could not carry impeachment out successfully. had no evidence 197. Act for the Attainder of Strafford wrote hu could ure he (1641, May 11. 16 Charles I. Private Acts c. I. 5 S. R 177. Gardiner, WHE 156-158.) risly solding to THEREAS the knights, citizens and burgesses of the House ore then Commons in this present Parliament assembled, have, in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England, impeached Thomas, earl of Strafford, of high treason, for endeavouring to subvert the ancient and fundamental laws and government of His Majesty's realms of England and Ireland, and to introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government, against law, in the said kingdoms, and for exercising a tyrannous and exorbitant power over and against the laws of the said kingdoms, and the liberties, estates and lives of His Majesty's subjects; and likewise having by his own authority commanded the laying and assessing of soldiers upon His Majesty's subjects in Ireland, against their consents, to compel them to obey his unlawful summons and orders, made upon paper petitions in causes between party and party, which accordingly was executed upon divers of His Majesty's subjects in a warlike manner within the said realm of Ireland; and in so doing did levy war against the King's Majesty and his liege-people in that kingdom; and also for that he, upon the unhappy dissolution of the last Parliament, did slander the House of Commons to His Majesty; and did counsel and advise His Majesty that he was loose and absolved from rules of government; and that he had an army in Ireland which he might employ to reduce this kingdom, for which he deserves to undergo the pains and forfeitures of high treason; and the said earl hath also been an incendiary of the wars between the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, all which offences have been sufficiently proved against the said earl upon his impeachment: Be it therefore enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, and by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said earl of Strafford, for the heinous crimes and offences aforesaid, stand, and be adjudged and attainted of high treason, and shall suffer such pains of death, and incur the forfeitures of his goods and chattels, lands, tenements and hereditaments of any estate of freehold or inheritance in the said kingdoms of England and Ireland, which the said earl or any other to his use, or in trust for him, have or had, the day of the first sitting of this Parliament, or at any time since; this is law-declare man Provided that no judge or judges, justice or justices whatsoever, shall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be treason, nor hear or determine any treason in any other manner than he or they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act, and as if this Act had never been had or made; saving always unto all and singular persons, bodies politic and corporate, their heirs and successors, others than the said earl and his heirs, and such as claim from, by, or under him, all such right, title and interest of, in, and to all and singular such of the lands, tenements and hereditaments, as he, they, or any of them had before the first day of this present Parliament, anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding; Provided that the passing of this present Act, or His Majesty's assent thereunto, shall not be any determination of this present Sessions of Parliament; but that this present Sessions of Parliament, and all Bills and matters whatsoever depending in Parliament, and not fully enacted or determined, and all statutes and Acts of Parliament which have their continuance until the end of this present Sessions of Parliament, shall remain, continue, and be in full force, as if this Act had not been. fooking not so ring could not dische, Pail as soon as he ugutill. 198. Act against Dissolving the Long Parlia ment without its own Consent (1641, May 11. 16 Charles I. c. 7. 5 S. R. 103. Gardiner, 158, 159.) WHEREAS great sums of money must of necessity be speedily advanced and provided for the relief of His Majesty's army and people in the northern parts of this realm, and for preventing the imminent danger it is in, and for supply of other His Majesty's present and urgent occasions, which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raising the said monies; which credit cannot be obtained until such obstacles be first removed as are occasioned by fears, jealousies and apprehensions of divers His Majesty's loyal subjects, that this present Parliament may be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, before justice shall be duly executed upon delinquents, public grievances redressed, a firm peace between the two nations of England and Scotland concluded, and before sufficient provision be made for the re-payment of the said monies so to be raised; all which the Commons in this present th. Part of chas I - sunt now not to be d unless with them exsent Parliament assembled, having duly considered, do therefore most humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be declared and enacted : And be it declared and enacted by the King, our Sovereign Lord, with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unless it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose; nor shall be, at any time or times, during the continuance thereof, prorogued or adjourned, unless it be by Act of Parliament to be likewise passed for that purpose; and that the House of Peers shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned, unless it be by themselves or by their own order; and in like manner, that the House of Commons shall not, at any time or times, during this present Parliament, be adjourned, unless it be by themselves or by their own order; and that all and every thing or things whatsoever done or to be done for the adjournment, proroguing, or dissolving of this present Parliament, contrary to this Act, shall be utterly void and of none effect. It exceded its poucas became abusing & oppene for ru Zain Abolition of the Court of Star no Lam buspieles that it should, Chamber had no checks to it, sad no jury. (1641, July 5. 16 Charles. c. 10. 