(39)
Primrose was prisoner there; & his wife who brougt up the letter to my wife, is now in London, which letter my wife delivered to the Speaker, &c. and by her importunate solicitation, procu⟨r⟩ed the Declaration of l⟨e⟩x talionis, the substance of which, in a letter from Mr Speaker, my wife brought down to Oxford, and delivered to the Lord Heaths own hands, upon the Sunday after the first day of our arraignment, and the 3d day before we were to appear again, my Wife arrived at Oxfood with the Sp⟨e⟩akers letter which she delivered to Judg Heath himself, which letter taking notice of our tryall, threatned them with lex talionis, to doe the like to their prisoners that they did to us, or any of us: and they having many of their great eminent men prisoners in the Tower, and in Warwick Castle and other places, did induce them to stop ⟨a⟩ll further prosecution of Col. Vivers, Capt. Catesbie, and my selfe. And if it had not been for this threatning letter, in all likelihood we had all 3. been condemned by a commission of Oyer & Terminer, & executed; for my wife did heare Judge Heath say to some of his Associates at his reading of the letter, that as for all the threatning part of it, as to his particular selfe, I value it not; but said he, we must be tender of the lives of the Lords & Gentlemen that served the K. & are in the custody of those at Westminster, and that clause of lex talionis put a stop to our proceedings and further tryals at law.
L. Keble. It was well for you, by your storie that you do tell, that you had so fair play; you shall have with us, who are upon our lives & oaths, as much as the law will afford you, & so much as our judgement and consciences can lead us to, without doing injustice in granting more then the laws of England wil afford: what was done there, is nothing to us here, for we are not to walke ⟨by⟩ their president, but by our owne Judgments, according to the ⟨r⟩ules of the law: & here tis thus far just, that upon the proof of matter of fact, if law do arise you are to have counsell, if not, you are to have none. By your allegation, you say, you had counsell assigned you before any matter of fact came to be proved, when as a Judg of the law he could not but do it; but if he did it is nothing to us, we cannot do it; yet we have in this place proceeded legally hitherto with you, & when that matter of law doth arise from the fact, as you had counsell there assigned you, so shall you have here, & you shal have faire dealing, & fair play according to law, which is absolutely as I tell you.
L. C. Lil. Sir, by your favour I crave but one word more, and that is this; here is a Gentleman that is a by-stander, a friend of mine, and my Solliciter, who by law as wel as any other by stander ma⟨y⟩[1] speak so the prisoner at the Bar, in case he perceive things urged against him contrary to law, and therefore I desire he may speak two or three words.
(Mr. Sprat beginning to speak.)
Lord Keble.
- ↑ Cook in his Inst. 3. part. c. petty treason, fol. 29. is expresse in this particular so is he in c. 63. b⟨e⟩ing his cap. of counsell, learned in pleas of the Crown, fol. 137.
