<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2010-06-22</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Greg Schutz</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Checklist:
x Add TEMPHEAD, change DATE, validate
x Add DIV TYPEs, validate
x Review structure, use FRONT, BODY, BACK, or rarely GROUP
x Check PB placement and completeness, ensure sequence of N=""
x Proof title page(s)
x Check HEAD TRAILER ARGUMENT EPIGRAPH OPENER CLOSER SIGNED SALUTE BYLINE
x Check ^, oe, abq, italic I / J, _Initials, space between &amp;c.
x Check # @ -- UNCLEAR LB FIGURE ABBR
x Check q; startq endq Q
x Correct errors from proofsheet
x Correct illegibles from proofsheet
x Check illegible page, para, line, span, word, dollar signs
x Final validate

Corrected [ ] illegible groups out of [ ].
Converted [ ] illegible groups to GAP DESC="illegible".
DONE</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="A76808">
<STC T="W">b3137</STC>
<STC T="T">e198_25</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99859039</BIBNO>
<VID>111100</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>Sir Richard Blake HIS SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS At a Grand Committee for the Bill again&s;t paper Petitions.</P>
<P>Ma&s;ter <HI>Brereton</HI> &s;itting in the CHAIRE <HI>Iune</HI> XXVIII. 1641.</P>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed <HI>Anno Domini,</HI> 1641.</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD>Sir <HI>Richard Blake</HI> his Speech in the Hou&s;e of COMMONS, at a Grand Committee for the Bill again&s;t Paper Petitions,</HEAD>
<HEAD TYPE="sub">Ma&s;ter <HI>Brereton</HI> &s;itting in the Chaire. June 28. 1641.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Ma&s;ter <HI>Brereton,</HI></SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_THe matter we now treat of is of great importa~ce, it is of the power that Pa|per Petitions have of late u&s;urped in this Kingdom by the Arbitrary Judi|cature of Civill Cau&s;es and Contro|ver&s;ies. It will become the Judgment of this great Councell to con&s;ider, Fir&s;t, of the Nature and E&s;&s;ence, then of the fruits and effects of the&s;e Pa|per Petitions, and la&s;tly, if we finde tho&s;e fruits &s;o bitter and un&s;avoury, that in&s;tead of plea&s;ing they poy&s;on us, to grub them up, and root them &s;o out that they &s;hall never grow again in this <HI>Garden</HI> of ours, this our <HI>Eden,</HI> our deare Country, to de&s;troy us and our po&s;terity, as the forbidden fruit did in <HI>Adam</HI> all mankind.</P>
<PB N="2" REF="3">
<P>Sir, there are many things de&s;cribed by their Contraries, this will be granted is <HI>Color contrarius albo,</HI> it is the deprivation and annihilation of our Fundamentall and vitall Laws: Our Laws (Sir) are the <HI>ne plus ultra</HI> to all Kings and Subjects, and as they are <HI>Hercules</HI> his <HI>Pillars,</HI> &s;o are they <HI>Pillars</HI> to every <HI>Hercules,</HI> and <HI>Prince,</HI> that they cannot pa&s;&s;e; and Pillars that beare and &s;upport every Subject in his life, in his Lands, and his goods.</P>
<P>When <HI>Rome</HI> triumphed in her ancient great|ne&s;&s;e, and was acknowledged &s;ole and &s;overeigne <HI>Empre&s;s</HI> of all the Nations in the World, a Poet of tho&s;e times &s;hewes the cau&s;e of her continued &s;plendour and flouri&s;hing e&s;tate by this Ver&s;e,</P>
<Q><HI>Moribus antiquis &s;tat res</HI> Romana, <HI>virique.</HI></Q>
<P>I may not unaptly apply that Ver&s;e to this Kingdome, and truly &s;ay, that <HI>Legibus antiquis &s;tat res</HI> Hiberna, <HI>virique.</HI> Our Laws are the breath of our no&s;trils, the &s;ight of our eys, the very Soul and Nerves by which this great body politique of ours doth live and move, they are the be&s;t Guards of <HI>Kings, Magi&s;trates,</HI> and vertuous men, they are Snaffles to bridle the wicked, they are Sickles to cut downe all weeds growing up in the Common-weal; tho&s;e paper Petitions are their <HI>Antagoni&s;ts,</HI> their profe&s;t enemies, they trample them under foot, not revering or re&s;pecting their venerable gray-headed antiquity, not regarding that by their influence and vertue wee now &s;it to|gether in this great Councell, a&s;well for the con|&s;ervation of them, as propagation of a new fruit|full &s;eed of more to po&s;teritie, not valuing the
