requires because this Affair is so different in one place from what it is in another that it can hardly be brought under one general Rule and it seems but reason to intrust such and so many Gentlemen with a Power which is granted to almost every petty Corporation So likewise the Statute concerning Lands given to Charitable uses 39. Eliz. 6. might be made much more useful by Communicating that Power to any 4 Justices of the Peace without a Commission out of the Chancery and allowing an Appeal to the Sessions 1 with a Tryal by Jury And indeed all Lands given to Charitable uses would be better imployed if accounts were given to the Justices of the Peace which is already given in relation to those that are given to the repair of †13 14. c. 2. c. 6. § 14. High-ways and the Relief of * 22 23. c. 2. c. 20. ⧠11. Goals and Prisoners and there is the same reason for the rest There is one thing of which no care was ever taken that I know of and that is for Guardians for such Children as are neither so poor as to be a Charge presently to the Parish and yet have not such Estates as to be able to bear an Application to the Chancery for that Purpose many of which become at length a Charge to the Parish when what was left them is consumed Which might be prevented by giving the Quarter Sessions power to appoint them Guardians and take security of them for a good Account altering and changing them as occasion serves and compelling them to account and make payment without Suits of Law which such poor Orphans Estates will not bear There are too many other things to be brought into a Preface to so small a Discourse as this and therefore I will omit them but there is one I cannot pass over I could never yet learn any power that was given to the Justices of the Peace to Summon or Compel Witnesses to appear in the Sessions except it were against Felons Now it is most certain no Case can be ended without them and that very often they will not appear without Compulsion and so many a good Cause must and doth miscarry And this a thing as worthy of a short Act of Parliament as any other I know of if it were but to make the Remedy more Authentick There are many Passages in the present Lord-Keeper's Speech which I have quoted above that would have been of great use to me if I had been so happy as to have seen it before I had finished this Piece but there is one which I had much rather misplace here then omit it altogether Pag. the 6th A private man is praised for shewing Humility and Deference to others in his Conversation and passing by Indignities But a Judg and so proportionably a Magistrate must take greatness upon him he must consider he represents the Kings Person in his Seat of Justice he must therefore be very careful to preserve the Dignity that belongs to it He must have passions but not of a private man that may disturb his Judgment but he must assume Passion to set off his Severity when the greatness of the Crime requires it but it must be so as it may appear that his Judgment governs his Passion and directs it against the offence and not against the Person A Judg must be covetous but not as a private man for his own profit but he must be very solicitous for the Kings profit knowing that the Kings Revenue is like Animal Spirits without which the Government would not be able to perform its ordinary Motions All which excellent Rules the last not excepted do belong as well to Justices of the Peace as to the Judges seeing so much of the Kings Revenue is committed to their care and it is the worst sort of Treason that can be starve our King And now if my Reader thinks fit to go on and read the Book too let me conjure him to do it without Partiality or Prejudice and with a resolution to reform whatever he shall remark to be amiss in his own Person or Practice and when he hath so done I will ask him no favour let him think and speak what he pleases of me I care not how low I lie in his Esteem how impertinent or tedious unlearned or ignorant nay how confident or impudent I may seem to be so I may do him good and if nothing else will do even anger him into an Amendment And if he will consider seriously of it he must grant I can have no other end because I write neither for Money nor Preferment nor Glory nor any other worldly interest but merely for the publick good And if any man is pleased with this Tractate I only beg of him the favour of one hearty Prayer for me and mine and the good success of this Discourse that it may advance the Glory of God the Execution of Justice and Judgment and the Prosperity and Welfare of the best Church the best King and the best Civil Government in the whole World Living at a great distance these Errata's have been made which the Reader is desired to amend with his Pen and to Pardon the greater faults of the Author Errata Page 18. Line 7. dele then l. 9. for that r. then p. 31. l. 22. for easy r. rasy p. 32. for profit r. Prophet p. 48. l. 7. r. Ruined p. 61. Parag. 2. fine dele they find p. 102. l. 10. for have r. had p. 106. l. 10. for would r. will p. 110. l. 17. for has r. as P. 112. l. 18. for mean r. can p. 142. l. 7. for expect r. except p. 167. l. 19. for take r. give To the Making of a Good Justice of the Peace these Things are required 1. Natural Abilities A Competent Apprehension Judgment Memory 2. Civil Abilities A Competent Estate A Good Reputation A reasonable good Education and Learning 3. Religious Dispositions consisting in A due Veneration of God Love for his Service in himself and others A true Esteem of his Ministers An earnest Desire of the Salvation of all Under his Care and Charge 4. Moral Qualifications Prudence in all his Actions Patience Meekness Sobriety Chastity Industry Courage and Honesty in the Execution of his Duty And Humility 5. Politick Qualifications A competent Understanding of the Nature of our Government and Love to it Of the Nature of the English People Of the several Factions that we have amongst us and how 〈◊〉 govern them 6. Publick Qualifications A Great Love of Justice Impartiality in Executing it Aversion for those things that may hinder it Bribery Prejudice and Prepossession Favour and Hatred Covetousness Irregular Heats and Hopes Laziness 7. Knowledge in our Laws and Customs By Reading Observation and Practice Conversation and Discourse with knowing and Experienced Men. 8. Prudent Execution of our Laws by Observing a due Method according to Law 1. In calling the Parties 2. In hearing the
our Dissenters Gain by all their Perjuries between 40 and 60 what are they the better for all those they have procured or abetted since is not the hand of God against them in all they undertake defeating all their Projects and Designs and making them every day more Odious than others For my part I do not fear that perjurious Projects will ever prevail or do any body any good but the Crime being spread so vastly I fear a National Judgment a Calamity that shall be as general as the Sin and then no man will be free from suffering the sad Effects of it thô those that have procured it will smart most by it and this is enough to oblige every good Man that loves his Countrey especially all Magistrates to stand in the gap and to prevent the further Growth of it as much as is possible by discountenancing it and punishing it too as occasion serve Some are of Opinion this Sin might be stopped by a severe Law against it but I am of another mind and I heartily believe more innocent than guilty Men would suffer by it if we had such a Law because these wicked Wretches make Parties to uphold one another and will lay things so well together that it is almost impossible to discover the Cheat and then as for Oaths to prove them that they never want whereas good Men are not so vigilant suspecting as little ill as they mean and so would be more exposed to the force of such a Law But as for Publick Officers especially Constables and such like I wish together with their Oaths they might be compelled to enter a Recognizance of the same Condition with their Oaths which if it were but of small value as X or XX lib. it would work much upon them and in a great measure put a stop to this Impiety for some that do not reverence an Oath wou'd yet fear to forfeit their Recognizance and in time Religion would return and take away the necessity of such double Obligations As for Private Concerns there is excellent provision made by a late Statute 29 Car. 2. Cap. 3. and the extending it to a few more particulars might be very useful and till this can be done Men must commit as little as is possible to Verbal Testimonies by taking all things they can in Writing 2. Another of the best and most effectual means that is left to stop this inundation of Perjury is for Magistrates to express a great detestation of it not only by their words as Occasion serve but by their Actions too by shewing themselves to be exceeding Careful not to do any thing that is contrary to their Oaths and sometimes giving that for a reason of it for that makes a greater impression upon the Minds of Men than any words without it because it is at once a Verbal and a Practical Declaration and their Authority will make it the more taken Notice of and regarded The Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance are so frequently Administred that I need not take any further notice of them here but that which more immediately concerns the Justices of the Peace is as followeth YE shall Swear that as Justice of the Peace in the County of C. in all Articles in the King's Commission to you directed you shall do Egal Right to the Poor and to the Rich after your Cunning Wit and Power and after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and Statutes thereof made and ye shall not be of Councel of any quarrel hanging before you and that ye shall hold your Sessions after the form of the Statutes thereof made And the Issues Fines and Amerciments that shall happen to be made and all Forfeitures which shall fall before you ye shall cause to be entered without any Concealment or imbefilling and truely send them to the King's Exchequer ye shall not let for Guift or other Cause but well and truly you shall do your Office of Justice of the Peace in that behalf And that you take nothing for your Office of Justice of the Peace to be done but of the King and Fees accustomed and Costs limited by the Statute And ye shall not direct nor cause to be directed any Warrant by you to be made to the Parties but ye shall direct to the Bailiffs of the said County or other the King's Officers or Ministers or other indifferent Persons to do Execution thereof So help you God You shall do Egal right