Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	know_v	speak_v	word_n	9,131	5	4.2861	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91658	A Reply to a paper written by one of the six-clerks, intituled, An answer to a printed paper of the under-clerks in Chancery, intituled, Reasons to be offered, &c.		1655 (1655)	Wing R1053; Thomason E826_17; ESTC R207733	10,106	15

them both to the Court and Clyent better then the six Clerks performed their trust the businesse of the Court would have been in farre worse condition then now it is although it be bad enough for certainly all the care and faithfulness that hath been performed either towards the Court or the Suitors as to the practical part thereof hath been performed by the Clerks and by none but the Clerks As to instance in the passing of a Decree being a thing of as great moment as any thing in the Court betwixt party and party the Clerks take much pains and care truly to collect and compose it out of the Pleadings and Orders of the Court and then examine the same with the same Pleadings and Orders wherein he often spends three four or five dayes and then presents it to the six Clerk to be signed who thereupon certifies the Court that he hath examined it and receives twenty shillings for the same although in truth he knows not one word that is contained in it nor can most of the six Clerks say if they speak the truth that ever they examined a Decree in their lives nor if they should examine them do they know whether the same are done as they ought to be or not And hereupon the Register upon the Clerks credit presents it to be signed by the Lords Commissioners so that there is no pains or care bestowed about it but what is done by the Clerk nay I will boldly affirm If the Clerks of the Court had been such as the Author of the Pamphlet styles them it had been no hard matter for them till of late that a greater care hath been taken by the Lords Commissioners to have passed Decrees against any man in England for ten thousand pound there being no care taken what was presented to the Lords Commissioners to be signed but what was done by the Clerks And as in Decrees so I might instance likewise in almost every thing that is done in the Court. And I hope if there be just cause as certainly there is to make sixty or seventy Attourneys in the Court of Chancery every judicious man will think it reasonable that the Attourneys of the Court now should have half so much allowed them for their Fees as the Attourneys of the same Court had two hundred years since carefull laborious and able Attourneys being men of so great trust and absolute necessity in every Court of Justice that the business of the Court cannot be done without them But as for superintendent Officers such as are the six Clerks chief Register and chief Examiners Subpena Officers c. Although many think it to be an honour to a Court to have such Officers in it and therefore Prophesie that their removall will occasion many inconveniencies and disorders yet I will tell them that these and such like Officers are the disgrace and dishonour of a Court of Justice And the Chancery never was in so great Honour as when there were none but working Attornies and Clerks viz. Clerici primae secundae formae every of which truly performed the work and labour for which they were ordained Nor was the Court ever in such dishonour and ignominy as it hath been since these Clerks became Officers And give me leave like a poor Micaia to foretell that there never will nor can be any effectuall Reformation as long as there are superintendent Officers continued between the Master of the Rols and the Clerks of the Court who dispatch the Clients businesse to receive the greatest part of the Fees which the Clients pay For whatsoever Fees are allowed whether it be the same in the Ordinance or more or lesse if the Clerks receive the same to their own use the businesse will be well dispatched and the Records well kept whereas if the greatest part of the Fees which are paid pending the suit be given to Superintendent Officers businesse will never be well done And the Rule observed in ancient time is very remarkable where we may see how carefull and prudent men were that Clients Causes should not be obstructed for when the Master of the Rols was only a Ministeriall Officer viz. chief Clerk and the six Attornies acted for Clients in all respects as Clerks do now the Master of the Rols received no Fees from any Clients pending the suit but the Attornies who did the whole businesse received the whole Fees due for the same to their own use But at and after the hearing of the Causes the Master of the Rols received Fees viz. for every Decree and Dismission vjs viijd and for every Exemplification Vidimus and Constat the like Fee And no doubt this was so done that the Attornies might have no cause to neglect or delay the Clients Causes which they would undoubtedly have done if the Master of the Rols being the then chief Clerk had received the greatest part of the Fees due for their Labours but especially if he had compelled them to pay their Clients Fees out of their own Purses whether ever they received them of the Clients or not as of late hath been practised for 't is impossible to make a Law to binde the Consciences of men with their own Money to pay other men the rewards and wages due for their own Labour And with sorrow it is spoken I am now become of the same opinion with those though I have formerly much opposed them who think that a Court or Courts of Justice or other thing that is of a publique concernment to the Commonwealth when the same hath proceeded in an irregular and disorderly way grievous to the people without any through and full Reformation for the space of eighty or an hundred years that then it is altogether impossible to reform them For they say and I finde it too true That in so long a continuance of time there will be so many men of quality and estate immediatly concerned and so many others mediatly concerned upon the Accompt of friendship or other like accompt that this of it self will be a great Bullwork against an impartiall Reformation I have heretofore answered this and the like Objections and urged to the Objector thus Why might not men of ability and integrity and men no waies concerned neither immediatly nor mediatly call every man one by one that hath any relation to a Court of Justice before them and examine him and also such others as are fit to be examined what Fees every man receives from the Clients and what service they perform for the same Fees and whether this be for the good and advantage of Clients and necessary to be done or whether superfluous and unnecessary and performed only for the Fees sake and not for any good it brings to the people And by this narrow scrutiny it might be brought to such a perfect and exact Reformation that no man should be continued to receive ten groats or ten pence from the Client that could not give a good Accompt why he receives it and that he performs some necessary service for the Client deserving the same But I do not see that this course is like to be taken For they that are exalted and stand on the upper ground because they see more then I do think they see all whereas I and others like me that stand much below them do see things which they by reason of their distance of place cannot see Yet I hope and pray that I may see a reall Regulation and Reformation of the Court of Chancery which if I do not see effected I shall not yet cease having little else to do to tell the people of this Nation and that more plainly then I have yet done where the fault lies FINIS

