A65962:87
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. Sir, you did declare this after the change and abolition of a King and House of Lords, that a Trial by a Jury of twelve of the neighbourhood was according to Law; and you urged Master Lilburne with this, that he might plead, and do no harm unto himself. And not only so, but the House also declared, That since the change of Government, they would never alter that way of trial; and upon the ninth of February, 1648. they did declare, That though they thought fit to abolish the Kingly Office, and the House of Lords, yet they resolved they would still retain and preserve the fundamental Laws of the Nation, for and concerning the preservation of the liberties, lives, and estates of the people. Now Sir, they declaring they would never alter this way of trial, and you declaring this way of trial by Juries, to be according to the fundamental Laws of the Land, I beseech you give me the reason why it is denied to me.
M. Love. Sir, you did declare this after the change and abolition of a King and House of Lords, that a Triall by a Jury of twelve of the neighbourhood was according to Law; and you urged Master Lilburne with this, that he might plead, and do no harm unto himself. And not onely so, but the House also declared, That since the change of Government, they would never alter that way of triall; and upon the ninth of February, 1648. they did declare, That though they thought fit to abolish the Kingly Office, and the House of Lords, yet they resolved they would still retain and preserve the fundamentall Laws of the Nation, for and concerning the preservation of the liberties, lives, and estates of the people. Now Sir, they declaring they would never alter this way of triall, and you declaring this way of triall by Juries, to be according to the fundamentall Laws of the Land, I beseech you give me the reason why it is denied to me.
At. Gen. My Lord, it is very unusual for a prisoner to debate with the court. Here he is to be controlled. Let him know he is a prisoner, upon the trial of his life, before that court that hath been empowered by the Parliament, they who did never bind their own hands: I must say, my Lord, they cannot bind their own hands. And it is this trial that they have thought fit to give him. And for his excepting against thirty five, then you will hardly be a court left. My Lord, I think if he look upon the court, he will find no enemies here, knowing them to be of his neighbourhood, and most of them of London; and I think, he known to them, and they to him, the most of them. But my Lord, these disputes are not allowed to others; and the Gentleman will (I hope) have so much modesty at last, that he will think he hath said a little too much to the court; and I think, it is not good to provoke too far. And my Lord, he hath said much, and you have given him fair answers, and those that are clear and undeniable. But if he speak of the jurisdiction of the court, and that he will not plead, let him speak in plain English, and he shall hear me in plain English.