the very way of Writing which word Egal instead of Equal shews this Oath is of great Antiquity and that it hath been very carefully Transcribed when there have been so much scruple made of changing a G. into a Q. according to the Latin and our present Authography and it would be a burning shame to us if we that are Sworn should be less careful of the Articles in it than the Clerks have been of the Letters And that ye shall hold your Sessions how they can Answer it to God or Man I know not who reside in any County or act as Justices of the Peace in it and yet never appear at any Sessions by the space of many years together without any lawful excuse or hindrance or those who come and take the King's Wages and before half the Business is done betake themselves to the Tavern leaving two or three to finish and conclude the Business so that if any Controversie arise it must be left to another time or ended as it can rather than as it ought it is true neither of these Disorders can be Punished by the Court but then it is because the Law supposeth that Men of that Quality will not need it but will religiously observe their Oath so that the fault is so much the greater because it cannot be Punished but by God only I shall not make any more Reflections on this Oath because this whole Discourse is but a kind of Commentary upon it and whatever I have omitted is taken notice of by Lambard and other Writers But the Care of a Magistrate ends not in himself but is to extend to Others and therefore he ought to take great heed that he minister none but Lawful and Necessary Oaths Secondly That if he find Men ignorant he give them good Advice and sharp Reproofs in case of the least failure By Lawful Oaths I mean such as the Laws and Customs of England will allow him to give and therefore before he take an Oath he ought to consider whether he have Power to do it for thô he hath a great yet he hath not an unlimited Power as is manifest by that Parenthesis which is so frequent in our Statutes which Oath the said Justices are by this Act Authorized to Administer which is repeated almost as often as a new Power is given them and for the most part in these very words And yet I doubt not but when good Reason requires where ever they may Hear and Determine they may do it upon Oath thô the Statute doth not
THE Justice of Peace HIS CALLING AND QUALIFICATIONS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion Cass lib. XXXVI Pag. 13. Provida severitate cavisti ne fundata Legibus Civitas eversa legibus videretur C. Plin. Pan. Traj Cap. XXXIV Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment thou shalt not respect the person of the Poor nor honour the person of the Mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy Neighbour Lev. 19. v. 15. By Edmund Bohun Esq LONDON Printed for T. Salusbury at the King's-Arms next St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1693. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THe first thing that is usually inquired after in a Book is who writ it and according as the Author is liked or disapproved the Sentence often is passed without taking the pains to examine one tittle of it Could my Name have gâ—â—en any reputation to the Book it had perhaps not been concealed but I am none of those who have acquired any Fame in the World nor of them that desire it The only design of these following Leaves is to do good and if I may attain my end I desire no thanks And if I miss it I am as unwilling to reap Reproaches or Hatred so that if I may but be unknown it is all I aspire to I am forced by my Subject to reflect sometimes sharply on the Follies and Vices of Men in Authority and I must expect this will anger them and it will be a much easier Task in revenge to inquire into my faults than to amend and reform their own and if they can find me as culpable as themselves this will be taken for a sufficient reason why they should not endeavour to be better because their Reprover hath his faults as well as they and it may be greater The Author of the Whole Duty of Man and all those excellent Pieces that followed is as much to be admired for his Prudent and Modest Concealment of himself as for any other thing and I am fully perswaded that those pieces have done the more good in the World because they seem to drop from Heaven and no man claims the Honour of having written them And as I have endeavoured to imitate that brave Man so I should esteem it a mighty happiness if I might be as little known as he and this discourse might but prove half so useful to the World as any one of his have done It was long since observed by Cicero That there was not any sort of Life whether Publick or Private at home or abroad whether a man conversed with others or himself only which was destitute of its peculiar Rules and that the Excellence of Life consisted in Acting according to them all as Turpitude did in neglecting them And the Lord Bacon in his Seventh Book of the Advancement of Learning having distributed that part of Morality which relate to the Duties of Men into the General or Particular or Respective according to every mans Profession Calling State Person and Degree thus goes on The first of these I have already observed is diligently Cultivated and Explicated by the Ancients and others and the latter is by Parts also treated of though I never found it reduced into any perfect body of Science nor do I blame the thus handling of it in parts and perhaps it is better so to do For who is of that Capacity or Confidence that he either can or dare undertake to discourse and desire pertinently and to the Life of the particular and Relative Duties of all Orders and Conditions of Men And those discourses of such Subjects as these which are destitute of Experience and are only drawn from a General Knowledg and Scholastick Learning for the most part prove vain and useless For though the Stander by do sometime see more than the Gamester and there is a Proverb which is more bold than sound as it relates to the Censure of the Rabble concerning the Actions of Princes That he that stands in the Vally can best view the Mountain yet it were much to be wished that no man would concern himself with these sorts of Subjects but he that was very expert and well acquainted with them For the discourses of Speculative Men on Practical Subjects seem nothing better to them that are Conversant and acquainted with them than the discourses of of Phormio concerning War seemed to Hannibal who took them for mere Dreams and Delusions But there is one fault usually attends this Experimental sort of Writers that they never know when they have commended and Extolled their Province enough Thus far that Great Man hath discoursed of these sorts of Duties but I having him in Latin have perhaps taken off something of the Elegance of his Stile by turning it into English yet it will give the Reader his sense of these undertakings and whether I have done my part well or ill belongs not to me but to him to determine only I will assure my Reader I did not consult many Books for it but I have rather endeavoured to represent things as I found them by Experience Nor do I knaw of any one who before me hath made any such Attempt for tho many have written the Law-part both in former times and of late yet the Moral part is either totally neglected or only to be found in Sermons or some hints in other discourses which are very much too short to give a clear and satisfactory Account and two much dispersed to be suddainly Collected Yet there is hardly any Subject that more deserves or needs a discourse of this Nature whether we consider the Office I treat of or the persons that are employed in it The Office of a Justice of Peace is of a vast extent and if my Reader be but pleased to consult the Heads of this discourse he will find it is no barren Subject for Moral Reflections there is no one Virtue in the World of which a Justice of Peace as such will not sometimes stand in need and there is no Vice neither which will not look worse in him then in another man but I have only selected them that were most pertinent to my Subject and for the rest my Reader may much better consult other Writers And I have endeavoured to discourse of Virtues and Vices in another manner then the Moralists usually do and it did well befit me so to do while I considered them as the Attendents of a publick person which had a great influence upon the Community For a good Justice of Peace is a publick bleâ—â—â—ng and does more good by his example or might do if such were not too usually envied and hated than by his Authority And again a Wicked Ruler by his ill example corrupts more than he can reform by his Severity If we consider the persons that execute this Office such a discourse must needs be very useful for tho the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his Maâ—esties Privy-Counsellors and these Judges that go the several Circuits and in short almost all the
Great Ministers of State and Great Men of the Nation are a part of them and are named in all the Commssiions yet the persons who reside in the several Counties and do actually execute the Office are for the most part Noble-men and Lay-Gentlemen or Lawyers whose Education hath not generally necessitated them to those Studies that are requisite to fit them for such Moral Reflections and those that are best acquainted with them will yet be pleased perhaps to see this discourse ready laid together to their hands and I am not without all hopes that some or other may be so far displeased with what what I have done as to do it better for I will not deny that the Subject deserves a better Head and Pen than mine and it would please me to see the use of this superseeded by a better But till this is done I have only one Request to make to my Reader That he would candidly interpret what I have written not out of a design to find fault and instruct my Betters but kindly to represent to them the loveliness of Virtue and the baseness and turpitude of Vice that so my Reader may from thence take occasion to reform himself in what is amiss and to give God hearty thanks for preserving him from the rest of those Crimes which have not yet touched him And as for those who may take exceptions I do assure them I never intended to reflect personally upon any one man in the World and I fear there is no one passage in the whole Book but what may too pertinently be applyed to too great a Number of Men I wish it were otherwise But then this may be added to the other Reasons I have given why I have concealed my Name to prevent the Rabble from making application of several of