and have daily resort to His Majefty, and have the Direction and Truft of his Affairs; I fay, that none of these should prefs these Confequences there, or give the leaft ftop to the Career of that House in this Business; but that all the Votes concerning this Affair, nay, even that very Vote, viz. That no Appeal from the Court of Equity, is cognizable by the Houfe of Lords, fhould pafs Nemine contradicente: And yet all the great Minifters with us here, the Bishops and other Lords of greatest Dependance on the Court, contended this Point, as if it were pro Aris & Focis. I hear His

Majefty in Scotland hath been pleas'd to declare against Appeals in Parliament. I cannot much blame the Court if they think that with the Lord Keeper and the Judges, (being of the King's Naming, and in his Power to change) the Juftice of the Nation is fafe enough, and I, My Lords, may think fo too, during this King's Time, tho' I hear Scotland, not without Reafon, complains already: Yet who can foresee how future Princes may ufe this Power? For Judges may be made, not Men of Ability or Integrity, but Men of Relation and Dependance, and who will do what they are commanded; and then all Mens Caufes will come to be judg'd, and Estates difpos'd on, as Great Men at Court please.

My Lords, The Conftitution of our Government hath provided better for us; and I can never believe fo wife a Body as the House of

Commons

Commons will prove that Foolish Woman which plucks down her Houfe with her own Hands.

My Lords, I muft prefume, in the next place, to fay fomething to what was offer'd by the Bishop of Salisbury, a Man of great Learning and Abilities, and always vers'd in a stronger and clofer way of Reafoning, than the business of that Noble Lord Lanfwer'd before did accuftom him to. Now this Reverend Prelate hath ftated the Matter very fair upon Two Heads. The Firft, Whether the hearing Caufes and Appeals, and especially in this Point, where the Members have Privilege, be fo material to us, that it ought not to give way to the Reason of State, or greater Affairs that preffed us at that time. The Second was, If this Business be of that Moment, yet whether the appointing a Day to confider of this Petition would prove of that Confequence and Prejudice to your Caufe? My Lords, to thefe give me leave, in the first place, to fay, That this Matter is no lefs than your whole Judicature; and your Judicature is the Life and Soul of the Dignity of the Peerage of England; you will quickly grow burthenfome, if you grow ufelefs: You have now the Greatest and Useful End of Parliaments principally in you, which is not to make new Laws, but to redrefs Grievances, and to maintain old Land-marks. The Houfe of Commons Business is to complain, your Lordships to redress not only the Complaints from them that are the Eyes of the Nation, but all other

particular Perfons that addrefs to you. A Land may groan under a multitude of Laws, and I believe Qurs does; and when Laws grow fo mul tiplied, they prove oftner Snares than Directions and a Security of the People.. I look upon it as the Ignorance and Weaknefs of the latter Age, if not worse, the effect of the Designs of ill Men, that it is grown a general Opinion, That where there is not a particular Direction in fome Acts of Parliament, the Law is defective; as if the Common-Law had not provided much better, and fhorter, and plainer for the Peace and Quiet of the Nation, than intricate, long, perplexed Statutes do; which has made Work for the Lawyers, given Power to the Judges, leffen'd your Lordships Power, and in a good measure unhinged the Security of the People. My Lord Bishop tells us, That your whole Judicature is not in Queftion, but only the Privilege of the House of Commons, of their Members not appearing at your Bar. My Lords, were it no more, yet for Juftice and the People's fake you ought not to part with it. How far a Privilege of the House of Commons, their Servants and thofe they own, doth extend,

Westminster-Hall may with Grief tell your

Lordships. Lord hips. And the fame Privilege of their Members being not fued, must be allow'd by your Lordships as well: And what a Failure of Juftice this would prove, whilft they are Lords for Life, and you for Inheritance, let the World judge. For my part I am willing to come to a Con

a Conference whenever the Dispute fhall begin again; and dare undertake to your Lordships, that they have neither Prefident, Reason, nor any Juftifiable Pretence to fhew against us; and therefore, My Lords, if you part with this undoubted Right, meerly for afking, where will the asking stop? And, My Lords, I am fure it does not stop here, for they have already, Nemine contradicente, voted against your Lordfhips Power of Appeals from any Court of Equity. So that you may plainly fee where this Caution and reafon of State means to ftop; not one jot fhort of laying your whole Judicature afide, for the fame reason of paffing the King's Money, of not interrupting good Laws, 'or whatever elfe, you muft of neceffity avoid a Breach upon what Score foever. Thus your Lordships plainly fee the Breach will be as well made upon your Judicature in general, as upon this; fo that when your Lordships have appointed a Day, a very long Day, for to confi der whether Dr. Shirley's Caufe be not too hot to handle; and when you have done the fame for Sir Nicholas Stanton, whofe Petition I hear is coming in, your Lordships muft proceed to a Vote to lay all private Business aside for fix Weeks; for that Phrase of Private Business hath obtain❜d this laft Age upon that which is your moft Publick Duty and Business, namely, the adminiftration of Juftice. And I can tell your Lordships, befides the Reason that leads to it, that I have fome Intelligence of the defigning

figning fuch a Vote; for on the fecond Day of your Sitting, at the rifing of the Lord's Houfe, there came a Gentleman into the Lobby, belonging to a very Great Perfon, and ask'd in very great hafte, Are the Lords up? have they paffed the Vote? And being afked what Vote, he answered, The Vote for no Private Business for fix Weeks.

My Lords, If this be your Bufinefs, fee where you are, if you are to poftpone our Judicature for fear of offending the House of Commons for fix Weeks, that they, in the interim, may pafs the Money, and other acceptable Bills that His Majefty thinks of Importance. Are fo many Wife Men in the House of Commons to be laid afleep, and to pafs all thefe acceptable things; and when they have done, to let us to be let loose upon them? Will they not remember this next time when there is a want of Money? Or may not they rather be affured by thofe Minifters that are amongst them, and go on fo unanimoufly with them, that the King is on their fide in this Controverfy? And when the Publick Businesses are over, our Time shall be too fhort to make a Breach, or vindicate our felves in the matter. And then I beg your Lordships, where are you? if after you have afferted but the laft Seffions your Right of Judicature fo highly: even in this Point, and after the House of Commons had gone fo high against you on the other hand, as to poft up their Declaration and Remonftrances on

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