THE LORD ANDEVERS SPEECH concerning the Starre-chamber.

SInce your Lordships have already looked so farre into the Priviledges of Peeres, as to make a strict inquisition upon forraine Ho∣nours, let us not destroy that amongst our selves, which we desire to preserve from strangers.

And if this grievance I shall move againe have slept till now, it is very considerable, lest custome make it every day more apparent then other. Your Lordships very well know there was a Statute fra∣med the 30. H. 7. authorising the Chancellour, Treasurer, Privy Seale, and the 2. chiefe Iustices, calling to them one Bishop, and a Temporall Lord of the Kings Counsell to receive complaints upon Bill or information, and cite such parties to ap∣peare as stand accused of any misdemeanors, and this was the infancie of the Starchamber. But af∣terwards Cardinall Wolsey. 8. Hen. 8. raised it to mans estate, from whence (being now altogether unlimited) 'tis growne a Monster, and will houre∣ly Page  4 produce worse effects, unlesse it be reduced by that hand which layd the foundation, for the Sta∣tures that are ratified by Parliament admit of no other remedy then an appeale.

Therefore I humbly offer unto your Lordships these ensning seasons why it should be repealed, First that the very words of the. Stature cleerely shew it was a needlesse in••itution, for it sayes, they who are to judge can proceed with no delinquent, otherwise the if he were convict of the same crime by due processe of Law, and doe your Lordships hold this a rationall Court that sends us to the Law and calls us backe from it againe? Secondly, divers judicatories confound one another, & in pes∣sima Republica plurimae leges, this 2. reason is from Circumstance, or rather a consuitudine, and of this there are many examples, both domestike and For∣reigne, but more particularly by the Parliaments of France abbreviated into a standing Committee by Philip the Long, and continued according to his in∣tention untill Lewis the 11. came unto the Crowne∣who being a subtill Prince burned the volume in, the Epitome, for to this day when ever the 3. estates are called, either at the death of the old King, or to Crowne the new, it is a Common Proverbe, al∣lons voire gen des estates. My Lords, Arbitrary judg∣ments destroy the Cōmon Lawes, and in the 2. great Charters of the Kingdome, which being once lost, we have nothing else left but the name of libertie. The last reason is (though it was the first cause of my standing up) the great Eclipse that it hath e∣ver beene to the whole Nobility, for who are so fre∣quently Page  5 vexed there as Peeres and Noblemen, and notwithstanding their appeale to this assembly is ever good, whilest the famous Law of 4. Ed. 3. remaines in force for the holding of a Parliament once a yeare, or more often, if occasion require, yet who durst a yeare agoe mention such a Statute without incurring the danger of Mr. Kilverts pro∣secution?

Therefore shall humbly move your Lordships, that a select Committes of a few may be named to consider of the Act of Parliament it selfe, and if they shall thinke it of as great prejudice as doe, that then the House of Commons in the usuall manner may be made acquainted with it either by Bill or conference, who may happily also thinke it a burthen to the subject, and so when the whole body of Parliament shall joyne in one supplicati∣on, I am confident his Majestie vvill desire that nothing should remaine in force vvhich his people doe not vvillingly obey.