the court of Common Pleas, upon a pretended suit begun in Michaelmas Term, in the 11th year of his majesty's reign, although there was no plaint or declaration against him, did notoriously, and contrary to all law and justice, by threats, menaces, and imprisonment, compel Thomas Laurence, an executor, to pay 197. 12s.; and likewise caused Richard Bernard, being only overseer of the last will of that testator, to be arrested for the payment of the said money, contrary to the advice of the rest of the Judges of that court, and against the known and ordinary course of justice, and his said oath and knowledge: and denied his ma

V. That he the 5th day of June, then being Lord Chief Justice of the said court of Commou Pleas, subscribed an extrajudicial Opinion in answer to Questions in a Letter from his majesty, in hæc verba, &c. [See vol. iii. p. 844.] And that he contrived the said Questions; and procured the said Letter from his majesty: And whereas the said justice Hutton and justice Croke declared to him their Opinions to the contrary; yet he required and pressed them to subscribe, upon his promise that he would let his majesty know the truth of their Opinions, notwithstanding such subscriptions; which nevertheless he did not make known to his majesty, but delivered the same to his majesty's subjects, the common and ordinary jusjesty as the Opinion of all the Judges.

VI. That he being Lord Chief Justice of the said court of Common Pleas, delivered his Opinion in the Exchequer Chamber against Mr. Hampden in the Case of Ship-money; that he the said Mr. Hampden upon the matter and substance of the case was chargeable with the money then in question; a copy of which proceedings the Commons will deliver to your lordships and did solicit and threaten the said Judges, some or one of them, to deliver their Opinions in like manner against Mr. Hampden. And after the said baron Denham had delivered his Opinion for Mr. Hampden; the said lord Finch repaired purposely to the said baron Denham's chamber in Serjeants-inn, in Fleetstreet; and after the said Mr. Baron Denham had declared and expressed his Opinion, urged him to retract the said Opinion; which he refusing, was threatened by the said lord Finch,

because he refused.

VII. That he, being then Lord Chief Justice of the court of Common Pleas, declared and published in the Exchequer Chamber and Western circuit where he went Judge; that the king's right to Ship-money, as aforesaid, was so inherent a right to the crown, as an act of parliament could not take it away; and with divers malicious speeches inveighed against, and threatened all such as refused to pay Shipmoney all which Opinions contained in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Articles, are against the law of the realm, the subjects right of property, and contrary to former Resolutions in parliament, and to the Petition of Right: which said Resolutions and Petition of Right were well known to him resolved and enacted in parliament, when he was Speaker of the Commons house of parliament.

VIII. That he being Lord Chief Justice of the court of Common Pleas did take the general practice of that court to his private chamber; and that he sent warrants into all or many shires of England to several men, as to Francis Giles of the county of Devon, Robert Benson of the county of York, attornies of that court, and to divers others, to release all persons arrested on any outlawry for about 40s. fees; whereas none by law so arrested can be bailed or released without supersedeas under seal, or reversal.

IX. That he being Lord Chief Justice of

tice of this realm, as to Mr. Limerick, and others; and for his private benefit endamaged and ruined the estates of many of his majesty's subjects, contrary to his oath and knowledge.

X. That he being Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and sworn one of his majesty's privy council, did by false and malicious slanders labour to incense his majesty against Parliaments, and did frame and advise the publishing the Declaration after the dissolution of the last Parliament.

All which Treasons and Misdemeanors abovementioned, were done and committed by the said John lord Finch, baron of Fordwich, lordkeeper of the great seal of England; and thereby he the aforesaid Finch hath traitorously, and contrary to his allegiance laboured to lay imputations and scandals upon his majesty's government, and to alienate the hearts of his majesty's liege people from his majesty, and to set a division between them, and to ruin and destroy his majesty's realm of England; for which they do impeach him the said lord Finch, baron of Fordwich, lord-keeper of the great seal of England, of High-Treason against our sovereign lord the king, his crown and dignity, of the misdemeanors above-mentioned. And the said Commons by protestation, saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting, at any time hereafter, any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said lord Finch, and also of replying to the Answer, that the said John lord Finch shall make unto the said Articles, or to any of them; and of offering Proof of the premises, or any of their Impeachments or Accusations that shall be exhibited by them, as the case shall, according to the course of parliaments, require; do pray, that the said John lord Finch, baron of Fordwich, lord-keeper of the great seal of England, may be put to answer to all and every of the premises, and such Proceedings, Examinations, Trials, and Judgments, as may be upon every of them, had and used, as is agreeable to law and justice.

