Serious Advice, PRESENTED TO THE Common Council OF THE CITY OF LONDON.  
THAT State or City which would keep it's self in good Order and free from ruin, must cherish the just Impeachments, and Accusations of the People, against those who contrary to Law through Ambition, Avarice, Pride, Cruelty, Oppression, Violation, Extortion or Corruption, &c. seeks to destroy their Liberties Properties and Right; and though after an unwelcome and unexpected dissolution of our Wise State physicians; yet, by God's Mercy, goodness of our King, and Prudence of a Parliament to assemble at Oxford; we hope to see an unseperable Union betwixt his Majesty and his People, and the many grievances( which this Land Mourns under) redressed; illegal proceedings punished; and Oppression so discountenanced that succeeding Times shall not dare to Barter Justice for Gold, nor Sacrifice our privileges to Riot, not truck away the Liberty of their Country for a little Court Holy Water.  
The Nation being redress't and secured against Tyranny and Oppression, &c. will never seek after other Liberty, but rejoice under his most Sacred Majesty, and Honourable Parliament. It cannot sure be censured as unseasonable( because always just and necessary) to remind( for I presume not to instruct) those in whose power the remedy lies, of an eminent inconvenience to the public, which is the Sale of Offices; concerning which, I shall chiefly refer my discourse at present to the Honourable City of London, the Envy of Europe, Rome's terror, England's Heart, where the Vital Spirits circulate, and the grand Pattern by whose Measures sinaller Corporations are apt to make their Presidents.  
That which I offer to consideration is, That 'tis dishonourable and of very ill consequence to expose public Offices and Places to Sale. For it deflow'rs the Virgin purity of Justice by stopping the Avenues that led to her palace, with Mercenary encumbrances, exposes the Purchasers to almost inevitable Temptations, and gives an inlet and plausible Colour for defending Injustice, Bribary, Extortion and Oppression. But to double and triple the value, to manage them for the best advantage of the Seller, and to put him upon the Rack of improvement too; what is it but to bespeak the unfittest Men, the greatest Knaves or Fools, that we can meet with, to manage these Affairs and Places in which Justice, Reason and Prudence, require the Honestest and most upright Persons that can be procured.  
Because the Fees of the attorneys clerks, Sarjeants, gaolers, &c. in the Courts of London have increased, through the increase of Injustice by reason of the too frequent Malicious and Impertinent actions, and general corruption among them: Yet no Magistrate ought from thence to raise the value of an unlawful Sale, because he finds a sort of People thriving and doing well, by living and doing ill. And the same reason holds against the Keepers of Prisoners, who would never give such excessive Rates for their Places; were they not wicked grinders of the Poor: Men that lay the whole design of their advantage upon the Calamities of the Miserable; at which the Magistrates are supposed too too much to connive, who suffer their Coffers to be filled with these Golden temptations, because he sees them clothed so Rich, and and grow so sat upon the ruins of the Unfortunate; which is quiter contrary to the Office of the true Magistrate, who ought to have a careful Eye upon the growth of Oppression, to kerb and remove the Exorbitancies of Injustice, and to sear away the proud Flesh of Avarice and Rapine, and not to Sell Impunity to the Evil doer. Therefore it is not to be questioned, but infallibly asserted, That whoever receives Money for any Place, whereof the Sale is not to be warrented, does but receive a public Bribe, which only custom, and perhaps too common connivance justifies. For never any Man, saith Tacitus, ever came to any Office by Money, but he was forced to exercise his Authority wickedly and unjustly. He that buys must sell, or he loses by the Bargain. Which makes the Pubilck Offices of London, like briars to which Sheep repair for shelter, loose a Lock.  
If an appeal be made to Holy Scripture, there is most certainly no Learning under the Sun so chemical, that can extract the least drop of Authority from thence, for the Sale of public justice or it's dependencies; but excessive Penalties it may find enough upon all manner of Extortion and upon all those that connive at, & suffer It; so severely menaced, and so truly threatened by him, that never sails to perform, that nothing but a fatal Irony can excuse the contempt and neglect thereof, as if the Ears of the profit could not hear the cries of the Poor for the thundering noise of God's judgments; to severely denounced on their behalf. However they who require more particular satisfaction, may red that excellent Oration of the Prophet Samuel, which he made upon the resignation of his Government.  
