250 SPEECH ON TAKING 



if I should find any main diversity of opinion of my 

 assistants from mine own, though I know well the 

 judicature of the court wholly resteth in myself; yet 

 I think I should have recourse to the oracle of the 

 king s own judgment, before I should pronounce. 

 And so much for the temperate use of the authority 

 of this court ; for surely the health of a court, as well 

 as of a body, consisteth in temperance. 



For the second commandment of his majesty, 

 touching staying of grants at the great seal ; there 

 may be just cause of stay, either in the matter of the 

 grant, or in the manner of passing the same. Out of 

 both which I extract these six principal cases which I 

 will now make known : all which, nevertheless, I un 

 derstand to be wholly submitted to his majesty s will 

 and pleasure, after by me he shall have been inform 

 ed ; for if &quot; iteratum mandatum&quot; be come, obedience 

 is better than sacrifice. 



The first case is, where any matter of revenue, or 

 treasure, or profit, passeth from his majesty ; my first 

 duty shall be to examine, whether the grant hath 

 passed in the due and natural course by the great 

 officers of the revenue, the lord treasurer and chancel 

 lor of the exchequer, and with their privity ; which if 

 I find it not to be, I must presume it to have passed 

 in the dark, and by a kind of surreption ; and I will 

 make stay of it till his majesty s pleasure be farther 

 known. 



Secondly, if it be a grant that is not merely yul- 

 gar, and hath not of course passed at the signet by a 

 f&amp;lt; fac simile,&quot; but needeth science, rny duty shall be 



