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
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
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
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
Means to prevent it Memory is a Natural Faculty of Great Use in all Humane Transactions but Especially in Government and that in the Lowest degrees of it For it is the duty of a Magistrate to Execute Laws not to make them and he is to have an Eye to the matter of Fact at the same time too now he that hath such a defect in that Faculty that he can neither remember the Law which is to Direct him nor the matter of Fact to which it is to be applied is certainly very unfit to be a judge and so in Proportion in all the intermediate degrees of it The Office of a Justice of the Peace is very diffused and comprehends in it a vast Number and Variety of things and it will consequently require a good Memory to tell presently whether any particular case be within his Jurisdiction or No. Mr. Lambard complained in his time and that is near a hundred years ago that there were Stacks of Statutes imposed upon them to take care of and the Number is now perhaps double to what it was then So that in this respect also it is Necessary that he who Undertakes this Office should be a Man of a good strong Memory If any man doubts the truth of this he will find upon trial that no humane Memory how great soever it be can perfectly comprehend all the particulars Exactly and that it will be Necessary to have frequent recourse to the Books Especially in Statute Cases without which many and great Errors must of Necessity be committed so that the Prudence of a Magistrate doth consist in a great degree in not Trusting too much to his Memory But then that shews a Necessity of having that useful Faculty to a good degree SECTION III. THere are three other Accidental qualifications which are of great use and would be considered A Competent Estate a good Reputation and a tolerable good Education and Learning The Justice of the Peace enters upon an imployment that will occasion him much loss of Time some Expence and many Enemies and after all will afford him little or nothing towards the bearing these inconveniences but a little unprofitable Honour attended with much envy and had therefore need before-hand be provided of a competent Estate at least to support him in that imployment or else he will suddainly repent what he indiscreetly undertook and it may be intail the Mischief upon his Family who will remember his honour with small complacency when they reflect upon his debts occasioned by it Nor will he and his Family be the only Sufferers the Country will and must bear a part in it too Men of small Estates are very often of Mean spirits and dare not do their Duties where they Expect opposition and have great and rich men to deal with and so betray Justice not for want of Skill or Honesty but of Courage to undertake and go thro with it Besides their Poverty will Expose them to great Temptations of Bribery and tho the profit that can come by it is very inconsiderable yet the mischief that will attend it is not so for the perverting Justice in the smallest instance is a great Dishonour and Damage to a Country and the meaner the cause the greater the infamy the Meaner the People are that are injured the greater the Clamour But of all men those that are much indebted are the least fit for that both the Creditor and his Friends must too often be gratified by the wretched man at the Expence of his Oath his Integrity his Honour and his Justice and all occasions must be sought for this too that the World may see how great a power the Rich Clown hath upon his Worship For these causes there was an Act of Parliament made some Ages since which is as followeth WHereas by Statutes made in the time of the Kings noble Progenitors it was Ordained That in every County of England Justices should be assigned of the most Worthy of the same Counties to keep the Peace and to do other things as in the same Statutes fully is Contained Which Statutes notwithstanding now of late in many Counties of England the greatest Number have beén Deputed and Assigned which before this were not wont to be whereof some be of small that is ill Behaviour by whom the People will not be governed nor ruled and some for their Necessity do great Extortion and Oppression upon the People whereof great inconveniences be likely to rise daily if the King thereof do not provide remedy The King willing against such inconveniences to provide remedy hath Ordained and Established by Authority aforesaid That no Justice of Peace within the Realm of England in any County shall be assigned or deputed if he have not Lands or Tenements to the Value of 20 l. by the year and if any be Ordained hereafter c. which have not Lands or Tenements to the Value aforesaid that he thereof shall give Knowledg to the Chancellor of England for the time being which shall put another sufficient in his place and if he give not the same knowledg as before within a Moneth after that he have notice of such Commission or if he sit or make any Warrant or Precept by force of such Commission he shall incur the penalty of 20 l. and nevertheless be put out of the Commission as before c. But this Act Extends not to Corporations and also Provided That if there be not sufficient persons having Lands and Tenements to the Value aforesaid Learned in the Law and of Good Governance within any such County That the Lord Chancellor of England for the time being shall have power to put other discreét Persons Learned in the Law in such Commissions tho they have not Lands or Tenements to the value aforesaid by his discretion The 18 H. 6. cap. 11. I have transcribed this Statute almost at large because it makes so lively a description of the inconveniences and takes so exact a care to prevent them and it is to be observed That xx l. by the Year at the making of this Statute was a Knights fee and that they would trust to Nothing but an Apparent Visible Estate for it must be in Lands or Tenements and yet was there not then the Hundredth part of that business committed to Justices then there is now and their Expences that were consequently much less and tho in case of Necessity some Lawyers of a less Estate were Admitted yet this was out of pure Necessity in those ignorant Times and then they were to be men of Good Governance that is of a Good Reputation for their Lives and Integrity and such men in those time might by their Professions be able to spend with men of good Estates But two inconveniences have arisen in our Times that were not in being then The first is That Men of great Estate do too commonly leave the Country and spend their times and Estates in London and other great Cities in perfect
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
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
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
a City besieged without and divided within we must sooner or later fall a Prey to our Enemies without Remedy or Pity But if these great men were capable of Reason there would be no need of this and as they are not it is in vain to offer it and therefore I must Address my next request to the Judges and Ministers of State that they would sometimes enquire in to this and without regard to the Fortunes or Titles of men support and incourage the more useful if occasion so require against the more Potent I hope there will not be many occasions for this but there may for what followeth and therefore I will propose it in the words of the present Lord-Keeper in his Speech to Mr. Serjeant Sanders at the the time he was sworn Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench on Tuesday the 23d of January 1682. Pag. 8 9. The Age is degenerate and full of Faults Faults of Irreligion Morality Debauchery Quarrelling Falseness and Faction so full of Faults that it requires more then a man to censure them You will therefore consider that inferi our Magistrates and inferiour Jurisdictions are to take a great part of this labour off your hands in that regard you will upon all Occasions encourage and direct them to make them useful to you and not overthrow their Proceedings upon every slight Exception to drive People to begin their Process here at greater charge And when Justices of the Peace act candidly tho not with so much skill in the Law you will shew tenderness to them as Gentlemen that serve the King and the Publick for nothing and have not those Assistances of Council and Officers that are here It were it may be but reasonable that this tenderness should not only be shewed to their Proceedings but also to their Persons and Estates especially those of the meaner sort that so men may be the more easily indused to undertake the Publick Service as for instance in an easie excusing their Attendance at the Assizes when they have no particular business that doth require their presence there For seeing other Gentlemen of the like fortune who are not Justices of the Peace do seldom happen to be summoned above once in two years it seems a little hard to force these to come twice in one year merely to fill the Bench with unprofitable Spectators at so great a Charge to them tho I know also that much may be learned by such an Attendance and there is no fear but as many as can will take the opportunity of it but this being but my private opinion is submitted intirely to the Judgment of my Superiours and had not been mentioned but because the reason my Lord Chancellour gives seems to extend to it The Lord Chancellor Clarendon complains in the Letter I have so often mentioned That many persons who are in the Commission of the Peace neglect to be sworn And tells us His Majesty had given Order to his Attorney-General to proceed against them This hath been often since complained of by the Judges of Assice in their Circuits also but till the root of this mischief be cut it will never be otherwise as these things now stand no man that is in the Commission of the Peace can have this Dedimus Potestatem without he pay about four Pounds for it and it being an employment which can bring him nothing but expence and trouble it is no great wonder that men are not very willing to part with their Money for it and so many having stood a year or two and the Officers at last despairing to get any thing of them are either left out gratis or for a small matter So they that serve the King for nothing pay for it and the rest scape better cheap and on these Terms it is no wonder if there be frequent occasions for Complaints But this is not all worthy and good men who are fit to serve the King do thus avoid the service they that are no way qualified for it being more willing to part with their Money get into the imployment which they manage accordingly To prevent all which inconveniencies it were much more for his Majesties Service that the Dedimus Potestatem were freely sent down and the Officers rewarded for it out of the Exchequer But if this be not approved it were better the Money were paid by the Treasurer of the Division to which such new made Justices belongs and indeed seeing the Country will reap the greatest advantage by it it is most reasonable they should pay the Charge of the Enterance which may be done by a short Act of Parliament It would not be reasonable only to make the Enterance into this Honourable and Troublesome Imployment more easie but the execution too And to that purpose I will presume to offer a few more Considerations to my Superiours In many Cases there are so many and various Acts of Parliament that a man knows not which to proceed upon and they are sometimes contrary one to another Now if these were reduced into one and all the rest repealed it would much facilitate the execution of the Commission of the Peace For instance there are a great many several Acts of Parliament concerning the repair of the High-ways and they all are difficult to be executed in relation to the chief thing the Provision of Carriages that depending upon the determination of a Plough-Tilth which no body knows what it is and yet if it were never so well known that would not mend the matter much because considerable quantities of Land would never be brought into this so necessary Work what quantity soever were assigned to it and many rich men would do little or nothing and leave the burthen upon the poorer sort of men There have been two or three Temporary Acts of Parliament made since his Majesties Restauration 14 cap. 6. 