Being thus banished from the Common-wealth of Israel, this tenant finds no better entertainment among the Heathen, with whom we find these two Maxims, like two Golden Pillars supporting the most flourishing and most Victorious Cities in the World, which Aristotle hath not been a little industrious to maintain; First, That the Sale of Offices is the greatest wrong that can be offered to a Commonwealth. Secondly, That money ought not to buy those Places, which may, nay ought to be the reward of Virtue, and are the sittest means to supply the necessities of good Men. The Sale of Offices in the flourishing Times of the Athenians was abominated, and by the Lacedemonians expleded as a Crime: And the Roman Empire in its increase and flourishing condition, Fined and punished those that sought Offices Injustly; and they then first bread dissension among themselves, and their own destruction when they brooked so patiently the Sardoni scoff bf Jugurth, All things at Rome, are to be had for Money.  
Certainly, the Persian Cambyses had been too severe, when he flayed one of his Judges for Extortion, had he sold him his Place, much more had he farmed it to him, at a rack Rent: Nor can we believe the same Judges Son would have given an exacted Sum to sit upon his Father's Skin, which he was forced to receive for his Cushin being placed in his Father's room, to terrify him from the same Offence, which the King then  told him would deserve the same punishment.  
I might here repeat more of History, but my design is not Prolixity; unless any one should be so Hardy as to deny the Truth of what is here set down, or otherwise attempt to shadow and be smear this Truth with Varnish of self-designing rhetoric, or Logical distinctions. Nor can he be other than some contentious or interested Person, who will oppose the experienced Precedents of so many Wise, Illustrious, and Potent Law-givers.  
To rise then from History to Reason, we meet with a Thesis, fairly bordering upon the Law of Nature, as undeniable as Truth itself; That there is nothing Arms a Purchaser with a more confident defence of his unjust dealings, than Money given for an employment. It makes him that he blushes not to be accused of Rigour and Extortion, to be Arraigned for Violence, nor valves he the frowns of Magistracy, while with a daring Forehead he is able to upbraid his superior, telling him, he had not his place for nothing, but paid soundly for it, and therefore hopes he shall not be debarred from making the best advantage of what he has purchased at so dear a rate. A thing so obvious, that reprove him never so sharply, never so severely, it seems Collusive and merely Commination, so little does it signify. For turn him out of Possession, and the succeeding Chapman is discouraged. Nor does the judge himself scape the sinutty censure of Self-interest and Partiality, that he only removes the Old one in hopes of a better Bargain from a Successor, that must be worse because he gives more for it. Here Justice may be said to be thoroughly Blind, while the Seller and Abbetter throw away the veil of Impartiality, and press down their Eyelids with their own Fingers. Thus, first Rate Offences, Misdemeanours of the upper Form must be connived at and palliated, for fear of spoiling the Market. As for peccadilloes, and petty Oppressions, they are little or not at all regarded: Yet these are the little Vermin that insensibly devour the poor and needy, that have most need of succour, What is the difference between the Canker that undiscernibly consumes, and the destructive speed of Aqua fortis? They both destroy: But the Canker far more as being less attended by the hand of care and preservation. A misdemeanour of Three Hundred Pound makes a great noise; yet proves perhaps but singly fatal, when the same Sum divided into Half-crown-Rapines shall destroy as many individual necessitous Families, impoverished before and altogether helpless, without creating any other sounds but those of neglected Lamentations. So that the Sale of such Offices is positively against the Tenth Commandment; as also against the Laws of the Land( as hereafter will appear.) For what greater injury can a Man do his Neighbour than to deprive him of the greatest right that is due to him! To debar him of that Justice which ought to be afforded him in his extremity? And not only in this manner to injure his Neighbour, but his poor Neighbour too, the particular Chart of God himself? For remedy of which, the Supreme Legislator made no Law, but frequent admonitions, as if man could not be guilty of so great an Impiety as to rob the Spital, which is an accumulated murder. It is injurious to him that Sells: for how can he reach forth his hand to receive the free boons of Mercy from the God of pitty and compassion, while polluted with the price of Rapine, violence and injury?  