After reading these Articles, Resolved upon the question,

"That these Articles thus read and ingrossed shall be sent to the lords, in maintenance of the Commons' Charge against John lord Finch of Fordwich, late Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England."

Mr. Arthur Goodwin is appointed to go up with a Message to the lords to a Conference with their lordships, by a committee of both houses, concerning Articles to be delivered in maintenance of the Commons' Accusation of John lord Finch of Fordwich, late Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England; and concerning the Liberty and Property of the Subject.

At the request of the lord Falkland, Mr. Hyde is appointed to be assistant unto him, for the reading of the articles to be delivered against the late Lord-Keeper.

redress of the Grievances they then suffered, and prevented those which they have since endured, according to the ancient maxim 'Odisse 'quos læseris.' He pursued this otence towards the parliament, by inveighing against the Members, by scandalizing their proceedings, by trampling upon their Acts and Declarations, by usurping and devolving the right, by dininishing and abrogating the power, both of that and other parliaments, and making them (as much as in him lay) both useless and odious to his majesty; and pursued his hatred to this fountain of justice by corrupting the streams of it, the Laws; and perverting the conduit

Mr. Goodwin brought answer, That according to the Order of the house, he had delivered the Message to their lordships, and their lord-pipes, the Judges. ships will give a meeting to-morrow morning, at nine o'clock, by a committee of the whole house, as is desired.

Accordingly, the Articles against the LordKeeper were presented to the lords; and after reading the same,

The Lord Falkland spoke as follows: "My Lords; These Articles against my lord Finch being read, I may be bold to apply that of the Poet, Nil refert tales versus qua voce legantur;' and I doubt not but your lordships must be of the same opinion, of which the house of commons appears to have been, by the choice they have made of me, that the Charge I have brought is such, as needs no assistance from the bringer, leaving not so much as the colour of a colour for any Defence, including all possible evidence, and all possible aggravation (that addition alone excepted) which he alone could make, and hath made; I mean, his Confession, included in his flight.

"Here are many and mighty crimes, crimes of supererogation, (so that High-Treason is but a part of his charge) pursuing him fervently in every several condition, (being a silent Speaker, an unjust Judge, and an unconscionable Keeper). That his life appears a perpetual warfare (by mines, and by battery, by battle, and by stratagem,) against pur fundamental laws, which (by his own confession) several conquests had left untouched, against the excellent constitution of this kingdom, which hath made it appear unto strangers rather an idea, than a real commonwealth, and produced the honour and happiness of this to be a wonder of every other nation; and this with such unfortunate success, that as he always intended to make our ruins a ground of his advance ent, so his advancement the means of our further ruin.

"After that, contrary to the further end of Li place, and the ending of that meeting in which he held his place, he had, as it were, gged the Commonwealth, taking away (to his power) all power of speech from that body, of hich he ought to have been the mouth, and which alone can perfectly represent the condiof the people, whom they only represent: he had not done, in all probability, e and judicious an Assembly might d to the consideration of so grau just a Prince, had occasioned the

"He practised the annihilating of ancient and notorious perambulations of particular Forests, the better to prepare himself to annihilate the ancient and notorious perambulation of the whole kingdom, the metes and boundaries between the liberties of the subject and sovereign power; he endeavoured to have all tenares durante bene placito, to bring all law from his majesty's courts into his majesty's breast; he gave our goods to the king, our lands to the deer, our liberties to his sheriffs; so that there was no way by which we had not been opprest, and destroyed, if the power of this person had been equal with his will, or that the will of his majesty had been equal to bis

power.

"He not only by this means made us liable to all the effect of an invasion from without, but (by destruction of our Liberties, which included the destruction of our propriety, which included the destruction of our industry) made us liable to the terriblest of all invasions, that of want and poverty. So that if what he plotted had taken root, and he made it, as sure as his Declaration could make it, (what himself was not, parliament-proof) in this wealthy and happy kingdom, there could have been left no abundance but of grievances and discontentment, no satisfaction but amongst the guilty. It is generally observed of the plague, that the infection of others is an earnest and constant desire of all that are seized by it: and as this design resembles that disease, in the ruin, destruction, and desolation it would have wrought, so it seems no less like it in this effect: he having so laboured to make others share in that guilt, that his solicitation was not only his action, but his works, making use both of his authority, his interest, and importunity, to persuade; and in his majesty's name (whose piety is known to give that excellent prerogative to his person, that the law gives to his place, not to be able to do wrong) to threaten the rest of the Judges, to sign Opinions contrary to law, to assign Answers contrary to their Opinions, to give Judgment which they ought not to have given, and to recant Judgment when they had given it as they ought: so that whosoever considers his care of, and concernent, both in the growth and in the immorality of this project, cannot but by the same way, by which the wisest judgment found the true mother of the

child, discover him not only to have been the fosterer, but the father of this most pernicious and envious design.