<PB N="3" REF="3">great and un&s;peakable benefit that mankinde hath originally received from them, in that by their means we lead the lives of rea&s;onable men, not of brute Bea&s;ts, of Free-men, not of Slaves, of Civill men, and not of Salvages.</P>
<P>Tho&s;e paper Petitions like whirlewinds throw down all before them that &s;tand in their way, make one man in the <HI>Lucifertan</HI> (as I may term it) Exaltancie of his power to monopolize and ap|propriate unto him&s;elfe the abilities of all men, the properties of all Courts.</P>
<P>The Judges, once like &s;o many Planets &s;hining in their &s;everall Orbs, ob&s;erving their con&s;tant motion in their &s;everall Courts of Judicature, im|parted unto us the comfortable light, and vivifi|cant heat of the Laws, tho&s;e paper Petitions ex|tingui&s;h and put out this light, with the vapours that ri&s;e from them, they ecclip&s;e and darken the Lu&s;tre of it, they &s;ully the white Furres of their Roabes, they endanger the blackning of their whiter con&s;ciences, when by force of the Commands of tho&s;e Petitions they are required contrary to their Oath, not onely to delay, but to denie Ju&s;tice.</P>
<P>The Mar&s;hals Court was originally erected for Armes and Honour, the Chancery for Equitie, the Exchequer for the Revenues, &amp; Kings Bench for the Pleas of the Crown, the Common Pleas for Pleas between Subject and Subject, and the Prerogative, Con&s;i&s;tory, and Bi&s;hops Courts for Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Cau&s;es; from tho&s;e Ci&s;terns the water of life did i&s;&s;ue and flow upon us, but <HI>ini|micus
<PB N="4" REF="4">&amp; iniqu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">s homo &s;uper&s;eminovil z<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 chunk"> in <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 chunk">|dio tritici,</HI> one man in his va&s;t unlimited and tran|&s;cendent power, tooke all their Functions upon him&s;elfe alone, vainly acted him&s;elfe <HI>Omnipotent,</HI> which is an Attribute proper to God Almighty, and that in <HI>quarto modo,</HI> (as your Logicians terme it) <HI>&s;oli &s;emper &amp; uni,</HI> created him&s;elfe Earle Mar|&s;hall, Lord Chancellor, Chiefe Baron, nay, all the Barons of the Exchequer, Chief Ju&s;tice, nay, all the Ju&s;tices of either Bench, Archbi&s;hop, Bi|&s;hop, nay, all the Archbi&s;hops, Bi&s;hops, Deans and Chapters of the Kingdome.</P>
<P><HI>Ju&s;tine</HI> in the Preface to his Hi&s;tory tels us, that in the non-age and fir&s;t infancie of the World, <HI>Populus nullis legibus tenebatur, arbitria potentium pro Legibus erant,</HI> The people had no po&s;itive Laws to govern them, the wills of great ones were their Laws, and tho&s;e wils were &s;o inordinate and &s;o exorbitant, that for the mo&s;t part, they made their own wils and fancies to be their Trea&s;urers, and Hangmen, mea&s;uring by that yard, and weighing in that Ballance both good and evill. After the Revolution of &s;o many Ages, as if <HI>Pythagoras</HI> his opinion of <HI>Tran&s;migration</HI> were true, or that the <HI>Platonicke</HI> yeare of reducing all things to the &s;ame beginning, continuance and period (how fal&s;e &s;oever in the books of nature) had bin come, have we not lived as it were in the&s;e times? have we not groaned? and were not our backs cracked under the weight that paper Petitions, and the Commands of tho&s;e great ones upon them invol|ved, and fettered us in? were not our adver&s;aries
<PB N="5" REF="4">by their References made our Iudges? and our Iudges, our &s;worne Iudges made Arbitrary Cen|&s;urers of what properly was to bee determined before them&s;elves in their Courts? were not our Freeholds and goods violently &amp; extrajudicially taken from us? were not our bodies impri&s;oned? Our bodies (Sir) who&s;e libertie the Common Law did &s;o highly e&s;teeme, that they were not for any cau&s;e what&s;oever to be re&s;trained, but onely for force, and that becau&s;e the Law being the pre&s;erver of the quiet and Tranquility of the Kingdome dete&s;ted and abhorred force, as the enemy and violator thereof, tho&s;e bodies of ours were not onely impri&s;oned, but pillori'd, whipt and &s;courged upon Sentences given upon paper Petitions, and our &s;elves forced, as Chil|dren are, to ki&s;&s;e the rod by making a forced ac|knowledgement of Guilt, again&s;t our knowledge and con&s;cience, without which we could not re|deeme tho&s;e bodies from perpetuall Impri&s;on|ment, our e&s;tates from being extended, and our goods from being &s;eized.</P>