The Sale of the Keeper's place of Ludgate, Newgate, with the Connters, &c. brings me to urge this Text a little closser, and if I am not unhappy to believe report, they were at Who gives most? A heinous demand in the Barter of those Shops of Cruclty! A strange piece of absurd severity! To sell the freedom of a Captive, An Usurpation certainly beyond Law( to sell that little liberty which the Law has left a Prisoner) to the disposal of a Turnkey. The Law makes him a Captive to his Creditor, and the magistrate afterwards surrenders him up for Money, a Slave to his worse than Argier-keeper? Shall the public Houses builtat the City's charge be sold for private Lucre? So that every Room in a Prison becomes a Shop of Barbarism and Arbitary Power, where the Chief Bashaw of iniquity exercises an inhuman Tyranny, and squeezes thevery Faeces and Caput Mortum of a perished Estate as long as the least drop will ●ome, by the same Art as they setch oil out of Bricks; first heating the poor Prisoner in the Fire of his threatening indignation, and then quenching him again in the sweet show of a little favour while any moisture of Gain appears.  
Here then lies the force of the Dilemma; Either a Prisoner for Debt may be injured in Prison, or not. Either the Injuries repeated, are Injuries or none. If the Negative be allowed; then all that has been already said has been to no purpose, and Holy Writ might have been more sparing of its Exhortations. If the Affirmative be asserted, then he that sells a gaolers Place, &c. sells the Liberty, the Estate, the Person, nay, the very Lives of the Prisoners under his Jurisdiction, seeing that through the cruelty of their Keepers so many poor People have been stripped to their naked Skins, and when all was gone, have been suffocated in Holes and Dungeons, to the loss of many of their Lives, Dishonour of our Nation, and scandal of the christian Religion.  
But the Civil Law to which our own has nothing repugnant, informs us in the very words of that great Lawyer Ulpian, That a Prison is a Place of Restraint, and not of Punishment. That a Prison where there is hunger and thirst is no Prison, but a place of Torture. That no severe or bad usage is there to be admitted, where the Person in Debt remains, not as a Slave, but only as a Pledge, and security for the Creditors satisfaction. For which reason the Emperour Honorius affirmed, that it was the principal duty of a Judge, to be frequently informed by the Prisoners themselves, of the State of their Captivity, that no Office of humanity might be wanting to men, locked up in confinement. And so merciful were those Times, that if a Prisoner dyed in Prison, the Law presumed it the fault of the Keeper; who was not to deny either Food or Bedding to the Person in custody.  
But purchased cruelty is now grown so bold, that if a poor Man pay not Extortionary Fees and racked; Chamber-Rent, he shall be thrown into Holes and Commonsides, to be devoured by Famine, Lice and Diseases. Which being so undeniable, I appeal to the Tribunal of Justice itself, by what Law, or by what Authority, not claiming under the bad Title of Illegal custom, any Sherriff who is the immediate gaoler himself, and ought to receive the custody of the Prisoner Gratis, can so unkindly presume to Sell the Deputation of any Mans Liberty and Life to the control of for did and imperious Avarice.  