"I shall not need to observe, that this was plotted and pursued by an Englishman against England, (which increaseth the crime in no less degree than parricide is beyond murder) that this was done in the greatest matter joined to the greatest bond, being against the general liberty, and public propriety, by a sworn judge (and if that salt itself, because unsavoury, the Gospel hath designed whether it must be cast) that he poisoned our very antidotes, and turned our guard into a destruction, making law the ground of illegality; that he used this law not only against us, but against itself, making it, as I may say, felo de se, making the pretence (for I can scarce say the appearance of it) so to con tribute to the utter ruin of itself.

or my own imperfections, either in the matter or manner of it; which I know must appear the greater, by being compared with that learned gentleman's great ability, who hath preceded me at this time: I will only desire, by the command, and in the behalf of the house of commons, that these proceedings against the lord Finch may be put in so speedy a way of dispatch, as in such cases the course of parliament will allow."

The same day, the Commons ordered thanks to be returned from the house to Mr. St. John, Mr. Whitlock, the lord Falkland, and Mr. Hyde, for the great service they have performed to the honour of the house, and good of the Commonwealth, in the transferring the Articles against the late Lord-Keeper.

Jan. 30. It was ordered by the lords, That such Judges as the house of cominons shall desire, are to be examined in the Case of the lord

Feb. 15. The house of lords thought fit, that a Proclamation do issue out to sunnion the lord Finch, late Lord-Keeper, personally to appear before the Lords in parliament; to answer an Accusation of High-Treason brought against him by the commons.

"I shall not need to say, that either this is (or can be) of the highest kind, and in the high-Finch, by the same deputed lords as were apest degree of Parliamentary Treason, a treason pointed in the earl of Strafford's case: but the which needs not a computation of many several Judges are not to be examined upon any thing actions, which alone were not treason, to prove to accuse themselves. a treason all together, and by that demonstration of the intention, to make that formally treason which were materially but a misdemeanor: this is a Treason as well against the king, as against the kingdom; for whatsoever is against the whole, is undoubtedly against the head, which takes from his majesty the ground of his rule, the laws, (for if foundations be destroyed, the pinnacles are most endangered) which takes from his majesty the principal honour of his rule; the ruling over freemen, a power as much nobler than that over villeins, as that is than that over beasts; which endeavoured to take from his majesty the principal support of his rule, their hearts and affections over whom he rules; (a better and surer strength and walk to the king, than the sea is to the king dom;) and by begetting a mutual distrust, and by that a mutual disaffection between them, to hazard the danger even of the destruction of

both.

"My lords; I shall the less need to press this, because, as it were unreasonable in any case to suspect your justice, so here especially, where your interest so nearly unites you; your great share in possessions, giving you an equal concernment in propriety, the care and pains used by your noble ancestors in the founding and asserting of our common liberties rendering the just defence of them your most proper and peculiar inheritance, and both exciting to oppose and extirpate all such designs as did introduce, and would have settled an arbitrary, that is, an intolerable form of government, and have made even your lordships and your posterity but right honourable slaves.

"My lords; I will spend no more words, 'luctando cum larva,' in accusing the ghost of a departed person, whom his crimes accuse more than I can do, and his absence accuseth no less than his crime. Neither will I excuse the length of what I have said, because I cannot add to an excuse, without adding to the fault,

VOL. IV.

But his Lordship never thought fit to surrender himself, and the Civil War soon after breaking out, there was no further proceedings against him, and he endured eight years banishment, and Compositions amounting to about 7,000l. But he lived to see the horrid murder of king Charles 1, and the happy restoration of king Charles the Second.

the Impeachment of Lord Keeper Finch were The following curious Particulars relative to copied by bishop Warburton from a MS. History of the Rebellion, found in a large volume, all in lord Clarendon's hand writing, which conwell as the public history that was extracted tains the private memoirs of his own life, as from this volume. They form one of the many drawn his pen through, as not to be printed as passages which lord Clarendon himself had part of the History of the Rebellion, and were presented to the compiler by the late learned and excellent Dr. Balguy, who received the copy from bishop Warburton :

"IT began now to be observed, that all the public professions of a General Reformation, and Redress of all Grievances the kingdom suffered under, were contracted into a sharp and extraordinary persecution of one person (lord Strafford,) they had accused of High Treason, and within some bitter mention of the archbishop; (archbishop Laud,) that there was no thought of dismissing the two armies, which were the capital grievance and insupportable burthen to the whole nation; and that instead of questioning others, who were looked upon as the causes of greater mischief than either of those

C

the next morning, it being about ten of the clock they were sent out of the house.