the worst parts of my discourse to persons for whom they were never intended and if they can once find out one they will presently pretend they have found out all the rest and this was meant of this man and that of the other and so I shall become accountable for all their wild Surmizes There is one other Exception which may lie against the whole and that is that by telling the World what sort of men Magistrates should be I have given their Inferiours who are also Naturally inclin'd to be more inquisitive into the faults of their Superiours then into that which is their own duty too great a temptation to consider what they are or have been and consequently to undervalue and despise them but this is in their own power in great part to prevent by reforming what would have betrayed them to the scorn of the Many tho I had never been born for Virtue and Vice were well understood before this little piece was thought of and men ever were and always will be accordingly esteemed The late Lord Chancellor Clarendon in a Circular Letter to all the Justices of the Peace in England bearing date the 30th of March 1665 tells them I assure you the King hath so great a sense of the service you do or can do for him that He frequently says He takes himself to be particularly beholding to every good Justice of the Peace who is Chearful and Active in his Place and that if in truth the Justices of the Peace in the several Divisions be as careful as they ought to be in keeping the Watches and in other parts of their Office the keeping up their Monthly Meetings and suppressing Conventicles c. the Peace of the Kingdom can hardly be interrupted within and the Hopes and Imaginations of Seditious Persons would be quickly broken and all men would study to be quiet and injoy those many blessings God hath given the Nation under this happy Government All this is certainly true and tho the times were then as they are now very unquiet and there was a formidable Conspiracy then set on foot by the Republicans and Dissenters of the Nation yet the sole Vigilance and Care of the Justices of the Peace disappointed it and made it end in Smoke to the Eternal Reproach and Dishonour of the Conspirators which shews the excellence and usefulness of this Order of men Yet give me leave to say that those good Justices of the Peace who are most Active and Chearful in their Places are not always either the Richest and Greatest or the best beloved and most favoured by the rest And for this Sir Thomas Egerton Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal in the 44th of Elizabeth in a Speech made the 13th of February 1601. in the Star-Chamber by her Maiesty's express Command and Printed in the end of the Historical Collections of the four last Parliaments of her Reign shall be my witness who thus complained Is there any more fervent than others in the business of the Common-wealth he streight hath given him the Epithite of a busie Jack but I know there be many good and I wish their number were increased but who be they Even the poorer and meanner Justices by one of which more good cometh to the Common-wealth than by a Hundred of greater condition and degree I wish this complaint were superannuated and that our times were quite otherwise but alas such Justices of the Peace must not only be content to hear worse Language than this but there is too frequently Combinations made amongst the rest to cross and quash whatever they shall propose be it never so just and reasonable and nothing alledged for it but that they are mean proud busie people and will perk up too much above their Betters if they be not thus mortified and kept under this is the worst sort of Respect of Persons that can be thought of and most mischievous and irrational that whereas Envy ever riseth by Nature here it descendeth and the Superiour who should love and cherish the Industry and Vigilance of his Inferiour envieth and hateth him for being more serviceable than he need perhaps to have been But let it be considered who reaps the Advantage of all their Industry and Activity but the King and Kingdom and these very men that thus severely treat them if there were none such the Nation must needs in a small time be ruined for as the Lord Chancellor Clarendon takes notice in the above Cited Letter So much Artifice so much Industry and so much dexterity as this People the Enemies of the Government are possessed with cannot be disappointed by a Supine Negligence or Laziness in those who are invested with the Kings Authority or indeed without an equal industry dexterity and combination between Good Men for the Preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom and for the suppressing of the Enemies thereof Now if instead of this the Justices of the Peace combine in Parties one against another and the Great men will neither do the duties of their Places themselves nor suffer the meaner but more active to do it for them what can be the event in the end but this That like
the two first but I hope by placing them in the Conclusion they will Leave the stronger impression on the Mind of the Reader Courage is so necessary a Qualification in Magistrates Courage that God himself never omits it in his Charges to them and there is good cause for it For they are sometimes to deal with Men Equal to themselves in all things and at others with their Superiors and as the Nature of Mankind stands may justly fear hard usage for doing but their Duty And yet we have another difficulty that will try the most daring we live in a factious Age and a Divided Nation and a Magistrate must sometimes disoblige not only single persons but great Bodies of Men united for the carrying on ill designs And we have before our Eyes instances of many great Families that have been ruine or impoverished within the Memory of Man for their Loyalty and Honesty and too many have Considered the same may happen again and this hath made the difficulty the greater by les'ning the Number of them that should have overcome it But yet would men consider Seriously of it this will never justify their Pusilanimity who have refused to serve the Publick or not performed their Duty out of Cowardise For God himself hath promised to stand by them and protect them in the discharge of their Duty Ye shall not Respect persons in judgment but you shall hear the Small as well as the Great you shall not be afraid of the face of Man for the judgment is Gods Deut. 1. 17. So he is pleased to own the Act and is bound to protect his own Minister and he may securely rely upon him that he will for he hath ingaged his Veracity for it whose Power no Faction how formidable soever can Master And yet if he should Suffer a man to be persecuted for doing his Duty Even that is no such dismal thing as is represented by fancy and delusion but this subject hath been so Excellently treated of by the Author of Jovian in his Conclusion that for brevity sake I will refer the Reader to it Of Evils the least is to be chosen and in the state things are we must submit our Selves and Families as Eternal Slaves to these Factions or defend the Government against them by a Couragious Execution of our Laws We have tryed their Mercy and Clemency and found Solomon's Observation true The tender Mercies of the Wicked are Cruel We have felt the Smart of being Loyal and if we were so treated for being obedient to the Laws of God and Man we may Expect as much Mercy in other instances as we please We have tried what could be done by fair Courses and Concessions and our Experience tells us nothing but an intire submission at discretion will satisfie these insolent Men and this hath inspired some Besieged Starved Places with a resolution to perish bravely but blessed be God we are not upon such terms yet with them But then this reproacheth our faint-hearted Gallants who dare not do their Duty whilest they have the Advantage Clearly on their Side The thing is indeed not only possible but easie for all Combinations against an Established Government besides the Providence of God have the United Forces of all good men against them they are lyable to many hazards have no Authority to Unite them are and ever will be distrustful each of other and faithless too as occasion serves and one Passion prevails upon another So that it is not Prudence which makes men timorous but want of Considering the Nature of things together with Infidelity Distrust of God and Cowardize and if any man will aspire to these Titles of Honour and tamely purchase them with Slavery and Beggery much good may his bargain do him and let no man envy his happiness And as to the rest let them pluck up their spirits and with the Rosolution of English Men and Christians bring under this Hydra this Many-headed Monster and they may be assured the Event will answer their Desires and will find that the strength of our Factions lies more in our want of Wit and Will to Suppress them than in their own Ability to defend themselves much less to bring under and ruine us But not only Combinations of Men but single persons have sometimes over-awed Magistrates and made them not dare to do their Duties and here the fault is so much the greater as the Temptation is less For why should a Justice of the Peace under the Protection of God and the Laws fear a Wealthy Clown or a Ruffling Gentleman Let him be but once sure what the Law and the Matter of Fact is and he need not fear any man But 't is a great disgrace to the Magistrate and a great dishonour to Justice to have the Laws take none but the poor helpless offenders whose very Innocence may be easily trodden under foot and the great and insolent Offenders escape without any Chastisement It were great reason rather to take the latter than the former and tends more to the terror of ill men It is true that sometimes these great and rich Malefactors do find means by their Wealth and Friends to trouble a Justice of the Peace on some other pretence but this doth not often happen God in his Providence preventing it and when it doth ought to be born as other Calamities which God sends for Causes best known to himself and which for the most part end very well for the Minister of Justice But on the Other Side when a man hath purchased their good will at the loss of his Reputation by denying Justice or doing injury he hath but rendred himself more obnoxious to their injuries by shewing his fear of them which makes them yet more insolent and he hath made God and good men his Enemies to boot So that he is then become really miserable and yet must Expect no bodies Pity or Assistance So that all things Considered it is better to trust God and rely on the Protection of the Laws and so to proceed to do our Duty without the least Consideration Whether the Party Complained of be a Poor man or a rich man but according to Gods Commandment and Our Oath to do equal Right to both which in all probability will be as safe and much more honourable and at last bring a man to peace according to that of the Psalmist Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the End of that Man is Peace Psal 37. v. 37. There is another Fault which is just the opposite to this and doth not so often happen yet sometimes may out of too much Pity and Compassion ill Placed and Worse Expressed and that is when more regard is taken to the Poverty than Innocence of a man contrary to the Command of God Thou shalt not Countenance a poor man in his Cause Exod. 23. 3. That is any further than there is Right and Reason for it I might perhaps not have mentioned this