I would fain know, for it is a Secret in Nature not to me yet revealed, by what surmise of common sense a Keeper of a Prison, can demand a recompense or Fee from a Prisoner for detaining him in Prison? There is an Admission-Fee, he cries. Alas! how is Man fallen from the Image of God and his Reason, to believe that any Person can deserve areward, for only opening the Door of misery and Destruction to annoy his Neighbour and common Friend? For being so kind as to admit him into the horrid Grave of Imprisonment? There is a Dimission-Fee too; but this altogether as absurd, to demand money for letting him go, that the Law has set free; for opening the Door to let him out of Custody whom the Receiver ought not to detain. For his Care in the interim, let them pay him that set him at work. The Prisoner is no way beholden to him for his Care: For 'tis that which he desires to be without. Therefore says the Civil Law in this case, if there be any thing due to a Keeper, it is due from the Creditor, whose duty it is to afford nourishment, and other supports of Life, to him, whom he keeps in Prison; and therefore the Keeper might refuse to take the Prisoner into Custody, till he had bargained with the Creditor for the Prisoners maintenance, as may be observed out of the ancient Volumes of the most Learned Civilians. But now such is the confidence of a Purchaser, that to regain his Sum expended, he sells his Tap-House at prodigious Rates; So that where poor Men ought to have best and cheapest, they have the worst in qnality, and the smallest in quantity, which makes the price excessive. He Farms his Sheets to mere Harpies, and his great Key to such a piece of imperious cruelty, as is the worst of Mankind. And it is a shane to repeat the daily insolences and indignities, which the Prisoners and their Friends are forced to receive at their hands. But fee, I pray! Whether will not lewd Presidents at last led us! It will perhaps be thought impertinent to dispute a gaolers demands for admitting us into his loathsome Mansions, when even the Common Hangman, no doubt encouraged by such examples, will scarce give a Malefacter a cast of his Office without a Bribe, demands very formerly his Fees, forsooth, of the Person to be Executed, and higgles with him as nicely as if he were going to do him some mighty kindness.  
As to the Civil Government of a Prison, no Argument persuades me to believe, that a Deputy Master is any way useful, otherwise than to see that the Prisoners be secured, well provided for and looked after, as appears by the very Order of Ludgate, where the Prisoners taking their turns of Authority among themselves, far more patiently endure a domestic, than a foreign subjection: So that a Master Keeper, the mere Fungus and Toad-stool of a Sherrisss Authority, ought to find some better way to improve the blessing of his Inheritance, than by exposing it to the hazard of Divine vengeance. There be those that say, the Dignity of the City Magistrate is hereby by supported. But with what dishonour do these Men revile the City and the Magistrates of the City, at the same time? For so careful is the City to Elect Men of Estates proportionable to their Dignity, that there is no need of any Sinister assistance to maintain the City-Grandeur. No ill got Gains, but Mercy, Justice, and upright Prudence, are the supports of a City. Is it not a goodly sight to see, the tears of the poor, congealed by a Frost of neglected Charity and Injustice into a Pearl glittering in the Ears of such or such a Lady? To be hold the Scarlet of the Receiver's Majistracy dyed with the blood of helpless innocents, or the Purchase of Extortion? To see one of the chief Punishers of Iniquity drinking Healths of forgetful plenty in Four Hundred Pound Goblets, the price of his own Infamy, and a Sergeants Roguery? Such sights as these perhaps we can only by conjecture guess at, but the All-seeing Eye of Heaven beholds all these blind Bargains, and it is the same thing whether the account fall heavy on the Receiver or his Offspring.  
The disposal of gaolers Places, and especially the Keepers Place of Ludgate, &c. In the trust whereof the Rich and Honest, not the Needy, and dissolute Designers of Prosit are to be employed, is an Affair to be debated with a tender and charitable consideration, in which Prisons the poor enjoy( or at least ought to do) many privileges bestowed upon them by the Piety of many good Men deceased, which are rather to be rescued from past injuries, than to be butted in the ruins of private Interest; nor are the Ashes of the Dead slightly to be disturbed by oppressive innovation.  
Seeing then the Common Council of the City of London, who are the Representatives of the People of the City, have interposed their Just Authority to stop the Progress of so great a clamour to Heaven, as the Sale of public Offices, and the Voice of the Just People is the Voice of God, those Men are chiefly to take care how they stop their Ears against that Sacred Sound, whom private advantage leads to make opposition against the same, lest in the day of their own calamity, they cry for Mercy in vain. London is a City whose Government deservedly challenges the pre-eminence of any City now flourishing throughout the Universe. Rome the Mistress of the World could not Conquer her self; but oftentimes lay weltering in the blood of her own Citizens; nor could she hinder her own streets from being the Stage, whereon so many dismal Tragedies of intenstine Discord were Acted. Hear the Reason from the Words of One of her own Poets.  
