CHARGE AGAINST WHITELOCKE. 385 



king s high commissions of regiment, or mixed with 

 causes of state. 



For the former, there is no doubt but they may be 

 freely questioned and disputed, and any defect in 

 matter or form stood upon, though the king be many 

 times the adverse party : 



But for the latter sort, they are rather to be dealt 

 with, if at all, by a modest, and humble intimation 

 or remonstrance to his majesty and his council, than 

 by bravery of dispute or peremptory opposition. 



Of this kind is that properly to be understood, 

 which is said in Bracton, &quot; De chartis et factis regiis 

 non debent aut possunt justitiarii aut privatae per 

 sons disputare, sed tutius est, ut expectetur sententia 

 regis.&quot; 



And the king s courts themselves have been ex 

 ceeding tender and sparing in it ; so that there is 

 in all our law not three cases of it. And in that very 

 case of 24 Ed. III. ass. pi. s. which Mr. Whitelocke 

 vouched, where, as it was a commission to arrest a 

 man, and to carry him to prison, and to seize his 

 goods without any form of justice or examination 

 preceding ; and that the judges saw it was obtained 

 by surreption : yet the judges said they would keep 

 it by them, and shew it to the king s council. 



But Mr. Whitelocke did not advise his client 

 to acquaint the king s council with it, but pre 

 sumptuously giveth opinion, that it is void. Nay, 

 not so much as a clause or passage of modesty, as 

 that he submits his opinion to censure : that it is 

 too great a matter for him to deal in ; or this is 



VOL VII. C C 



