related but to the prelates and not the law of God and of nature, and that the King.' maxim " nemo tenetur prodere scipsum" was The last Star Chamber case of which any in accord with the former and a part of the fair report is extant, is that of John Lilburn, latter. who was proceeded against "for sending of Stephen says,1 " In this, I think, . . . the factious and seditious libels out of Holland real truth was that those who disliked the into England. The report was written by oath had usually done 'the things of which Lilburn himself, but is probably substan they were accused, and which they regarded tially correct. The case is noticeable par as meritorious actions, though their judges ticularly because it shows the intense popular regarded them as crimes. People always disfavor of one of the principal features of protest with passionate eagerness against the Star Chamber procedure. This was being deprived of technical defenses against what was known as the ex-officio oath. what they regard as bad laws, and such It was one of the methods, then in use in complaints often give a spurious value to the ecclesiastical courts, of obtaining evi technicalities when the cruelty of the laws dence against the defendant whereon to base against which they have afforded protection a prosecution, and was doubtless borrowed has come to be commonly admitted." from those courts. In the common law There is certainly some ground for these courts this oath is yet commonly used remarks. Indeed we might perhaps go without objection in interlocutory proceed farther, and admit that those who found ings under the name of the "voir (yrai) the ex-officio oath most oppressive and dis dire," — "You shall true answer make to tasteful were usually guilty men whose only all such questions as shall be demanded of protection would have been the inability to you," — but in the old ecclesiastical courts, prove their guilt by the testimony of others. and especially the High Commission, and However this may be the unpopularity of in the Star Chamber it was understood to the ex-officio oath is clearly shown by Lilbe and was used as a means of compelling a burn's account of his own case. . defendant to furnish evidence against him After having been committed to the Gate house, he was ordered by the Privy Council self. Those who found themselves subjected to to be examined before the Attorney-Gen this oath urged that it was against both the eral, Sir John Banks. He was taken to the latter's chambers, and was there referred to 1 And yet this same man Prynn, after the restoration of be examined by the chief-clerk, Mr. CockCharles II., held Catharine of Braganza in high esteem. When Charles II. was asked what course should be pursued shey. " At our first meeting together," says with Prynn, who was beginning to get very troublesome, Lilburn, " he did kindly entreat me, and "Odds fish," replied the King, " he wants something to made me sit down by him, put on my hat, do. I'll make him keeper of the Tower records, and set him to put them in order, which will keep him in employ and began with me, after this manner : ' Mr. ment for the next twenty years." " The restless activity of Lilburn, what is your Christian name?' " A the antiquarian republican exerted itself to good purpose number of interrogatories followed, leading in reforming the chaos that was committed to his care; the value he felt for the muniments of history imbued him with up to the subject of the charge, some a veneration for regality itself, and the man who had of which Lilburn answered. But at length refused to drink King Charles's health, or to doff his hat he declined to answer further, saying, " I while others drank it, became a stickler for the right divine know it is warrantable by the law of God, of kings, and an advocate for the restoration of the privi leges and immunities accorded in the good old times to and I think by the law of the land, that I their consorts. He even went so far as to justify the may stand on my just defense, and not severity of the Star Chamber sentence that had been in answer your interrogatories, and that my flicted on his own person, declaring "that if they had taken his head when they deprived him of his ears, he had been only given his deserts."
Vol. I., 342-
