Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	esq_n	john_n	william_n	22,982	5	10.7042	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92896	A narrative of the proceedings of the Committee for preservation of the Customes, in the case of Mr George Cony merchant. By Samuel Selvvood Gent.	Selwood, Samuel.; England and Wales. Committee for Preservation of the Customes.	1655 (1655)	Wing S2489; Thomason E844_4; ESTC R203533	21,721	43

forme and effect of the Acts and Ordinances in that behalfe made and provided as aforesaid and had assaulted abused and affronted the said Theophilus Colcoke and Richard Bartlet Deputies of the said Commissioners of the Customes in the execution of their place and office whilest they were searching as aforesaid in the day time for the said goods and merchandizes imported and carryed away by the said George Cony as aforesaid to the great prejudice of this Commonwealth and contrary to the Acts and Ordinances aforesaid and did adiudge the said George Cony guilty of the fraud force and misdemeanour wherewith he stood charged as aforesaid and thereupon this Committee did in the presence of the said George Cony adjudge and fine the said George Cony in the summe of five hundred pounds of lawfull mony of England for the offence aforesaid which said summe of five hundred pounds was sithence demanded of the said George Cony but he refused to pay the same This Committee therefore in pursuance of the power and authority to them given as aforesaid do order that the said George Cony be and stand committed to the custody of Edward Birkhead Esq Serjeant at Armes who is thereby required to receive the said George Cony into his custody accordingly there to remain untill the said George Cony shall pay the said five hundred pounds or be discharged by due course of Law Given under our hands and seales the eighth day of February 1654. To Edward Birkhead Esq Serjeant at Armes his Deputy or Deputyes John Stone William Roberts Gervas Bennet Adam Baines John Bocket but reason that his Highness Councell should have the view thereof before it were filed of Record a rule of Court was given that the Serjeant should make such return as he would peremptorily stand to the first day of the succeeding Term which was accordingly done and then moved and granted to be filed And the Plaintiffs Councell afterwards being to open the Exceptions they had thereunto found that the errours of the two former Warrants were amended by the last But withall they found some errour in this Warrant it self also upon which such legall exception might be taken as still without touching upon any question of the Authority they conceived the Plaintiffe ought to have been discharged Which errour was That whereas by his Highnesse's Ordinance of the 29 of December 1653 recited in the Returne the Committee therein named were to take cognizance of all Causes and persons which should be transmitted unto them by the Commissioners of the Customes in Custody of their Messenger who were thereby impowred to transmit accordingly It was recited in the said last Warrant that the Commissioners of the Customes did indeed transmit to the Committee the Person of George Cony in Custody of Thomas Lindsey then and yet their Messenger together with such examinations as were taken by the same Commissioners but it was not recited that they transmitted any Cause at all against the said Cony as by the said Ordinance they should have done before the Committee could take cognizance thereof And upon this exception they prayed Judgement of the Court. And a day being appointed for the Councell of his Highnesse to answer this Exception and the Return being that day read The Court were of opinion that by reason that the said Return was not directed as it ought to have been nothing lay before them upon which they could proceed to give Judgment So for the present the Plaintiffe was remanded into Custody of the Serjeant as before and upon the Plaintiffs motion afterwards viz the 23 of May a Pluries Habeas Corpus was awarded him returnable Crastino Ascentionis which was the 25 of May. After the teste of which Writ and before the actuall delivery of the Return into Court the Gentlemen of the Committee taking notice as it seems of the Exceptions that had now also been opened to this third Warrant upon which in probability he would come off make a fourth Warrant to the Serjeant at Armes for the continuing of M. Cony in Custody which they make to bear the same date with the former Warrant viz the Eighth of February last which was above three moneths before the Warrant it self was made And the former Return being judged no return at all because not rightly directed the Serjeant in the Return which he was now to make upon the Pluries certifies this fourth Warrant with the other three the said Warrant reciting that the Commissioners of the Customes did transmit as well the Cause as the Person and Examinations by this means mending the errour upon which the Exceptions to the former Warrant had before been opened and thereby shutting this dore also against the Plaintiffs escape which to what end it should be done other than as much as in them lay to cast a necessity upon the Plaintiffe unlesse he could subdue himselfe to a submission to their Arbitrary proceedings to except against the Authority of their Commission is not easily to be imagined And what the sad effects of so unseasonable a Question may be let the beam of the Ballance incline which way it will I am almost affraid to think if either the dutifull moderation of the Plaintiffe or the great wisdome of his Highnesse by a timely interposition doe not finde a way to quench those flames which their violent and irregular proceedings have already in some measure kindled I will not be so uncharitable as to charge the Gentlemen with any direct designe against the Common-wealth or the peaceable settlement of the Publick affaires because I believe them to be as farre as well-meaning goes men of better integrity but give me leave to tell them at how remote a distance soever from the spheare of their greatnesse they may look upon me That the rigorous bent they have stood in ever since the beginning of this businesse not to suffer Master Cony to obtain his liberty when both in honour and prudence they might by any other way but that of absolute submission to their Arbitrary proceedings involving therein the Liberty of the whole Common-wealth although peradventure it may not be the weapon it self yet it hath at least furnished an handfull to that weapon with which unquiet and distempered spirits doe endeavour to wound the Publick peace And let it not here be enviously layed to my charge by any that hereby I doe in some measure presumptuously tax the wisdome of his Highnesse in his election of Publick Ministers for though I look upon his Highness as a Gentleman of as great discerning and parts as any Prince now living yet I remember still that he is but a man And in so troublesome and uncertain a condition of affaires being to set up a building hastily that the Common-wealth might not alwaies lie in the field and having been for the most part of these times more in action than peradventure in observation of persons it is no wonder if he should be mistaken in the skill of some his workmen especially in an Age when so many pretenders to supernaturall aides and endowments rather than true professours of experience doe thrust in their voluntary and unskilfull hands unto the work But however I trust it will be one step made towards the cure of this distemper now we have discovered the cause and fountain of the disease For let the discontented of whatever Interest or Faction know that the bringing of this Writ of Habeas Corpus by Master Cony was not advised upon any such designe as peradventure they have imagined whereby to strengthen their hopes of New troubles to arise in the waters whereof they mean to fish for themselves but was the naked effect of mistaken zeal to his Highnesse's service on the one side and of a just desire of enlargement on the other side And therefore I shall advise them to return into themselves with peaceable resolutions laying aside the vanity of their new-raised expectations there being no great likelihood for new work upon this occasion to be made for the Hangman I have but one word more which I desire may not detain any other Reader than the Gentlemen themselves whom this Narrative hath concerned who peradventure to disarm the truth may attribute my publishing hereof to private animosity sprung from the sense of some unrighteous measure I have received in my own particular Case from some of them when they were Members of the late Committee for Inspecting of Treasuries But in answer if not in satisfaction I shall pray them to be assured that as I doe own the extraction and education of a Gentleman how much soever their injustice hath outwardly devested me so through the grace and mercy of GOD I am called to be a Christian And therefore have at once both the Courage to call it Injustice and the Charity to forgive it FINIS