Law. MAN may plead not guilty, and yet tell no Lie; for by the Law, no Man is bound to accuse himself; so that when I say Not Guilty, the meaning is, as if I should say by way of paraphrase, I am not so guilty as to tell you; if you will bring me to a Trial, and have me punished for this you lay to my Charge, prove it against me. 2. Ignorance of the Law excuses no man; not that all Men know the Law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no Man can tell how to confute him. 3. The King of Spain was outlawed in WestminsterHall, I being of Council against him. A Merchant had recovered Costs against him in a Suit, which because he could not get, we advised to have him Outlawed for not appearing, and so he was. As soon as Gondomar heard that, he presently sent the Money, by reason, if his Master had been Outlawed, he could not have the benefit of the Law, which would have been very prejudicial, there being then many suits depending betwixt the King of Spain, and our English Merchants.* 4. Every Law is a Contract between the King and the People, and therefore to be kept. A Hundred Men may * Sir John Leach, when Vice-chancellor in 1819, stated the law of the land to be that foreign monarchs or governments have no peculiar privilege in the courts of law, where they are only considered in the light of private individuals, and can sue and be sued as such. owe me a Hundred Pounds, as well as any one Man; and shall they not pay me because they are stronger than I? Objection. Oh but they lose all if they keep that Law. Answer. Let them look to the making of their Bargain. If I sell my Lands, and when I have done, one comes and tells me I have nothing else to keep me. I and my Wife and Children must starve, if I part with my Land; must I not therefore let them have my Land, that have bought it and paid for it? 5. The Parliament may declare Law,* as well as any other inferior Court may, (viz.) the King's Bench. In that or this particular Case, the King's Bench will declare unto you what the Law is, but that binds no body but *The Parliament may declare. This may refer to the Lords sitting on appeals, Peerages, &c. or as a Court of Justice, as in Stafford's trial. Or to some such language as this Manifesto put forth by the Parliament against one of the King's in 1642. They declare that "the King alone could not be Judge in this case," (the state of the nation, &c.) " for the King judges not matters of law but by his courts; nor can the Courts of Law be Judges of the state of the Kingdom against the Parliament, because they are inferior. But as the Law is determined by the Judges, who are of the King's Council; so the state of the Nation is to be determined by the two Houses of Parliament, who are the proper Judges of the Constitution. If therefore the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled declare this or the other matter to be Law, or according to the Constitution of the Kingdom, it is not lawful for any single person or inferior court to contradict it."Resolved: "That when the Lords and Commons, which is the supreme Law of Judicature in the Kingdom shall declare what the Law is to have this not only questioned but contradicted, and a command that it should not be obeyed, is a high breach of Privilege of Parliament."-Rushworth, v. iii. part 1. p. 698. whom the Case concerns: so the highest Court, the Parliament may do, but not declare Law, that is, make Law that was never heard of before. Law of Nature. CANNOT fancy to myself what the Law of Nature means, but the Law of God.* How should I know I ought not to steal, I ought not to commit Adultery, unless some body had told me so? Surely 'tis because I have been told so? 'Tis not because I think I ought not to do them, nor because you think I ought not; if so, our minds might change, whence then comes the restraint? From a higher Power, nothing else can bind. I cannot bind myself, for I may untie myself again; nor an equal cannot bind me, for we may untie one another: it must be a superior Power, even God Almighty. If two of us make a Bargain, why should either of us stand to it? What need you care what you say, or what need I care what I say? Certainly because there is something about me that tells me Fides est servanda; and if we after alter our Minds, and make a new Bargain, there's Fides servanda there too. * The reader need scarcely be reminded that Selden has written a learned treatise "De Jure Naturali et Gentium, juxta Disciplinam Ebræorum." Learning. O Man is the wiser for his Learning: it may administer Matter to work in, or Objects to work upon; but Wit and Wisdom are born with a Man. 2. Most Mens Learning is nothing but History duly taken up. If I quote Thomas Aquinas for some Tenet, and believe it, because the School-Men say so, that is but History. Few men make themselves Masters of the things they write or speak. 3. The Jesuits and the Lawyers of France, and the Low-Country-men, have engrossed all Learning. The rest of the World make nothing but Homilies. 4. 'Tis observable, that in Athens where the Arts flourished, they were governed by a Democracy: Learning made them think themselves as wise as any body, and they would govern as well as others; and they spake as it were by way of Contempt, that in the East, and in the North they had Kings, and why? Because the most part of them followed their Business; and if some one Man had made himself wiser than the rest, he governed them, and they willingly submitted themselves to him. Aristotle makes the Observation. And as in Athens the Philosophers made the People knowing, and therefore they thought themselves wise enough to govern; so does preaching with us, and that makes us affect a Democracy: for upon these two Grounds we all would be Governors, either be cause we think ourselves as wise as the best, or because we think ourselves the Elect, and have the Spirit, and the rest a Company of Reprobates that belong to the Devil. Lecturers. ECTURERS do in a Parish Church what the bestowed upon the Minister. 2. Lecturers get a great deal of Money, because they preach the People tame, as a Man watches a Hawk;* and then they do what they list with them. 3. The Lectures in Black-Friars, performed by Officers of the Army, Tradesmen, and Ministers, is as if a great Lord should make a Feast, and he would have his Cook dress one Dish, and his Coachman another, his Porter a third, &c. Libels. HOUGH some make slight of Libels, yet you may see by them how the Wind sits: as take a Straw and throw it up into the Air, you shall see by that which way the Wind is, which you shall not * Hawks were tamed by watching. Shakespeare has several allusions to it: Desdemona in assuring Cassio how she will urge his suit to Othello, says: "I'll watch him tame, and talk him out of patience." |