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177. The Commission of a Justice of the

Peace

(1579. Prothero, 144-147. Translated.)

LIZABETH, by the grace of God *** etc., to our well-beloved and faithful Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, etc. and also to our well-beloved Thomas Bromley, knight, lord chancellor, and William, Lord Burghley, treasurer, Thomas Wotton, [and others], greeting.

[1.] Know ye that we have assigned you, jointly and severally, to keep our peace, and also the statutes and ordinances made at Winchester, Northampton, and Westminster for the preservation of the same peace; and also the ordinances made there and at Cambridge concerning hunters, labourers, artificers, servants, innkeepers, beggars and vagabonds, and the begging men who call themselves' travailing men'; and likewise the statutes and ordinances → made at Westminster in the first and second years of the reign of King Henry IV, late king of England, concerning the knights, squires and varlets with liveries bearing the signs of a company or with liveries of cloth or any liveries of any kind whatsoever and a certain other statute of Henry V, late king etc., concerning counterfeiting, washing, clipping, and other falsifying of the money of our land and to keep and cause to be kept all other ordinances and statutes made for the good of our peace and the quiet rule and government of our people, in our county of Kent, as well within the liberties as without, according to the force, form, and effect of the same: and to chastise and punish all those found offending against the form of the aforesaid ordinances and statutes, as according to the form of the aforesaid ordinances and statutes ought to be done and to cause to come before you all those persons who shall threaten any of our people in their persons, or in burning their houses, to find sufficient security to keep the peace and to be of good behaviour towards us and our people, and if they shall refuse to find such security, then to cause them to be kept safe in our prisons until they shall find such security.

[II.] We have also assigned you and every one of you our justices to inquire by the oath of good and lawful men of the county aforesaid, through whom the truth may be better known, of all manner of felonies, trespasses, forestallings, regratings, and extortions in the aforesaid county by whomsoever and howsoever done and also of all those who have either gone or ridden in

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companies with armed force against our peace to the disturbance of our people and also of those who have lain in wait to wound and slay our people; and also of all those who have used head coverings and other liveries of a single company, by agreement or for maintenance, against the prohibition and form of the aforesaid statutes and ordinances made before these times, and of others using such liveries in the future: and also of inn-keepers and others who have offended or have attempted to offend in the abuse of weights and measures and in the sale of victuals; and also of any labourers, beggars, artificers, servants, inn-keepers, and vagabonds, and others who have offended or attempted to offend in the said county against the form of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid made concerning hunters, labourers [etc.]: and also of those sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, stewards, constables, and gaolers who in the execution of their offices have unlawfully demeaned themselves according to the form of the aforesaid ordinances and statutes made against such artificers [etc.] or have been careless, remiss, or negligent and of all and singular the articles and circumstances and other premises made against the form of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid.

[III.] And to inspect all indictments whatsoever as well those made and not yet determined before you or any of you, or before others, the former guardians of the peace and justices of Edward IV and Edward V late kings of England, and Richard III late (de facto and not de jure) king of England, and Henry VII, late king of England, Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary, [etc.] assigned to hear and to determine such felonies, trespasses, and misdeeds in the said county, as well as those made before you and your associates now guardians of our peace, and before our justices, and not yet determined, and to proceed thereupon and to make and continue the process against all others who may be indicted before you or any of you until they be apprehended, surrender themselves, or be outlawed.

[IV.] We have also assigned you, etc., four, three, and two of you (of whom we wish you, A, B, C, D, etc. to be one) to be our justices to punish and chastise according to the law and custom aforesaid and the form of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid the aforesaid felonies; and all and each of the offences by inn-keepers and others in the abuse of weights and measures and in the sale of victuals, and by labourers [etc.] against the form of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid, or in any way infringing them and to hear and determine the aforesaid extortions and regratings as well at our suit as at that of any whomsoever

wishing to complain and prosecute in such cases before you on behalf of us and of themselves; and also trespasses and forestallings aforesaid and all other things not formally declared to be determined at our suit only and to hear and determine all other cases which by virtue of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid ought to be investigated and determined by the guardians of our peace and by our justices; and to chastise and punish those labourers, artificers, and servants for their offences by fines, payments, and amercements and in any other way as it was accustomed to be done before the ordinance made concerning the corporal punishment to be given to such labourers [etc.] for their offences; and sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, stewards, constables, and gaolers, hunters, victualers, inn-keepers, beggars, and vagabonds according to the form of the ordinances and the statutes aforesaid.