sure of a fair Tryal before the Law take them away Our Poor are Carefully and kindly provided for in all urgent occasions We have Magistrates dispersed all over the Nation for our Security and for the rest our highest Courts are open four times in the Year where all men may have equal Right the Poor as well as the Rich and besides there come two of the Judges twice in every Year into every County that if any man hath cause for it he may complain and have Right done him We have four Sessions in every Year wherein the Justices of the Peace or a great part meet to determine what a few could not and by Appeals redress their Errors and there is not a Country Village but the King hath an Officer in it to Secure our Peace and Apprehend Malefactors Now a man would think such a Government as this should be beloved by all that knew and had Lived in it and so it would without question if it were not too strict for ill men who have designs upon their Neighbours Liberties and Fortunes tho they pretend the quite contrary And such Men are not fit to be trusted with any share of the Government in order to promote their wicked purposes The Next thing necessary in a Justice of the Peace is a Competent Knowledg of the Nature and Temper of the English People especially those under his Charge By the word People I mean only those the Justice of Peace is to govern for all that are above that degree are out of my Bounds and need not be Considered by me England being an Island and lying Exposed to perpetual Changes of Winds and Weather more than the Continent doth their Humours and Spirits are in perpetual Motion and this affects their Minds too and makes them very uncertain and very much given to Change if those that have the Conduct of them do not frequently inculcate the danger of it and severely punish those that give occasion to the beginnings of Commotions that so this fear may Counterballance this Natural inclination to Change 2. The English Blood is very easily Irritated and hard to be allayed whilest it is in its fury Especially if it be inflamed with Drink and Excess or exasperated with ill usage and Injustice And that is the true Reason why we need so many persons to Keep the Peaâ—e amongst them and so many Laws to Secure it and prevent Excess in Drinking and Idleness which is the Occasion of Quarrels and the Nurse of Poverty And the great Care of the Magistrate should be to Cure this First by preventing all Menaces or Threatnings by requiring Sureties of the Peace of them that use them Secondly All Grievous Slanders such as tend to the Ruine of mens Reputation and Livelihood by Securities of the Good Behaviour Thirdly All Excess by a Severe Execution of the Laws against Tipling and putting down those Alehouses that suffer Disorder and Excess Fourthly To be sure not to give them any occasion to complain of Injustice and Oppression by an Exact Care to Keep to the Rule of the Law which will Justifie him and keep them quiet for I have not observed but that they submit patiently to that Severity which the Law imposoth on them if they be once satisfied the Law is so 3. What William the Conqueror observed of the Normans is as true of the English If they be Governed Well and Severely they are Valiant and in great difficulties Excel all other men endeavouring to master their Enemies But if this be neglected they tear and destroy each others for they Love Rebellions and Seditions and are ready for all sorts of Mischief Let them therefore be restrain'd with severity and be forced by the Rein of Discipline to keep the Path of Justice for if this Wild Ass be suffer'd to go Unyoaked they and their Princes will be Overwhelmed with Poverty and Confusion This saith that Prince I have learned by much Experience 4. But then they must be Governed Well that is with Prudence and Justice as well as with Severity for it may be there is no Nation under Heaven so impatient of Injury and Wrong as the English and whatsoever is not precisely according to Law they will Esteem such and when occasion serve revenge it But neither can they bear too much Lenity and Mercy they grow insolent when they are Flattered and Courted and never regard those that seem to fear them The Advice therefore of the Conqueror is good and as fit for our Days as if it had been given but Yesterday 5. The English are not more Couragious in Visible and Apparent Dangers which they never fear than Timerous and Suspitious of every thing they hear the most incredible silly Story in the World frights them into Disorder and Confusion and without Examining the truth or possibility of the Report they rush into Action and follow them that pretend to Lead them out of those difficulties And of this we had abundant Experience in the late Times and have lately had enough again to remind us of it and herein the Care of the Magistrate should be to punish severely the Spreaders of Libels and false Reports and the Fomenters of False delusory fears and jealousies 6. The English are very Religious Naturally and in the Times of Popery almost ruined themselves by their Liberality to the Church and Monasteries but the folly of that being discovered at the Reformation they have since run to the other Extream and almost ruined the Church by tearing what they could from it and they are now as mad of running after every new Sort of Teacher that pretends to shew them an undiscovered Way to Heaven as they were of the Monks and Fryars before and this hath a mischievous Effect upon the State too and will Eternally endanger our ruine till it be redressed by a Constant and Severe Execution of our Laws against Conventicles of which I shall speak more when I come to Consider our Factions 7. In Antient Times the People were so addicted to the Nobility and fond of their Gentry that two or three discontented Noblemen made nothing to bring an Army into the Field and fight their Soveraign but the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster having almost totally Ruined and Extinguished the Antient Power of the Nobility Henry the 7th by Politick Laws Henry the 8th by his Violence and Queen Elizabeth by her Severity against the Great Men and Condescentions to the Populacy have so turn'd the Tide the other Way that the People do now as much Slight and Undervalue them And to this the Factions in Religion have contributed very much for one of the first Principles these Lanthorn men teach their followers is to despise their Betters and suspect and speak Evil of their Superiors which Added to the Natural Envy all men have for them who live in a more splendid condition bids fair for the Extirpation of all our Gentry and Nobility if they do not regain the
it self cannot stand Math. 12. 25. then are we such men as deserve no pity from God or Men whatever follow But on the other side if we would buckle to the Work and with Zeal and Industry and Patience pursue it by God's Gracious Assistance we might soon bring under these two Factions and in time Extirpate all the three not by a destruction of their Persons but of their Pernicious and Disloyal Principles and whoever hath but the least share in this great work shall be blessed in this and all succeeding Generations SECTION VI. I Come in the next place to speak of a sort of Qualifications so necessary in a Magistrate that without them he would never be able to discharge his Duty as he ought which I shall reduce under these three heads 1. A great Love to Justice 2. Impartiality in executing it 3. Aversion for those things that may hinder it Solomon saith It is a joy to the just to do Judgment Prov. 21. 15. And except men take a joy in it Judgment will certainly be ill done if at all especially by those men who have no other reward for it then the satisfaction of their own minds and the sense of having served God and their King and Country in a Station that brings them no personal Advantage We may say truly of the Justice of Peace his Calling that there is much Noise and no Wool and as for honour the better he is the less he must expect it in this perverse Generation Envy and Ill will he may be sure to reap but for any sollid satisfaction unless what results from the Peace of his own Mind and the blessed hopes of a Future Reward from God the Righteous Judge of Men and Angels he will find himself miserably deceived in the Event if he at all expects it And this is not the worst of it neither difficulties he will meet that will require the utmost degree of Patience Prudence Industry and Attention to dispel them and without Gods particular Assistance it will not be done at last but instead of doing Justice he will do Injury and Injustice and he will have cause to complain Dum falsum nefas exequor vindex scelestus incidi in verum nefas Whil'st I pursued and punished an imaginary and supposed Crime in another I have committed a real one my self and this will be a great misfortune even then when it is no fault and much more when it is When these and a thousand other difficulties which no man can foresee are considered it will I suppose be easily granted that he that is to encounter overcome them had need have a strong and almost invincible Love to Justice to enable him and support him in his undertaking And perhaps if it were well considered there is not a greater instance of the Divine Providence in the Government of the World then that so many friends to Justice can be found as there is Men that Court and Espouse her purely for her own sake without any other Dower then that of Sorrow and Vexation of Spirit whose Business Pleasures Recreations nay their very Prayers and Meals are interrupted by their thankless unprofitable uneasie employment and yet God for the good of others sweetens all this and tyes them as close to it by the Cords