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"That the warrants* iffued by the King's Bench are "arbitrary and illegal. And it was ordered, That the "faid report, and the feveral refolutions of the House "thereupon, be printed; and that Mr. Speaker take care "in the printing thereof apart from this day's other votes." Thus did the Commons behave in the cafe of two Chief Juftices of the King's Bench, and their conduct is fo decifive upon the point we now are, that no words can add to the force of it. But there was another thing, which was done in the fame feffion, that I cannot help relating. The Under Secretary of State, by direction of Sir Lionel Jenkins, Secretary of State, who had received a verbal order from the Clerk of the Council for the purpose, writes a letter to a gentleman at Dover, defiring him to wait upon the Mayor, and direct him to feize a Man, if he fhould land there, together with his companions, and detain them until further directions; and in this letter there is inclofed a particular defcription of the Man, and his name faid to be Norris or Morris. The information upon which this letter or order proceeded, was not upon oath. However, when Norris landed, he is taken and carried before the Mayor, who thought it reasonable to commit him to the common prifon, and to seize his papers. When that was done and known, there were two orders of Council

*"Angl. ff. Whereas there are divers ill-difpofed perfons, who do daily print and publish many feditious and treasonable books and pamplets, endeavouring thereby to difpofe the minds of his Majesty's fubjects to fedition and rebellion: And alfo infamous libels, reflecting upon particular perfons, to the great scandal of his Majefty's government. For fuppreffing whereof, his Majefty has lately iffued his royal proclamation: And for the more speedy fuppreffing the faid feditious books, libels and pamphlets, and to the end that the Authors and Publishers thereof may be brought to their punishment: "These are to will and require you, and in his Majefty's name, to charge and command you, and every of you, upon fight hereof, to be aiding and affifting to Robert Stephens, Meffenger of the Prefs, in the feizing on all fuch books and pamphlets as aforefaid, as he shall be informed of, in any Bookfellers or Printers fhops or warehouses, or elsewhere whatsoever, to the end they may be disposed as to Law shall appertain. Also, if you fhall be informed of the Authors, Printers, or Publishers of fuch books or pamplets, as are above mentioned, you are to apprehend them, and have them before one of his Majefty's Juftices of the Peace, to be proceeded against according to law. Dated this 29th of November, 1679.

To Robert Stephens, Meffenger of the Prefs; and to all Mayors, Sheriffs, Bailiffs, Conftables, and all other Officers and Minifters whom these may

concern.

W. Scroggs.

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to the Mayor to ftop and deliver him to a Meffenger, who is fent down on purpose to bring him before the Council, in cuftody; and the papers are ordered to be lodged in the council cheft. Norris, after being examined, was difmiffed, and it was declared there was no farther cause of detaining him; and the verbal order firft mentioned was. never entered in the minute-book of the Council. Upon this cafe, a complaint is made to the House of Commons, who immediately appoint a Committee to inquire into and report the matter to the Houfe, which is done accordingly. The Members enter warmly into the grievance, and fome of them fay, "I would know how the Privy-Council " came to have a defcription of this man. It may be, "the French Ambaffador has had fome influence in "Councils.. I do not know what flopping a man on the "way or road is, to be immediately fent up to the Coun"cil by a Mayor or Officer, upon verbal order. I know. ❝ nothing of a verbal order of Council! In cafes of necef"fity to commit illegal actions-thefe are ftrange allertions "for what have been done, or what may be done. The "Thing is all of a piece, for fome great perfons are con→ ❝cerned in it. Let Gentlemen make it their own cafe. "I fee not who is to blame, but he that figns the warfrant; nothing appears to you elfe, therefore put a brand upon it. A parcel of men there is, who abuse "the King, and ftill you must be tender of them, and "these men muft ftill be about the King." Thereupon, Sir Lionel Jenkins very honourably took on himself the letter written by his Under Secretary, and faid, in excufe of himself, that he was but minifterial in the affair, owned he had the information from a man who had it from another, and that he related it to the Council as he thought it his duty; that he had thereupon a verbal order to feize the perfon informed of, and, in confequence of that, gave direction to his Under Secretary to write the letter beforementioned, and if any thing had been done unjustifiable, that he himself muft anfwer it; that he thought it was treafon for a Romish Prieft to be upon English ground, and felony in Norris to receive him; and that, in his poft, he could do no other than obey his fuperiors; and that he humbly took leave to aver, that a verbal order in a Com mittee of Council, is what is not entered into the minutes of the Council. The Houfe defired Sir Lionel to with

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draw, which he accordingly did, and then they refolved, That the late imprisonment of Peter Norris, at Dover, was illegal; and that the proceeding of Sir Lionel Jen“kins, Knight, one of the principal Secretaries of State, by defcribing the perfon of the faid Norris, and directing fuch his imprisonment, was illegal and arbitrary. ;" and they made an order for printing the cafe of Peter Norris at large, which was likewife done. Now, here the Commons, without any communication with the Lords, refolved a point of law, altho' Norris might have brought an action of falfe imprifonment, had the opinion of a court of law, and recovered damages for a fatisfacton of his injury; and he was no member of their house. This refolution too, was not made as a foundation for any future bill, nor for articles of impeachment, but merely to damn an illegal and grievous warrant.