22 cap. 12. to enable the Surveyers to repair the Ways by a Rate or Land-Tax but they are all expired Now if this course were settled forever for the Carriages and only the Cottagers tied to do so many days work all the other Acts of Parliament might be spared But it would not be amiss then to give the Justices of the Peace power to determine what should be paid by the Load for Sand Gravel and other materials taken out of private mens grounds or the wasts of other Mannors where there is a want within the respective Parishes without obliging them to fill up the places which is sometimes impossible for want of matter and always very chargeable The Statutes which concern the settlement and Provision for the Poor need a review too and some alteration and when this is done I recommend it to the consideration of wise men whether it would not be adviseable to give Power to the Grand-Juries and Justices of the Peace Assembled in their Assizes to make By-Laws with the Consent of the Judges and to repeal alter or change them as occasion
Cause And 3. In determining it Not denying or delaying or Perverting Justice Not Extending or Diminishing his Jurisdiction Not Proceeding upon his Own Opinion or Humour without Good Warrant 9. Abhorrence of Perjury In himself by considering carefully the Oaths which he hath taken In others to be Avoided by his care to Administer none but Lawful and Necessary Oaths 2. To give good Admonitions and sharp Reproof in cause of failure THE Justice of Peace HIS CALLING A Moral Essay AS all the Works of God are perfect The Introduction so are they full of Variety and Wonder whether we Consider the Works of his Hands the Fabrick of the World and all the Beings in it or the Works of his Providence in the Government and Conduct of them at once preserving what he has made and so disposing them as to produce those Effects for which they were Created without their Knowledg and sometimes against their Wills But tho this is true of all the Creatures yet it is most apparent and full of Wonder when it is applyed to the Government of Mankind for all the other Creatures do pay a blind and unerring obedience to the Laws of their Creation and do never transgress willingly but Man being endued with discursive Faculties and Corrupted by the Fall doth very often act against what he knows to be his Duty and as often mistake it But then if we consider the Mass of Mankind we shall find that there is nothing in the whole World more Uncertain and Unconstant than Men changing like the wind very often to the quite opposite Points of the Compass without any Reasonable and sometimes without any Sensible Cause Yet in this they seldom vary that they are almost always unwilling to obey envious against their Supâ—riours jealous of their Conduct and discontented with almost all Events they all think themselves wise and good enough to Command and because this is impossible affect a dispensation from all Obedience which they miscall Liberty And which is yet worse there never was nor ever will be wanting a Sort of Ambitious ill-natured men to instill into the heads of the Rabble a greater Aversion for their Governors and their Government be it never so Easy Gentle and Just and a love for a Liberty which they promise â—â—em will Ensue upon the ruine of the â—â—rmer by which Means this Natural ill â—â—clination to Licentiousness is yet more â—â—flamed and inraged So that a man may wonder to see so â—any Hundred Thousands Obey one â—ingle Man whom they never saw and â—â—om whom they Expect no Extraordinary â—â—vour and as Seldom meet with it And if at any time their own natural â—â—clinations and the Cursed insinuations â—f their Tempters so far prevail as to tranâ—â—ort them into Tumults and War and â—â—ey prevail in that too so far as to destroy â—oth them and their Government yet then â—hey Constantly and Unavoidably fall â—nder some other Power as bad if not â—orse than the former and so do but toss â—hemselves from one supposed misery to â—â—other For since the Creation of the World was 〈◊〉 never known that any Number of men â—ived long without some Government or â—ther nor can the Multitude subsist withâ—ut it any more than the Individuals can â—ithout breath Some inquiring into the Cause of this â—ave ascribed it to Fate and the Influence 〈◊〉 the Stars and others to the Nature of â—ankind But I cannot conceive it proceeds from any of these Causes for taking Fate as it ought properly for a blind and Natural determination of things to their Events it cannot be supposed that there should be such an inclination to perfect and uncoâ—troulable Liberty in Man without any possibility of having it satisfied And as to the Stars their Influences and Aspects vary every moment and are different in one Country from what they are in Others But this inclination runs thro all Mankind tho it is sometimes restrained by External Accidents and is like the Seaever disposed to Motion tho sometimes quiet because no Winds Excite it And as to any Natural Inclination in Mankind to be governed and Acquiesce in the Wisdom of Others it is so contrary to the former of Living in perfect Liberty that they two are inconsistent and cannot stand together And therefore I have ever thought the reason lay higher and that it Must proceed from some Decree of God Almighty which is irresistable and uncontroulablâ— and that he in his Divine Providence hath set Bounds to this raging Sea saying to it Hither shalt thou come and no further For if it were otherwise those strange Revolutions that have hapned in the World would Certainly have left us some instances of a People that had attained and continued in a state of Natural freedom for some time without any Government or Governors For to speak the truth that is the thing they all seek On the other side were there not such an Inclination in Mankind why should they so restlessly pursue that airy Notion and for it venture the loss of Life and Limbs And what is the Multitude concern'd whether one or twenty or ten thousand command them to do what they would not or to suffer what they hate above all things But God is a cause strong enough to Over-rule this Ocean always the same ever Watching over the affairs of Mankind and making things fall insensibly and irresistibly into the Order he wills they should be in Accordingly he laid the foundations of humane Society in a Single Person and Made all the rest to spring from him like a Fountain and enured them from their infancy to obedience and made them sensible of the use and benefit of Government before they could consider what it was And as no Government was ever destroyed without force so that force like the Ashes of the Phenix being warmed by the Sun of the Divine Favour hath ever produced another to succeed it and left the Multitude repining and discontented at those Chains it never could nor ever shall break till Time shall be no more SECTION I. IT is no less a Wonder to see how God in every Age and Nation hath raised up Men to Govern and indued them with such a proportion of Abilities as fitted them more or less for that employment Man is not Naturally his Brothers Keeper and great is the number always of them who are perfectly unconcern'd for the Publick Prosperity or Misfortune of their own Times or Countries till they find the danger approach their own houses or persons and then for the most part 't is too late to prevent it And those few that are otherwise minded do as often mistake or but pretend the Publick Good and yet after all this there is very seldom Wanting a Sufficient Number so qualified as to Keep the Several Parts of the World in some tolerable order And the Wonder is the greater if we consider how often these men meet no other recompence than Death and Ruine from their Superiors or