of Love as a Hen to her Eggs and Chickens from which she can never reap any advantage But then those that are not so qualified should in Prudence never attempt to meet these Rampant Lyons which they may be sure are in the way and if any of them will not consider it before-hand his own experience will soon inform him of the truth of what I say I speak not this to discourage any man but to forewarn him that he may be provided with a resolution equal to the opposition which only Love can inspire fear it is true hath sometimes made Men Valiant but then that is a forced Courage which will not last lay the man a golden Bridge open him a way and you may be sure never to be troubled more with his Valour or his Justice But he that loves any thing pursues it through Fire and Water and Death it self cannot extinguish the desire Tell him of dangers and he replyes At contra Audentior ibo but I am resolved to master them These and these only are the fit Men to serve in this Honourable Employment and may God Almighty bless and reward those we have and send more such Heroick Souls into the Field to discountenance Faction and Vice and to protect Innocency Religion and Virtue And to the rest I shall offer two or three things to be thought of at their leisure Will any man in his right Wits expect Peace without Justice What were the World but a Hell of Misery and a Chaos of Confusion if every man might say and do what he list Were it not for the publick Justice to terrify some and cut off other Malefactors your House would be a Castle to you indeed but surrounded with such dangers that you should neither eat nor drink nor sleep in Peace and Security and the more Opulent your Fortunes were the greater would be the temptation to destroy and impoverish you go into the fruitful Countries of the Mogull in the East-Indies and you shall find vast Spaces of Rich Soyl desolate and unhabited only for want of Country Magistrates to protect the good and punish the disorderly for that Prince sends but few Governors into his vast Provinces and they reside in the great Cities so that the Poor and Remote have small advantage by them and so would it be in England if all men were of your minds But you will say there is no fear of that but then you shall be as accountable to God and your Country has if it had really happened for tho man cannot punish these Sins of Omission God can and will But you must gain Portions for your Children and encrease your Estates yes and your Sorrows too to see all your Labours end in Smoak a Civil War destroy that in an hour you have been carking for many years and your Beloved Daughter become the Prey of a Lieutenant or a Captain at the best who has nothing to Joynture her in and takes her and all the Thousands you have scraped together for her in part of payment for the publick service or dis-service as it happens and it may be your Grand-children may after all this have the honour and happiness to be Tapsters or Ostlers in some great place When if the Publick had been better minded your Daughter and her Descendants might have been happy These are no vain speculations so that if men would consider seriously of it they would love Justice if not for it self yet for the Consequences of it 2. Next to the love of Justice impartiality in doing it is to be considered for it is possible to turn Justice into Worm-wood and Gaul the best and sweetest of things into the bitterestâ— and
here so many by-ways offer themselves that a Justice of the Peace had need be a man of great Sincerity and Integrity to avoid them and pursue the streight Path of Justice Some Men have that Veneration for Great Men that they durst not oppose their Wills or Humours in any thing be it never so unreasonable or unjust and here if a Controversy happen between a poor Servant Labourer or Tenant and the Lord of the Mannor or other Rich Person all the Arts in the World all the shifts and tricks imaginable are upon such an occasion to be mustered up to prove the poor Party in the wrong and the rich one in the right â—is Witnesses if he have any that dare stand by him are to be defamed all his whole life is to be searched into to find a flaw in it tho nothing to the purpose if the man still stands stoutly to it and will not surrender at once his Integrity and his Case hands and eyes are lift up in Admiration at his Impudence if he speaks one word for another or indiscreetly what had been better omitted then for a loud fit of Laughter to put him out of Countenance that the Legerdemain may be better carried If nothing else will do two or three bawling Attorneys must be called into the business that the success may be assured nay and it is well too if Mr. Justice can excuse himself from passing a promise before hand that he will determine in favour of the Gentleman If I should speak all I mean upon this Theam it would look as if I designed a Satyr or a Libel But that is the furthest thing in the World from my thoughts I do heartily blush and grieve to think such things should be done amongst Christians but that will not Remedy the Evil. Let such men know then that God hath made both the Poor and the Rich and he careth for both alike and whoever he be that shall thus abuse the trust reposed in him shall sooner or later be recompensed by him according to his desarts and the greater he be the greater his Crime and Punishment for Mighty Men shall be mightily tormented And let him not think neither that his Chastisement shall not overtake him till he comes into the next World which if it were true would be a silly Comfort that is that he should only be damn'd for it but it is ten to one if he meets it not presently his own Conscience will at one time or other reproach him for it the very Person he thus favoured will ever after repute him a poor low spirited Coward or a Knave and however he may Flatter and Caress him for the present in shew yet Condemn and Scorn him in his Heart and draw him along from one iniquity to another till he become odious and contemptible to all that know him and the poor injured Party will be sure to revenge his injustice by telling the Story and after a while it will find belief and then as the poor are most numerous he will have many Enemies and no Friends for never did any man purchase a friend by injustice and what the Effect of all this may be at last I leave to all men to consider It is almost the same thing to favour a poor man only because he is poor tho it doth not happen so frequently for if he be in need and necessity thou mayest draw thy purse and relieve him but what hast thou to do with that which is another Mans the great Boy must not have the little Boys Coat because it is fit for him or he hath need of it but every man must have what is his own otherwise you may call it what you will but Justice it is not Besides these two there are two other differences which may often happen in those that come before a Justice of the Peace he is to do Justice at home amongst his own Neighbours and some of them are his Kindred his Friends or their Relations others are under his displeasure and may have offended him or his in something or other and these two affections of Love or Hatred are great Corrupters of Truth and Justice and the Historian took great care to prevent this objection by saying Mihi Galba Otho Vitellius nec beneficio nec injuria â—ogniti Galba Otho and Vitellius were not known to me either by their injuries or benefits if they had there might have been some reason to have suspected his Relations of them but this is much more powerful in a Justice of Peace or Inferiour Magistrate then in an Historian they all hope their Writings shall live and be read by all Men and there can hardly be a delusion of that sort imposed upon the World but one or other by one means or other will discover it or the piercing Wits of Men will find it out from the very Historians themselves but those things that are to be done but once and are often never more thought of are not of that Nature and may possibly never be discovered or soon be forgotten as some men think but this is a very great disception when a wrong Judgment is passed all men will make it their business to discover how it came to pass and if there were any former kindness or quarrel tho many years before will conjecture that to be the Cause especially if the Justice doth not give good reason for what he doth and they will suspect it where it is not too and therefore it is good in those Cases to do as little as a man possibly can without the Conjunction of others For say a man could escape the Eyes of all Mankind which is very difficult if not impossible yet he can never delude God he penetrates the bottom of our hearts and discovers our most secret inclinations and affections and will surely punish us if he finds they lead us to pervert Justice and Judgment and besides this Sin it includes in it Perjury too for it is contrary to our Oaths and he that can hope to digest these two grievous Sins will hardly much regard any thing I can say unto him but must be left to time and the Justice of God to learn the contrary Respect of Persons is in some sort a worse and more fatal Crime then Bribery for both Parties may bribe me but no man can make himself my Kinsman or grow rich in a moment and therefore it is impossible to correct it besides it is observed that such men are of a base unconstant Spirit for there are degrees of Love and Hatred Hopes and Fears and such a man will comply with one Party one day and another another day without Justice or Reason as his Interest or Passions lead him so that no body is sure of him for he will as the Scripture saith offend for a Morsel of Bread that is for any thing or nothing and therefore all men should avoid them as they would a Thief or a Cut purse
