parliament recorded in the fourth part of Cooks Institutes fol. 40. 41. in the 11. of Hen. 7. chap. 3. was passed by King Lords and Commons in full and free Parliament to enable the Justices of Assize in open Sessions to be holden before them and the Justices of the Peace in each County in England upon information for the King before them to be made to have full power and authority by their discretion without tryals by Juries to hear and determine all offences and contempts committed against penal laws in all which arbitrary or discretional proceedings murther treason and felony was excepted out of their cognizance or jurisdiction as also all other offences whereby any person should lose life or member or lands goods or chattels to the party complaining By pretext of which Statute saith the Lord Cook in his last recited folio Empson and Dudley privy Councellors and Justices of Peace to Henry the seventh did commit upon the subject insufferable pressures and oppressions which yet at the highest was but the taking away some small part of the persons estates from them that they condemned And therefore this Statute was justly soon after the decease of Henry the seventh repealed at the next Parliament after his decease by the Statute of the 1 Hen. 8. cha 6. A good caveat saith he to Parliaments to leave all causes to be measured by the golden and streight met-wand of the law and not to the uncertaine and crooked cord of disrcetion for it is not almost credible to foresee saith he when any maxime or fundamental law of this realm is altered as elsewhere in the fourth part of Lord Cooks Reports hath been observed what dangerous inconveniences do follow which most expresly appeareth by this most unjust and strange Act of 11 H. 7. for hereby not only Empson and Dudley themselves but such Justices of Peace corrupt men as they caused to be authorized committed most grievous and heavy oppressions and exactions grinding the face of the poor subjects by penal laws be they never so obsolete or unfit for the time by information onely without any presentment or trial by Jury being the ancient birthright of the subject but to hear and determine the same by their discretion inflicting such penalty as the Statutes not repealed imposed these and other like actions and oppressions by or by the means of Empson and Dudley and their instruments brought infinite treasures to the Kings Coffers whereof the K●ng himself in the end with great grief and compunction repenced as in another place we have observed This Statute of 11. H. 7. We have recited and shewed the just inconveniences thereof to the end that the l●ke should never hereafter be attempted in any court of Parl●ament and that others might avoid the fearful end of those two time-servers Emp●on and Dudley Qui corum v●stigia insistant corum exitus per●o● rescan that is those that follow their footsteps may fear the same destruction that they had whose end in the third part of the Institutes fol. 208. and the fourth part fol. 198 199. may be seen was severally to be Indicted at common law whose Indictments is there to be read and convicted and executed as traitors for subvert●ng the fundamental laws and liberties of England viz. trials by Juries which the Conquest of the Rom●n● Saxons D●n●● or Normans could never blot out of the Kalender of English mens fundamental liberties but hath from time to time with the infinite hazards of their lives bloods been preserved as the choicest of their Jewels and as one of their chiefest fundamental rights of whom the said L. Cook in his exposition of the 29 Ch. of Magn● Charta in his 2 part Instit fol. 51. upon the words of lex terrae or the law of the land where he plentifully shews that no Englishman whatsoever ought for any Crime whatsoever in any Court whatsoever by any power or authority whatsoever to be tryed but by juries and due process of law as is before shewed expresly saith yet against the ancient fundamental las● in the face thereof I finde an Act of Parliament made saith he that as well justices of Assize as Justices of Peace without any finding or presen●ment by the Verdict of twelve men upon a bare information for the King before them made should have full power and authority by their discretions to hear and determine all offences and contempts committed or done by any person or persons against the forme ordinance and effect of any Statute made and not repeal●d c. by colour of which Act shaking this fundamental law it is not cred●ble what horrible oppressions and exaction to the undoing infinite numbers of people were committed by Sir Richard Empson knight and Edmund Dudley being Justices of the Peace throughout England upon this unjust and injurious Act as commonly in like cases ●t falleth out a new office was erected and they made masters of the Kings forfeitures But at the Parliament holden ●n the first yeer of Henry the eighth This Act of the 11. of H●nry the seventh is rejected and made void and repeater and the reason thereof is yeelded for that by force of the said act it was manifestly ●nown that many sinister and crafty feigned forged informations had been pursued aga●nst divers of the K●ngs subjects to their great damage and wrong●ul vexations and ill success hereo● and the fearful ends of the two oppressors should deter others from c●m●●tt●ng the l●ke and should admonish Parliaments that in stead of the ordinary and precious trial per legem terrae by the law of the land they bring not in absolute an partial trial by discretion And in the fourth part of his Institutes folio 37. he expresly saith That he findes an Attainder by Parliament of a subject viz. Thomas Cromwel then Earle of Essex of high treason who was committed to the Tower and thereby forth coming to be heard and yet was never called to answer in any of the Houses of Parliament Of the manner of which proceedings he thus saith Aus●●a 〈◊〉 si potest si non ut cunque silontiam legat That is let the Parl●aments crime be buried in oblivion if it be possible and if not nevertheless yet let it give place to silence for the present for saith he The