Inferiors Domestick or Foraign Enemies and altho some few of the happiest attain to such Fortunes as may in some degree Compensate the Hazard yet the far greatest part seldom gain any thing by it but disquiet envy poverty and an uncertain fame and after all lie Exposed to more dangers than those they govern This then must be another Effect of the Divine Providence that as God raises them up and endows them with qualifications fit for Government so he inspires them with inclinations to go thro with it and Keeps them in that disposition till others are fit to succeed them in all things directing and supporting them so far as he thinks fit sometimes to make a People Happy and sometimes Miserable as his Justice or his Mercy is deserved by them My Design is to discourse of onely one sort of Governours and that one of the Lowest the Justices of the Peace and to describe as well as I can what they should be for that having had the honour to serve my Country many years in that Station I have had opportunity to Observe some things in my self and others that are Capable of Amendment and all my reflections will produce some good Effect or other upon my Self at least and Whilest I describe what they should be I shall have often occasions to Consider the more Seriously what I have been from whence by the Assistance of God's holy Spirit which I humbly and devoutly ask I may encrease my repentance for what is Amiss my gratitude for what is not and others may perhaps be Excited to joyn with me and so some reformation may follow which never any Times needed more than Ours SECTION II. OF those Qualifications which I have mentioned some are Natural others are Acquired but both are the gift of God Tho the first are more immediately so and because they are the Foundations of the other do naturally sort themselves in the first Rank and so fall first Under our Consideration and because I design to be as short as I can I shall mention only three Apprehension Judgment and Memory Tho God hath given more Apprehension to the slowest of Mankind than to the subtillest of the Brutes yet they that are to Govern others had need have a more then ordinary Quickness and Vivacity It being the design of almost all that Approach them to delude and deceive them and rather to extort than obtain a savorable Sentence by Just proof and truth and they have generally that jealous opinion of their Governours as to Expect to go by the loss if they have nothing to trust to but their innocence and plain down-right truth And from hence proceed those Crafty insinuations of the ill tempers or actions of those they Complain of in other instances which are no part of the Complaint but only artificial flourishes to beget an ill opinion of their Adversaries that they may assure the Victory before-hand Others again are so little Masters of Language and do so seldom appear before their Superiors that a man of ordinary Capacity can scarce tell what it is they would have and yet it may be the Complaint is just and reasonable and the infirmity of these is as much to be pitied as the craft and subtilty of the Other is to be discountenanced and reproved And when both the Parties appear and the business is ripened for a Conclusion the same difficulties attend it the Crafty Knave is for avoiding the Punishment of his Crimes and the innocent simple Country man is as apt to betray his Cause by his well-Meaning simplicity if the quickness and integrity of the Justice do not prevent it In greater Cases and higher Courts things are first ripened by their Officers and then debated by Council before they speak their judgments and so how unequal soever the abilities of the Parties are the Case appears with equal art on either side and yet after all this the Briskness and Apprehension of those Judges is of great use to discern Truth from Falsehood and Appearances from Realities But in this case there is nothing of that nature to be Expected neither can the persons nor will the Cases bear it and therefore a Justice of the Peace stands absolutely in need of a Competent quickness of Apprehension without which he will be liable to make great mistakes form which great dishonour and damage will ensue But here it will not be amiss to give some men a Caution whose defects lie on the other side and for want of Patience to hear a Matter Out Catch at it too soon and think they understand before they hear whose fault is greater and more incurable then the other and causes more injustice and oppression for these quick men run away with a shadow and will rarely be perswaded they are under a mistake and are for the most part a little insolent and impatient of Contradiction how softly soever it be Cloathed and these men are perhaps more unfit for Government then the former The Apprehension is the door by which all things are Admitted but the Judgment is the house that receives and entertains them And whatever the difficulty of Apprehending the Case is tho it may be a hindrance of dispatch it is rarely of Justice too if the Judgment do at last attain to the discovery of the truth But there is more required in a Magistrate than a bare understanding of the thing which is but in Order to a determination of it and therefore is not so considerable in its self as in its Consequences and Effects There are three defects which seem to attend the Judgment Darkness or Obscurity Confusion or Disorder and Weakness which proceeds from both Some men are of so Cloudy Judgments that they do with great difficulty if ever hit upon the truth of things Especially if it be Studiously disguised and Misrepresented as for the most part is in reason to be Expected here and tho these are not to be despised for this Natural defect but rather to be pittied and Assisted yet it renders them unfit for Government The Reason of Others is so confused that they do with as great difficulty attain a Clear and distinct Notion of any thing and as their judgment so their discourse is dark and Uncertain and they can as little be understood by others as they understand them themselves and this must needs render all business that is transacted by them uncertain and full of Hazard The last and Worst Defect is Imbecility and Weakness which if it be great is incurable the Cloudy Understanding may at last the Confused sometimes Understand and hit the Mark but neither Time nor Chance can cure that natural Imbecility which proceeds from them both and therefore they of all men are not fit for Government and should never seek it or imbrace it if it be offered to them and it is great pity they should be suffered to Expose themselves and their Places to Scorn and Contempt by them that have Power and
Idleness and Luxury The Other is That the Old English Industry is almost totally Extinguished and they that Live in the Country will not take that pains their Ancestors did either for themselves or their Country It is not at all likely that these two inconveniences will meet a Suddain or Certain Cure and therefore it were to be wished that men of Smaller Estates and greater Industry might be encouraged by some Honest and Convenient Privileges and Advantages to bear this burthen for the good of their Country without too much dammage to their own Families 2. After the Advantage of Wealth I place that of Reputation because as the World goes it will not be easily had without the Other And in this Case it is of great Use to the Justice of Peace and to the Government if he have a good Esteem amongst his Neighbours at his first setting out and he ought to be always Careful of it in all his Proceedings afterwards part of this may descend upon a man and part may be gained by himself with Gods blessing As the common People of England have always Lived under a Monarchy so they have been governed under their Prince by a Potent Nobility and a Flourishing Gentry and will certainly Envy and Repine at men of no descent when they come to be set over them but then if they be men of good Estates and Great Civility and Vertue this will soon wear off provided it be not kept up by the more Antient Gentry which seldom happens if they be not Slighted to prefer these New men But that infamy which springs from ill Actions is hardly ever to be worn out because every man that suffers tho never so justly by such a person will be sure to revive the memory of it so that it shall never be forgotten Besides men harden themselves against all Correction and look not so much upon their own deserts as the faults of their Governours and Consequently become worse for their Chastisement till at Last their Anger turn to Malice and that too is Advanced very frequently to a Contempt of the Supream Governour and ends in Tumults and Rebellion Anarchy and Confusion But let a man's Esteem be what it will when he sets out he must be as careful to preserve it by his Virtue to which Candor and Sincerity Temperance and Chastity and all those other Moral Qualifications which make a good man are of absolute Necessity and that not onely in relation to himself but to those he is to govern For he is sure none of his Vices shall be conceal'd all men will be prying into his most secret Retirements and will be as Curious to enform themselves of the smallest of his faults as they are negligent of the greatest they are guilty of themselves And this is not all they will from thence derive arguments to perswade themselves they may with impunity and safety transcribe the Copy and imitate those Vices they see in their Superiors and take it very ill if they find themselves at any time mistaken and if the truth might be spoken without offence I should ascribe much of the deluge of Impiety Debauchery Intemperance and other Disorders of Our Times to this as to its proper cause For how can a Justice of Peace send a man to the Stocks for Drunkenness when he is hardly well recovered of his last Debauch or punish a man for Prophane Swearing with forty Oaths in his mouth I could easily run this thro all the rest if it were fit to do it This too renders our Gentry Contemptible for the inferior people will ever Envy the splendor of their Wealth if they do not seem to deserve it by their Prudence and Virtue And this too weakens our Government by abating that Honour which is absolutely necessary for its preservation and gives too often the hearts and affections of men to those that have no right to them and who imploy that Advantage to the ruine of those that have In short if we are not resolved to ruine our Selves and our Families for ever and to become the most miserable and infamous of all men we must forthwith retrive the Antient English Bravery and win the hearts of the People by Justice Chastity Temperance Courage and Loyalty to a due Esteem of us And to this let us add a solid and conspicuous Piety which may shine forth in our Lives and Conversations with that Luster that none may be able to doubt or dispute the truth of it and this and nothing else will entail that Glory our Ancestors left us upon our Posterity and preserve the Monarchy that gave it to us from a Second ruine they that honour God shall be honoured and they that dishonour him shall be lightly regarded But however let all that are set up for Magistrates as Lights upon a hill be sure to set a good Example and if not for the sake of Virtue yet out of pure fear of Infamy avoid all those Vices which render them and their Offices Contemptible 3. It is not only fit the Justice of the Peace should be a man of a Competent Estate and a Good Reputation but of Learning and a Good Education too By Learning I do not understand the Utmost degree of it nor all those Parts neither that may be of great use to men of other Imployments but such a degree of Learning as may fit a Man for Civil Conversation and the dispatch of business and especially such Knowledg in the Laws and Customs of England as may preserve him from great and frequent Mistakes The Age we live in is full of Learning and the great Plenty of Books that come every day into the World have fallen so thick in all places that they have not escaped the Soft Hands of Ladies nor the Hard fists of Mechanicks and Trades-men and every man affects to seem well read in Books tho he hath not had the happiness to converse much with men and therefore if a Justice of Peace be not indifferently well qualified in this Point he will sometimes discover it and that will if it have no worse effect betray him to the Contempt of those who ought to honour and respect him for his Place But if he be ignorant of the Laws and Customs of England in that vast variety of business that belongs to him he will never be able to go thro with it but with great fear or hazard of Mistaking And being as subject to the force of the Laws as other men he will sometime or other meet with those who will revenge his Mistakes with worse then bad language and seek a reparation out of his Estate for the Errors of his Office No man is born a Scholar and therefore what ever Learning a Man hath must spring from Education and together with it for the most part Civility and good Behaviour is or ought to be delivered which takes off that Natural Roughness and Asperity which makes men unfitting to converse with others much