[V.] Provided always that if a case of difficulty in determining such extortions, etc., shall happen to come before you, except it be in the presence of one of our justices of the one or the other bench or of our justices of assize in the county aforesaid, as little progress as possible shall be made in your court towards giving judgment.

[VI.] And therefore we command you and every one of you that you diligently concern yourselves with the keeping of the peace, the ordinances, and the statutes aforesaid; and that at certain days and places which you or any of you shall fix for that purpose, you or any of you shall make diligent inquisitions concerning the premises: and that you shall hear and determine all and singular the premises, and perform and fulfil the same in form aforesaid, doing therein that which to justice appertaineth, according to the law and custom of our realm of England: saving to us the amercements and other things to us thereof belonging.

[VII.] And we have commanded our sheriff of Kent that at certain days and places which you or any of you shall make known to him, he shall cause to come before you or any of you such and as many good and lawful men of his bailiwick (as well within the liberties as without) through whom the truth in the premises may be the better known and investigated.

[VIII.] And you the abovementioned Thomas Wotton, shall cause to be brought before you and your said fellows at the said days and places, the writs, precepts, processes, and indictments aforesaid, and you shall inspect them and by a due course determine, as aforesaid.

In witness whereof, &c. Given the sixth day of August, in the twenty-first year of our reign.

178. The Oath of a Justice of the Peace

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(1581. Prothero, 149, 150.)

VE shall swear that, as justice of the peace in the county of Kent, in all articles in the Queen's Commission to you directed, ye shall do equal 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 counsel with any quarrel hanging before you; and that ye hold your sessions after the form of statutes thereof made and the issues, fines and amercements that shall happen to be made and all forfeitures which shall fall before you ye shall cause to be entered without any concealment or embezzling and truly send them to the Queen's exchequer. Ye shall not let for gift or other cause, but well and truly ye 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 Queen, 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 them to the bailiffs of the said county or other the Queen's officers or ministers, or other indifferent persons to do execution thereof. So help you God and by the contents of this book.

179. Resolutions on the Norfolk Election Case

(1586. Resolutions of the House of Commons. Prothero, 130.)

FIRST, That the first writ was duly executed and the election

good, and the second election absolutely void.

Secondly, That it was a most perilous precedent that, after two knights of a county were duly elected, any new writ should issue out for a second election without order of the House of Commons itself.

Thirdly, That the discussing and adjudging of this and such like differences only belonged to the said House.

Fourthly, That though the Lord Chancellor and Judges were competent judges in their proper courts, yet they were not in parliament.

Fifthly, That it should be entered in the very journal-book of the House that the said first election was approved to be good, and the said knights then chosen had been received and allowed as members of the House, not out of any respect the said House had or gave to the resolution of the Lord Chancellor and Judges therein passed, but merely by reason of the resolution of the House itself, by which the said election had been approved.

Sixthly and lastly, That there should no message be sent to the Lord Chancellor, not so much as to know what he had done therein, because it was conceived to be a matter derogatory to the power and privilege of the said House.

180. The Queen's Message with Regard to Monopolies

(1601. November 25. Message brought to the House of Commons by the Speaker. Prothero, 116, 117.)

IT pleased her Majesty to command me to attend upon her yesterday in the afternoon, from whom I am to deliver unto you all her Majesty's most gracious message, sent by my unworthy self. * * It pleased her Majesty to say unto me, That if she had an hundred tongues she could not express our hearty good-wills. And further she said, That as she had ever held our good most dear, so the last day of our or her life should witness it; and that if the least of her subjects were grieved, and herself not touched, she appealed to the throne of Almighty God, how careful she hath been, and will be, to defend her people from all oppressions. She said, That partly by intimation of her council, and partly by divers petitions that have been delivered unto her both going to chapel and also walking abroad, she understood that divers patents, that she had granted, were grievous to her subjects; and that the substitutes of the patentees had used great oppression. But, she said, she never assented to grant anything which was malum in se. And if in the abuse of her grant there be anything evil, which she took knowledge there was, she herself would take present order of reformation thereof. I cannot express unto you the apparent indignation of her Majesty towards these abuses. She said her kingly prerogative was tender; and therefore desireth us not to speak or doubt of her careful reformation; for, she said, her commandment given.