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Phenix XII.

The Second Part of the People's Antient and Just Liberties afferted, in the Proceedings against, and Tryals of Thomas Rudyard, Francis Moor, Richard Mew, Richard Mayfield, Richard Knowlman, Gilbert Hutton, Job Boulton, Richard Thornton, Charles Banister, John Boulton, and William Bayly.

At the Seffions begun and held at the Old-Baily in London the last Day of the 6th Month, and there continued till the 7th Day of the 7th Month next following, in the Tear 1670. against the Arbitrary Procedure of that Court, and Justices there.

The PREFACE to the READER.

HAT State which would preferve it felf from Ruin and Destruction is ever to keep its Inhabitants pure and clean from Vice and Debauchery, and their Laws from Violation and Corruption; as the first is a way or means to engage a

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confcientious Obedience and Obfervation of the juft and upright Lam of God fo the fecond, by reafon of their due execution, are the Sinews or Sanctuaries that bind the Inhabitants of fuch State in a perpetual Bond of Safety and Tranquillity: And it's certainly true, where either of these are violated or neglected, the Ruin of that State is near at band. There's no better way to incline the Subjects of any State to Morality and Vertue, than that thofe that fit at the Helm, or have the Government thereof, fhould hold forth clear Examples and Patterns f Piety and Juftice in their Lives and Allions.

Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Orbis,

2 Chron 13.

18, 19, 20

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Saith the Poet, The whole World imitate the Example of their King. And the Divine Hiftorian, Jofephus, obferves in his Ecclefiaftical History, fol. 209. But (faith he) mortal men moft ufually are corrupted by the untoward Flatteries of wavering Fortune, as appeareth by King Rehoboam: feeing his Kingdom thus increas'd, he bent himself to all unjust and impious Actions, and contemn'd the Service of God; the People alfo conform'd themselves to his Impieties; for the Life of the Subjects is oftentimes perverted by reafon of the corrupt and diffolute Life of their Princes: And thofe that are Inferiors beholding the Riot of their Superiors, will eafily be withdrawn from all Modefty, and follow thofe Vices they profefs, as if they had been their profefs'd Vertues: For fhould they do the contrary, they fhould feem to difannul and mislike the Actions of their PrincesThe Subjects addicted themfelves to Impiety, and all Errors; for they would not make profeffion of Honefty, for fear they fhould seem to ftudy the means to be offenfive unto the King.

W.H's Epiftle in his Tranf lation of Mirror of Justice.

From this lively Pattern, or Representative of our prefent Times er State, we must wish that Princes in this Age would confider, and put in practice that Golden Rule of Demofthenes, Bene gubernare, recte judicare, jufte facere; to govern well, judg rightly, and do julily; fo should their Kingdoms flourish, and they themselves be in high eflimation in the eyes of their People.

And next the Prince's curious eye over his own perfonal Actions, a due heed, care and regard is to be had to his Reprefentatives in his Courts of Justice; viz. thofe Justices whom he conftitutes by his Commiffion to hear and determine betwixt him and his People, that they be fuch who by their due Adminiftration and faithful difpenfing of the Laws, Juftice and Right may be done to all men without reSpell of Perfons.

But

But as Vice and Debauchery have devour'd and eaten up the Nation's Practice of Religion, fearce leaving us the outfide shell of Profession! So hath the Corruption of our Laws, and the Violation thereof, turn'd back those wholefom Streams of Justice which should naturally flow from the use of them.

And that thou, Reader, mayft fee that thy felf art one, who is in danger of being buried in the Ruins of Religion and Piety, as well as thy Civil Rights and Liberties; which are the two Bases, or Founda tions, on which thy temporary here, and future well-being hereafter, confits and ftands: Caft thy eye upon the Magiftrates of the City of London (antiently tiled Caput Regni & Legum) in their Court of Judicature at the Old Baily, and behold on the one hand Vertue term'd Vice, Sobriety Debauchery, Religion Faction, Pious and Peaceable Affemblies Riots and Routs, and punifl'd as fuch; on the other hand, the antient written Laws denied, and their not written ones the Court's Authority: Justice turn'd into Gaul, Right and Equity by Will and Power over-ruled. So that it's now become a Proverb, Tell me thy Judg, and I'll tell thee thy Law.

Quod non le

go non credo. Auguft.

Said the Learned Coke, Qui non libere veritatem pronunciat, proditor veritas eft; He who conceals Truth, is a Betrayer thereof. Therefore for the fake of Truth, and the Reader's Benefit, were thefe Proceedings made publick, and according to that due Obfervation and impartial Account, which could be taken and colleted of the manner of that Bench's Arraigning and Condemning as well Religion, Piety, Vertue and Sobriety, as Right, Equity, Liberty and Property, with due Comments upon their Procedures from the antient and fundamental Laws of this Land, are laid to thy view.

And had not the Mayor and Recorder, with the rest of the Bench, prohibited many, by fevere Threats, from writing down the Court's partial Dealings both towards the Prifoners and Jurors; and also by violence took away what others had adventur'd to colle& (commanding fome to their Bale-dock) in all probability this enfuing Piece might have been much more enlarg'd to thy fatisfaction.