There is another sort of Partiality that springs from things some Men have a kindness for some Vices or Factions and they love that in another which they cherish in themselves and so if any Complaint be made they wrest and bend the Laws to comply with their humours and interests and sometimes they stretch and sometimes they shrevil and shrink them up to nothing and this is direct Partiality the same Offence should have the same Punishment whoever commits it and every Offence that very punishment which the Laws have appointed and no other and if any difference is to be made let it spring from some Consideration in the Persons or Things and not from us punish a poor man according to his Offence and his Poverty and not according to your affections towards him but if you discover any such thing within you be sure to curb it at least to suspect it and punish your Friends according to Law and your Enemies something less if you must do it and so in relation to other things a man should be most severe against his own Vice to shew the World he is not desirous it should follow his example tho when all is done the best way of Correction is for a man to begin at himself and having formed his own Life according to Law and Reason then to try what he can do upon others I will in the next place consider those things that do most usually hinder and obstruct the Execution of Justice against which a Magistrate ought to arm himself with an habitual and invincible hatred and as often as occasion serve declare it to the World that men knowing his resolution beforehand may not dare to tempt him The first of which I reckon Bribery which is so frequent an Impediment of Justice that both the Laws of God and Man have taken frequent notice of it and severely threatned it and it accordingly is attended with great Infamy for the most part if it meets no other punishment and the greater in a Justice of the Peace because the Persons and things that come before him are of that small Consideration that he cannot in reason expect a Bribe in his whole Life that would tempt a man of any Generosity to do an ill thing What is half a dozen Chickens or a Couple of Capons to a Man of Worship and yet for such pityful prices have some men sold their reputations and laid themselves open to the scandal and derision of the World It was a sharp reflection that was made upon them in Parliament in the 44th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when one said a Justice of Peace was a living Creature that for half a dozen of Chickens will dispence with a whole dozen of Penal-Statutes I believe as there was not then so there is not now many such pityful Animals Crept unto the Bench and advanced to that Honourable Imployment but then the less the number is the more easily the Commission might be purged of these Vermin who are a shame to the rest and a great vexation to all their inferiour Neighbours and a dishonour to the Government The ways by which Bribery is attempted are so various that it is impossible to enumerate them all sometimes the Wife the Children the Clerk are purchased under-hand to recommend the Case to the Justice and obtain a promise of him when he least thinks of it and so if the man be easie he is bribed and knows it not and in this Case the best way is for a Man by his Actions to demonstrate to the World that none of these have any power over him or can influence him this or that way and when men find themselves deceived they will give over those tricks and be ashamed they were ever guilty of using them Another Method is to offer their service as Labourers at small or no wages upon urgent occasions and then these days work are chalked up upon the Dorman or behind the Door and wo to the next man that gives the least offence to the Leather Breeches his Worship is obliged to give him a Cast of his Office too in his turn and he is hard hearted and ungrateful if he will not gratifie the Clown with a little Injustice and Perjury in exchange for his Labour Sometimes the Justice hath something to buy or sell and then the bargain is driven with respect to his place and what is lost is to be made up with Advantage out of the depending quarrel If the Justice of the Peace be a Practising Lawyer then he shall have a Fee for his Advice which he is bound to defend too into the Bargain be it right or wrong at the next Sessions or else he loseth his Client forever Sometimes general Promises are thrown out such as these It shall be never the worse or I will not be unthankful and the like which are like empty Caskes thrown out to entertain the Leviathan with In short to go about to enumerate them all is impossible And to prescribe any other Remedy against them then a ridgid and inflexible Honesty is to no purpose for this Winding Snake will creep up and steal upon a Man by such unforeseen ways that it will not be in his power to prevent its approaches tho he may easily and safely with St. Paul shake off the Viper into the fire if it fix upon his hand and then the Exposing those that attempt it to the World by telling the Story publickly will deter others from the like ill Courses and a better remedy can no man invent Prejudice and Prepossession have the same ill Effects with Bribery Prejudice and Prepossession And indeed Bribery aims at Nothing else but to forestall the Judgment and if that follow from any other cause the effect is the same it is all one to the Defendant if the Justice Sell or freely Surrender his Judgment to the Complainant if he find him disposed to Condemn him before he hath heard him credulous of what ever is objected but intractable and imperswasible on the other side So that Bribery and prejudice have this in common that they both blind the Eyes of the Wise and pervert the Words of the Righteous Deut. 16. 19. and of the two Bribery is the more Excusable perhaps because there is some temptation in it but the other sells his Reason for Nothing It is well observed by the Lord Bacon in his Advancement of Learning concerning Prejudice and Prepossession Book VIII Ch. 2. Parab 17. The first information in any Cause if it a little fix it self in the Mind of the Judge takes deep root and Wholly seasons and prepossesses it so as it can hardly be taken out unless some manifest falshood be found in the Matter of the Information or some cunning dealing in exhibiting and laying open the same For a bare and simple defence tho it be Just and more Weighty can hardly compensate the prejudice of the first information nor is of force in its
down in the Judgment Seat and Act as if we were then newly dropt from Heaven without Friend or Acquaintance Enemy or Injurer but if we cannot so divest our selves of our former dispositions it is fit to send the Parties to some other Justice that is not in our Circumstances or at least to be very wary and careful what we do and say that we may be able to justifie our selves to God and Man and our own Consciences Covetousness is another great hindrance to the Execution of Justice Covetousness and therefore the Advice of Jethro to Moses That he should provide for Magistrates able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness Exod. 18. 21. was very good and thought fit to be recorded for our Instruction and to the same purpose was the Admonition of Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory when she advised the Justices of the Peace that they should not deserve the Epethites of prowling Justices Justices of Quarrels who counted Champerty good Chevesance sinning Justices who did suck and consume the good of this Common wealth and indeed they that are eagerly intent upon encreasing their own Estates do seldom stick at any thing that may tend to promote their great Design but employ as well their Authority as their Wits to that purpose not caring what the publick suffer so their private Profit may be advanced by it in order to which any thing is to be done or omitted But such men if there be any such in Authority should do well to consider the grave advice of Bishop Sanderson Serm. the first ad Magistratum The Private is not distinguished from the Publick but included in it and no man knoweth what Mischiefs unawares he prepareth for his private Estate in the end whilest thinking to provide well enough for himself he cherisheth in the mean time or suffereth Abuses in the Publick And Zenophon in his Margin gives the reason for with the Publick all the Wealth of private persons is either saved or lost so that the most Covetous Man if he were not short sighted and half witted would be the most careful to preserve what he so much valued even for his own sweet sake by preserving the Publick I know notwithstanding it is impossible to convince such men of their Duty or Interest the Advantage is present the Danger is remote and at a distance and he must make use of all opportunities to encrease his Wealth and let them that come after or other men take care to secure it I wish therefore our Superiours would now and then look over the Commissions of the Peace and if they find such men crept in fairly lay them by that they may have leisure to follow the Chase after the Eagle that makes her Wings and flyes away towards Heaven where few of these Thrifty Gentlemen ever come Irregular Heats and Hopes â—rregular Heats and Hopes are great hinderers of Justice as to the first it was well observed by Sir William Scroggs in his Speech to the Lord Chancellor in Michaelmas Term 1676. when he was admitted one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. As to the discharge of my duty betwixt Party it is impossible to be performed without these two Cardinal Virtues Temper and Cleanness of hands Temper comprehends Patience Humility and Candour It seems to me that saying Be quick to hear and slow to speak was made on purpose for a Judg no Direction can be apter and no Character becomes him better and he that would not be said to have but one Ear methinks should be ashamed to have none and I appeal to your Lordships Experience if a patient attention accompanied with indifferent parts and a competency in the Law with a mind fairly disposed for Information or Conviction will not as to use and common benefit exceed the profoundest Knowledge and most towering Understanding that is attended with an impetuous hast either out of a glory of speaking or too great a fulness of himself And for Humility tho I will not say that every impatient man is proud because that may arise from other Causes yet every proud man is impatient sometimes of Information alwayes of Contradiction and he must be violent to maintain his own Imperiousness Thus far that Great Man whose words I rather chose to transcribe than to express my own thoughts because I expect they will derive a great Authority from the Speaker and Place where they were spoken and to my understanding they are as fit and more necessary for a Justice of Peace than for a Judg. How ill does it become a Migistrate who is a Minister of God to the People for Good and should be a Terror not to the Good but Evil to become so to all that come near him through his Impatience and Fury sparing neither Equals nor Inferiours and very often flying in the Face of God Almighty by his Irreligious and Detestable Oaths and Imprecations which are no unusual effects of such passions God Almighty is said to be slow to Anger and of great Kindness and that he repenteth him of the Evil that is the Punishment we have deserved when he is just going to inflict it It becomes then his Ministers to be like their Master and to be so far from being incensed against the Innocent and those that have not offended them as to pity and treat fairly the most provoking and worst Malefactor The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God Jam. 1. 