THe matter we now treat of is of great importāce, it is of the power that Pa­per Petitions have of late usurped in this Kingdom by the Arbitrary Judi­cature of Civill Causes and Contro­versies. It will become the Judgment of this great Councell to consider, First, of the Nature and Essence, then of the fruits and effects of these Pa­per Petitions, and lastly, if we finde those fruits so bitter and unsavoury, that instead of pleasing they poyson us, to grub them up, and root them so out that they shall never grow again in this Garden of ours, this our Eden, our deare Country, to destroy us and our posterity, as the forbidden fruit did in Adam all mankind.

Sir, there are many things described by their Contraries, this will be granted is Color contrarius albo, it is the deprivation and annihilation of our Fundamentall and vitall Laws: Our Laws (Sir) are the ne plus ultra to all Kings and Subjects, and as they are Hercules his Pillars, so are they Pillars to every Hercules, and Prince, that they cannot passe; and Pillars that beare and support every Subject in his life, in his Lands, and his goods.

When Rome triumphed in her ancient great­nesse, and was acknowledged sole and sovereigne Empress of all the Nations in the World, a Poet of those times shewes the cause of her continued splendour and flourishing estate by this Verse,

I may not unaptly apply that Verse to this Kingdome, and truly say, that Legibus antiquis stat res Hiberna, virique. Our Laws are the breath of our nostrils, the sight of our eys, the very Soul and Nerves by which this great body politique of ours doth live and move, they are the best Guards of Kings, Magistrates, and vertuous men, they are Snaffles to bridle the wicked, they are Sickles to cut downe all weeds growing up in the Common-weal; those paper Petitions are their Antagonists, their profest enemies, they trample them under foot, not revering or respecting their venerable gray-headed antiquity, not regarding that by their influence and vertue wee now sit to­gether in this great Councell, aswell for the con­servation of them, as propagation of a new fruit­full seed of more to posteritie, not valuing the [Page 3]great and unspeakable benefit that mankinde hath originally received from them, in that by their means we lead the lives of reasonable men, not of brute Beasts, of Free-men, not of Slaves, of Civill men, and not of Salvages.

Those paper Petitions like whirlewinds throw down all before them that stand in their way, make one man in the Lucifertan (as I may term it) Exaltancie of his power to monopolize and ap­propriate unto himselfe the abilities of all men, the properties of all Courts.

The Judges, once like so many Planets shining in their severall Orbs, observing their constant motion in their severall Courts of Judicature, im­parted unto us the comfortable light, and vivifi­cant heat of the Laws, those paper Petitions ex­tinguish and put out this light, with the vapours that rise from them, they ecclipse and darken the Lustre of it, they sully the white Furres of their Roabes, they endanger the blackning of their whiter consciences, when by force of the Commands of those Petitions they are required contrary to their Oath, not onely to delay, but to denie Justice.

The Marshals Court was originally erected for Armes and Honour, the Chancery for Equitie, the Exchequer for the Revenues, & Kings Bench for the Pleas of the Crown, the Common Pleas for Pleas between Subject and Subject, and the Prerogative, Consistory, and Bishops Courts for Ecclesiasticall Causes; from those Cisterns the water of life did issue and flow upon us, but ini­micus [Page 4]& iniqu [...]s homo superseminovil z [...] in [...] ­dio tritici, one man in his vast unlimited and tran­scendent power, tooke all their Functions upon himselfe alone, vainly acted himselfe Omnipotent, which is an Attribute proper to God Almighty, and that in quarto modo, (as your Logicians terme it) soli semper & uni, created himselfe Earle Mar­shall, Lord Chancellor, Chiefe Baron, nay, all the Barons of the Exchequer, Chief Justice, nay, all the Justices of either Bench, Archbishop, Bi­shop, nay, all the Archbishops, Bishops, Deans and Chapters of the Kingdome.

Justine in the Preface to his History tels us, that in the non-age and first infancie of the World, Populus nullis legibus tenebatur, arbitria potentium pro Legibus erant, The people had no positive Laws to govern them, the wills of great ones were their Laws, and those wils were so inordinate and so exorbitant, that for the most part, they made their own wils and fancies to be their Treasurers, and Hangmen, measuring by that yard, and weighing in that Ballance both good and evill. After the Revolution of so many Ages, as if Pythagoras his opinion of Transmigration were true, or that the Platonicke yeare of reducing all things to the same beginning, continuance and period (how false soever in the books of nature) had bin come, have we not lived as it were in these times? have we not groaned? and were not our backs cracked under the weight that paper Petitions, and the Commands of those great ones upon them invol­ved, and fettered us in? were not our adversaries [Page 5]by their References made our Iudges? and our Iudges, our sworne Iudges made Arbitrary Cen­surers of what properly was to bee determined before themselves in their Courts? were not our Freeholds and goods violently & extrajudicially taken from us? were not our bodies imprisoned? Our bodies (Sir) whose libertie the Common Law did so highly esteeme, that they were not for any cause whatsoever to be restrained, but onely for force, and that because the Law being the preserver of the quiet and Tranquility of the Kingdome detested and abhorred force, as the enemy and violator thereof, those bodies of ours were not onely imprisoned, but pillori'd, whipt and scourged upon Sentences given upon paper Petitions, and our selves forced, as Chil­dren are, to kisse the rod by making a forced ac­knowledgement of Guilt, against our knowledge and conscience, without which we could not re­deeme those bodies from perpetuall Imprison­ment, our estates from being extended, and our goods from being seized.

