Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	king_n	say_a	wales_n	2,220	5	10.3565	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60883	The security of English-mens lives, or, The trust, power, and duty of the grand jurys of England explaining according to the fundamentals of the English government, and the declarations of the same made in Parliament by many statutes / published for the prevention of popish designs against the lives of many Protestant lords and commoners who stand firm to the religion and ancient government of England.	Somers, John Somers, Baron, 1651-1716.	1681 (1681)	Wing S4643; ESTC R33648	56,152	169

The Indictments against them mentioned in Anderson's Reports Pa. 156. 157. are worth reading whereby they are charged with Treason for Subverting the Laws and Customs of the Land in their proceedings without Grand Juries and procuring the murmuring hatred of the People against the King to the great danger of him the Kingdom Nothing could satisfy the Kingdom tho the King was dead whom they had flattered and served but such Justice done upon them and many of their Instruments and Officers as may for ever make the Ears of Judges to tingle And it is not to be forgotten that the Judges in Queen Eliz. time in the Case of R. Cavendish in Anderson's Reports P. 152 and 155. were as they told the Queen and her Councellors by the punishment of former Judges especially of Empson and Dudley deterred from obeying her illegal Commands The Queen had sent several Letters under her Signet Great Men pressed them to obey her Patent under the Great Seal and the Reasons of their disobedience being required They answered That the Queen her self and the Judges also had taken an Oath to keep the Laws And if they should obey her Commands the Laws would not warrant them and they should therein break their Oath to the Offence of God and their Country and the Common-wealth wherein they were born And say they if we had no fear of God yet the Examples and punishments of others before us who did offend the Laws do remember and recal us from the like Offences Whosoever being in the like places may design or be put upon the like practices will do well to consider these Examples and not to think that he who obliquely Endeavors to render Grand Jurys useless is less Criminal than he that would absolutely abolish them That which doth not act according to its Institution is as if it were not in being And whoever doth without prejudice consider this matter will see that it is not less pernicious to deny Juries the use of those Methods of discovering Truth which the Law hath appointed and so by degrees turn them into a meer matter of form than openly and avowedly to destroy them Surely such a gradual Method of destroying our Native Right is the most dangerous in its consequence The safety which our Fore-fathers for many hundreds of years enjoyed under this part of the Law especially and have transmitted to us is so apparent to the meanest Capacity that whoever shall go about to take it away or give it up is like to meet with the fate of Ishmael to have every mans hand against him because his is against every Man Artifices of this Kind will ruine us more silently and so with less opposition and yet as certainly as the other more moved oppression This only is the difference that one way we should be slaves immediately and the other insensibly But with this further disadvantage too that our slavery should be the more unavoydable and the faster rivited upon us because it would be under colour of Law which Practice in Time would obtain Few men at first see the danger of little changes in Fundamentals and those who design them usually act with so much craft as besides the giving specious Reasons they take great Care that the true Reason shall not appear Every design therefore of changing the Constitution ought to be most warily observed and timely opposed Nor is it only the Interest of the People that such Fundamentals should be duly guarded for whose benefit they were at first so carefully layed and whom the Judges are sworn to serve but of the King too for whose sake those pretend to act who would subvert them Our Kings as well as Judges are sworn to maintain the Laws They have themselves in several Statutes required the Judges at their peril to administer Equal Justice to every Man notwithstanding any Letters or Commands c. even from themselves to the contrary And when any failure hath been the greatest and most powerful of them have ever been the readiest to give Redress It appears by the preface to the Statutes of 20th Ed. 3. that the Judicial proceedings had been perverted That Letters writs and Commands had been sent from the King and great Men to the Justices and that Persons belonging to the Court of the King the Queen the Prince of Wales had maintained abetted Quarrels c. Whereby the Laws had been violated and many wrongs done But the King was so far from justifying his own Letters or those illegal practices That the preamble of those Statutes saith they were made for the relief of the People in their sufferings by them That brave King in the height of his glory and vigor of his Age chose rather to confess his Error than to continue in it as is Evident by his own words Edward by the Grace of God c. Because by divers Complaints made unto us we have perceived that the Law of the Land which we by our Oath are bound to maintain is the less well kept