iberty, which is the soul of my
life, taken from me by power; and to have my body pent up in
a gaol, without remedy by law, and to be so adjudged: O
improvident ancestors! O unwise forefathers! To be so
curious in providing for the quiet possession of our lands,
and the liberties of Parliament; and to neglect our persons
and bodies, and to let them lie in prison, and that _durante
bene placito_, remediless! If this be law, why do we talk of
liberties? Why do we trouble ourselves with a dispute about
law, franchises, property of goods, and the like? What may
any man call his own, if not the Liberty of his Person? I am
weary of treading these ways."[96]

[Footnote 96: 2 Parl. Hist. 232. See also 441, 471. He had been thrown
into the Tower by James in 1624. Cabbala (3d Ed.), 311.]

In 1641 Sir Philip Parker, Knight of the Shire for Suffolk, in his
place in Parliament, thus spoke:--

"The cries of the people have come up to me; the voice of
the whole nation tingles in my ears." "'Tis true, I confess,
we have tormented ourselves with daily troubles and
vexations, and have been very solicitous for the welfare of
the Commonwealth; but what have we performed, what have we
perfected? Mr. Speaker, excuse my zeal in this case; for my
mouth cannot imprison what my mind intends to let out;
neither can my tongue conceal what my heart desires to
promulge. Behold the Archbishop [Laud], that great
incendiary of this kingdom, lies now like a firebrand raked
up in the embers; but if ever he chance to blaze again I am
afraid that what heretofore he had but in a spark, he will
burn down to the ground in a full flame. Wherefore let us
begin, for the kingdom is pregnant with expectation on this
point. I confess there are many more delinquents, for the
judges and other knights walk _in querpo_; but they are only
thunderbolts forged in Canterbury's fire."[97]

[Footnote 97: Parl. Hist. 867.]

Six of the wicked judges were soon brought to trial.[98]

[Footnote 98: 1 Rushworth, 502.]

* * * * *

This same threefold experiment of despotism which was attempted in
England, was tried also in America by the same tyrannical hand. Here,
also, the encroaching power put creatures of its arbitrary will in
judicial offices; they then by perverting the laws, punished the
patriot