A REPLY TO A PAPER Written by one of the Six CLERKS INTITULED An Answer to a Printed Paper of the under-Clerks in Chancery INTITULED Reasons to be offered c. THE Respondent or Author of the Paper doth well to Intitle himself A Lover of Truth and Justice else no man by his Writing could ever have thought him so And where he conjectures the Reasons to be framed by some under-Clerks in Chancery he may possibly be so farre in the right but not a word further And for the satisfaction he desires who will own it he may please to understand that the Clerks of the Court do generally own it and many of them have so exprest themselves unto me and for the truth of the matter no man need to doubt it for if it might be put into a way of Examination it would be made appear upon the Oathes of 100 severall persons and if the Author thinks himself and the rest of his brethren scandalized with matter of truth I cannot help it And the Author having finished his Prologue instead of giving an Answer to the Reasons fals a railing at the Clerks for saying their Allowances are too small and cals them sherks for that they share with the six Clerks in the Fees which the Clients pay In Vindication of whose Reputation although I forbear to say that the six Clerks have first sherked upon the Clerks yet I shall truly inform the Reader how they have used the Clerks and not the Clerks alone but even the Lord Protector himself and all the people of the Nation and leave it to others to give their actions a name according as they deserve For anciently when the businesse of the Court was but little and the six Clerks were not only nominall but reall Attorneys advising and directing Clients and laying out and disbursing money for them and thereby adventuring the losse thereof and with their own hands writing all the speciall businesse of the Court wherein any Clerkship was required and had but one or two young Clerks apiece to write and copy things of an ordinary and easie nature even then the same young Clerks their meniall servants had all the Fees which the six Clerks of late allowed to the practizing Clerks and had also their Diet Chamber-rent Paper Ink Parchment and Candles Blank-writs of all sorts second Copies renued Writs and Copies of Decrees and Dismissions and the whole Fees of many Writs some of which the six Clerks themselves afterwards took from the Clerks and others they suffered to be taken away by Patentees as making Subpenas ingrossing of Grants and Leases to the great Seal and the like which the six Clerks opposed not it trenching upon the Clerks only And when the six Clerks ceased to act for the Clients as Attornies making it their chief imployment to keep Books of Entries whereby to exact their pretended Fees all the care and burden of Causes being cast upon the Clerks and they compelled to disburse all monies to be laid out for Clients and very often with their own mony to pay the Clients Fees which grew due for their own labour to the six Clerks which they never received again from the Clients and undergo all other hazards and losses And when all the aforesaid allowances were likewise withheld from them and the benefit of divers Writs gone as aforesaid it may be truly said that there was a necessity laid upon the Clerks to withhold a greater part of the Fees which the Clients paid then the six Clerks would seem willing to allow them and this they might lawfully do without violation of the Laws of God or man for I finde no text of Scripture that erects such Officers as the six Clerks to live upon the peoples purses without any care or regard of or ability to do them service in their Causes nor is there any Statute or other Law that creates them save only their illegall Parent granted in the time of Monopolies by the late King Charles but there are severall Acts of Parliament prohibiting the buying and selling of Offices And I likewise finde a Text of Scripture where the righteous God taking upon himself the businesse of Reformation promiseth his people to send them Judges as at the first and Officers as at the beginning From whence it may be concluded that Officers and others in Publique imployment had need sometimes to be reformed and brought to their Primitive constitution And if the six Clerks were still so continued and made to become working Attorneys as at the first Ao 12º Ri. 2● they were increased from three to six and so many more added unto them and made Attorneys likewise as are necessary for dispatch of the businesse of the Court I think no man would desire to remove them out of such their proper imployment or to receive one penny of their Fees But they have not only thus abused the Clerks but have in a much higher nature abused the Lord Protector and all the people of the Nation Witnesse their receiving very large Fees for inrolling all such Grants and Pardons and other things as passe the Great Seal and never inrolling or estreating many of them whereby the Lord Protector and Commonwealth are very much abused and the Rents and Reservations upon them for want of sending Estreats into the Exchequer never appear whereby they may be demanded or levied as they ought to be And the people are greatly abused not only their Estates but their Lives being in danger for want of inrolling the Grants and Pardons there having been few or none inrolled for these fourteen years last past And the Warrants and Privy Seals for passing them are so ill kept that many of them within these nine or ten years last are quite rotten not to be read again so that now its impossible ever to have them inrolled and the truth hereof would appear were the Clerks appointed for keeping the Records examined upon Oath and search made at the Hamper Office what Patents have passed within these fourteen years last past and then see in the Chappell of the Rols and Exchequer how many of the Rols are sent to the Chappell of the Rols or Estreat into the Exchequer And now what name these doings and actions of the six Clerks shall have I leave to the Reader to judge But I am sure that which the Author of the Pamphlet cals sherking in the Clerks is but the receiving of lesse then one half of the wages due for their own labours which some of the greatest and most wise of the late six Clerks have acknowledged to be due and of right belonging to them For I remember when I waited upon one of the six Clerks some of the younger sort of them proposing Rules of practice to tye the Clerks to a more strict Accompt I heard that grave and wise Gentleman Mr Saunders sometime one of the six Clerks expresse himself to this effect viz. Let them alone they do the Work that we ought to