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 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 & 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 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 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 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 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. 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.