20. No how can it A man that is of that fiery temper is like the Furnace in Daniel not to be approached without danger if God doth not restrain his fury and he that is not able to use his own reason and govern himself will be less able to Govern others This is not said that a Magistrate should be like Esop's Block and suffer himself tamely to be trodden on no he ought to be a Terror to Evil Works for he beareth not the Sword in vain Rom. 13. 4. But then let men fear his Justice not his Passion his Rebukes and not his Taunts Irregular hopes are full as bad some men do ill things by way of pre-emption they will comply with a Brother Justice in any thing though it be never so unjust that he may do them the like favour at another time or that he may at least not retaliate them with a mischief thus they hope by Injustice to become more powerful with their Equals and more dreadful to their Inferiours than if they should always too stifly stand for Truth and Justice they have observed that Compliance makes friends and that inflexible honesty creates a man many Enemies and instead of trusting to the Providence of God for their Protection they lean to their own Wisdom but how unsafely the Event in the end will satisfie every man Some affect Popularity and they hope by being remiss and careless in their duty to acquire the love of the People and gain the Title of Moderate Men a good word
but of late much abused but then they are very often mistaken and if they be not what is Popular Praise but Words and they are nothing but Wind a cold Reward and as for their Love it is more fickle and unconstant than the Wind and less to be trusted to as they have found by sad experience in their distresses that have relied upon it and yet when all is done it is more often acquired by Justice and Truth than by a slavish Compliance and Flattery because they are naturally jealous of the extraordinary condescentions of their Superiors and look upon them as Designs The last hindrance of Justice I shall mention Lasiness is Lasiness or a dull Inactivity Men undertake the Publick Service without considering before-hand the difficulties that attend it and when they perceive it troublesome and laborious to go through with the Work and that they shall reap much ill Will Envy Reproach Hatred and Discontent for doing nothing but their Duties and no present Profit they sit down discouraged and like the weary Pilot commit the Boat to the Waves and the Winds and let her drive at Random Such men should consider that Perseverance to the end is that which God Crowns and that man is born to trouble as the Sparks fly upwards and that there is as many troubles at every mans heels as there is before him only if he goes on bravely and resolutely and conquer them that stand in his way the other shall never overtake him but if he yields he is sure to be crushed betwixt them and to be destroyed ingloriously and without pity Others look to nothing but the Credit Honour and Reputation they shall gain by it and if they can acquire the Title of Right Worshipful and have their Neighbours stand bare-headed to them they have their Designs Now this is such a pityful piece of Vanity and Folly that it were to be wished if there must be such that they might be as lazy as is possible that they may do the less mischief but then methinks the very fear of being thought such should rouse all that have but one Spark of true English Generosity and make them study their Duties diligently and then perform it industriously and thereby regain their Credits here and a more excellent Reward hereafter SECTION VII THe next thing requisite in a Justice of Peace is a competent knowledg of our Laws and Customes for by these he is to warrant his Proceedings and if in this part of my Discourse I happen to commit any Error I desire before-hand to bespeak the Readers Pardon for I never had the happiness and honour to be a Member of any of the Honourable Inns of Court My Reader then need not fear I will set him upon the Purchase or reading of all the Body of our Laws for tho it might be useful to a Justice of the Peace yet it is not of absolute necessity It is said of one of our States-men that his Learning was not great but useful and he did not know much but he practised what he knew diligently and this is an Excellent Character of a Justice of the Peace Much knowledg may puff a man up with a high Conceit of himself but when all is done Honesty and Industry are the Qualities that best befit a Magistrate The knowledg may be attained in a small time if a man will make it his business and there is three effectual means for it 1. Reading 2. Observation and Practice 3. Conversation and Discourse with Knowing and Experienced Men. Natural Sagacity and Reason may teach a Man many things but it is an ill thing to trust to it in point of Government the Commission of the Peace directs us to proceed Prout secundùm legem Consuetudinem Regni Nostri Angliae aut formam Ordinationum vel Statuorum Praedictorum fieri consuevit aut debuit that is as ought and hath been used to be done according to the Laws and Customes of England or the Form of the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid and these are not to be known without some Study and Reading so that he that hath an Aversion for Books will never make a knowing Justice of the Peace tho he may stand as a Cypher to make the number greater Nor will he Act with any certainty or security to himself his business being to apply the Laws and not to make new ones and at one time or other he will meet with them who will make him sensible of his ignorance to his Cost if he commit any great Error and without doubt he will be Guilty of many It is a shame for an English Gentleman to be ignorant of our Laws tho he live never so privately they are the best part of our Inheritance the effects of our Ancestors Prudence the Charters of our Freedoms not from Subjection but Misery and Slavery under it they are at the same times the Monuments of the Favours of our Princes and strong Obligations to love and serve them and as occasion require to spend our Bloods and Estates in their Service for our Kings have not treated us like Vassals or Slaves but like their Children laid no grievous Burthens on us but such reasonable and just Commands as we either chose by our Representatives in Parliament or ought to have chosen for our own goods But certainly they do ill deserve this happiness who will take no pains to understand it when they might so easily do it being freed by their Estates from a necessity of Bodily Labour and furnished with Money to buy Books and leisure to read them which is too usually spent in Luxury with greater Expence and sometimes with the Ruines of their Lives and Fortunes besides for want of it they are the more subject to be wheadled into ill Practices against the State and exposed to the Craft and Rapacity of Lawyers who teach them the value of this knowledg by the price they pay for it But then Justices of the Peace are not only obliged as they are English-men and Gentlemen to this Study but as they have promised upon Oath to be Executors of the Laws and it betrayes a great stupidity of Mind or Irreligion to swear to do equal right to the Poor and to the Rich after their Cunning Wit and Power and after the Laws and Customes of the Realm and Statutes thereof made as the Form of the Oath is and then never concern themselves to know what those Laws and Customes are and to mind the Statutes of England no more then they do the Edicts of France And that which renders the thing the more inexcusable is the great pains and care many Learned Men have taken to make Collections of those things that are most necessary for the Justice of the Peace so that no man can want a Tutor if he have but a Will to learn and they are written too with that Variety of Method that they will fit any mans humour who is not given up to sloath
and negligence I can never admire enough the Learning of Mr. William Lambard how nice and curious he is in his inquiries into the Origine of those Powers that are given to the Justice of the Peace and the reasons of them his Brevity and the Perspicuity of his Style which makes him very useful tho there have been great Additions of late made to that Office by new Statutes The diligence of Mr. Dalton is not less to be valued nor the Exact Method in which he hath digested so great a variety of things which are again made more valuable by the Additions made in the Late Impressions How Curious and Subtle is Sir Edward Cook in his readings upon the great Charter and other Statutes which are of great use to a Justice of Peace because they will give him hints and general Rules for the interpreting and understanding those Statutes he took no notice of and those too that have been made since his death What a Vast Variety of Reading and Learning hath he shewn in the Pleas of the Crown and yet he hath so couched and contracted it that the Volume is but small tho the worth is in estimable The Exactness of Mr. Poulton in his Book De pace Regis Regni is much to be admired where beginning at the root of all publick disorders the corrupt unquiet hearts of men he shews how they proceed from one degree to another till Menaces and Threatnings grow up at last into Rebellions and Treasons all along proving what he saith by Quotations of the best Law-Books The Conciseness of the Lord Hales in his Pleas of the Crown Sir Mat. Hales is not less to be admired then his Integrity and Prudence in so contracting them And Mr. Chamberlain's Complete Justice and Mr. Keebles Assistance c. want nothing but an industrious and grateful Age to make both the Books and Authors more highly valued and indeed they cannot be too much esteemed And as for the Statutes Mr. Keeble hath done the Nation a mighty piece of Service in his Exact Re-printing of them in an excellent Table of his own but there is in my poor judgment one thing still wanting and that is an Index or Table of the Statutes under those Heads or Titles which the Justices of the Peace have occasion to use them by which are different from the Lawyers common places so that there should be another Table on purpose for the Justices of the Peace which might be drawn in a Sheet of Paper the only Person that attempted this to my knowledg is one Mr. Wa. Young in a small piece stiled