concerning themselves but it shall be examined and tryed before the Justices of Assizes in the Sessions of the Assize as appeareth by the 8. of Hen. 6. chap. 7. and 23. Hen. 6. chap. 15. Yea the Parliament are not to punish those that will not pay them their wages for their service done in Parliament but the refusers are to be punished by the legal administers of the law in the ordinary of Courts of Justice as appears by the 23. of Hen. 6. chap. 11. Yea the law of England which is right reason or as Sir Edward Cooke stiles it in his second part Institutes folio 179. the absolute perfection of reason and which as he saith is the surest sanctuary that a man can take and the strongest fortress to protect the weakest of all and therefore it is called the best birthright the Subjects hath for thereby his goods lands wife children his body life honour and estimation are protected from injury and wrong for saith he to every one of us there comes a greater inheritance by the law then by our parents it being the Judges guide in all causes that come before them in the wayes of right Justice which never yet misguided any man that certainly knew them and truly followed them 2 part of the Lords Cooks Institutes fol. 56 63 97 526. and the 4. part folio 41. yea and the law-book of Ed. 6. folio 36. with the arguments in the Law in the Court of Kings Bench upon the Writ of Habeas Corpus in the cases of Sir John Eliot Sir Thomas Daniel c. pag. 11. in Michaelmas-terme in the third of the late King Charles calls the good old fundamental Laws of England the great inheritance of every subject and the inheritance of inheritances without the injoyments of which inheritance we have no inheritance at all And therefore the said Oracle of the Law of England the Lord Cook doth bitterly cry out of the unexpressible mischief that accrues to the whole body of the people of England when any fundamental maximes of their good old fundamental Laws are invaded or incroached upon either by Parliament or any other power whatsoever as appears in his 2 part Institutes folio 29 46 48 51 74 103 104 179 210 249 529 533 534 540. and 3. part fol. 208. 4. part fol. 41 196 197 198. and the preface to the 4. part of the Lord Cookes Reports where he saith the Laws of England consist of three parts the Common Laws Customes and Acts of Parliament for any fundamental point of the ancient Common Laws and customs of the Realm it is a maxime in policy and a tryal by experience that the alteration of any of them is more dangerous for that which hath been refined and perfected by all the wisest men in former succession of ages and proved and approved by continual experience to be good and profitable for the Commonwealth cannot without great hazard and danger to be altered or changed see also that old Law-book called The myrror of Justice page 239. And which law as the author of the ancient and excellent law book called the Doctor and Student chap. 4.8 is grounded upon six foundation or basis viz. the law of reason Secondly the Law of God 3. Upon divers general customes of common utility 4. On divers principals that be called maximes 5. On divers particular customes 6. On divers Statutes made by the Kings and the Common-councel of the Nation all which do abhor arbitra●iness in the law-proceedings especially in criminal cases and especially it abhors the arbitrary uncertain way of proceedings in Parliaments the rules of which certainly no man in heaven or earth knoweth the vileness wickedness and mischeviousness of which is sufficiently demonstrated in the Lord Cravens late printed case And saith that worthiest of English Lawyers Sir Edward Cook in the Proeme to the third part of his Institutes It is a miserable servitude or slavery where the law is uncertaine or unknown and therefore it is that the twenty ninth Chapter of Magna Charta the Petition of Right and the Act that abolished the Star-Chamber expresly saith That no freeman of England shall be taken or imprisoned or disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customes or be outlawed or be exiled but by lawful judgement of a Jury of twelve sworn men of his equals of the same neighbourhood according to the law of the Land And that none shall be taken for any crime whatsoever by any person or Court whatsoever unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of good and lawful people of the same neighbourhood where such Deeds be done in due manner or by Process made by Writ original at the Common Law and that none be put out of his franchise or freehold unless he be duly brought in to answer and adjudged of the same according to the course of the law and if any thing be done by