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delay. Truly, Sir, such delays as these neither may the kingdom not justice well bear; you have had three several days to have offered in this kind what you would have pleased. This Court is founded upon the authority of the Commons of England, in whom rests the supreme jurisdiction; that which you now tender, is to have another jurisdic tion, and a co-ordinate jurisdiction. I know very well you express yourself, Sir, that notwithstanding that you would offer to the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber, yet nevertheless you would proceed on here, I did hear you say so; but, Sir, that you would offer there, whatever it is, must needs be in delay of the justice here; so as if this Court be resolved, and prepared for the sentence, this that you offer they are not bound in justice to grant; but, Sir, according to that you seem to desire, and because you shall know the further pleasure of the Court upon that which you have moved, the Court will withdraw for a time.

King. Shall I withdraw ?'.

President. Sir, you shall know the pleasure of the Court presently: the Court withdraws for half an hour into the Court of Wards.

Serjeant at Arms, the Court gives command that the prisoner be withdrawn, and they give order for his return again.

The Court withdraws for half an hour and returns.

President. Serjeant at Arms, send for your prisoner.

Sir, you were pleased to make a motion here to the Court, to offer a desire of your's touching the propounding of somewhat to the Lords in the Painted Chamber for the peace of the kingdom: Sir, you did in effect receive an answer before the Court adjourned; truly, Sir, their withdrawing and adjournment was pro forma tantum, for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing; they have considered of what you have moved, and have considered of their own authority, which is founded (as hath been often said) upon the supreme authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament, the Court acts according to the commission. Sir, the return I have to you from the Court, is this, that they have been too much delayed by you already, and this that you now offer hath occasioned some little further delay, and they are Judges appointed by the highest Judges, and judges are no more to delay, than they are to deny justice: they are good words in the old charter of England, Nulli negabimus, nulli vendemus, nulli deferemus justitiam. There must be no delay; but the truth is, Sir, and so every man here observes it, that you have much delayed them in your contempt and default, for which they might have

long since proceeded to judgment against you, and 'notwithstanding what you have offered, they are resolved to proceed to punishment, and to judgment, and that is their unanimous resolution.

King. Sir, I know it is in vain for me to dispute, I am no sceptic for to deny the power that you have, I know that you have power enough; Sir, I confess I think it would have been for the kingdom's peace, if you would have taken the pains for to have shown the lawfulness of your power; for this delay, that I have desired, 1 confess it is a delay, but it is a delay very important for the peace of the kingdom, for it is not my person that I look on alone, it is the kingdom's welfare, and the kingdom's peace. It is an old sentence, That we should think on long, before we have resolved of great matters suddenly. Therefore, Sir, I do say again, that I do put at your doors all the inconveniency of an hasty sentence; I confess, I have been here now I think this week; this day eight days, was the day I came here first, but a little delay of a day or two further, may give peace, whereas an hasty judg ment may bring on that trouble and perpetual inconveniency to the kingdom, that the child that is unborn may repent it, and therefore again out of the duty I owe to God, and to my country, I do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and Commons in the Painted Cham ber, or any other chamber that you will appoint me.'

President. Sir, you have been already answered to what you even now moved, being the same you moved before, since the resolution and the judgment of the Court in it, and the Court now requires to know whether you have any more to say for yourself, than you have said, before they proceed the sentence.

King. I say this, Sir, that if you will hear me, if you will give me but this delay, I doubt not but I shall give some satisfaction to you all here, and to my people after that, and therefore I do require you, as you will answer it in the dreadful day of judgment, that you will consider it once again.'

President. Sir, I have received direction from the Court.

King. Well, Sir.'

President. If this must be reinforced or any thing of this nature, your answer must be the same, and they will proceed to sentence if you have nothing more to say.

King. I have nothing more to say, but I shall desire that this may be entered, what I have said.'

President. The Court then, Sir, hath something to say unto you, which although I know it will be very unacceptable, yet notwithstanding they are willing, and are resolved to discharge their duty.

