And on the Voluminous ness of the Laws.

An Account of this Edition.

8. There is one thing more which ought not to be wholly passed over, and that is, the Multiplicity and Voluminousness of our Laws: If what lies scattered in so many various (some obsolete) Acts, were (so much of them as should be judged fit to be continued) collected under their several Heads into so many distinct acts, the law would be much more plain and easy; whereas now, considering the variety of subjects, which are often thrown together into one act, and the various acts relating to one and the same subject, it is no easy matter to find out the whole relating to one particular head; and when it is found, many difficulties arise from the clashings and inconsistencies of the several acts, the old ones not being always sufficiently consulted when the new ones are made; so that it is to be wished we may never feel the inconvenience which Tacitus.{m} · complains of in his time, Antehac flagitiis laborabatur, nunc legibus.

I thought these short Observations upon the Laws of England, so far as they relate to public Crimes and the incidents thereto, would not be altogether unsuitable to a Work, consisting chiefly of the Histories of Criminal Prosecutions.

The Conclusion naturally resulting from the whole is, That as our Laws have many Excellencies and Advantages which we have just reason to value them for, so they have also their defects and blemishes: such a blind veneration for them, as will not allow this, does not only suppose a perfection which all human contrivances are incapable of, but is the greatest obstruction to all attempts for an amendment: that some things need to be mended, no experienc'd lawyer can deny; and that they should be so, every honest one will heartily desire.

Whether the Particulars here mentioned be of that number, is submitted to the judgment of all true lovers of their country, who it is hoped will be so far from being offended hereat, that they will use their utinost endeavours to promote the amendment of whatever shall appear to need it. I pretend not to have taken notice of every particular in our Crown Law which may deserve it; my design was only to give a few hints, wherein I might evince the necessity of a reformation; and if I can be any way instrumental in bringing it about by stirring up others of more capacity and influence to undertake the task, I shall answer my end..

The reader will by this time expect some Account of the Improvements and Alterations in this Second Edition. When the first Edition was preparing for the press, the Undertakers were at great pains and expence, and offered large encouragements to procure whatever was proper and suitable to their design; but as they were sensible there must needs be many defects and omissions in the first attempt of a Work of this nature, so they have continued their pains to supply those defects, and have offered the same encouragements to any who should furnish them with such material Trials as were then omitted. How they have succeeded in their endeavours may be seen from the large number of Additional Trials: These, together with the Additions interspersed thro' the other Trials, have swell'd the Work to five Volumes; to which there is added a Sixth, containing the most remarkable Trials from the reign of queen Anne, where the first edition ended, to the end of the reign of king George 1. The larger Trial of the earl of Strafford is here purposely omitted, as being an entire Volume in Rushworth's Collections, which is to be had by itself.

To make this Collection more generally acceptable, the Reader is informed at the end of each Trial, where the Prisoner was convicted of a capital crime, whether he was executed or not; and (where it could be had) an Account also is added of his Behaviour and Speech at the place of Execution.

(m) Annal. lib. 3. § 25.

And whereas in the former Edition some Trials were inserted out of the order of time, and parts of others transpos'd, they are here reduced to their proper places; the names of the Judges, Attorney-General, &c. are here generally, if not always, inserted; several Notes are added to explain and illustrate the text, and divers References made to the Books of Reports and Historians of the times: and for the ease and conveniency of referring, each Trial is distinctly number'd; the several Titles are render'd uniform, containing the Date when, the crime for which, and the court before whom the Prisoner was try'd; all which are continued where there was room for them throughout the running title; the omission whereof in some places 'tis hoped the candid reader will excuse, since in a work of this nature, where such a variety of printers are employ'd, it can scarce be expected that all parts of it should be performed with equal care and exactness. To render this Work the more useful, especially to the Gentlemen of the Law, there is subjoin'd by way of Appendix a Collection of Records relating to the said Trials. The undertakers wish they could say they had had the same success in this part of the work as in the other; but hope the fault will not be imputed to them, who have inserted all they could procure, and done their endeavours to procure the rest. That the whole might be the better fitted for use, there are added two Alphabetical Tables; the one containing the Names of the Persons tried or proceeded against, together with the Times and Places of their Trial, and also their Crimes and Punishments; the other of the several Matters contained in all the Six Volumes.

March 27, 1730.

S. EMLYN.

VOL. 1.

PREFACE

TO THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH VOLUMES OF THE STATE TRIALS: PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1735.

AFTER the publication of a Collection of State-Trials, which consists of Six Volumes in folio; the Reader may possibly be surprised at the appearance of two Volumes more of Collections on the same subject. For this reason it may be proper to premise some particulars prefatory to the Work, concerning the inducements there were to it, and the method wherein it has been pursued. And here we would by no means be understood to lay an imputation on the gentleman who prepared the last Edition of that Work for the press. The judicious Preface he prefixed to it, plainly shewed him to be entirely master of the subject; and he performed with eminent sufficiency the part he undertook, which was, to prepare and methodize such Tracts, printed or manuscript, as were brought to him; to insert them in their proper places, and to make Remarks and References where ever there was occasion. The business of collecting the several pieces was by no means his province, nor was it to be expected from one who had daily avocations in the way of his profession.

And tho' it were admitted that the then Undertakers did every thing they possibly could, to render the Work entire and complete, and spared neither pains nor expence to procure materials fit for the purpose; yet it is no wonder, that in so fruitful a field, they should after all their diligence leave some gleanings to reward the industry of those that came after them. They proceed in the first Edition upon a very scanty plan, proposing to take in no Trials, but what were really State-Trials, and were taken at length and entire; and to this plan they adhered strictly, except in a few instances: but in preparing the second Edition, by the advice of several gentlemen of learning and curiosity, a greater latitude was taken, and as well several Cases heard before the Court of Star-Chamber were inserted, as other Proceedings at Law, which could not properly be called State-Trials; and Trials which were well taken, tho' not of a Criminal nature, were inserted, together with the dying Be

haviour and Speeches of such unfortunate persons as suffered death upon their con

victions.

