30 WARDS AND TENURES. 



cast in any thing willingly, that may trouble that 

 clear fountain of his majesty s conscience. We do 

 confess it is a noble protection, that these young birds 

 of the nobility and good families should be gathered 

 and clocked under the wings of the crown. But yet 

 &quot; Naturae vis maxima :&quot; and &quot; Suns cuique discre- 

 tus sanguis.&quot; Your lordships will favour me, to 

 observe my former method. The common law itself, 

 which is the best bounds of our wisdom, doth, even 

 &quot; in hoc individuo,&quot; prefer the prerogative of the 

 father before the prerogative of the king : for if lands 

 descend, held in chief from an ancestor on the part 

 of a mother, to a man s eldest son, the father being 

 alive, the father shall have the custody of the body, 

 and not the king. It is true that this is only for the 

 father, and not any other parent or ancestor : but 

 then if you look to the high law of tutelage and pro 

 tection, and of obedience and duty, which is the 

 relative thereunto ; it is not said, &quot; Honour thy 

 father alone/ but &quot;Honour thy father and thy mo 

 ther,&quot; &c. Again, the civilians can tell us, that there 

 was a special use of the pretorian power for pupils, 

 and yet no tenures. The citizens of London can tell 

 us, there be courts of orphans, and yet no tenures. 

 But all this while we pray your lordships to conceive, 

 that we think ourselves not competent to discern of 

 the honour of his majesty s crown, or the shrine of 

 his conscience ; but. leave it wholly unto him, and 

 allege these things but in our own excuse. 



For matter of petition, we do continue our most 

 humble suit, by your lordships loving conjunction, 