any persons or courts whatsoever against the tenour of the same it shall be void in law and holden for error which two last Statutes of the Petition of Right and the Act that abol●sheth the Star-chamber doth expresly and nominally ratifie and confirme the Statute of the 42. of Edward the third which according to the peoples true fundamental law of England makes void and null all Acts of Parliament Ordinances Orders Judgements and Decrees whatsoever made by any power whatsoever that are contrary unto or in diminution of the free people of Englands foresaid liberties and freedoms of due Process of Law And the Petition of Right expresly saith No man whatsoever shall be any wayes punished especially in criminal cases but according to the laws and Statutes already established in the land And those also by the said Petition of Right and the Statute that abolished the Star-chamber are precisely declared to be according to our good old native fundamental rights and liberties or else they are ipso facto null and void in law this very thing or the securing thereof alone being the principal and chief declared cause of all the late Parliaments and present armies bloodshed and wars with the late King and his son and without the inviolable preservation of these our fundamental laws and liberties it is impossible that any in the Army from the highest to the lowest in the least can acquit themselves of being justly esteemed both before God and just men real and wilful murderers of all those persons that they have staine in the late civil wars and if so wo unto them when God makes inquisition for innocent blood Neither indeed is he the now prisoner at the Bar guilty of any such high crimes and misdemeanors as is expressed in the said Act neither ever was he the now prisoner at the Bar in the least duely and legally banished and fined by the said Act nor yet is a Felon nor guilty of felony in no manner of respect whatsoever as by the said Inditement now read unto him is supposed neither can he rationally

more high and absolute the jurisdiction of Court is the more just and honorable it ought to be in the proceeding and to give examples of justice to inferior Courts And fol. 38. He is confidently perswaded that the rehearseal of this unjust Attainder will hereafter cause the Honorable Members of both Houses of Parliament to be so tender of their duty in perserving the fundamental Laws and Liberties of the people of England as that never hereafter such an unjust Attainder shall be brought where the party is forth coming to condemn him without hearing of him And consonant unto this is the Scripture and the Law of God therein contained as appears by the third of Gen vers 9. where God after Adam had transgressed his law summons him before him to answer for himself before he would pass judgement against him And when Sodom had abominably defiled its wayes with the height of wickedness yet the just God of heaven and earth would not judge condemne or pass sentence against them till he went down to see whether they have done altogether according to the cry that is come up against them or not and saith God I will know Gen. 18 and Deut. 17.6.11 and Chap. 20.15 God saith expresly One witness shall not rise against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established And by the hand of Moses he required the people of Israel to do according to the sentence of the Law and the judgement which shall be given thereupon and not to decline from the law and the judgement which shall be given thereupon and not to decline from the Law to the right hand or to the left And suitable to this is the judicial and legal proceedings of the great congregation of the children of Israel consisting to the number of four thousand able men in the case of the Levite and his ravished and slain concubine who in their judicial proceedings in that case first demanded of him how so great a wickedness came to be committed in Israel And the conclusion after their hearing and examining the cause was to consider consult and then to give sentence And saith Nicodemus that learned man in the law of God against the Scribes and Pharisees in behalf of Christ Doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth John 7.51 And saith Festus the heathen Roman Governour in Judea that had no other guide to walk by but the light and Law of Nature In the behalf of Paul against his bloody enemies It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any one to dye before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him Acts 25.16 And saith righteous Paul who writ the Oracles of God infallibly by the Spirit of God Where there is no law there is nor can be no transgression Rom. 4.15 But saith that judicious and learned Lawyer Sir Edward Cook in the third part of his Institutes folio 35. of Rhadamanthus that cruel and wicked Judge of hell First he punisheth before he hears like the late Parliament and when he doth hear the denial then he compels the party accused by torture to confess it but saith he far otherwise doth Almighty God proceed for after that the guilty person is accused he calls he examines and then judges or condemns Luk. 16.1 2. But in his fourth part Institutes he proceeds and goeth on and saith in his last fore-recited folio As evil was the proceedings in Parliament in the second of Henry the 6. Number 18. against Sir John Mortimer the