5 S. R. 110. The whole act reprinted in Gardiner, 179-186.) WHEREAS by the Great Charter many times confirmed in Parliament, it is enacted that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseised of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled or otherwise destroyed, and that the King will not pass upon him or condemn him but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land; and by another statute made in the fifth year of the reign of King Edward the Third, it is enacted that no man shall be attached by any accusation nor forejudged of life or limb, nor his lands, tenements, goods nor chattels seised into the King's hands against the form of the Great Charter and the law of the land; and by another statute made in the five-and-twentieth year of the reign of the same King Edward the Third, it is accorded, assented and established, that none shall be taken by petition or suggestion made to the King or to his Council, unless it be by indictment or presentment of good and lawful people of the same neighbourhood where such deeds be done, in due manner or by process made by writ origi commerce court. R. R. commission correspond. To this nal at the common law, and that none be put out of his franchise or freehold unless he be duly brought in to answer and forejudged of the same by the course of the law, and if anything be done against the same, it shall be redressed and holden for none; and by another statute made in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of the same King Edward the Third, it is amongst other things enacted, that no man of what estate or condition soever he be shall be put out of his lands or tenements, nor taken nor imprisoned nor disinherited without being brought in to answer by due process of law; and by another statute made in the two-andfortieth year of the reign of the said King Edward the Third, it is enacted, that no man be put to answer without presentment before Justices or matter of record, or by due process and writ original according to the old law of the land, and if anything be done to the contrary, it shall be void in law and holden for error; and by another statute made in the six-and-thirtieth year of the same King Edward the Third, it is amongst other things enacted, that all pleas which shall be pleaded in any Courts before any of the King's Justices, or in his other places, or before any of his other ministers, or in the Courts and places of any other Lords within the realm, shall be entered and enrolled in Latin; and whereas by the statute made in the third year of King Henry the Seventh, power is given to the Chancellor, the Lord Treasurer of England for the time being, and the Keeper of the King's Privy Seal, or two of them, calling unto them a Bishop and a Temporal Lord of the King's most honourable Council, and the two Chief Justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas for the time being, or other two Justices in their absence, to proceed as in that Act is expressed for the punishment of some particular offences therein mentioned; and by the statute made in the one-and-twentieth year of King Henry the Eighth, the President of the Council is associated to join with the Lord Chancellor and other Judges in the said statute of the third of Henry the Seventh mentioned:[but the said Judges have not kept themselves to the points limited by the said statute, but have undertaken to punish where no law doth warrant, and to make decrees for things having no such authority, and to inflict heavier punishments than by any law is warranted; II. Forasmuch as all matters examinable or determinable before the said Judges, or in the Court commonly called the Star Chamber, may have their proper remedy and redress, and their due punishment and correction, by the common law of the land, and in the ordinary course of justice elsewhere; and forasmuch as the reasons and motives inducing the erection and continuance of that Court do now cease; and the proceedings, censures and decrees of that Court have by experience been found to be an intolerable burden to the subjects, and the means to introduce an arbitrary power and government; and forasmuch as the Council Table hath of late times assumed unto itself a power to intermeddle in civil causes and matters only of private interest between party and party, and have adventured to determine of the estates and liberties of the subject, contrary to the law of the land and the rights and privileges of the subject, by which great and manifold mischiefs and inconveniences have arisen and happened, and much uncertainty by means of such proceedings hath been conceived concerning men's rights and estates: for settling whereof and preventing the like in time to come : III. Be it ordained and enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, that the said Court commonly called the Star Chamber, and all jurisdiction, power and authority belonging unto or exercised in the same Court, or by any of the Judges, Officers or Ministers thereof, be from the first day of August in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred forty and one, clearly and absolutely dissolved, taken away, and determined; and that from the said first day of August neither the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal of England, the Lord Treasurer of England, the Keeper of the King's Privy Seal, or President of the Council, nor any Bishop, Temporal Lord, Privy Councillor, or Judge, or Justice whatsoever, shall have any power or authority to hear, examine or determine any matter or thing whatsoever in the said Court commonly called the Star Chamber, or to make, pronounce or deliver any judgment, sentence, order or decree, or to do any judicial or ministerial act in the said Court; and that all and every Act and Acts of Parliament, and all and every article, clause, and sentence in them and every of them, by which any jurisdiction, power or authority is given, limited or appointed unto the said Court, commonly called the Star Chamber, or unto all or any the Judges, Officers or Ministers thereof, or for any proceedings to be had or made in the said Court, or for any matter or thing to be drawn into question, examined or determined there, shall, for so much as concerneth the said Court of Star Chamber, and the power and authority thereby given unto it be, from the said first day of August, repealed and absolutely revoked and made void. IV. And be it likewise enacted, that the like jurisdiction now used and exercised in the Court before the President and Council in the Marches of Wales; and also in the Court before the Presi |