"That Committee was no sooner withdrawn, (which consisted of men of more temperate spirits than the leaders were possessed with,) but without any occasion given by any debate, or coherence with any thing proposed or mentioned, an obscure person inveighed bitterly against the archbishop of Canterbury; and there having been a very angry vote passed the house two days before, upon a sudden debate upon the Canons which had been made by the Convocation after the dissolution of the last parliament (a season in which the church could not reasonably hope to do any thing that would find acceptation): upon which debate they had declared, by a vote, that those Canons were against the king's prerogative, the fundamental laws of the realm, the liberty and property of the subject, and that they contained divers other things tending to sedition, and of dangerous consequence; Mr. Grimstone took occasion, from what was said of the archbishop, to put them in mind of their vote upon the Canons, and said, that the presumption in sitting after the dissolution of the parliament, (contrary to custom, if not contrary to law,) and the framing and contriving all these canons, (which contained so much sedition,) was all to be imputed to the archbishop; that the Scots had required justice against him from his being a chief incendiary and cause of the war between the two nations; that this kingdom looked upon him as the author of all those innovations in the church which were introductive to popery, and as a joint contriver with lord Strafford to involve the nation in slavery; and therefore proposed that he might be presently accused of High-Treason, to the end that he might be sequestered from the council, and no more repair to the presence of the king (with whom he had so great credit, that the earl of Strafford himself could not do more mischief by his councils and infusions). This motion was no sooner made but seconded and thirded, and found such a general acceptation, that, without considering that of all the envious

they professed so much displeasure against, they privately laboured by all their offices to remove all prejudice towards them, at least all thoughts of prosecution for their transgressions, and so that they had blanched all sharp and odious mention of Ship-Money, because it could hardly be touched without some reflection upon the lord keeper Finch, who had acted so odious a part in it, and who, since the meeting of the great council at York, had rendered himself very gracious to them, as a man who would facilitate many things to them, and therefore fit to be preserved and protected. Whereupon the lord Falkland took notice of the business of Ship-Money, and very sharply mentioned the lord Finch as being the principal promoter of it; and that, being a sworn judge of the law, be had not only given his judgment against law, but had been the solicitor to corrupt all the other judges to concur with him in their opinion, and concluded, that no man ought to be more severely prosecuted than he. It was very sensible that the leading men were much troubled at this discourse, and desired to divert it; some of them proposing, in regard we had very much and great business upon our hands in necessary preparation, we should not embrace too much together, but suspend the debate of Ship-Money for some time, till we could be more vacant to pursue it, and so were ready to pass to some other matter. Upon which Mr. Hyde insisted upon what the lord Falkland had said, that this was a particular of a very extraordinary nature, which ought to be examined without delay, because the delay would probably make the future examination to no purpose; and therefore proposed, that immediately, whilst the house | of commons was sitting, a small committee might be appointed, who, dividing themselves into the number of two and two, might visit all the judges, and ask them apart, in the name of the house, what messages the lord Finch, when he was chief justice of the court of Common Pleas, had brought to them from the king in the business of Ship-Money? and, whether he had not solicited them to give judgment for the king in that Case? Which motion was so gene-particulars whereof the archbishop stood acrally approved of by the house, that a committee of eight persons, whereof himself was one, was presently sent out of the house to visit the several judges, most whereof were at their chambers: and justice Croke and some other of the judges, being surprised with the questions, and pressed earnestly to make clear and categorical answers, ingenuously acknowledged that the chief justice Finch had frequently, whilst the matter was depending, earnestly solicited them to give their Judgment for the king, and often used his majesty's name to them, as if he expected that compliance from them. The Committee, which bad divided themselves to attend the several judges, agreed to meet at a place appointed to communicate the substance of what they had been informed of, and agreed upon the method of their report to the house, which they could not make till

cused there was no one which amounted to treason, they forthwith voted that it should be so, and immediately promoted Mr. Grimstone to the Message, who presently went up to the house of peers; and being called on, he, in the name of all the Commons of England, accused the archbishop of Canterbury of hightreason and other misdemeanors, and concluded in the same style they had used in the case of the lord lieutenant of Ireland. Upon which the poor archbishop, who stoutly professed his innocence, was brought on the bar upon his knees, and thence committed to the custody of Maxwell, the gentleman usher of the black rod, (from whence the earl of Strafford had been sent a few days before to the Tower) where he remained many months before they brought in a particular Charge against him.