third son of Edmund the second Earle of Marsh descended from Lionel Duke of Clarence who was Indicted of high treason for certaine words which Indictment without any arraignment or pleading being meerly feigned to blemish the title of the Mortimers and withall being insufficient in law as by the same appeareth was confirmed by authority of Parliament and the said Sir John being brought into the Parliament without arraignment and answer judgement in Parliament was given against him upon the said Indictment that he should be carried to the Tower of London and drawn through the City to Tiburn and there hanged drawn and quartered his head to be set on London-bridge his four quarters on the four gates of London as by the Record of Parliament appeareth And therefore in the next folio being folio 39. he saith that whereas by order of Law a man cannot be attainted of high treason unless the offence be in law high treason he ought not to be attained by general words of high treason By authority of Parliament as sometime hath been used but the high treason ought to be specially expressed seeing that the Court of Parliament is the highest and most honorable Court of Justice and ought as hath been said to give examples to inferior Courts And further to shew that Parliaments which in their right constitution are the best conservators of our laws and liberties are erroneous things when they walk by their own wills and forsake their true and only guide the fundamental laws of England What need there any more instances then many of the Armies own Declarations in several of which and their frequent discourses they have declared the late Parliament a traiterous Parliament breakers of their trust and imbroylers of the Nation in bloody wars and subverters of the peoples liberties and freedomes yea and in the conclusion the Lord General Cromwel himself and Major Gen. Harison with their own hands have pulled them out by the ears and pluckt them up by the very roots as final breakers of their trust and as a pack of the vilest knaves and villaines that ever breathed in England although they were fenced in and about by an Act of Parliament made before the wars by King Lords and Commons in the seventeenth of the raigne of the late King being in the yeer 1641 that they should not be dissolved but by their own free and voluntary consents And also since they changed the Kingdome into a Commonwealth by two several Acts of Parliament of the 14. of May 1649. and the 17. of July 1649. In which it is expresly made high treason for any Englishman or men by writing printing or words declaring or by endeavouring to raise or stir up force to dissolve the late Parliament or their Councel of State without their own consents or to say that the said late Parliament or their Councel of State is tyrannical usurped or unlawful as by the said Acts of Parliament with reference thereunto being had more at large doth appear which Acts are printed in the first part of the trial or arraignment of the prisoner at the Bar at Guild-hall Oct. 1649. pag. 86 87 88 89. the first of which Acts viz. that of the 14. of May 1649. thus followeth

might not be question for any thing he advised according to his conscience But saith Mr. Pym p. 11. he that will have the priviledges of a Counsel must keep within the just bounds of a Counsellor those matters are the proper subjects of counsel wihch in their times and occasions may be good or beneficial to the King or Commonwealth But such Teasons as these the subversion of the Laws violation of liberties they can never be good or justifiable by any circumstances or occasions and therefore saith he his being a Counsellor maketh his fault much more hainous as being committed against a great trust and in page 12. he answers another excuse of his which was that what he did he did with a good intention It s true saith Mr. Pym Some matters that are hurtful and dangerous may he accompanied with such circumstances as may make it appear useful and convenient and in all such cases good intentions will justtifie evil counsel but where the matters prepounded are evil in their own nature such as the matters are with which the Earl of Strafford is charged viz. to break a publick saith to subvert laws and Government they can never be justified by any intentions how specious or good soever they pretended see in Mr. Steels answer to Duke Hambletons objection in the like case in his case stated pag. 12. 13. 14. The prisoner at the Bar shall close all at present with this plea viz. that although by the said unjust Act of Banishment the Act it self doth authorize all Judges Maiors Sheriffs Bayliffs and all other Officers as well Military as Civil in their respective places to be aiding and assisting in apprehending viz. the said banished Lieut. Col. John Lilburn yet it authorizeth none of them in the least to arraign try condemn and execute the said John Lilburn mentioned in the said Act and therefore by reason of the insufficiencie of the said Act in that very particular although John Lilburn Gent. now prisoner at the bar were that Lieut. Col. John Lilburn mentioned in the said Act of Banishment as with confidence for the just and legal reasons at the beginning of this Plea mentioned he doth a vow he is not yet in regard the Parliament is dissolved that made the said Act which in reason by reason of the said insufficiency of the said Act cannot otherwise be supposed but as they past the Act of Banishment themselves against the John Lilburn therein mentioned and meant so they resolve to o reserve onely to themselves the final judging and condemning of him which cannot be now without their sitting again And that in special and extraordinary acts of Parliament as the aforesaid Act of Banishment is there ought in law to be plain evident and full words especially when it doth concern life to demonstrate and express who shall finally put the said Acts in execution And that this is Law the same Parliament that made the foresaid Act of Banishment doth in several Acts since fully justifie this the prisoner at the Bar's averment of several of their Acts of Parliament as particularly that of Aug. 2. 