and Execution of the same disturbed many times by maintenances and procurements as well in the Court as the Country We greatly moved of Conscience in this matter and for this Cause desiring as much for the pleasure of God and ease and quietness of our Subjects as to save our Conscience and for to save and keep our said Oath by the Assent c. Enact That Judges shall do Justice notwithstanding Writs Letters or Commands from himself c. and that none of the King's House or belonging to the King Queen or Prince of wales do maintain Quarrells c. King James in his Speech to the Judges in the Starchamber Anno. 1616. told them That He had after many years resolved to renew his Oath made at his Coronation concerning Justice and the promise therein contained for maintaining the Law of the Land And in the next Page save one says I was sworn to maintain the Law of the Land and therefore had been perjured if I had broken it God is my Judge I never intended it And His Majesty that now is hath made frequent Declarations and Protestations of his being far from all thoughts of designing an Arbitrary Government and that the Nation might be confident He would rule by Law Now if after all this any Officer of the Kings should pretend Instructions from his Master to demand so material an Alteration of proceedings in the highest Cases against Law as are above mentioned And the Court who are required to slight and reject the most solemn Commands under the Great Seal if contrary to Law should upon a Verbal Intimation allow of such a Demand and so break in upon this Bulwark of out Liberties which the Law has erected Might it not give too just an occasion to suspect that all the legal securities of our Lives and Properties are unable to protect us And may not such fears rob the King of his greatest Treasure and Strength the Peoples hearts when they

know from the Prosecutor to what they must answer and have agreed and acquainted each other with the tales they will tell and have resolved to be careful that all their answers to cross Interrogatories may be conformable to their first stories And if these relate only to words spoken at several times in private to distinct Witnesses in such a case Evidence if given in open Court may seem to be very strong against the person accused though there be nothing of truth in it But if such Witnesses were privately and separately examined by the Grand Inquest as the Law requires and were to answer only such questions as they thought fit and in such order as was best in their judgments and most natural to find out the Truth of the Accusation so that the Witnesses could not guess what they should be asked first or last nor one conjecture what the other had said which they are certain of when they know beforehand what the Prosecutor will ask in Court of every of them and what they have resolved to answer if the Inquest should put them out of their Road and then compare all their several answers together they might possibly discern marks enough of falshood to shew that their Testimonies ought not to be depended upon where life is in question By what is now said the reasonableness of this Institution of Secrecy may be discerned in respect to the discovery of Truth and the protection of the Innocent from malicious Combinations and Perjuries Yet the same Secrecy of the Kings Council is no less necessary to reserve the guilty for punishment when the Evidence against any party accused is not manifest and full it may be kept without prejudice under Secrecy until further Enquiry and if sufficient proof can afterwards be made of the Offence an Indictment may be found by a Grand Inquest and the party brought to answer it But when the Examinations are in open Court or the Kings Councils any other way divulged and the Evidence is weak and less than the Law requires 't is not probable that it will be more or stronger and should an Indictment be found and the party tried by a Petit Jury whilst the Evidence is not full they must and ought to acquit him and then the further prosecution for the same Offence is for ever barred though his guilt should afterward be manifest and confessed by himself From hence may certainly be concluded that Secrecy in the Examinations and Enquiries of Gr. Juries is in all respects for the Interest and advantage of the King If he be concerned to have secret Treasons Felonies and all other enormities brought to light and that none of the Offenders should escape Justice if the gain of their Forfeitures be thought his interest which God forbid then the first notices of all dangerous crimes and wicked confederacies ought to be secretly and prudently pursued and searcht into by the Grand Inquest The accusers and Witnesses ought not to publish in a Court before a multitude what they pretend to know in such cases until the discretion of so many honest men of the neighbourhood hath first determined whether their testimony will amount to so good and full Evidence that it may be made publick with safety to the King and People in order to Justice Else they are obliged by Oath to lock up in their own breasts all the circumstances and presumptions of crimes until they or such as shall succeed in the same trust shall have discovered as they believe Evidence enough to convict the accused and then and not before they are to accuse the party upon Record by finding the Bills as it 's usually called But when Bills are offered without fatisfactory