Such hath been the conduct and interpofition of the Commons under the houfe of Stuart, both father and fon, with refpect to the law of this kingdom, when invaded by great officers of ftate; and yet thefe were Princes who claimed a right of governing the kingdom, paramount the laws, jure divino; whereas it is the honour of his prefent Majefty's family to derive their fole title from the choice of the people, from an English act of parliament. There is not, therefore, the leaft divinity that can now be poffibly imparted from the throne to any of the prefent miniftry; they are mere men and creatures of civil polity, and their actions may be judged by the common law of the land, without either blafphemy, or any extraordinary or occasional statute for the purpose.

This being fo, I am amazed that the Attorney fhould think a bill neceffary; because, if there be no law now exifting, that authorizes General Warrants in any cafe whatever, it really feems to be ridiculous to bring in a bill. "to regulate what does not exift ;" an argument, I find, which he affects not to comprehend, merely because he is unable to answer it. "The Evil" is the practice or ufage which has grown of late, within the time of our fathers, in a clandeftine office, contrary to the fundamental law of the land; and when this practice has been detected, the parliament need only damn it, and leave the law as it was, without the alteration even of an Iota in

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matter or form." The Attorney, by an act of par

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liament, would, I perceive, fain make law of this modern ufage, under a pretence of bettering thereby the old com-mon law; but, I fancy, he will find moft people of opinion against him, and as much afraid of his coarfe hand as of his fuperiors refinements, and, therefore, beg to 'have the law remain as it is. No act could poffibly answer the end of a resolution, unless it were, perhaps, a short declaratory statute of three lines, reciting that, "Whereas a novel practice, had of late years gained footing in "feveral minifterial offices, whereby General Warrants "for the apprehenfion of perfons under a general defcrip"tion, without naming any in certain, had been issued from fuch offices contrary to Magna Charta fo re

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peatedly confirmed, and to the immemorial and esta"blifhed rights of every Freeman, and to the known "laws of the realm; Therefore, by the direction and "confent of King, Lords and Commons, be it de"clared, That fuch practice is in all cafes illegal, re

pugnant to the fundamental principles of the confti"tution, dangerous to the liberties of the fubject, and "abfolutely unwarrantable."

Old Sir Edward Coke faid, with fome humour, in Charles the Firft's reign, at the head of the Commons in their conference with the Lords" For a Freeman to "be tenant at will of his liberty! I will never agree to "it: it is a tenure not to be found in all Littleton. " It

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is (as he fays, in one of his treatifes) a great deal better "for the ftate, that a particular offender fhould go unpu"nifhed, on the one hand, or that a private perfon, or "public minifter, fhould be damnified on the other by "the rigour of the law, than that a general rule of law "fhould be broken to the general trouble and prejudice "of many." Therefore, I beg leave to enter my protest against any bill to regulate what I hope will never exift. The ancient Britons in a body, told Auguftine himself, fe non poffe abfq; fuorum confenfu & licentia prifcis abdicare moribus. And, as to his prefent Majefty, one may fay, in the words of the famous Serjeant Glanville, (fince I am in the humour of quoting) "There is no fear "of trufting him with any thing, but ill counfel against the fubject;" for, when once he is truly informed what his people's prifci mores or Common law is, he will

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never countenance any officer in abdicating them abfq; confenfu et licentia fuorum.

I can affure the Attorney, that I have, according to his directions, "feriously attended to his arguments." However, I very much doubt, whether the Ministry will pardon him for obtruding his private reasons as those which weighed with them, to put off the determination of the queftion. Indeed, if any of the arguments he has adduced on this head, were really of weight with them, I should think it must be that which he grounds on the impracticability of pleading with effect fuch a refolution in any of the courts of judicature; for I fincerely efteem this to be by far the moft fatisfactory of all. I know, my Lord Coke does fay very emphatically, that the science of beau pleader is the very heart-ftring of the law. It would therefore, I confefs, be a lamentable thing to have the Crown-pleaders" divided and confounded", in this their nice and artificial department of the law. Confidering the present knotty difficulties attending thefe gentlemen, to throw any additional rub or ftumbling block in their way, would be unpardonable in any good-humoured adminiftration. I do not, however, pretend to form a determinate judgment of the miniftry's reafons for avoiding a refolution, as I have not vanity enough to fuppose I can fathom them. Perhaps, they might be somewhat pressed in time, having other weighty affairs in hand, that the vulgar know nothing of, and therefore would not come to any decifion of the point, feeing they could not give it the parade of a folemn difcuffion upon the report of a committee; or, they might oppose the refolution, because it was moved by the oppofition, refolving withall to resume it themselves the very next feffion, which laft, indeed, I am very apt to think may be the cafe; or, peradventure, there might be other lefs oftenfible and more predominant reafons for their having fo notoriously exerted the utmost of their ftrength, merely to avoid the coming to any refolution at all. They faid nothing inconfiftent with any conduct; and, as many of their best friends voted against them, it cannot be fuppofed they would run fo much rifk, without fome very extraordinary reafons for fo doing. It would not, however, be dif agreeable to the public, to know from the pen of a minifter, efpecially, from one of them that declines no labour,

and

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