<P>Vpon the late &s;olemne and famous Triall of the Earle of <HI>Strafford,</HI> and in the greate&s;t pre&s;ence of the World, for that the King was plea&s;ed to be per&s;onally pre&s;ent, &amp; all the States of the King|dome of <HI>England</HI> a&s;&s;embled in Parliament, with the Commi&s;&s;ioners and Committees of both his other Kingdomes, it hath beene offered to Con&s;i|deration as a matter of great con&s;equence, that it imba&s;eth the &s;pirits of a Nation, when they mu&s;t &s;tand in feare of Pilloring, Scaffolding, and
<PB N="6" REF="5">like pun&s;hments, it takes away their &s;pirits, ten|ders them pu&s;illanimous and weak-hearted, in <HI>England</HI> where this was repre&s;ented, they &s;uffered not under &s;uch pre&s;&s;ures or feares; the King who&s;e vertues are his Inmates, and true qualities ingen|rate both in his judgement and nature, with the &s;un-&s;hine of his pre&s;ence (which makes them hap|pie) cleares and expells all &s;uch mi&s;ts, but the re|ports of our mi&s;eries occa&s;ioned by the frequen|cie of &s;uch u&s;age, or rather mi&s;-u&s;age, flying over unto them with the gale of our &s;ighes, and &s;pring|tide of our Teares, wrought that charitable Im|pre&s;&s;ion, and drew that Emphaticall expre&s;&s;ion from them, <HI>Si in viridi ligno hoc faciunt, in arid<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter"> quia fiet?</HI> if they out of the &s;ence of our &s;lavi&s;h &s;ufferance tooke that to Con&s;ideration, and their pious Commi&s;eration, have not wee in who&s;e Scene that Tragedie was acted greater cau&s;e to take it to our more &s;erious thoughts? &s;urely we have, and cannot without blemi&s;h to our Iudge|ments, and wrong to our &s;elves and po&s;teritie, but indeavour to remove the cau&s;e, <HI>Sublata cau&s;a tolli|tur effectus:</HI> And the principle cau&s;e I conceive to proceed from tho&s;e paper Petitions, the pro|ceedings upon them being not limited to any certaine Rule, time, &s;ea&s;on, place, cau&s;e, or thing, nor any degree, Sex, age, or quality priviledged by them, by them his Maje&s;ty lo&s;eth a con&s;ide|rable part of his Revenue, that might ju&s;tly and lawfully re&s;ult and acrue unto him out of origi|nall Writs, Fines, Amerciaments and profits, by them the Subject lo&s;eth the benefit of his writ
<PB N="7" REF="5">of Errour, Bill of Rever&s;all, Voucher E&s;&s;oignes, Views, Fines, with Proclamations and Di&s;cents, and by them many other Legall and Ju&s;t advanta|ges in the ordinary cour&s;e, and Courts of Ju&s;tice are declined, and their onely Con&s;equence is by immoderate and unlawfull Fees to enrich Secre|taries, Clerks, Pur&s;ivants, and Serjants at Armes, and not onely them, but Projectors, Informers, and &s;uch other Hor&s;leeches, that &s;uck the bloud of our bodies, and marrow of our bones, and their malig|nant operation re&s;ts not here, but extends to our intrin&s;ecall parts, that wee call <HI>Qualitates anim&aelig;</HI> they &s;trongly endevour to &s;ubvert.</P>
<P>That the planting of Learning is the true and right way to plant Civility, and that</P>
<Q><L>&mdash;ingenuas didici&s;&s;e fideliter artes</L>
<L>Emollit mores, nee &s;init e&s;&s;e feros,</L></Q>
<P>Our owne ob&s;ervation and the experience of all Nations tels us, and <HI>Cornelius Tacitus</HI> in the life of <HI>Agricola</HI> demon&s;trates.</P>
<P><HI>Julius Agricola</HI> the <HI>Roman,</HI> Generall in <HI>Britanie,</HI> found the ancient Inhabitants rude, barbarous, and apt upon every occa&s;ion to make warre, hee being a wi&s;e man, as he was a valiant man, conceived it the be&s;t way to Civilize, and con&s;equently to con|taine them in the Spheare of their obedience to the <HI>Romane Monarchie,</HI> to build and erect free Schools, and places of publike re&s;ort, and in them to have the Children of the Nobles, and Genle|men, trained, and in&s;tructed in the liberall Scien|ces, which he did, the event an&s;wered his expecta|tion, and his policie had the wi&s;hed effect, for the