Evidence and they neither know nor can learn any more they ought for the King's sake to indorse Ignoramus upon them least his Honour and Justice be stained by causing or permitting such prosecution of his People in his own name and at his suit as shall appear upon their Trial and Acquittal to have been frivolous or else malicious designs upon their Lives and Fortunes If it should be said that whatsoever reasons there are for this Oath of Secrecy yet it cannot deprive the King of the benefit of having the Evidence made publick if he desires it and that the Grand Jury do not break their Oaths when the King or the Prosecutor for him will have it so 'T is not hard to shew that such Notions have no foundation in Law or Reason and seem to come from men who have not well studied the first principles of the English Government or of true Religion Whosoever hath learnt that the Kings of England were ordained for the good Government of the Kingdom in the Execution of the Laws must needs know that the King cannot lawfully seek any other benefit in judicial proceedings than that common Right and Justice be done to the People according to their Laws and Customs Their Safety and Prosperity are to be the objects of His continual Care and Study that being highest concern The greatness and Honour of a Prince consists in the Virtue Multitude Wealth and Prowess of his People and his greatest Glory is by the excellence of his Government so to have encouraged Virtue and Piety that few or no Criminals are to be found in his Dominions Those who have made this their principal aim have in some places so well succeeded as to introduce such a Discipline and rectitude of manners as rendred every man a Law unto himself As it is reported in the History of Peru Gar. de la Veg. Hist de los Incas that though the Laws were so severe as to make very small Crimes capital yet it often fell out that not one man was put to Death in a year within the whole compass of that vast Empire The King 's only benefits in finding out and punishing Offenders by Courts of Justice are the preservation and Support of the Government the protection of the Innocent revenging their wrongs and preventing further mischiefs by the terrors of exemplary punishments The King is the head of Justice in the esteem of our Laws and the whole Kingdom is to expect right to be done them in his several Courts instituted by Law for that purpose Therefore Writs issue out in his name in all cases where relief is sought by the Subjects and the wrongs done to the Lives or Limbs of the People are said to be done against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity reckoning it a dishonour to him and his Government that Subjects should not whilst they live within the Law enjoy Peace and Security It ought to be taken for a scandal upon the King when he is represented in a Court of Justice as if he were partially concerned or rather inclined to desire that a party accused should be found guilty than that he should be declared innocent if he be so in Truth Doubtless the King ought to wish in all Enquiries

made after Treasons Felonies c. that there were none to be found in his Kingdom and that whosoever is accused might be able to answer so well and truly for himself as to shew the Accusation to be erroneous or false and to be acquitted of it Something of this appears in the common Custom of England that the Clerks of the Kings Courts of Justice when any man hath pleaded not guilty to an Indictment prays forthwith that God would send him a good deliverance The Destruction of every Criminal ●s a loss to a Prince and ought to be grievous to him in the common regard of humanity and the more particular Relation of his Office and the name of Father The Kings Interest and Honour is more concerned in the Protection of the Innocent than in the punishment of the Guilty This maxime can never run them into excesses for it hath ever been lookt upon as a mark of great Wisdom and Virtue in some Princes and States upon several occasions ●o destroy all Evidences against Delinquents and nothing is more usual than ●o compose the most dangerous distempers of Nations by Acts of general Amnesty which were utterly unjust if it ●t were as great a crime to suffer the Guilty to escape as to destroy the Innocent We do not only find those Princes represented in History under odious Characters who have basely murthered the Innocent but such as by their Spies and Informers were too inquisitive after the guilty whereas none was ever blamed for Clemency or for being too gentle Interpreters of the Laws Tho. Trajan was an excellent Prince endowed with all hereical Virtues yet the most eloquent Writers and his best friends found nothing more to be praised in his Government than that in his time all men might think what they pleased Tacit. lib. 1. Hist and every man speak what he thought and he had no better way of distinguishing himself from his wicked Predecessors than by hanging up the Spies and Informers whom they had employed for the discovery of crimes But if the punishment of Offenders were as universally necessary as the Protection of the Innocent he were as much to be abhorred as Nero and that clemency which is so highly praised were to be lookt upon as the worst of vices and those who have hitherto been taken for the best of Princes were altogether as detestable as the worst Moreover all humane Laws were ordained for the preservation