a Vade Mecum Printed at London in 1660. In the beginning of which is a Table containing about five Leaves which is of vast use for the speedy finding of any Statute that a Justice of Peace hath occasion to use but yet it is imperfect not only as to the New but Ancient Statutes There is another thing which I have wished for and that is an exact Collection of all those Cases which immediately concern the Justice of Peace in which their power or wayes of Proceedings are called in question out of the Year-Books and Reports recited in the same order of time as they are there at length without any abbreviations and only translating into English such as are in French which would be of great use Now if a man should attempt to read all these Books which I have mentioned which relate to the Office of the Justice of Peace the Statutes expected which are only to be consulted upon occasion it were no very grievous Task and yet he might learn his Duty thence without any other or very little help from Books But in the mean time it were to be wished that some men could be perswaded to read but one of the short ones first and then one of the larger pieces I mean Dalton or Keebles Assistance and then the short piece again to fix things in their Memory and if I were worthy to advise them it should be Mr. Chamberlain's for I take that to be the very best that ever was written As reading begins knowledg Observation and Practice so Observation and Practice fixes it he that reads without reflecting upon it at the time and noting diligently what may be useful to him afterwards loseth both his Labour and his time many men complain of a bad Memory when the fault is their own they read carelesly and take no pains to imprint any thing upon their Minds either then or afterwards and then it were a wonder if they should remember what they never considered nor understood but read on and on and think upon something else Others pretend they would read more if they had a good Memory this is a pretence only for Lasiness laying their own fault upon God and Nature for Memory is a Natural Faculty common to men with many other Creatures but on the other side if they would read more and note as they go they would certainly retain a part of it tho perhaps not so much as others do But then there is a third sort of men who pretend to have ill Memories who in truth never read at all these belye their Natural Faculties 't is true they remember little or nothing how should they the Memory is but like a Store-house in which if nothing is laid up nothing shall ever be found if what is good for nothing such as is laid in will come out and not be in the least amended there Observation doth something but Practice is the great sixer of Notions in the minds of men he that his a Natural Fool will yet by often going away learn it at last how much more men of Competent Natural Parts and such only are fit to Govern others and the truth is they that have the strongest Memories will yet in time lose their Notices of Things if they do not excite them by Meditations and Practice and that sort of knowledg I am speaking of which is not Natural but Artificial Reason and depends not for the most part upon the innate Principles but upon positive Institutions and agreed Methods is most easily lost so that I have ever observed the most industrious men are the most skillful and many men who read little but have been very much employed in business have by that learned more then others have done by Books only tho they had better parts so that a Man shall rarely find a Man excellently Versed in any Practical Knowledg that hath not fixed it as well by exercise of it as by Observation and Reading Observation and Practice fixes Conversation but it is Conversation and Discourse with Knowing and Experienced Men that extends Knowledg much reading dulls a Man but discourse at once revives what a man knows and encreaseth it by the Addition of anothers Observations too and dispells that Melancholy which attends retirement and solitude It confirms a man more in his Opinion when he finds another man
Way to enter into a Paper Book to be kept for that purpose first the Name of the Complainant and of the Party against whom the Complaint is brought and then the Complaint in as few words as is possible and then read them to the Complainant that if any Mistake hath been made in the Names or thing it may be rectified and then recite all this again in the Preface of the Warrant for I am utterly against all General Precepts except it be in some few Cases which seldom happen it being unreasonable to call a man to Answer to the knows not what when if the Case had been Expressed perhaps he could have produced Witnesses to have cleared his innocence and so have prevented further Charge and Trouble and Mr. Lambard gives another good reason for it viz. Because the King's Writs do always express the Cause of Complaint When the Warrant is once granted it is not fit to hold any further Discourse with the Complainant or afterwards till both Parties appear face to face to prevent Prejudice and Prepossession yet you shall have many such Complainants that will endeavour to get a Promise from the Justice of Peace beforehand that he will Determine the Case for their Advantage which is directly contrary to all Justice and Honesty Others are as earnest to have the Warrant retornable before the Justice that granted it and no others which should never be easily granted first because it includes in it a Tacit reproach of the rest as not Men of Ability or Honesty Secondly Because it defeats the intention of the Law which hath made them numerous that every man might have an impartial and and indifferent Judge and yet if there be good reason for it it may be done But then the Justice hath bound himself to be as kind to the other Party as he can possibly be because he hath deprived him of the favour he might have found from another Justice of the Peace When the Defendant appears read the Complaint to him and ask him what he saith to it and if he confess it then there will need no Proof if he deny it endeavour to find out the Truth as far as is possible without Oaths to avoid Perjury by cross Examining of all Parties and if the Truth can so be found out the pains is well spent but if it cannot Oaths must be given When the Matter of Fact is once stated then have recourse to the Statutes or Books as the Case requires and read them to the Parties that the Law may pass the Sentence for this instructs and satisfies all Parties and shews that you have done them no wrong and it is of great use too to the Justice of Peace and makes the Statutes and Books very familiar to him and gives him a good Assurance that he hath not done amiss Then Enter in the same Book the Appearance of the Parties the Evidence given and the Determination thereupon made as short as is possible and dismiss them Some may imagine that this Keeping of a Book is very troublesome but if they would try it they would find the contrary when the Art of making short Entries is once learned and yet if it were the Use would out-weigh the Labour For First It inables a Man to answer for his Actions many years after which were impossible without it Secondly It prevents forgetting his Business before it be ended which many do for want of it who bind Over men to the Sessions and forget the Business before they come and then can give no reason for it Thirdly It inables a Man sometimes to discover his own Errors by an after-reflexion on his own Actions and the Reasons of them Fourthly He may at any time shew what Sentence was pass'd in any Case by which I have seen new Quarrels that were arising prevented And if just upon a Sessions they be all read over he shall have a Prospect of all he hath done that Quarter which will be of great use I know many of these things are not of absolute Necessity but upon Trial I perswade my self they will appear so useful that no man will repent the Experiment especially no new Beginner who is concern'd to be more careful because he is more subject to Mistake The Statutes are so numerous and withal so variously Penned that it will be impossible to remember them exactly and so it will be necessary to Consult them frequently upon all Occasions and in order to the speedy finding them the Table I mentioned in the last Section will be of great use and the Justice who takes these Methods will find the Benefit of them so great in a small time that he will never leave them but the other and shorter ways are so uncertain and subject to Error that no man can avoid committing fatal Mistakes who follows them In this Part of our Business Two things are to be avoided Unnecessary Delays and Precipitated Hast There is very little difference betwixt denying and delaying Justice only the latter is less injurious for then the Party may go to another Justice or desist without much Expence of time which is of great value to Poor Men whereas the making them dance Attendance from time to time to no purpose may do them more Wrong than that of which the complain And an Over-hasty Determination of a thing before it be well understood is no less injurious and therefore carefully to be avoided I will Conclude this Section with a few Excellent Rules of the Lord Bacon's 1. Seek to make thy course Regular that Men may know beforehand what to Expect but be not Positive and Peremptory 2. Express thy self well when thou goest from thy Rule 3. Imbrace and invite Helps and Advices touching the Execution of thy Place and do not drive away such as bring thee Information as Medlers but accept of them in good part 4. Give easie access 2. Keep times appointed 3. Go through with that which is in hand 4. And interlace not Business but of Necessity I will only add this that what I have Written in this Section is intended only for the private Hearing in the Hall and no where else in the main and that it is offered to Consideration and not prescribed as of Necessity SECTION IX AS the Justice of Peace enters his Office with the taking Three several Oaths Of Oaths which are included in the Dedimus Potestatem viz. The Oath of Supremacy and of Allegiance and that belonging to his Office So he hath very frequent Occasions to Administer Oaths to others in the Execution of it and therefore it befits him to study well the Nature and Obligation of an Oath that he may Preserve himself and others as much as in him lyes from the Sin of Perjury It might therefore not seem impertinent to Discourse something of both of them in this place but that more Learned men than I have prevented me in it and it is impossible for Me to say any thing