384 CHARGE AGAINST WH1TELOCKE. 



reckon Mr. Whitelocke s ; for as for his loyalty 

 and true heart to the king, God forbid I should 

 doubt it. 



Therefore let no man mistake so far, as to con 

 ceive, that any lawful and due liberty of the subject 

 for asking counsel in law is called in question when 

 points of disloyalty or of contempt are restrained. 

 Nay, we see it is the grace and favour of the king 

 and his courts, that if the case be tender, and a wise 

 lawyer in modesty and discretion refuseth to be of 

 counsel, for you have lawyers sometimes too nice as 

 well as too bold, they are then ruled and assigned to 

 be of counsel. For certainly counsel is the blind 

 man s guide ; and sorry I am with all my heart, that 

 in this case the blind did lead the blind. 



For the offence, for which Mr. Whitelocke is 

 charged, I hold it great, and to have, as I said at 

 first, two parts : the one a censure, and, as much 

 as in him is, a circling, nay a clipping, of the king s 

 prerogative in general ; the other, a slander and de- 

 pr^vation of the king s power and honour in this 

 commission. 



And for the first of these, I consider it again in 

 three degrees : first, that he presumed to censure 

 the king s prerogative at all. Secondly, that he 

 runneth into the generality of it more than was per 

 tinent to the present question. And lastly, that he 

 hath erroneously, and falsely, and dangerously given 

 opinion in derogation of it. 



First, I make a great difference between the king s 

 grants and ordinary commissions of justice, and the 



