A65962:140
The whole trial of Mr. Christopher Love, before a pretended high court of justice…The whole triall of Mr. Christopher Love, before a pretended high court of justice…
The whole trial of Mr. Christopher Love, before a pretended high court of justice in Westminster Hall containing the charge of high treason against him ... with the relation of his suffering and his speech and prayer at his death on Tower-hill / published by John Farthing, citizen of London, who took the trial in the said court in short-writing for Mr. Love, and at his own request ; to which is added The tragedy of his trial and death in very elegant verses / by the acute author of Iter boreale.The whole triall of Mr. Christopher Love, before a pretended high court of justice in Westminster Hall containing the charge of high treason against him ... with the relation of his suffering and his speech and prayer at his death on Tower-hill / published by John Farthing, citizen of London, who took the triall in the said court in short-writing for Mr. Love, and at his own request ; to which is added The tragedy of his triall and death in very elegant verses / by the acute author of Iter boreale.
London : s.n., 1660
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
M. Love. If I do plead to the charge, I do allow the matter and form of the charge to be legal. I desire to have counsel to come to my chamber; I do not say, to come to this place, but to have liberty for them to come to my chamber.
Mr. Steele Recorder of London. I did not think to have spoken, nor have I usually spoken in this court, yet I will speak a word out of tenderness to your self. You have very often insisted upon it, that you should have counsel assigned before you plead, that is it you plead for: truly the course of law is this, That if the prisoner charged at the bar, before he plead shall demand counsel, he must of necessity put in some special plea before the time he can demand counsel. The court doth not enforce you to plead guilty or not guilty to all the matter of fact, but they say, of necessity you must plead. If you put in a special plea, and tell them that it is a special plea, and desire counsel upon it, they will consider it: but till you can declare what that special plea is, for there is a general plea, and a special plea; the general plea is, not guilty, the special plea is in some particulars. Now for you to allege neither the special plea nor the general plea, it is impossible that counsel can be assigned you. And whereas you say you are concluded if you plead, and cannot object against the indictment afterwards; no Sir, I tell you in the name of a Christian, and one that knows a little of the law, that all the objections you have against the indictment, the formality of it, and those things you speak of, as that of your fact not being committed in such a time that the Act holds out, that the high court hath no relation to try you for Scotland; all these will be saved to you, if they arise upon matter of fact from the evidence. True, if you make an objection against the jurisdiction of the court, that hath no relation either to the special plea or general plea, it cannot be. It is impossible an objection should be received against the essence of the court, there is none can possibly over-rule that for you, but themselves; it is such a thing, that no counsel can be assigned you, as to that, because it strikes at the very being of the court. Now therefore I beseech you in the name of a christian, that you will not do your self that prejudice, for nature teacheth every man to preserve himself by all just ways and means; and I do believe that in this business you have apprehended it for your preservation, and that you are loth to do any thing that tends to your destruction; but you may satisfy your conscience, in that you have done what you can.