'Cause then they Justice basely Bought and Sold,  
And ancient Virtue was Post-pon'd to Gold.  
But London has been blessed with such a continued Calm of Peace for so many Centuries of Years, that never any City yet enjoyed, so exactly has the perpetual Motion of its Authority in most other things been hitherto poised. Were it not great pitty that so harmonious a piece of politic Government should be now disturbed and disordered by violent Usurpation. Rome was only rich with the Prey of Rapine, wealthy in the Trophies of successful ambition: But London shines a famous Pile, Opulent in the gains of honest Industry. Rome the Mart of War and Slaughter: London, Caesar's Nobile Emporium. But Dam up the Current of her Meum & Tuum, sell her Seat of Justice, and how will all her splendour be eclipsed; Rome had only the dim Lamps of Morality, the obscure Lights of Sententious Epicurism and Stoicism to guide and instruct her: But London enjoys the most Orient Beams, the most unclouded Sunshine of Divine Truth and Doctrine. I am unwilling to urge it any further. Rome was a City, than which there was none in the World more careful to relieve the Poverty of her Citizens, of which in the Times of her innocency she had many. No question but in London there are many good Men that unavoidably fall to dacay: Where could the City bestow her Places more Honourably than upon such? What could the City speak more Magnificent in History, than to boast that the very Train of her Magistracy, was sufficient to support the Chiefest and Choicest of her decayed Members, content with the Lawful and modest Gains of their Employments? But on the contrary, what more dishonourable, than to sell her poor Citizens to be Dilainated and Macerated by the hand of Injustice, and for Money to make Slaughter-Houses and Shambles of her Houses of Restraint? For a City so fairly decked with the precious Jewels of freedom and privilege, to sell the last remains of a Prisoners comfort? They then who have timely considered of these things, may well be encouraged not to flinch from the maintenance of their most Noble enterprizes: For it is the duty of every one that possesses a corresponding Talent, to afford all the Arms of prevailing Arguments to active power, while employed in the Defence of Right and Truth, or he is a Betrayer thereof. This is no effect of Factious Turbulancy, no Disturbance of the Civil Government, but rather a means to cement and strengthen it with the source of Right understanding. Morality may Err, and the Pomp of Honour may prove forgetful; he then that only admonishes, and tells where such Errors may prove inconvenient, cannot, for that, be thought to have the less Reverence for his Superiors, or the smaller value for Authority: Rather is he to be accounted the Cities Friend, since he Breaths nothing but what tends to its preservation, and with an couldst reality desires the increase of its renown, as much as he that with the most Cordial Motives of Interest wishes and preys for its welfare.  

Here follows an Appendix of the Law of the Land. now in force against the sale of Offices, with an Account of the gaolers and other Officers Fees, with their several Duties to the Prisoners.  
Anno 5o. 6o. Edw. 6. Cap. 16.  
THe Penalty for Buying or Selling of some sort of Offices for the avoiding of Corruption which may hereafter happen to be in the Officer and Ministers in those Courts, Places or Rooms, wherein there is requisite to he had the true Administration of Justice, or Services of Trust, and to the intent that Persons Worthy and Meeet to be advanced to the Place where Justice is to be ministered or any Service of Trust executed, should hereafter be preferred to the same, and no other.  