1650. intituled An Act to prohibit all commerce and traffique between England and Scotland and enjoyn the departure of the Scots ou● of this Commonwealth In the Preamble or beginning of which the mischievous designes of the Scotish nation are declared and their compelling of England to make war upon them In the body of which Act it is declared for the raking off as the Act saith all pretence of ignorance and enacted That all and every person or persons within this Commonwealth of England or the Dominions thereof that shall from and after the 5 of August 1641 use hold or maintain any correspondency or intelligence with any person or persons of the Scotish nation c. or shall abet assist countenance or encourage the said Scotish nation or any other per●on or persons adhering to them in their war against the Parliament and Commonwealth of England or shall go o● send or cause to be sent or conveyed any men mon●ys horse arms ammunition or other fu●niture of war plate goods or merchandise or other supply whatsoever in●o Scotland or any ports or places thereof c. all and every such person or persons so offending without such license as is therein mentioned shall be adjudged as Traytors to this Commonwealth and shall undergo all the pains penalties and forfeitures as in case of high-tr●ason And although the Scots were at present as great enemies to the Parliament as the Parl. could imagine any persons in the world could be and the offences aforementioned of any of them against this nation as criminous and the time as arbitrary a time being a time of war as could be imagined yet the Parliament would be so just even to strangers and aliens and people or a forraign nation as not to leave them arbitrary for their transgressions to be punished by whom were pleased first to lay hold of it but in ample and plain words fixeth upon the persons that are to do it or execute it therefore the Act expresly saith The same offences shall be enquired of tryed judged and determined by the Commissioners for the high Court of Justice lately established in such manner and form as other offences already reserved to the power and cognizance of that Court are to be hdard and determined And in the second part of the Act the makers of it come to declare it treason for any person or persons of the Scotish nation without such license as is therein mentioned to be found within the Lines of Communication after Aug. 10. 1631. And in the third place the matter of the said Act makes it high treason for any person or persons of the Scotish nation without license as is therein mentioned to stay within the limits of the Commonwealth after Sept. 1. 1651. Yet the prisoner at the bar as he saith before doth now avow that the said Parl. that made the said Act would be so just men unto strangers and aliens and people of a forraign nation as not to leave them arbitrary for their transgressions to be punished by whom were pleased first to lay hold on them but in ample and plain words fixeth upon the persons that are to do it or execute it and therefore the Act again expresly saith That the said offences and treasons shall be proceeded against by the said Commissioners of the high Court of Justice who are required to give Judgement and Sentence of death against offenders And every person and persons so found guilty of the said offences shall suffer the pains of death as traytors and enemies in such manner as the said Commissioners shall adjudge and appoint And the same ample and full words as in that special Act for suppressing of Incest Adultery c. which by plain and evident words doth refer the punishment of the offenders therein named to the next Assizes or Goal-delivery to be held for the said County where the fact is committed And the very self-same particular words are in the Act intituled An Act against several atheistical blasphemous and execrable Opinions derogatory to the honour of God and destructive to humane society to refer the punishment of all the transgressors thereof at common law before the Justices of Assize or Goal-delivery as by the Acts themselves doth more fully appear unto which the prisoner at the bar for more safety referreth himself And lastly the prisoner at the bar for his final plea saith That Lieut. Col. John Lilburn indicted in the said Indictment now read is none of the prisoner at the bar's name and so he is not the party mentioned in the said Indictment now read All which premises he is ready to prove for good Law and therefore humbly prays the judgement of the Court before he put himself upon any further Tryal July 13. 1653. John Lilburn Gentleman