The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

182 CASE OF THE POST-NATI OF SCOTLAND.
any country is by law, he can never change the whither Into the realm of England. And in
laws, for that they create his title; and, therefore, the seventh chapter, that erects the ports of
no doubt those duchies retained their own laws; Bourdeaux and Bayonne for the staple towns of
which if they did, then they could not be subject wine; the statute ordains, 6" thatif any," but who?
to the laws of England. And next, again, the " English merchant, or his servants, shall buy or
fact or practice was otherwise, as appeareth by bargain otherwhere, his body shall be arrested by
all consent of story and record: for those duchies the steward of Gascoigne, or the constable of
continued governed by the civil law, their trials Bourdeaux:" true, for the officers of England
by witnesses, and not by jury, their lands testa- could not catch him in Gascoigne; but what
mnentary, and the like. shall become of him! shall he be proceeded with
Now, for the colours that some have endeavour- within Gascoigne. No, but he shall be sent
ed to give, that they should have been subordi- over into England into the Tower of London.
nate to the government of England; they were And this doth notably disclose the reason of
partly weak, and partly such as make strongly that custom which some have sought to wrest the
against them: for as to that, that writs of ", ha- other way: that custom, I say, whereof a form doth
beas corpus" under the great seal of England yet remain, that in every parliament the king doth
have gone to Gascoigne, it is no manner of proof; appoint certain committees in the Upper House to
for that the king's writs, which are mandatory, receive the petitions of Normandy, Guienne, and
and not writs of ordinary justice, may go to his the rest; which, as by the former statute doth
subjects into any foreign parts whatsoever, and appear, could not be for the ordering of the governunder what seal it pleaseth him- to use. And as ments there, but for the liberties and good usage
to that, that some acts of parliament have been of the subjects of those parts when they came
cited, wherein the parliaments of England have hither, or ", vice versa," for the restraining of the
taken upon them to order matters of Gascoigne: abuses and misdemeanours of our subjects when
if those statutes be well looked into, nothing doth they went thither.
more plainly convince the contrary, for they in- Wherefore I am now at an end. For us to
termeddile with nothing but that that concerneth speak of the mischiefs, I hold it not fit for this
either the English subjects personally, or the ter- place, lest we should seem to bend the laws to
ritories of England locally,and neverthe subjects policy, and not to take the!n in their true and
of Gascoigne: for look upon the statute of 27 E. natural sense. It is enough that every man knows,
III. cap. 5; there it is said, that there shall be no that it is true of these two kingdoms, which a good
forestalling of wines. But by whom? Only by father said of the churches of Christ: " si inseEnglish merchants; not a word of the subjects of parabiles insuperabiles." Some things I may
Gascoigne, and yet no doubt they might be of. have forgot, and some things, perhaps, I may
fenders in the same kind. forget willingly; for I will not press any opinion
So in the sixth chapter it is said, that all or declaration of late time which may prejudice
merchants Gascoignes may safely bring wines the liberty of this debate; but, ex dictis, et ex
Into what part it shall please them: here now are non dictis," upon the whole matter I pray judgthe persons of Gascoignes; but then the place ment for the plaintiff.