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Sir, you speak very well of a precious thing that you call peace, and it had been much to be wished that God had put it into your heart, that you had as effectually and really endeavoured and studied the peace of the kingdom, as now in words you seem to pretend; but as you were told the other day, actions must expound intentions, your actions have been clean contrary, and truly, Sir, it doth appear plainly enough to them, that you have gone upon very erroneous principles; the kingdom hath felt it to their smart, and it will be no ease to you to think of it, for, Sir, you have held yourself, and let fall such language, as if you had been no ways subject to the law, or that the law had not been your superior. Sir, the Court is very well sensible of it, and I hope so are all the understanding people of England, that the law is your superior: that you ought to have ruled according to the law, you ought to have done so, Sir. I know very well your pretence hath been that you have done so ; but, Sir, the difference hath been, who shall be the expositors of this law; Sir, whether you and your party out of courts of justice, shall take upon them to expound law, or the courts of justice, who are the expounders; nay, the sovereign and the High Court of Justice, the Parliament of England, who are not only the highest expounders, but the sole makers of the law. Sir, for you to set your self with your single judgment, and those that adhere unto you, against the highest Court of Justice, that is not law: Sir, as the law is your superior, so truly, Sir, there is something superior to the law, and that is indeed the parent or author of the law, and that is the people of Eng land. For, Sir, as they are those that at the first (as other countries have done), did chuse to themselves this form of government, even for justice sake, that justice might be administered, that peace might be preserved: so, Sir, they gave laws to their governors, according to which they should govern; and if those laws should have proved inconvenient, or prejudicial to the public, they had a power in them, and reserved to themselves, to alter as they should see cause. Sir, it is very true, what some of your side have said, Rex non habet parem in Regno. This Court will say the same while King, that you have not your peer in some sense, for you are Major singulis, but they will aver again, that you are Minor universis; and the same author tells you, that in exhibitione juris, there you have no power, but are quasi mi

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This we know to be law, Rex habet superiorem, deum et legem, eliam et curiam, so says the same author; and truly, Sir, he makes bold to go a little further, Debent ei ponere frænum, they ought to brible him; and, Sir, we know very well the stories of old; those wars

that were called the Barons' wars, when the nobility of the land did stand out for the liberty and property of the subject, and would not suffer the Kings that did invade, to play the tyrants here, but called them to account for it, we know that truth, that they did frænum ponere. But, Sir, if they do forbear to do their duty now, and are not so mindful of their own honour and the kingdom's good, certainly the Commons of England will not be unmindful of what is for their preservation and for their safety: Justitia fruendi causa reges constituti sunt. This we learn is the end of having Kings, or any other govern ors, it's for the enjoying of justice, that's the end. Now, Sir, if so be, the King will go contrary to the end of his government, Sir, he must understand that he is but an officer of trust, and he ought to discharge that trust, and they are to take order for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending governor.

This is not law of yesterday, Sir, (since the time of the division betwixt you and your people,) but it is law of old; and we know very well the authors and authorities that do tell us what the law was in that point upon the election of Kings, upon the oath that they took unto their people, and if they did not observe it, there were those things · called Parliaments. The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge (the very words of the author) the plaints and wrongs done of the King and Queen, or their children; such wrongs especially, when the people could have no where else any remedy. Sir, that hath been the ple of England's case, they could not have their remedy elsewhere but in Parliament.

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Sir, Parliaments were ordained for that purpose to redress the griev ances of the people, that was their main end; and truly, Sir, if so be that the Kings of England had been rightly mindful of themselves, they were never more in majesty and state than in the Parliament: but how forgetful some have been, histories have told us; we have a miserable, a lamentable, a sad experience of it. Sir, by the old laws of England (I speak these things the rather to you, because you were pleased to let fall the other day, you thought that you had as much knowledge in the law as most gentlemen in England; it is very well, Sir. And truly, Sir, it is very good for the gentlemen of England to understand that law under which they must live, and by which they must be governed. And then, Sir, the scripture says, They that know their master's will, and do it not, what follows? The law is your master, the acts of Parliaments); the Parliaments were to be kept anciently, we find in our author, twice in the year, that the subject upon any occasion, might have a ready remedy and redress for his grievance. After

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