"Notwithstanding which brisk proceeding

against the archbishop, (when the Committee | knew were of precious memory with the unthe next morning made their report of what the several judges had said concerning the lord Finch,) they were wonderfully indisposed to hear any thing against him; and though many spoke with great sharpness of him, and how fit it was to prosecute him in the same manner and by the same logic they had proceeded with against the other two, yet they required more particulars to be formally set down of his miscarriage, and made another committee to take farther examination (in which committee Mr. Hyde likewise was): and when the Report was made, within a few days, of several very high and imperious miscarriages, (besides what related to the Ship-Money,) upon a motion made by a young gentleman of the same family (who pretended to have received a letter from the lord keeper, in which he desired leave to speak in the house before they should determine anything against him); the debate was suspended for the present, and leave given him to be there (if he pleased) the next day; at which time, having likewise obtained a permission of the peers to do what he thought good for himself, he appeared at the bar of the house of commons, and said all he could for his own excuse (more in magnifying the sincerity of his religion, and how kind he had been to many preachers, whom he named, and, whom he

conformable party); and concluded with a lamentable supplication for their mercy. It was about nine of the clock in the morning when he went out of the house (and when the debate could no longer be deferred what was to be done upon him); and when the sense of the house appeared very evidently, notwithstanding all that was said to the contrary by those eminent persons who promoted all other accusations with the greatest fury, that he should be accused of high treason in the same form the other two had been, they persisted still so long in the debate, and delayed the putting the question by frequent interruptions, a common artifice, till it was twelve of the clock: and till they knew the house of peers was was risen (which they were likewise readily enough disposed to, to gratify the keeper); and the question was put and carried in the affirmative, (with very few negatives,) and the lord Falkland appointed to carry up the accusation to the house of peers (which they knew he could not do till the next morning;) and when he did it the next morning, it appeared that the Lord Keeper had sent the great seal the night before (to the king), and had newly withdrawn himself, and was soon after known to be in Holland."

1 Seward's Anecdotes, 362, 8vo edit. 1804.

152. Proceedings in Parliament against Dr. JOHN COSIN, a Delinquent: 16 CHARLES I. A. D. 1640. [4 Rushworth, 208. 2 Cobb. Parl. Hist. 725.]

November 21, 1640.

'held as they are at Rome;' and instanced several of the Questions. This was referred to the Committee for Mr. Smart's Petition.

January 19, 1640-1, Dr. Cosin was bailed on his own bond for 2,000l. and those of two sureties for 1,000l. each.

January 22. The Commons resolved, 1. That the several Proceedings of the High Com

THE house of commons ordered Dr. Cosin into custody as a Delinquent. On the Tuesday following a Mr. Norton, a divine, was called in, and examined, and to divers questions demanded of him by Mr. Speaker, answered, That he had a son at Cambridge, ' and certain fellows of Peter-house endeavour-mission Court of York and Canterbury, 'ed to seduce him to Popery, pretending that against Mr. Smart, and the several Fines im'Dr. Cosin would make him a fellow of Peter- posed by them upon him, were illegal and un'house if he would come thither.' Thus much just, and ought not to bind. 2. That the appeared upon oath, and that he was forced to 'Degradation of Mr. Smart, and his deprivasend for his son away: He further said, Hetion from his prebends, and other ecclesiastical hath a copy of the Arguments that passed be-livings, were unjust and illegal; and that he tween them and his son. That the Questions ought to be restored to all of them, together in Peter-house chapel are maintained and with the mean profit. S. That Dr. Cosin, and others the prosecutors of Mr. Smart, 'ought to make him satisfaction for his damages sustained. 4. That Dr. Cosin is guilty of bringing in of Superstitious Innovations into the church, tending to idolatry, and of speaking of scandalous and malicious words against his majesty's supremacy, and the religion es

6

"This term," says Hume, "was newly come into vogue and expressed a degree and species of guilt not exactly known or ascertained." "They called whom they pleased, Delinquents; received complaints of all kinds; and committed to prison whom they pleased: which had been never done, nor attempted, before this parlia-tablished. 5. That Dr. Cosin is in the opiment; except in some such apparent breach, as the arresting a privileged person, or the like." Clarendon,

or to

nion of this house unfit and unworthy to be a governor in either of the Universities, continue any longer head or governor of any