more to govern them and they that have not had the happiness to meet or imbrace this should do well not to Expose their unpolished Humours and Manners to the Contempt of others who yet may be very useful men in other Places SECTION IV. I Have hitherto considered the Justice of Peace no further than as a Man and a Gentleman But Blessed be God for it England is a Christian Country and one of the best Parts of the Catholique Church too and therefore not only the Natural and Civil Capacities and Qualifications of Men are to be considered when Magistrates are to be chosen but their Religions too and most Especially By this I do not mean in this place whether they are Protestants or Papists Phanaticks or men who love the Church tho I shall Consider of this in due time but whether they be good Christians For many men account it an honour to them and a piece of good breeding to Express no more reverence for God and Religion than they do for a forsaken Mistress to whom they pretend to have made Love only out of Ignorance in their Youth for want of understanding better things I do not intend neither in this place to make an Exact Description of the several parts of Devotion and Religion but I only consider those parts of it which fit a man for Government which I humbly Conceive are these 1. A Due Veneration of God 2. A Love for his Service in himself and others 3. A Good Esteem for his Ministers 4. An Earnest desire of the Salvation of all under his Care and Charge As God is the Fountain of all Power and the Author of all Government So he is the Supream Governour and Preserver of it and by his Providence disposes the hearts of Men as he thinks fit and in his Justice and Mercy makes Retribution to them according to their Deserts but especially his Eyes are ever upon Princes and Magistrates to Reward them if they do well to Punish them if they do amiss and abuse the Power which he hath given them for the good of Men and his own Glory And those men that have this Sense of him deeply imprinted in their hearts will ever have a great Veneration for him and as occasion serve express it by due consideration that not only their Actions which are visible to men but the most secret Motives of them that lie out of the reach of their Eyes are open to God Almighty Those who Thus Reverence God shall be sure to have his Providence watching always over them to protect them in all dangers and direct them in all difficulties And he will by it strike that aw and fear of them into the hearts of the People that shall keep them in better Obedience than all the force in the World will do without it and this will render their Government Easy and their Actions Prosperous But on the Other side how can any man have the impudence to expect either Protection or Assistance from God when he knows at the same time that he hath not any respect in his heart for him Nor in truth do this sort of men do it but trust wholly to their own Wit and Power which always in the End deceives them and leaves them to the Scorn and Contempt of the World God in his Justice making this frequently the Punishment of their Impiety against him All men that have any Sense know it so necessary that the People should have some Religion and a great Opinion that their Governours are Pious and that without it there will be no possibility of Governing them that they who have expressed no inward Veneration for it have owned a belief that it was a Crafty Invention Juggled up betwixt the Priests and the Princes of the World to Keep the Multitude in aw which tho it is false yet it shews at the same time that these men are of opinion that it would be difficult if not impossible to keep the People in a due Subjection without it And Machiavel would not have his Lewd Prince without the opinion of Piety however wicked he really was Now if this base Hypocrisie be of so great use in Government which is destitute of the blessing of God and liable to be looked thro Every moment of what Use must solid sober Piety be which will shine forth in all that a man doth or speaketh and procure at once the Love and Favour of God and Man 2. This Reverence of God is to be expressed by a great and constant Care to Serve and Worship him both Publickly in the Church and Family and Privately in the Closet for God is so great a Being that Nothing we can do but this is of any use to him he stands in no need of us nor of our Service any further then as it tends to our own good here and hereafter and therefore it is ridiculous to pretend to believe there is a God and live Wickedly without any regard to his Service nay prate Foolishly and Atheistically in all Companies as some do But the Justice of Peace of all men is to be most religiously Careful to perform his Duty because the Eyes of all are upon him and they will be sure to follow his Example if ill and the Inconvenience will not end there neither they will within a While revenge all their Piques against him which will be many with Stories of his Impiety and Negligence and from thence argue That he is a man of no Religion the Consequence of which is That he is not Master of any honour or honesty and so this dishonour will at last fall upon himself and end in contempt Nor doth his Care like that of Private men end in his Family tho it were well if some extended it but so far but he must take care that all under his Jurisdiction do it For so much is England degenerated from its Ancient Devotion by reason of the Divisions amongst us that without this not onely the Conventicle but the Ale-house will be better furnished than the Church if Care be not taken by them that are in Authority to Prevent it by a Severe Search and Punishment of these Miscreants Nay to that height of Impiety are we grown that if We trust to the Oaths of them that are to inform us even Perjury shall be imploy'd to delude us and the Law a strange Religion this is in the mean time to make use of the Worst of Crimes to protect them who pretend to be the Children of God from Temporal Punishment and with them and for their sakes all that will run into Debauchery But so it is and nothing but the Care of the Magistrate can prevent it and if he be not diligent to do his duty herein he must answer it to God and Man It is not many Years since a War raised by these Religious men on that pretence destroyed our King and brought our Gentry into the basest Slavery that ever fell upon them
they may if they please believe this shall never happen again but if it doth they can thank no body but themselves and I am sure they can neither expect reasonably any Assistance from God nor Pity from Men if it should be otherwise because they might have prevented it if they would 3. That men that have no regard for God and his Service should shew no Esteem for the Priest is no great wonder the Consequence is unavoidable And as this proceeded at first from the Other So it may be a good Means to Cure the distemper to teach the People not only to Honour God and his Sanctuary but to Reverence his Priests and here the Magistrate may Contribute very much by his Example and Authority But then this Reverence is not due to all who call themselves Ministers there are too many that are crept in amongst us who are the Ministers of Satan Sowers of Sedition and Upholders of Schism the less the Magistrate reverences them the better it will be for him But there is one Sort of Kindness too commonly shewn to Clergy-men that I wish they would lay aside and that is their Inviting them to their Drinking-Meetings and almost forcing them when there to pledge all the Healths and go to the Bottom of the Glass too at every Round I cannot imagine where the Pleasure of this lies the Wine would be as easy the Company might be as brisk and the Frolick as pleasing if the Chaplain and Neighbour-Minister were Visiting the Sick or Studying to improve himself Nor can I think they pretend to please God Almighty by it whilest they render his Service contemptible and the Priesthood odious and infamous For my part I cannot believe this can proceed from any other than the Devil because it serves no bodies turn but his and the Enemies of Our Church and I have ever observed the Atheist and irreligious to be most guilty of it The best honour that can be shewn to a Clergy-man is to remember he is more immediately related to God and out of a due respect to his Character to curb those little irregularities which at another time a man might fall into and indeed nothing is more contrary to Virtue and Sobriety than the Attempting to Debauch them whose Presence should restrain us from Excesses and no Vice exposeth them more then Insobriety to the Contempt of the Rabble and other lewd Men and certainly God will accordingly severely reckon with those who thus dishonour him in his Ministers and beyond all other men with Magistrates if they be guilty of it The Turks have a sort of men who pretend to be descended from Mahomet and wear Green Turbans to distinguish them from the rest and if at any time they happen to offend any of the other Turks they approach these Children of their Profit with great respect and having first very reverently taken off the green Turban and laid it by they then bang the Man without Mercy or Discretion but we never hear they endeavour to draw them into any thing Contrary to their Law 4. The Ultimate End of all Religion is the attainment of the happiness of another Life and all that can be any way subservient to that end ought to be so used And for this end did God Almighty institute all humane Society and Government also and hath ever since preserved them from Ruin So that he Expects from every Person that is placed in any degree of Honour a more immediate Care and Concernment for the Salvation of their inferiors and he that doth best discharge his duty in this respect may Expect to meet the best Recompence from God here and hereafter Grotius hath proved this so well that I will not attempt to do it after him but refer the Reader for that to his Piece of the Power of Magistrates in Sacred Affairs and pursue the Conclusion of bringing it as