of the Innocent and for their sakes only are punishments inflicted that those of our own Country do solely regard this was well understood by Fortes●ue who saith Fort. de Laud. Leg. Ang. ch 27. Indeed I could ●ather wish Twenty Evildoers to escape death through ●itty than one man to be unjustly condemned Such Blood hath cried to Heaven for Vengeance against Families and Kingdoms and their utter destruction hath ensued If a Criminal should be acquitted by too great lenity caution or otherwise he may be reserved for future Justice from Man or God if he doth not repent but 't is impossible that satisfaction or reparation should be made for innocent Bloodshed in the forms of Justice Without all question the Kings only just Interest in the Evidence given against the party accused and in the manner of taking it is to have the truth made manifest that Justice may there upon be done impartially And if accusations may be first examined in secret more strictly and exactly to prevent Fraud and Perjury than is possible to be done in open Court as hath before appeared then 't is for the Kings benefit to have it so And nothing done in or by a Court about the Trial of the accused is for the King in the sense of our Law unless it some way conduce to justice in the case The Witnesses which the Prosecutor brings are no further for the King than they tell the truth and the whole Truth impartially and by whomsoever any others may be called upon the Enquiry or the Trial to be examined if they sincerely deliver the truth of the matters in question they are therein the Kings Witnesses though the accused be acquitted by reason of their Testimonies If such as are offered by the Attorney General to prove Treason against any man shall be found to swear falsly maliciously or for Reward or Promises though they depose positively facts of Treason against the accused yet they are truly and properly Witnesses against the King by endeavouring to prevent Justice and destroy his Subjects Their Malice and Villany being confessed or proved the Kings Attorny ought ex Officio to prosecute them in the Kings name and at his suit for their Offences against him in such Depositions pretended to have been for him and the legal form of the Indictment ought to be for their swearing falsly and maliciously against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity The Prosecutors themselves notwithstanding their big words and assuming to themselves to be for the King if their prosecution shall be proved to be malicious or by Conspiracy against the Life or Fortune of the accused they are therein against the King and ought to be indicted at the King's Suit for such Prosecutions done against his Crown and Dignity And if an Attorney General should be found knowingly guilty of abetting such a Conspiracy his Office could not excuse or legally exempt him from suffering the villanous judgment to the destruction of him and his Family 'T is esteemed in the Law one of the most odious Offences against the King to attempt in his name to destroy the Innocent for whose Protection he himself was ordained Qu. Elizabeth had the true sense of our Law Co. Inst 3d part p. 79. when the Lord Burleigh upon Sir Edward Coke her then Attorney's coming into her presence told her this is he who prosecutes pro Domina Regina for our Lady the Queen and she said she would have the form of the Records altered for it should be Attornatus Generalis qui pro Domina veritate sequitur The Attorney General who prosecutes for our Lady the Truth Whoever is trusted in that employment dishonours his Master and Office if he gives occasion to the Subjects to believe that his Master seeks other profits or advantages by Accusations than the common Peace and Welfare He ought not to excite a jealousie in any of their minds that confiscations of Estates are designed or desired by any of the King's Ministers whosoever makes such advantages to the Crown their principal aim in accusing are either Robbers and Murderers in the Scripture sense in seeking innocent Blood for gain or in the mildest Construction supposing the Accusation to be on good grounds they shew themselves to be of corrupt minds and a scandal to their Master and the Government Profit or loss of that kind ought to have no place in judicial proceedings against suspected Criminals but truth is only to be regarded and for this reason the judgments given in Court of

humane Institution are in Scripture called the Judgments of God who is the God of truth Yet further if any benefit to the King could be imagined by making the Evidence to the Grand Jury publick it could not come in competition with the Law expressed in their Oath which by constant uninterrupted usage for so many Ages hath obtained the force of Law Bracton and Britton in their several Generations bear Witness that it was then practised and greater proof of it need not be sought than the Disputes that appears by the Law-Books to have been amongst the ancient Lawyers whether it was Treason or Felony for a Grand Jury to discover either who was indicted or what Evidence was given them The Trust of the Grand Juries was thought so sacred in those Ages and their secrecy of so great concern to the Kingdom that whosoever should break their Oath therein was by all thought worthy to die only some would have had them suffer as Traitors others as Felons Co. Instit 3d part p. 107. Rulls Indic 771. And at this day it is held to be