<PB N="8" REF="6"><HI>Briti&s;h</HI> youth being curious to attaine the Elo|quence of the <HI>Roman</HI> language, the <HI>Romane</HI> attire grew to be in accompt, and the <HI>Go<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="2 letters"></HI> in reque&s;t among them, and &s;o came as <HI>Tacitus</HI> ob&s;erves to the height of Civilitie, which ever &s;ince they have to their great glory maintained. And I am (M. <HI>Bre|reton</HI>) of opinion, that our Ance&s;tors in their great wi&s;dome left for us &s;uch part of the Common-Law as is written, The pleadings of them, and ori|ginall Writs, in the Latin language, becau&s;e that being the generall, and an immutable language, not &s;ubject to be &s;ophi&s;ticated as all other languages (except the <HI>Hebrew</HI> and <HI>Greek</HI>) were, or to receive <HI>Majus aut Minus,</HI> a Language that was never con|quered with any Conque&s;t, and that the fury of the <HI>Saxons, Danes,</HI> and <HI>Normans,</HI> could never &s;o ex|tirpate or &s;uppre&s;&s;e, but that our Laws &s;till lived in it, as in the Ve&s;tall fire that is never extingui&s;ht, to the end I &s;ay, that we might be incited and invi|ted to the knowledge and u&s;e thereof; to &s;treng|then my opinion in this, and to &s;hew how nece&s;&s;a|ry the knowledge of it is for the profe&s;&s;ors of our Laws, I will pre&s;ent unto you the Authorities of two of the greate&s;t Sages of the Law, the one An|cient, the other Recent, and in their own words, which I onely tran&s;late, that I may not di&s;parage, or take off the waight of them by mine.</P>
<P>Mr. <HI>Littleton,</HI> who is the Portall by which all Students make their fir&s;t entrance, and who by his excellent Book gives them <HI>Ariadnes</HI> clue, to guide and direct them in their ways in that intricate La|byrinth, in his chapter of <HI>Confirmation, lib.</HI> 3. <HI>cap.</HI> 9.
<PB N="9" REF="6">gives them this grave and fatherly advice. Know my Sonne, that it is one of the mo&s;t honourable, laudable, and profitable things in our Law, to have the Science of wel Pleading in actions Reall and Per&s;onal, and therefore I coun&s;ell thee to em|ploy thy courage and care to learn this.</P>
<P>Sir <HI>Edward Coke,</HI> who&s;e learned Works are the <HI>Coronides</HI> of the Students endevours, and do poli&s;h the &s;ame, in <HI>Blackamores Ca&s;e</HI> 8. <HI>rep. fol.</HI> 159. &s;ays that the Clerks are bound by the duty of their Offices to have skill and &s;cience in the Forme of original Writs, which are the foundation that all the Law depends of, and therfore if the Forms of originall Writs be neglected, ignorance the mother of Er|rour, and Barbari&s;me will en&s;ue, and in the end all &s;hall be involved in confu&s;ion, and the ancient Law of the Kingdome &s;ubverted.</P>
<P>This is the judgment (M. <HI>Brereton,</HI>) of the&s;e two great Pillars of the Law, and that this they &s;o ear|ne&s;tly direct, hath not been ob&s;erved in paper Pe|titions, wee all know; a common Scrivener draws them, and an illiterate Clerk, (for &s;o many of them are) who&s;e knowledge &s;oares no higher than his mother Tongue, and who&s;e be&s;t abilities, and perfections are to wait officiou&s;ly upon my Lord, his Ma&s;ter, &s;ol<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">icits this, and he, or the powerfull interce&s;sion of a Favourite prevalls more in bu&s;i|ne&s;&s;es of greate&s;t con&s;equence, and where Legall proceedings and Scrutinie are requi&s;ite, then hap|pily a <HI>Littleton</HI> or a <HI>Cook; O tempora, O mores!</HI> which I think we lately had as great cau&s;e as <HI>Tully</HI> to ex|claime upon.</P>
<PB N="10" REF="7">