much as may be into practice It is certain then nothing can be more acceptable to God Almighty than this and his Blessing is the best Reward any man can pretend to and the onely one which almost a Justice of the Peace can Expect and which is really worth his thoughts There is nothing in the Next place will so effectually lessen his Cares and his Troubles as this for if ever he can bring men to a true sense of this they will afterwards be easily governed and it will make his Office Acceptable and Delightful to them and his very Chastisements will be thought Kindnesses and be well resented But if men should prove unreasonable yet God would certainly undertake for him and protect him from their Violence and reward his Virtue too with the Euges of a Well done thou good and faithful Servant and he should thereby assure his own Salvation however Section the 4th HAving thus dispatched those Religious Qualifications I did propose to speak of I come in the Next place to speak of those Moral Indowments without which the other cannot well be Supposed to be the first of which I shall mention is a Prudent and Wife Administration of all his Affairs As Reason distinguisheth a Man from a Beast Prudence So this Prudence is it which Exalts one man above another and directs him not onely to what is just but to what is fit Justice teacheth a man to give every man his due and Prudence directs him to do it Seasonably and when and where to use Clemency or Severity as there is occasion for it And in Executing all Penal Laws this is of great and dayly use and makes those Laws a Blessing or a Plague to men and indeed he that always imploys the utmost of his Power will sometimes use the letter of the Law against the equity of it Prudence will also make his proceedings Safe and Regular so that he shall not fear to reflect upon what he hath done nor others to approach him when he is to do them when they know before-hand what they may Expect from him Prudence and due Care in him to Search every thing out that comes before him in the Course of Law will prevent his being deceived and the Cosequences of it his injuring others by that deception Next to Prudence I place Patience and Industry Patience without which he can never hope to attain his End he must not expect that either Party will at first frankly and ingenuously represent the truth of things to him one party will speak a little too much and another a little too little and by this and other Arts so disguise the thing that if he be not a man of more than Ordinary Patience and Industry to Search it out he will be in great danger of Doing great injustice Nor will the putting Parties always to their Oaths do it for many men have so little sense of them that it is almost all one to lie and forswear themselves but yet giving them time and cross-Examining them or putting them one from another the truth will
Mistake and at the same time shuts the door upon him so that he cannot find the way out again this makes him set himself to defend his Error as if it were a Castle and take it ill that any man should endeavour to dispossess him So that he that Never so Kindly offers to inform him better is sure to meet not better reward than Contention Stubbornness and ill usage for the present and Scorn and Revenge for the future which either provokes men to seek the Ruine of these Insolents or to give them up to their own folly till that do it and God in his Providence doth for the most part hasten on the Calamity But on the Other Side there is nothing more Lovely in the Eyes of God or Man than Humility and the Greater the person is the Greater the Lustre of it it preserves a man from many Errors and Apologizeth for the rest so powerfully that it is scarce possible not to forgive him and the Honour of it too Ascends from the man to his Superiors and they are the better thought of for his sake It makes a Government acceptable to the People and stifles Discontents the Seeds of Rebellion in their infant state Sobriety Sobriety and Chastity are two Virtues that seem at first sight perhaps more to respect the Person that is master of them than his Place but yet they have for all that a great influence upon the other especially the first of them By which I Understand Temperance in Eating and Drinking Intemperance hath Naturally some very ill effects upon men which indispose them for Government As first it takes off the Briskness and Vivacity of Mens Minds and renders them dull and heavy and unfit for business Yet he that is to judge others will always stand in Need of the greatest of his Abilities as I have proved before And therefore if he be not so far in Love with Temperance as to preserve his Faculties always in their Natural vigor he hath thereby unmanned himself and it will not be fit to set the Beast to Govern others when he is thus degraded by himself Secondly Intemperance discharges the guards that Prudence and Sobriety usually keep men under and they become heedless of all things neither considering nor caring whether they do Right or Wrong Justice or Injustice as indeed how can an intemperate Man whilest his blood is in a ferment be able to Consider prudently of any thing All that can be said for it is That they are not always so but tho they be not yet if a man is frequently intemperate it will in time change the Crasis of his Blood and Spirits when he is not actually distempered with a late Debauch at least to such a degree as will make him incapable of that curious Sense which is requisite in many Cases for the finding that truth which is concealed from him with much Artifice and Industry The Justice of the Peace his principal Care is to provide for the Poor for he is the only Person to whom their last resort is who have neither means nor abilities of Complaining to the Superior Magistrates Now how can that Man be Sensible of their Miseries who is almost always Gorged to the height and is insensible of all other Inconveniences but those that spring from Satiety and Drunkenness 'T is true these are not less than the other but yet they totally render a man uncapable to Understand and Consider them It was the Rich mans faring deliciously every day that made him think so little of Lazarus at his Gate till the Tables were turn'd and then it was too late And Great Men would do well to remember his Catastrophe in time and abate something even of their Lawful Pleasure here that they may be Excused from Suffering with him hereafter To all this Add what I have remarked already the irresistible force of ill Example and the bad Effect it will have upon the Government by introducing Poverty if it be not punished in the inferior people and reproach and hatred if these or such like Magistrates do it and a man would think a Small degree of Ingenuity might prevail upon them to lay aside their Intemperance or their Office and not keep two things so totally inconsistent each with other Much of what hath been spoken concerning Temperance Chastity may be Applyed and is Naturally true of Chastity too but I have this further to say for it The English Nation is Naturally Chast and all that foul spreading uncleanness which hath of late over-run this Island is of a foraign Extraction And it may be a great question Whether it is a greater Infamy to a People to forsake its Antient and Natural Virtues or to imbrace foraign and Exotick Vices But there is no question at all whether this base uncleanness hath not been propagated by the Contagion of ill Example and descended from the Gentry to the Commonalty and I have known when Complaints have been brought by Wives against their Husbands for Keeping Misses when they were scarce able to find Competent bread for their own Families The more have they to answer for who set them the ill Example This Crime is ever attended with Poverty and when it grows general the Poverty becomes so too and such Lewd men can neither bear Want nor betake themselves to any honest Course for the redressing of it but generally turn beggars Thieves Whiggs Knights of the post and take up other such infamous Courses as Naturally tend to the destruction and imbroylment of our Government Most commonly those who follow this ill Course Long are at one time or other Snapt with that Filthy Disease And it is very rarely seen that they are so far recovered out of it as to have afterwards any Children that Live and are healthy So it tends apace to depeople us who are already Exhausted by Ireland and the Western Plantations and Leave us in the next Generation a prey to our Neighbours All which are strong Reasons to endeavour heartily the banishing of this New risen Pest and should make all Magistrates discountenance and punish it to the utmost rigour and above All things to be Exceeding careful that they do not by their Words or Actions give the People occasion to think or suspect they have any Kindness for it Yet some Justices of the Peace if they are to Examine an unfortunate Woman about the Father of a base Child will descend to such minute Circumstances and behave themselves so Extravagantly in the mean time as if they took much pleasure in the inquiry and Meant to make the Criminal uncurable by Extirpating that Natural Modesty that might have Cured her Such men neither regard God who is invoked by the Oath to be present nor the dignity and honour of their Places and do effectually teach instead of Correcting the Crime I have Placed in the rear of all Courage and Honesty in the Execution of Justice tho they will deserve to have been
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