Be it therefore Enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That if any Person or Persons at any time here after Bargain or Sell any Office or Offices, or Deputation of any Office or Offices, or any Part or Parcel of any of them, or receive, have, or take any Money or Fee, reward, or any other profit directly or indirectly, or take any Promise, Agreement, Covenant, Bond, or any assurance, to receive or have any Money, Fee, Reward, or other profit directly or indirectly, for any Office or Offices, or for the Deputation of any Office or Offices, or any part of them, or to the intent that any Person should have exercise or enjoy any Office or Offices, or the Deputation of any Office or Offices, or any part of any of them, which Office or Offices, or any part or parcel of them, shall in any wise touch or concern the Administration or Execution of Justice, or the Receipt, Comptrolment, or Payment of any of the Kings Highness Treasure, Money, Rent, Revenue, Account, Aulneage, Auditorship, or Surveying of any of the Kings Majesties Honours, Castles, manors, Lands, Tenements, Woods, or Hereditaments; or any the Kings Majesties customs, or any Administration or necessary Attendance to be had, done or executed in any of the Kings Majesties House or Houses, the keeping of any of the Kings Majesties Towns, Castles or Fortresses, being used Occupied or appointed for a Place of strength and defence, or which shall concern or touch any Clarkship to be Occupied in any manner of Court of Record, wherein Justice is to be ministered: That then all and every such Person and Persons that shall so Bargain or Sell any of the said Office or Offices, Deputation or Deputations, or that shall take any Money, Fee, Reward, or profit for any of the said Office or Offices, Deputation or Deputations, of any of the said Offices, or any part of any of them, or that shall take any Promise, Covenant, Bond, or Assurance for any Money, Reward or Profit to be given for any of the said Offices, Deputation or Deputations of any of the said Office or Offices, or any part of any of them, shall not only loose and forfeit all His and Their Right, Interest and Estate, which such Person or Persons, shall then have, of, in or to any of the said Office or Offices, Deputation or Deputations ' or any part of any of them, or of, in, or to the Gift or Nomiuation of any of the said Office or Offices, Deputation or Deputations, for the which Office or Offices, or for the Deputation or Deputations of which Office or Offices; or any part of any of them, any such Person or Persons, shall so make any Bargain or Sale, or take, receive any Sum of Money Fee, Reward or Profit, or any promise, Covenant or Assurance to have or receive any Fee, Reward, money or Profit: but also that all and every such Person or Persons, that shall give or pay any Sum of Money, Reward or Fee, or shall make any Promise, Agreement, Bond or Assurance for any of the said Offices, or for the Deputation or Deputations of any of the said Office or Offices, or any part of any of them, shall immediately by and upon the same Fee, money or Reward given or paid, or upon any such Promise, Covenant, Bond or Agreement, had or made for any Fee, Sum of Money, or Reward to be paid, as is aforesaid, be adjudged a disabled Person in the Law to all intents and purposes, to have, 
Cook. lib. 12.78.  occupy or enjoy the said Office or Offices, Deputation or Deputations, or any part of any of them, for the which such Person or Persons, shall so give or pay any Sum of Money, Fee or reward, or make any Promise, Covenant, Bond or other Assurance, to give or pay any Sum of Money, Fee or Reward.  
And be it also Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every such Bargains, Sales, Promises, Bonds, Agreements, Covenants and Assurances as before Specified, shall be voided, to and against Him and Them, by whom any such Bargain, Sale, Bond, Promise, Covenant and Assurance shall be had or made.  
Provided alway, That this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not in any wise extend to any Office or Offices, whereof any Person or Persons is or shall be seized of any Estate of Inheritance, nor to any Office of Parkship, or of the keeping of any Park, House, Mannor, Garden, Chase or forest, or to any of them any thing in this Act hereto forementioned to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.  
Provided also, That if any Person or Persons do hereafter ossend in any thing contrary to the Tenor and effect of this Act, yet that notwithstanding all judgments given, and all other Act and Acts executed or done, by any such Person or Persons, so offending by Authority or Colour of the Office or Deputation, which ought to be Forfited, or not occupied, or not enjoyed by the Person so offending as aforesaid after the said Offence so by such Person committed or done, and before such Person so offending for the same Offence be removed from the Exercise, Administration, and Occupation of the said Office or Deputation, shall be and remain good and sufficient in Law, to all intents constructions and purposes, in such like manner and form as the same should or ought to have remained and been, if this Act had never been had or made.  