a high Misprision punishable by Fine and Impoverishment The Law then having appointed the Evidence to be given to Grand Juries in secret the King cannot desire to have it made publick He can do no wrong saith the old Maxime that is he can do nothing against the Law nor is any thing to be judged for his benefit that is not warranted by Law His Will Commands and desires are therein no otherwise to be known He cannot change the legal Method or manner of enquiring by Juries nor vary in any particular case from the customary and general forms of judicial proceedings he can neither abridge nor enlarge the power of Juries no more than he can lessen the legal Power of the Sheriffs or Judges or by special Directions order the one how they shall execute Writs and the other how they shall give Judgments though these made by himself 'T is criminal no doubt for any to say that the King desires a Court of Justice or a Jury to vary from the direction of the Law and they ought not to be believed therein If Letters Writs or other Commands should come to the Judges for that purpose they are bound by their Oaths not to regard them but to hold them for null the Statutes of 2 E. 3.8 and 20 E. 3.1 are express That if any Writs or Commandments come to the Justices in disturbance of the Law or the Execution of the same or of right to the parties they shall proceed as if no such Letters Writs or Commands were come to them And the Substance of these and other Statutes is inserted into the Oath taken by every Judge and if they be under the most solemn and sacred Tye in the Execution of Justice to hold for nothing or none the Commands of the King under the great Seal surely the Word or Desire of an Attorney General in the like case ought to be less than nothing Besides they are strangely mistaken who think the King can have an Interest different from or contrary unto that of the Kingdom in the prosecution of Accused Persons His Concernments are involved in those of his People and he can have none distinct from them He is the Head of the Body Politick and the Legal course of doing Justice is like the orderly Circulation of the Blood in the Natural Bodies by which both Head and Body are equally preserved and both perish by the interruption of it The King is obliged to the utmost of his Power to maintain the Law and Justice in its due course by his Coronation Oath and the Trust thereby reposed in him In former Ages he was conjured not to take the Crown unless he resolved punctually to observe it Brom. p. 1159 Mat. Paris p. 153. Hoved. p. 374. Baker p. 68. Bromton others speaking of the Coronation of Richard the First deliver it thus That having first taken the Oath Deinde indutus Mantello ductus est ad Altare conjuratus ab Archiepiscopo prohibitus ex parte Dei ne hunc Honorem sibi assumat nisi in mente habeat tenere Sacramenta Vota quae superius fecit Et Ipse respondit se per Dei auxilium omnia supradicta observaturum bona fide Deinde cepit Coronam de Altari tradidit eam Archiepiscopo qui posuit eam super caput Regis sic Coronatus Rex ductus est ad sedem suam Afterward cloathed with the Royal Robe he is led to the Altar and conjured by the Archbishop and forbid in the Name of God not to assume that Honour unless he intended to keep the Oaths and Vows he had before made and he answered by God's help he would saithfully observe all the Premises And then he took the Crown from off the Altar and delivered it to the Archbishop who put it upon the King's head and the King thus Crowned is led unto his Seat The violation of which Trust cannot but be as well a wound unto their Consciences as bring great prejudice upon their Persons and Affairs The Common Law that exacts this doth so far provide for Princes That having their minds free from cares of preserving themselves they may rest assured that no Acts Words or Designs that may bring them into danger can be concealed from the many hundreds of men who by the Law are appointed in all parts of the Kingdom watchfully to take care of the King and are so far concerned in his safety that they can hope no longer to enjoy their own Lives and Fortunes in peace than they can preserve him and the good Order which according to the Laws he is to uphold It is the Joynt Interest of King and People that the Antient Rules of doing Justice be held sacred and inviolable and they are equally concerned in causing strict Inquiries to be made into all Evidences given against suspected or accused Persons that the Truth may be discovered and such as dare to disturb the Publick Peace by breaking the Laws may be brought to punishment And the whole course of Judicial Proceedings in Criminal Causes shews that the People is therein equally concerned with the King whose Name is used This is the ground of that distinction which Sir Ed. Coke makes between the Proceedings in Pleas of the Crown and Actions for wrongs done to the King himself Co. 3d. Inst pag. 136. In Pleas of the Crown or other common offences nusances c. principally concerning others or the Publick there the King by Law must be apprised by Indictment Presentment or other matter of Record but the King may have an Action for such wrong as is done to himself and whereof none other can have an Action but the King without being apprised by Indictment Presentment or other matter of Record as a Quare impedit Quare incumbravit a Writ of Attaint of Debt Detinue of Ward Escheat Scire fac pur repealer patent