impossible to Concert before-hand all the Circumstances so minutely but that they will differ and very often Contradict one another And to all this must be Added That as God is a God of Truth So he is the irreconcileable Enemy of Falshood and he is the Searcher of Hearts knows all things and is present at all places his Eye-lids try the Children of men and he Understands their thoughts long before and amongst the things that he hates and abominates one is a false Witness that speaketh Lies Prov. 6. 19. And he hath assured us Chap. 19. v. 5. A false Witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh Lies shall not Escape And accordingly in his Providence he frequently detects them and so if a man be not so foolish as to think he hath Wit enough to escape the Justice and Providence of God and the Watchful Scrutiny of all those men he converses with which is impossible he must needs Expect at one time or other to be discovered and then he will so far lose his Credit as not to be believed even when he speaks truth and will if no worse betide him be hated and scorn'd of all men It befits Magistrates then of all men to be very careful to preserve their Reputations unspotted from this Sin and the rather because the Law relies so much upon them that in many things their Testimony is Concluding and no man shall be allowed to Contradict them So that they are intirely trusted with the Lives and Fortunes of men and the greater the Trust the stronger the Obligation not to deceive and the greater Infamy if they do I include under the Name of Honesty Beneficence not onely Sincerity and Veracity but Beneficence or a great desire to do good to as many as may be which is an Excellent Virtue in a private person But so absolutely necessary in a Magistrate that it will not be possible for him without it to use his Power to that End for which it was given the Good of Men. The Lord Bacon saith very well in his Essays Power to do Good is the true and lawful End of Aspiring For Good Thoughts tho God accept them yet towards men are little better than good Dreams Except they be put in Act and that cannot be without Power and Place as the Vantage and Commanding Ground Merit and Good Works is the End of Man's Motion and the Conscience of the Same is the Accomplishment of Man's rest Essay the XI But this Advantage of Place and Power is Naturally apt to be corrupted in ill Natures and to degenerate into Insolence and Violence and then it is like a Sword in the hand of a Mad-man terrible to all men that come near him and an instrument of mischief Of such men he saith a little before Power is a Curse for in Evil the best Condition is Not to Will the Second Not to Can. Now what can be more deplorable than for a man in Authority to be looked upon as a Wild Beast and to fill all places where he cometh with fear and horror to have men approach him as they do a Viper with Caution and a jealousie of being injured if they prevent it not The constant effect of which is hatred in which the fear of Mischief ever ends But men approach those that are samed for much goodness as they were Mortal Gods sent by the Great and Immortal God into the World for the Good of Men and the Greater they are the more Good they expect and find from them and are ashamed and Angry with themselves if they find they have deserved and feel the contrary From such as these no man need fear he shall meet any other than fair Dealings without fraud or hypocrisie For he whose highest Ambition is to do good will have an irreconcileable disgust to the other wherever he finds it His Prudence will set him above the Arts of Dissimulation and make him scorn all Frauds and Crafty Designs as ignoble and beneath him things which he can never stand in need of and would not use if he did Honesty is said to be the best Policy and it Certainly is so for if a man Converse with his Superiors it saves him the trouble of Making many a hard shift to Excuse or Colour an ill Act if with his Equals it begets him respect and Wins them to a Confidence in him and from his Inferiors it procures him Love and Reverence To all which God commonly adds his Blessing and makes his Undertakings Prosperous however he is at peace with himself and suffers none of those Terrors of an Evil Conscience which terrify other Men when no other dare accuse and Punish them his Mind is quiet and Serene and at rest in all Events Contented with what is past and Unconcern'd for what may follow because his Trust is in God and from men he doth not fear that ill usage which he is not Conscious to himself he hath deserved SECTION V. I Have now done with those Moral Qualifications which I thought were most Necessary to be discoursed of on this Occasion And I come in the Next place to some few Politick Considerations which I take to be absolutely Necessary for the good Execution of the Office of a Justice of the Peace Which are A Competent Understanding of the Nature of our Government and Love to it Secondly Of the Nature and Temper of the English People especially those Under his Care Thirdly Of the Several Factions we have amongst us and how to govern them Of all which I will discourse in Order All the Governments that we meet with upon Record have been either by Single Persons which are called Monarthies or by a Number of the better Sort which are stiled Aristocracies or by the whole People or their Representatives and from thence are called Democracies or Mixed up of two or more of these and are thence called Mixed Governments which because they may be innumerable take their denomination from that Part of the Three I have Mentioned which is predominant in the Composition But I shall not Need to be very Exact here and therefore I shall onely take Notice of two Monarchies and Common-Wealths which last do in common speaking include all those Governments wherein many men have the Supream Authority divided amongst them with Equal Power and a Liberty of dissenting Monarchies have this Advantage that they are most Natural and most Antient As Adam and Noah were the Fathers of Mankind so they were the Universal Monarchs in that Right and to their Right all the Princes in the World succeed and have the same Power they had and ought to Use it accordingly as if they were the Fathers of their Subjects And their Subjects ought again to pay them those Respects that are due to their Fathers the same Love Reverence and Obedience so that Treason is an Unnaturalâ— Crime and Rebellion against a man's Prince is flying in the face of his Father Which no provocatin on
Principles favourers of Popery and Papists 4. The Ministers of State are all represented to the People as French Pensioners and Papists in Masquerade What the meaning of this is my Lord Bacon shall tell you This is a sure Rule that if the Envy upon the Minister be great when the cause of it in him is small or if the Envy be General in a manner upon all the Ministers of an Estate the Envy tho hidden is truely upon the State it self Essay the 9th But then 't is not so easie to destroy them as it was before because 't is better known now 5. Scotland and Ireland are quiet and His Majesty hath good Guards in both of them to keep them so whereas his Father had none and tho there have been dreadful Complaints of them and divers Attempts in Scotland to destroy them by the Covenanting Whiggs yet it will not do there they are still and no body can help it 6. The Nation hath a strong Impression left of the Miseries of the Late War the Blood-shed Taxes and Tyranny they then groaned under and his Majesty cannot forget the Methods that were used to destroy his Father and Banish him and he will never give them leave to play over the Old Game and this was it which made the Late Conspiracy to Murther him so necessary 7. The House of Peers have no mind to be Voted down the second time and they stoutly oppose what ever tends that way and the Dissenting Lords have lost the Assistance they formerly had from the Popish Peers in that House and may protest and complain but could never carry one Vote since a manifest Argument how much the Puritan and Popish Faction stand in need of each other 8. The liberty of the Press was for several years lost but since that restraint ended we have not wanted Seditious Pamphlets to incite the People to another Rebellion which were written by some body for something and were bought up and read by vast Numbers of People who in all probability had no mighty Aversion for them The same Fears and Jealousies have been revived and buzzed industriously into the Heads of the People but there is a cerrain Act of Parliament that makes it dangerous to Traduce the King as they did his Father but what no body durst speak directly they can slily insinuate and avoid the danger of the Law at the same time and there are several other Acts of Parliament which have made the design of the Republicans difficult which I will omit Now I say considering all these Difficulties that were not before and that all that were before are still in being and that Men have naturally an Aversion for hempen Neck-laces I say considering these things any man that will may see there hath been as much done as could be towards the setting up another Common-wealth and more then the Gentlemen in 41 durst do till they have an Army to back them and if any man be disposed to believe these things come to pass by chance and without any design there is no reason why I should disturb the rest of the world by endeavouring any further to satisfie him which in all probability is impossible But there is one question behind still and that is What the Inferiour Magistrates and Justices of the Peace shall do to prevent this Faction from attaining what they aim at 1. To which I answer first take away the Cause and the Effect will follow the Puritan Principles and Factions gave Being to this and with them it will fail but as long as they subsit and are powerful the Common-wealth Party will be so too it is true that many forsake the Factious in other things but joyn with them in this but then they are false at the heart and have left the rest only because it was chargeable being of that Party and are to be treated accordingly and never to be trusted 2. The People are frequently to be told of the Miseries they endured during the Late Times of Anarchy and Confusion that the Memory of them may not be forgot in the next Generation and by what means the Nations became involved in them that they may not have the opportunity of Re-acting the Old Tragedy 3. The Government ought to be represented to the People as it is that they may know their own happiness and live obediently under it A good Man would not endeavour to subvert any Government that were Established tho it were none of the best because the Miseries that attend such Changes are greater for the most part then those that are pretended to be removed by them but for us to attempt to pull down one of the Ancientest and best Constituted Governments in the World under which England hath flourished so many Ages and to deliver our selves up into the hands of a Company of Ambitious Men to be treated we know not how and Governed we know not which way is perfect Madness 4. It is well observed in Tacitus Liberty and other Specious Things are pretended Nor did ever any man seek a Dominion over others and to enslave them but he made use of such pretences for it We have tryed these Men and by experience have found that they are meer Pretences and that there is no sweeter Liberty in the World then to live under a good Prince and God hath given us one to our hearts desire let us not be such Fools as to catch at such shadows as they offer to us and loose the real and solid good things we do enjoy 5. The Throne is established by Righteousness Prov. 16. 12. And ancient Histories afford us many instances of good Princes that have been ruined by the Injustice of their under Officers when the People have been inraged by them Now every Inferiour Magistrate may in this contribute much to the disappointing the wicked Designs of this Faction by doing Justice and cutting the Roots of all Discontents before they rise to Assault the Throne or spread to undermine it It is a common Complaint that we have excellent Laws but they are ill Executed I know the whole fault of all this ought not to be ascribed to the Magistrates but yet we are not such as we ought to be If any share of it lies at our Doors and if the Throne be made odious and consequently weak by our defaults we must expect to suffer first and to bear the blame of it hereafter our Oaths will keep us from joyning in a Rebellion and our Loyalty make us obnoxious to their Cruelty which as Tacitus saith is the greatest Crime amongst Rebels If therefore neither the Memory of what is past nor the sence of what is present our own nor others experience will prevail upon us to prevent the ill Effects we must in reason expect from the Conjunction of the Puritan and Common-wealth Factions United and Fermented by the Popish if we will still resolve to try whether our Saviour's Rule is true That a Kingdom divided within
