ed the public before their private
interest, nay, before their very lives. It will in us be a wrong done
to ourselves, to our posterities, to our consciences, if we forego this
claim and pretension."[*]

* Franklyn p. 243. Rushworth, vol. i, p. 499.

"I read of a custom," said Sir Robert Philips, "among the old Romans,
that once every year they held a solemn festival, in which their slaves
had liberty, without exception, to speak what they pleased, in order to
ease their afflicted minds; and, on the conclusion of the festival, the
slaves severally returned to their former servitudes.

"This institution may, with some distinction, well set forth our present
state and condition. After the revolution of some time, and the grievous
sufferance of many violent oppressions, we have now at last, as those
slaves, obtained, for a day, some liberty of speech; but shall not, I
trust, be hereafter slaves: for we are born free. Yet what new illegal
burdens our estates and persons have groaned under, my heart yearns to
think of, my tongue falters to utter.----

"The grievances by which we are oppressed, I draw under two heads; acts
of power against law, and the judgments of lawyers against our liberty."

Having mentioned three illegal judgments passed within his memory; that
by which the Scots, born after James's accession, were admitted to all
the privileges of English subjects;[** semi-colon inserted, not in scan]
that by which the new impositions had been warranted; and the late one,
by which arbitrary imprisonments were authorized; he thus proceeded:--

"I can live, though another, who has no right, be put to live along with
me; nay, I can live, though burdened with impositions beyond what at
present I labor under: but to have my liberty, which is the soul of
my life, ravished from me to have my person pent up in a jail, without
relief 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 at the
same time to neglect our personal liberty, and let us lie in prison, and
that during pleasure, without redress or remedy! If this be law, why
do we talk of liberties? why trouble ourselves with disputes about a
constitution, 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; and therefore conclude to hav