<P>What a great Ornament to this Kingdome Mr. <HI>Brereton</HI> the Profe&s;&s;ors of our Laws are, how dai|ly and hourely u&s;efull, unto our &s;elves both in this Hou&s;e and in <HI>England,</HI> the members of the Hou&s;e (whom wee terme of the long <HI>Roabe</HI>) are, I leave to the Judicious ob&s;ervation of this Committee, and likewi&s;e to their con&s;ideration how infinitely they and the re&s;t of that Honourable profe&s;sion have beene damnified by tho&s;e paper-bla&s;ts, Bla&s;ts I may well call them, for indeed they bla&s;t, and nip in the very blo&s;&s;ome the hopes of all our Law Students, who having &s;pent the Spring of their yeeres in the <HI>Innes of Court</HI> in that &s;tudie, and many of them the be&s;t part of their fortunes, up|on their returne to this their Native Countrey, their <HI>Land of promi&s;e,</HI> when they expect to meet with a Harve&s;t to crowne their painfull and char|geable endeavours, they have hardly gleanings left for them by tho&s;e paper-Clerks: This Sir as I con|ceive is very con&s;iderable by us, and tho&s;e Paper-Petitions being, as I endeavoured in their tree co|lours to repre&s;ent them, <HI>Tares</HI> introduced &amp; plan|ted among the <HI>Corn</HI> by the enemy of mankinde, at lea&s;t the enemy of the welfare of this Kingdome, in their nature a <HI>Monopoly,</HI> or rather a <HI>Rape</HI> upon all mens abilities and the properties of all Courts, be|ing the Bedels of our bodies, the di&s;&s;ei&s;ors of our Lands, Robers of our goods, Suppre&s;&s;ors of our intellectuall parts, Subverters of the Common-law and Rebels to the Statute-lawes as appeares by <HI>Magna Charta</HI> 2. <HI>Hen.</HI> 3. by 28. and 25. of <HI>E.</HI> 3. and by the Record of 21. <HI>Ed.</HI> 1. that are mentioned in
<PB N="11" REF="7">the preamble of the <HI>Bill,</HI> I am humbly of opinion that as the wi&s;dome of this hou&s;e hath already looked with a retro&s;pect eye upon &s;ome of the many grievances that were occa&s;ioned by them, that with the other eye we looke forward, <HI>Ne quid detrimenti re&s;publica patiatur</HI> hereafter.</P>
<P><HI>M. Brereton,</HI> the nature of domination is &s;uch, in the irregular mindes of &s;ome, that having once broken out of Circle, they cannot indure any limi|tation or bounds, but range at liberty in the wide and &s;pacious fields of their own humours, and be|ing not able to give Laws to their appetites, make Laws as Champions to defend them, and rea&s;on as a Para&s;ite to glorifie them, &amp; that this hath bin &s;o, we have &s;een, &amp; that it may be &s;o hereafter the condition and nature of man tels us, we are there|fore to conclude upon this good way of the perpe|tuall damning of &s;uch paper-Petitions as extra ju|dicially determine Civil cau&s;es, that they may ne|ver ri&s;e after in judgment again&s;t us, that they may not a&s;&s;ume to them&s;elves the force of <HI>Bulls</HI> &amp; <HI>Can|nons</HI> as they have done, or like <HI>Hydra's</HI> heads pullu|late and &s;pring up, to the bane &amp; utter de&s;truction of us and our po&s;terity, And therefore my vote is that the Bill as it is now drawn &s;hall be approved with tho&s;e Provi&s;ions that are in&s;erted in it, that it &s;hall not extend to his Maje&s;ties Courts of Ca&s;tle-Chamber, Chancery, Chancery of the Exchec|quer, Court of Wards, the Pre&s;idencies of <HI>Mon|&s;ter, Connaght,</HI> or the Lievtenancies of the Counties of <HI>Gallway,</HI> &amp; the Countie of <HI>Clare,</HI> or to the Civill proceedings before the Ju&s;tices of <HI>A&s;sizes,</HI> but with
<PB N="2" REF="8">&s;uch qualifications as in the Bill is mentioned, and that the Hou&s;e of the Lords may by Me&s;&s;age bee acquainted with it, that wee may have their con|current approbation, which I doubt not they will cheerfully give, for the impetuous rage of tho&s;e Paper Petitions had no more re&s;pect, and made no other di&s;tinction betweene the freedome of their Peerage, or their e&s;tates and goods, than the mea|ne&s;t common-per&s;ons. And that his Maje&s;ty will give his Royall a&s;&s;ent thereunto, I am hopefull and confident, having already in the aby&s;&s;e of his goodne&s;&s;e and care of his faithfull Subjects of this Kingdome, publikely declared his di&s;&s;ent and a|ver&s;ne&s;&s;e from them in the very fir&s;t Chapter of his Printed In&s;tructions, and likewi&s;e in the Proclamation that we &s;ent over into <HI>England,</HI> to accompany our Prote&s;tation to that part of the Preamble of our Act of Sub&s;idies that extold the Earle of <HI>Straffords</HI> Government. This being my opinion I humbly &s;ubmit to the con&s;ideration and better judgment of this <HI>Committee.</HI></P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
<PB REF="8">
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