But what has been faithfully collected and obferved, and whereaf there were fome hundreds of Witnesses, is prefented to the World; the Author (defiring rather to spare their Injustice, than wrong their Fdicature) has contracted this Relation to what comes within the limits of his own knowledg and undeniable proofs; but impartially laid Judg ment to the Line, and discover'd that which may tend to the Good of his Countrymen, in the Vindication of the Laws, Truth, Innocency, Equity, and Justice.

The

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The Second Part of the People's Antient and Fuft Liberties afferted, &c.

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HE Laws of England, by juft and upright Minifters and Officers faithfully difpens'd, and impartially adminifter'd, have ever been the Upholders and Prefervers of Right and Liberty, the high efteem'd and precious Jewels of its free-born Inhabitants. But when unlimited Prerogatives have fprung up, like Muthrooms, out of the fappy Apprehenfions, afpiring Brains, and heady Humours of inferior Officers and Minifters; then Tyranny and Oppreffion have, under difguife of Juftice and colour of Law, depriva the Commonalty of there things, which they have held moft precious and dear to them.

!

The pretended Crimes or Offences laid to the charge of Thomas Rudyard, are far different in their kind and nature from those other Perfons, who have undergone with him the fevere Judgments, or as fome call them; the Inquifitory-like Cenfures of that Court; which were fo far from Juris Diɛta, the Law of Right, or impartial difpenfing of Justice, that they are clear contrary and directly oppofite unto them. The Juftices of that Court, Judge Cole, that famous English Lawyer, doth well defcribe in his 2d Inft. Fol. 55. in a Poetical Simile of an unjuft Judg:

Grofius hic Rhadamanthus habet duriffima Regna,
Caftigatque auditque dolos, fubigitque fateri.

And in another place:

Leges fixit pretio atque refixit.

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They punish, then wear, compel to confefs, make and mar Laws dt pleasure!

The Occafion of T.R's being envy'd and profecuted by there Adverfaries of Peace, was because of his faithful defending and conftant appearing (when call'd thereto) for his Clients and Retainders, in fuch Matters and Caufes as Will and Power had forged, and daily did put in execution against them. So that the third of the fourth Month, call'd June, the Magitrates of the City of London, in the name or colour of a Lieutenancy or Militia, iffued out a Warrant, to break open

A a

his

his House in the dead of the Night, to apprehend him (when they might have had him at Noon-day, upon the Exchange, about his occafions) and did take and carry away him, and alfo what Arms

executed by the there could find. Which Warrant was

Soldiers of one Captain Holford; and the next day he was fent to the Goal of Newgate, as a Person fufpected and difaffected to the Peace of the Kingdom, as was alledg'd in his Mittimus, under the Hands and Seals of Samuel Starling Mayor, W. Peak, R. Hanfon, A. King, J. Dawes, John Cutler, W. Roufwel, A. Stanyon, J. Tivell, W. Allott, J. Sheldon, and T. Davis.

The feventh of the fourth Month, the Lieutenancy (fo call'd) order'd T. R. to be again brought before them, who without alledging any Crime, or certain Matter that was prov'd againft him, tho earneftly requested by him that he might hear his Accufation, or fee his Accufers face to face, did demand 2000 l. Security for his Good Behaviour: which unreasonable Demand being not comply'd withal, T. R. was remanded to Goal, with a Mittimus under S. Starling and 7. Robinfen's Hand and Seal, pretending therein, That T, R. did ftir up Perfons to the Difobedience of Laws, and abetted and encou rag'd fuch as met in unlawful and feditious Conventicles, contrary to the late Act in the 22 Car. 2. of which things, they alledg'd, that they found caufe to fufpect T. R. to be guilty. Which Cafe being brought before the Juftices of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, by Habeas Corpus; that Court, after folemn debate, gave their Judgment, That T. R. was unjustly imprifon'd, and unlawfully detain'd. And fo by them was fet at li berty.

Trin.22. C. 2.

His Adverfary, viz. S. Starling the Mayor, being incens'd at his Deliverance and Difcharge, finds out new Stratagems to encompass his ends upon him. So that at a Seffions of the Peace, at the Old Baily, the 29th of the fourth Month, an Indictment is fram'd and prefer'd against T. R. the Tenor whereof was, "That whereas at a Seffions of the Peace held "at Guildhall for the City of London, the 30th of May, the 22d "year of the King, before S. Starling, &c. and other Juftices "of the Peace of the faid City, affign'd, &c. a certain Bill of Indictment was exhibited and prefer'd against one Samuel Allingbridge, late of London, Stationer, written in Parchment, for fpeaking thefe feditious and menacing Words, viz. The <6 first man that shall disturb Mr. Vincent, will never go out of the "Houfe alive. And whereas one N. Grove and J. Tillot were "fworn to give Evidence (in behalf of the King) to the grand Inqueft, that T.R. intending to hinder and pervert

“Juftice

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