Vpon the late solemne and famous Triall of the Earle of Strafford, and in the greatest presence of the World, for that the King was pleased to be personally present, & all the States of the King­dome of England assembled in Parliament, with the Commissioners and Committees of both his other Kingdomes, it hath beene offered to Consi­deration as a matter of great consequence, that it imbaseth the spirits of a Nation, when they must stand in feare of Pilloring, Scaffolding, and [Page 6]like punshments, it takes away their spirits, ten­ders them pusillanimous and weak-hearted, in England where this was represented, they suffered not under such pressures or feares; the King whose vertues are his Inmates, and true qualities ingen­rate both in his judgement and nature, with the sun-shine of his presence (which makes them hap­pie) cleares and expells all such mists, but the re­ports of our miseries occasioned by the frequen­cie of such usage, or rather mis-usage, flying over unto them with the gale of our sighes, and spring­tide of our Teares, wrought that charitable Im­pression, and drew that Emphaticall expression from them, Si in viridi ligno hoc faciunt, in arid [...] quia fiet? if they out of the sence of our slavish sufferance tooke that to Consideration, and their pious Commiseration, have not wee in whose Scene that Tragedie was acted greater cause to take it to our more serious thoughts? surely we have, and cannot without blemish to our Iudge­ments, and wrong to our selves and posteritie, but indeavour to remove the cause, Sublata causa tolli­tur effectus: And the principle cause I conceive to proceed from those paper Petitions, the pro­ceedings upon them being not limited to any certaine Rule, time, season, place, cause, or thing, nor any degree, Sex, age, or quality priviledged by them, by them his Majesty loseth a conside­rable part of his Revenue, that might justly and lawfully result and acrue unto him out of origi­nall Writs, Fines, Amerciaments and profits, by them the Subject loseth the benefit of his writ [Page 7]of Errour, Bill of Reversall, Voucher Essoignes, Views, Fines, with Proclamations and Discents, and by them many other Legall and Just advanta­ges in the ordinary course, and Courts of Justice are declined, and their onely Consequence is by immoderate and unlawfull Fees to enrich Secre­taries, Clerks, Pursivants, and Serjants at Armes, and not onely them, but Projectors, Informers, and such other Horsleeches, that suck the bloud of our bodies, and marrow of our bones, and their malig­nant operation rests not here, but extends to our intrinsecall parts, that wee call Qualitates animæ they strongly endevour to subvert.

That the planting of Learning is the true and right way to plant Civility, and that

Our owne observation and the experience of all Nations tels us, and Cornelius Tacitus in the life of Agricola demonstrates.

Julius Agricola the Roman, Generall in Britanie, found the ancient Inhabitants rude, barbarous, and apt upon every occasion to make warre, hee being a wise man, as he was a valiant man, conceived it the best way to Civilize, and consequently to con­taine them in the Spheare of their obedience to the Romane Monarchie, to build and erect free Schools, and places of publike resort, and in them to have the Children of the Nobles, and Genle­men, trained, and instructed in the liberall Scien­ces, which he did, the event answered his expecta­tion, and his policie had the wished effect, for the [Page 8] British youth being curious to attaine the Elo­quence of the Roman language, the Romane attire grew to be in accompt, and the Go [...] in request among them, and so came as Tacitus observes to the height of Civilitie, which ever since they have to their great glory maintained. And I am (M. Bre­reton) of opinion, that our Ancestors in their great wisdome left for us such part of the Common-Law as is written, The pleadings of them, and ori­ginall Writs, in the Latin language, because that being the generall, and an immutable language, not subject to be sophisticated as all other languages (except the Hebrew and Greek) were, or to receive Majus aut Minus, a Language that was never con­quered with any Conquest, and that the fury of the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, could never so ex­tirpate or suppresse, but that our Laws still lived in it, as in the Vestall fire that is never extinguisht, to the end I say, that we might be incited and invi­ted to the knowledge and use thereof; to streng­then my opinion in this, and to shew how necessa­ry the knowledge of it is for the professors of our Laws, I will present unto you the Authorities of two of the greatest Sages of the Law, the one An­cient, the other Recent, and in their own words, which I onely translate, that I may not disparage, or take off the waight of them by mine.