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
self to reduce the Scales of Justice once sway'd down to an eqnal Ballance Wherefore it is the safest Course for a Judge that Nothing touching the proofs and merit of the cause be intimated before-hand untill both Parties be heard together Thus far this great Man who was once Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England And a Justice of the Peace is in much more danger of being prepossessed than a Judge because the Complaint is made at first immediately to him and he may afterwards be more easily approached yea and deceived too than a Judge as being not so well versed in affairs or prepared for the Execution of his Office by his Education and therefore should be the more Wary and Jealous of himself Sometimes the prejudice is of an Ancienter date than the Complaint depending and is sometimes the fault and at others the misfortune of the Party if he have given just cause for it by his former misdemeanors and ill Life then he can blame no body but himself and yet the Justice ought not to condemn him in his very thoughts till he is clearly proved Guilty for the Worst of Men may be Wronged and every man is supposed at first innocent and afterwards penitent till the contrary be shown not by surmises but by proof But alass we live in so False and Slanderous an Age that the Fame of very Good men is often blasted behind their backs and it is become a common practice for men to blacken their Reputation whose Persons or Estates they design to Ruine and for the most part more mischief is done the Party by these Under-hand Accusations which he can never answer then by all the direct proof And therefore the Justice of the Peace ought to suspect all informations that are from the purpose as Slanders and designed for no other purpose than to prepossess him with an ill opinion of the party What I have said will in some degree discover the Mischief of Prejudice but there is this further in it Reason is the Light and Eye of the Soul Now if the Eye be simple the Whole shall be full of Light but if it be darkened with prepossession how great is that Darkness Matth. 6. 23. and I may add how incurable how inexcusable too It is certain we shall all stand before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ and whatever Judgment we here pass upon Things and Persons shall be there reviewed and therefore it befits us to be very exactly careful that we do not draw upon us a just Condemnation from that most Righteous and All-seeing Judge by condemning our fellow-Servants thro Prejudice and Prepossession Wrongfully Nor let us ever think that we shall escape the censure of men for they will certainly at one time or other discover the Cheat and esteem us according as they find cause tho perhaps they will not dare freely to tell us their minds and if they never should yet our Consciences will Accuse us for it and God in his Providence will take care to punish us for it and that it may be in the same way we have offended So that he that can be secure in the midst of so many dangers and open his Ears and expose himself to every secret Whisper against a Man is a Person disposed for ruine and doth neither deserve the Advice or Pity of any Man Bribery and Prepossession do for the most part spring from others Favour and Hatred Favour and Hatred take their Rise from our selves and are as great hinderances to Equal and Impartial Justice as the other two there is no man so mean but he may by Accident or upon Design oblige his Betters and beget in them a good opinion of him and most men are naturally apt to do it before hand and all the little Arts of Flattery Obsequiousness and Courtship are on such occasions made use of and many a man hath been drawn in by them who would have abhorred a Bribe Nor can any man on the other side live so innocently as at all times to avoid the displeasure of his Neighbours and a Justice of Peace is as capable of resentment as other Men and in some degree more because Pride and great Expectations of Submission and Regard do naturally follow Power in all its degrees and Circumstances and the least opposition or defeatexasperates such more then ten times as much would another so that the Natural Consequence is that a man in Authority and Power will have many pretending Friends and if he be not the more careful as many real or suspected Foes and if his Love and his Hatred have any room left for their Activity in the Execution of his Office they will betray him to many Inconveniences and Acts of Injustice which he would otherwise have avoided Whereas Justice should in this respect be blind and not see the Parties but the Fact on one side and the Law on the other and then with discretion and impartiality without Favour or Affection Hatred or ill Will give to every Man according to his Works But in the State man is this is so difficult that if Reason and Religion be not called in to our Assistance it will not be done the man hath injured me and therefore another is false Logick but yet so powerful that it is almost impossible to see the Fallacy especially whilest a Man is under the Dominion of Anger and Hatred which are powerful Passions and the Argument is as weak the other way the man is an honest man and therefore would not do amiss or complain without good Cause Why he is a man still and subject to all the Infirmities of Flesh and Blood and therefore I ought not to surrender my self blind-fold to his Conduct but diligently search out the truth And indeed if men would entertain low and humble thoughts of themselves they would seldom be mistaken but if I think my Smile my Nod my kind Word or Look a mighty Obligation and make a Muster of my Friends by the List of my Flatterers and Admirers I shall soon have a large Roll but they will in Adversity appear to be what they are like false Musters in Peace appear in their Ranks and Files a full Body but in time of necessity and need be like the gleaning after the Vintage thin and of no use and every Act of Injustice I do will diminish the number of my Friends even of those for whose sakes I did it and increase the number and fury of my Enemies But on the other side Exact and Impartial Justice is venerable and lovely in the sight of God and Men and even those that suffer by it will when the smart is over love and revere the man that Administred it to them so the upright Impartial Magistrate shall in the end have fewer Enemies and more hearty Friends then the other If there were nothing but this to be said for it there were reason enough to banish all our Affections and Passions when we sit
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
of the same mind and rectifies his mistakes before they become dangerous to him or to others But then it must be with Knowing Men for no man can communicate to another that which he hath not he may mislead him or confirm him in Error and so make his mistake more fatal but other good he can expect little from him except it be the diversion of his Chat. When the Person with whom we converse hath not only a Speculative but a Practical Knowledge too of any thing if he appear honest and disinterested we may rely the better on his Judgment and the little Stories which he will be able to tell of things well or ill done will strangely dwell upon the memory and fix things and at the same time rectifie the Judgment too It was well said by the Lord Bacon Set before thee the best Examples for imitation is a Globe of Precepts and for that end were Histories written that one Generation might learn from another and take Example what to follow and what to avoid and Discourse is of the same Nature thô not so perfect I may then justly detest their ill nature and folly who when they meet with Men of Knowledge and Experience and willing to Communicate both to them envy and traduce them and when they have nothing else to say think to make them Odious by saying They love to talk and are conceited of their own Knowledge or Abilities and are Proud men why if all this were true it is better to be Proud of Something than of Nothing and yet the last happens oftenest solid Knowledge will make a man humble when there is nothing so conceited as Ignorance and a communicative Man is better company than a close churlish Nature who values himself upon the Ignorance of others which shall never be rectified by him And it is usual for these men too to learn from them whom they thus traduce Secondly I may justly reprehend them who spend all their time in tittle tattle about their Currs and their Kites their Debaucheries and Recreations or which is worse in defaming their Neighbours but if any useful Discourse is begun that may tend to the Publick Good or to make them wiser or better are ill at ease till it be ended turn sick and are ready to surrender their over-charged Stomachs 'T is true the Age in which we live is learned but if this humour prevail a little more the next will not only be debauched but barbarous and ignorant SECTION VIII THe End of all that knowledge I have been discoursing of in the foregoing Section is for Practice for that makes it truly beneficial a Man had better be totally Ignorant of all Laws than to Study them to find ways to defeat them that so he may at once avoid the Directive and Coercive Power of them But the Great design of a Good Magistrate is a Prudent Execution of them by observing a due Method according to Law 1. In calling the Parties 2. In hearing them 3. In determining the Cause It is an old and a just Complaint that no Nation hath better Laws than this nor hardly any that executes them worse and yet we are possest with an Hydropical thirst after more the cause of which is that every man would be free himself and have another bound but of what use are the best Laws without severe Execution If we design nothing but ostentation in my Judgment the Book of Statutes is big enough all ready We are almost in the same condition with the Ancient Romans Nec vitia nostra nec remedia eorum ferre possumus we can neither bear