In almost every of these particulars, these Supplemental Volumes will appear to have received many Additions and Improvements. The Cases here inserted, which were debated in the Star-Chamber, are such only as were considerable for the curiosity of the fact enquired into; as the Case of Davidson for sending down the Warrant for beheading the queen of Scots, contrary to queen Elizabeth's order; or for the figure and station of the Persons concerned, as lord Chancellor Bacon and others. The Trial for a large Estate in Shadwell, wherein the lady Ivy was a party; that of Mr. Denew and others, for assaulting Mr. Colepeper; the Proceedings between the duke and dutchess of Norfolk, and his grace's Trial with Mr. Germaine; and some others, were taken from printed pieces, which, for their price and scarcity, were almost equivalent to Manuscripts: and we can with truth say, that most of the printed Tracts here made use of, cost above ten times the price, that an ordinary piece of the. same size is commonly sold for.

As for the Trials in these Volumes which were never before printed, we are not at liberty to give the reasons why we believe them to be authentick; but we conceive the intrinsick marks they bear will be so evident and convincing, to every one that reads them, of their being genuine, as to make any proofs on that head, to be absolutely unnecessary.

We have been obliged in a few places to transcribe here and there some passages from larger works: but in this particular we have been as sparing as possible, having inserted no more than was absolutely necessary to preserve the connexion, and to make the whole more intelligible. The greatest freedom taken in that kind has been in the Collection of Arguments and Debates upon the Habeas Corpus Act and Liberty of the Subject, between the years 1627 and 1640; in which we were obliged to be sometimes beholden (but as little as possible) to Mr. Rushworth's Historical Collections. As these contests, between the crown and the subject, were one of the greatest causes of the fatal confusions which afterwards followed, and of that surprising Revolution which was the astonishment of all Christendom, every Proceeding in that affair, warranted by sufficient authority, was thought worth preserving, especially as it related to what, next to the Life of the Subject, is deemed most precious in the eye of the law, his Liberty.

Some gentlemen may perhaps think that Mr. Rushworth's Collection are so full on this head, that it would be a presumption to add any thing to them: but it will appear that most of the Speeches and Proceedings here printed are not taken notice of by Mr. Rushworth. How they came to be omitted, we will not pretend to determine; only we cannot forbear observing, as a strange instance of partiality in that Editor, that after inserting the Articles against the earl of Strafford at large in his Trial, he has abridged the Answer put in by him to his Articles, with this Introduction: Answer held three hours, being above 200 sheets of paper, too long to be here inserted; yet take an Abstract of the said Answer to the Articles exhibited against him, which are as followeth." Which Abstract is so vastly short, as not to contain above

ten pages.

The

For fear of being thought prolix, in order to swell the price of the Book, we have omitted the Trial at large of the earl of Strafford, it being to be had separate at a moderate price. We don't doubt but his Answer at large would have been a great ornament to this Collection, and would have enabled the world to judge more clearly of his Case, than it is now likely to do. But as all the Proceedings against him were strictly ordered to be obliterated; so, with the utmost enquiry, we have been unable to find any Copy thereof remaining with the Descendants of his family, or in any other hands.

The Case of Monopolies, between the East-India Company and Mr. Sandys, does not, it must be confest, strictly speaking, come under the description of a State-Trial; but as the publishing the Proceedings between the King and the City of London, upon a Quo Warranto, in the last Edition of the State-Trials, met with general approbation, we hope the like candid construction will be put upon the step we have taken in this Case. The Question of the Power of the Crown to grant an exclusive Charter, and the Distinction to be made between a criminal Monopoly, the regal Prerogative, and legal Property, are undoubtedly of the highest importance. The point is debated upon this. occasion by the most knowing and eminent lawyers of the time, and their Arguments are now first published from Manuscripts, which have not been taken notice of in any of the Law-Books now extant, (except a very short Abstract of some of the Speeches, which is printed in Mr. Serjeant Skinner's Reports) to which are added, the learned Arguments and Reasons of the Lord Chief-Justice Jeffreys.

There are some instances where we have not been able to procure complete Trials,. and yet have obtained either Speeches made in them by gentlemen of note at that time, or large and particular Relations, though not in so minute and exact a manner, as in Trials taken in Short-hand in Court. Where any thing of this kind has occurred, which we judged worth notice, we have chose to preserve them from the oblivion they would otherwise sink under, by inserting them in this Collection. And tho' they are not so valuable as entire Trials, yet they may serve to give a more clear account of the Facts there tried, than is to be found in a general History; which, as the learned Editor of the State-Trials well observes, is one considerable Benefit arising from Collections of this kind.

Concerning the other Pieces contained in this Collection, we need be the less particular in this place, as we have before most of the Articles, or in Notes at the bottom, given our reasons for inserting them: only lest it should be thought that the remark

able Case of Ashby and White, in the last Volume, contains no more than the small Book, published under that name in octavo in the year 1705, it may be proper to observe, That the whole Proceedings and Debates of that memorable Affair are deduced in order of time from the first Complaint made in the House of Commons; containing not only the Proceedings, Reports, Representations, Conferences and Resolutions, of both Houses, as published by their order; but also the Proceedings and Arguments in the Court of King's-Bench.

In fine, as no pains or expence has been spared to make this Collection complete, useful and instructive; so we must submit the whole to the judgment of the Publick, and rely upon the candour of the Readers, for a kind acceptance of our endeavours.