Mr. Littleton, who is the Portall by which all Students make their first entrance, and who by his excellent Book gives them Ariadnes clue, to guide and direct them in their ways in that intricate La­byrinth, in his chapter of Confirmation, lib. 3. cap. 9. [Page 9]gives them this grave and fatherly advice. Know my Sonne, that it is one of the most honourable, laudable, and profitable things in our Law, to have the Science of wel Pleading in actions Reall and Personal, and therefore I counsell thee to em­ploy thy courage and care to learn this.

Sir Edward Coke, whose learned Works are the Coronides of the Students endevours, and do polish the same, in Blackamores Case 8. rep. fol. 159. says that the Clerks are bound by the duty of their Offices to have skill and science 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 Er­rour, and Barbarisme will ensue, and in the end all shall be involved in confusion, and the ancient Law of the Kingdome subverted.

This is the judgment (M. Brereton,) of these two great Pillars of the Law, and that this they so ear­nestly direct, hath not been observed in paper Pe­titions, wee all know; a common Scrivener draws them, and an illiterate Clerk, (for so many of them are) whose knowledge soares no higher than his mother Tongue, and whose best abilities, and perfections are to wait officiously upon my Lord, his Master, sol [...]icits this, and he, or the powerfull intercession of a Favourite prevalls more in busi­nesses of greatest consequence, and where Legall proceedings and Scrutinie are requisite, then hap­pily a Littleton or a Cook; O tempora, O mores! which I think we lately had as great cause as Tully to ex­claime upon.

What a great Ornament to this Kingdome Mr. Brereton the Professors of our Laws are, how dai­ly and hourely usefull, unto our selves both in this House and in England, the members of the House (whom wee terme of the long Roabe) are, I leave to the Judicious observation of this Committee, and likewise to their consideration how infinitely they and the rest of that Honourable profession have beene damnified by those paper-blasts, Blasts I may well call them, for indeed they blast, and nip in the very blossome the hopes of all our Law Students, who having spent the Spring of their yeeres in the Innes of Court in that studie, and many of them the best part of their fortunes, up­on their returne to this their Native Countrey, their Land of promise, when they expect to meet with a Harvest to crowne their painfull and char­geable endeavours, they have hardly gleanings left for them by those paper-Clerks: This Sir as I con­ceive is very considerable by us, and those Paper-Petitions being, as I endeavoured in their tree co­lours to represent them, Tares introduced & plan­ted among the Corn by the enemy of mankinde, at least the enemy of the welfare of this Kingdome, in their nature a Monopoly, or rather a Rape upon all mens abilities and the properties of all Courts, be­ing the Bedels of our bodies, the disseisors of our Lands, Robers of our goods, Suppressors of our intellectuall parts, Subverters of the Common-law and Rebels to the Statute-lawes as appeares by Magna Charta 2. Hen. 3. by 28. and 25. of E. 3. and by the Record of 21. Ed. 1. that are mentioned in [Page 11]the preamble of the Bill, I am humbly of opinion that as the wisdome of this house hath already looked with a retrospect eye upon some of the many grievances that were occasioned by them, that with the other eye we looke forward, Ne quid detrimenti respublica patiatur hereafter.

M. Brereton, the nature of domination is such, in the irregular mindes of some, that having once broken out of Circle, they cannot indure any limi­tation or bounds, but range at liberty in the wide and spacious fields of their own humours, and be­ing not able to give Laws to their appetites, make Laws as Champions to defend them, and reason as a Parasite to glorifie them, & that this hath bin so, we have seen, & that it may be so hereafter the condition and nature of man tels us, we are there­fore to conclude upon this good way of the perpe­tuall damning of such paper-Petitions as extra ju­dicially determine Civil causes, that they may ne­ver rise after in judgment against us, that they may not assume to themselves the force of Bulls & Can­nons as they have done, or like Hydra's heads pullu­late and spring up, to the bane & utter destruction of us and our posterity, And therefore my vote is that the Bill as it is now drawn shall be approved with those Provisions that are inserted in it, that it shall not extend to his Majesties Courts of Castle-Chamber, Chancery, Chancery of the Exchec­quer, Court of Wards, the Presidencies of Mon­ster, Connaght, or the Lievtenancies of the Counties of Gallway, & the Countie of Clare, or to the Civill proceedings before the Justices of Assizes, but with [Page 2]such qualifications as in the Bill is mentioned, and that the House of the Lords may by Message bee acquainted with it, that wee may have their con­current approbation, which I doubt not they will cheerfully give, for the impetuous rage of those Paper Petitions had no more respect, and made no other distinction betweene the freedome of their Peerage, or their estates and goods, than the mea­nest common-persons. And that his Majesty will give his Royall assent thereunto, I am hopefull and confident, having already in the abysse of his goodnesse and care of his faithfull Subjects of this Kingdome, publikely declared his dissent and a­versnesse from them in the very first Chapter of his Printed Instructions, and likewise in the Proclamation that we sent over into England, to accompany our Protestation to that part of the Preamble of our Act of Subsidies that extold the Earle of Straffords Government. This being my opinion I humbly submit to the consideration and better judgment of this Committee.