our great and manifold Vices nor the Remedies of them And it was the Observation of a Wise man Corruptissima Repub. plurimae Leges that most Laws were made in the most corrupted States But then never was any People amended with Ink and Paper and Laws are no more till they be put in Execution It was good Advice which Tiberius gave the Senate that they should not teach the World by ineffectual Laws what Vices were too strong for their Authority for which he gives this reason That when Men had once prevailed against that Remedy too Neque metus ultra neq pudor est there was neither Fear nor Modesty left to amend them If we think much to Execute those we already have to what end should we desire more If we think it burthensome to Obey our old Laws why should we desire to encrease the weight except it be to shew by the breach of more how much we despise them But as in the making so in the executing of Laws there will be occasion to make use of much Prudence and Discretion to make a dextrous Application of the General Rule to the particular instance and to order the Business so too if it be possible that the Offender may be Reformed and not Ruined it is impossible to give any General Rule or Advice in this Case but it must be left to the discretion of the Magistrate Only the Saying of the last Lord Chancellor will ever be found true Happy is that Government where men Complain of the strict Execution of the Laws And if I might presume to give the Reason it should be this Severity prevents Offences whereas too much lenity encreaseth them and makes the Offender by Custom and Time incorrigible When a Complaint is brought before a Justice of the Peace his first care must be to consider diligently whether the Case be within his Jurisdiction for it is no unusual thing for mean People to complain to them in Cases in which they can afford them no Relief and it is much better to consider this at first than when it is too late for then a Man hath betrayed his ignorance and indiscretion if there happen nothing worse Some Men have a custom to extend their Power beyond the just bounds of it that they may have the more Business and others will not do what they might and ought either out of fear or ignorance or unwillingness to be Troubled neither of these are good It is unsafe and often injurious too to stretch the Jurisdiction beyond its due bounds And it is unjust on the other side to deny Men the Benefit of the Laws when it is in Our Power to Right them And therefore a Good Magistrate will avoid both the Extremes and neither give his Neighbours Trouble to no purpose nor spare his own Pains when he can serve his Country And herein he will soon find the great Benefit of his Care to inform himself Exactly of his Duty without which it will be very difficult to determine whether he hath a right to meddle or no and if he thinks he hath it will not be amiss at first especially and afterwards in all doubtful Cases to consult his Books and so go on or desist as he finds Cause And the Safety will sufficiently Compensate for the Trouble When he is resolv'd to grant a Warrant it is an excellent
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
so Express it for they are to take the best care they can that they be not deceived in what they do by false Information to which end an Oath may be sometimes absolutely necessary But Magistrates are not only to avoid Giving Oaths in all Cases where they have no Authority but also in as many of the rest as they can I have read that the Turkish Country-Magistrates which are like our Justices of the Peace Determine almost all Cases without Oaths and yet if they are not corrupted by neither Party will by Queries observing the looks of Men when they Answer Laying things together and comparing one thing with another and by making all the several Parties tell the Story one after another or so much of it as they know by these I say and such like Methods they will so pick out the Truth that no Oath could do it half so well Now I know this Way is troublesome and will take time but it will discover the Truth sometimes when Oaths would not and save the Perjury too and so is worth the while And I have observed also that Men who are in Passion one against another do little regard the Religion of an Oath and yet their very Passion will discover the Truth without one if a Magistrate will have but a little Patience and give them time and liberty of Speech but on the contrary Men do generally revere an Oath when they are quiet and undisturbed and a Magistrate may best give an Oath when they are in that temper and rely upon the truth of what they say Secondly Oaths would not be given in things that are not of some Moment It is good to hear what a Person can say before he is Sworn and if it be nothing to the purpose then not to Swear him at all but if it be then to Swear him and bid him tell the Story the second time and observe if he vary by which means the Truth may be often found out Thirdly It is good to bring things into as narrow a compass as is possible by observing wherein the Parties agree and wherein they differ before any Oath be given and this will determine many Cases without an Oath the Parties agreeing at last about the Matter of Fact and if it will not that only in which they differ is to be proved upon Oath which will be liable to less hazard of Perjury than the whole If the Justice of Peace observes the Party who is to take an Oath be ignorant or young it is good to shew him the Nature of it in short plain words and to tell him the Danger and great Sin of Perjury and how severe God is against it and for that purpose to Alledge the Third Commandment or some other such like short place of Scripture which will have great effect upon untainted minds If he finds at any time after an Oath given that any thing is spoken that is not truth by the Party Sworn it is good to give the Party a grave sharp reproof at least It is an usual thing not to grant a Warrant of the Peace but upon Oath that the Party who requires it doth not do it upon Malice but purely out of fear Yet if it be well observed there will be found many Instances of Perjury in that case And therefore I think it were much better to grant a Warrant to shew cause why the Surety of the Peace should not be granted and so Examine the pretended fear when both the Parties are face to face than to pursue the old Method of Swearing the Complainant and then making the Warrant absolute Especially if there be not a grievous hurt or some other apparent cause for it I have often found by this way of proceeding that I have prevented Perjury and delivered an Innocent and sometimes an Injured Person from Vexation for it is no unusual thing for ill Men to Swear the Peace against others by way of Prevention when they have given them too much cause to do it to themselves and at other times by way of revenge when they have for good cause been forced to find Sureties Now in such instances as these it is good to prevent men from being actually forsworn even when they are too much disposed to it And when all this care is taken there will be many Perjuries committed how much more when there is none of it But the Justice of the Peace when he hath done what he could to prevent it may comfort himself and believe that God will not lay another mans Sin which he could not hinder to his Charge but if he Swear men rashly and without due precaution he as well as they must without doubt bear a part of the blame in the sight of God The Conclusion AND now I have with the greatest brevity I could run thorough all those Particulars I thought fit to Discourse on in relation to my Subject and thô it might have been better done by an abler Person yet never did any man enter upon any thing with more sincere and candid intentions for the Publick good And all that remains is to perswade those that are or shall be Justices of the Peace to reflect seriously upon what I have Written and then if they do not approve of my thoughts they may yet give them occasion of others and in all likelihood much better and it may also possibly excite some other Person to do it better and so oblige the World and me in the first place But in the mean time I humbly beseech all Magistrates that they would seriously consider Three things First That they are the Ministers of God and that is so honorable a Title that Constantine the Great took much Pride in it but then it will become them that Wear it to act as such for God is a severe Judge of Unprofitable Servants and much more of slothful and wicked ones for whom he hath provided a Punishment equal to the greatness of their offence and the dishonour they do him And on the other hand none shall enjoy more happiness in Heaven than they who have not only been good themselves but have laboured to make others such by governing them with Prudence and Discretion here on Earth Secondly They are the Representatives of their King and it is the greatest Disloyalty and Infidelity imaginable to pretend to Serve him and then Dishonour him to his People and deceive him in the Trust reposed on them Thirdly The People whom they are to govern will certainly rise up in Judgment against them if they mislead or misuse them for thô perhaps they cannot help themselves for the present whatever injuries they suffer yet their Redeemer is mighty and with him is no respect of Persons And when all this is seriously thought of I do not fear that they will treat their Monitor unkindly who had no other design in this than to make them happy here and hereafter by exposing those Vices that prevail more in general upon Men for want of Precaution than out of any Affection they have to them A Prayer O Thou who art the Soveraign Judg of the World seeing it hath pleased thee to call me into the Number of the inferior Judges in it Grant that I may administer Justice truely and indifferently to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintenance of thy true Religion and Virtue And to that end enlighten my Vnderstanding that I may choose what is Just and Right in thy sight without respect of Persons and pursue the same with Courage and Industry Quiet all Divisions amongst us that we may not hinder each other nor dishonour thee by our Contentions Set a Watch O Lord before my Mouth and a Door with a Guard about my Lips Give me a meek patient humble spirit that I do nothing through Strife or Vain-glory but that I may patiently hear and submit to the reasons of others And finally in all things direct thy Servant into those things which may tend most to thy Glory the good of thy Church the Service of our Soveraign and the Peace and Happiness of my Country that when I shall appear before thy Tribunal to receive an an Eternal Sentence I may not perish forever but that thou mayest Remember me for Good and spare me in that day Grant this O Blessed Judg and Saviour for thy own sake Amen FINIS