Provided also, That this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not in any wise extend to any Bargain, Sale, Gift, Grant, Nomination, Bond, Covenant, Promise, Agreement, or Assurance whatsoever it be of, or for any the Office or Offices, Deputation or Deputations aforesaid, or any part of any of them had, made, done, concluded or agreed before the First day of March next coming, but that the same Bargain, Sale, Gift, Grant, Nomination, bond, Covenant, Promise, Agreement, or Assurance, had, made, concluded or a 'greed before the said First day of March, shall always remain, continue, and be in such force, strength and effect, as if this Act had never been had or made: Any thing before in this Act mentioned to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.  
Provided always, and be it Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this Act, or any thing therein contained, shall not in any wise extend or be prejudicial or hurtful to any of the Chief Justices of the Kings Courts, commonly called the Kings Bench or Common Place, or to any of the Justices of Assize that now be, or hereafter shall be, but that they and every of them may do in every behalf touching or concerning any Office or Offices to be given or granted by them or any of them, as they or any of them might have done before the making of this Act: any thing above mentioned to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.   

Cook. Rep. Lib. 12.78. Hill. 8. Jac.  
IN this very Term in the Case of Dr. Trevor, who was chancellor of a Bistop in Wales, it was resolved that the Office of a chancellor and Register, &c. in the Ecclesiastical Courts, are within the Statute 5 Edw. 6. Cap. 16. The Words of which Statute are, Any Office, &c. which shall in any wise touch or concern the Adminstration or Execution of Justice; and the Words are strongly penned against Corruption of Officers, for they are, Which shall in any wise touchor concern the Administration, &c. And the Preamble; And for avoiding of Corruption, which may hereafter happen to be in the Officers and Ministers of those Courts, Places, and Rooms, wherein there is requisite to be had the true Administration of Justice, in Services of Trust: And to the Intent that Persons worthy and meet to be advanced to the Places where Justice is to be ministered, in any Service of Trust to be Executed, should be perferred to the same, and none other. Which Act being made for avoiding of Corruption in Officers, &c. And for the Advancement of Persons more Worthy and sufficient for to Execute the said Offices, by which Justice and Right shall be also advanced, shall be Expounded most beneficially to suppress Corruption. And in as much as the Law allows Ecclesiastical Courts to proceed in Case of Blasphemy, heresy, Schism, Incontinence, &c. And the Loyalties of Matrimonies, of Divorce, of the Right of Tithes, Probat of Wills, granting of Aministrations, &c. And that from these proceedings depend not only the Salvation of Souls, but also the Ligitimation of Issues. &c.  
And that no Debt or Duty can be recovered by Executors, or Administrators, without Probat of Testaments, or Letters of Administrations, and other things of great consequence; It is most reason that such Officers, which concern the Administration and Execution of Justice in these Points, which concern the Salvation of Souls, and the other matters aforesaid, shall be within this Statute, then Officers which concern the Administration or Execution of Justice in Temporal matters; for this, that Corruption of Offices in the said Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Causes is more dangerous, then the Officers in Temporal Causes; for the Temporal Judge commits the Party Convict to the gaoler, but the Spiritual Juege commits the Person excommunicate to the Devil. Also those Officers do not only touch and concern the Administration of Justice, &c. But also are Services of great Trust, for this, that the pribcipal End of their proceedings is, Pro Satnte Ammarum, &c. And there is no Exceptors or Proviso in the Statute for hem.  
It was resolved that such Offices were within the Pur-view, o● the said statute.   

Here follows the Duty of gaoler.  
And now that gaolers, of what degree or state soever, may in some measure know the Duties of their respective places, and not through ignorance or Impudence abuse such who are committed to their Charge. Here is an account what their Duty is to Prisoners, according to the Laws of this Land, which all gaolers are obliged under great Penalties to observe, and the People of this Land to preserve, as their Liberties, least by such neglect, slavery be insensibly drawn upon them.  
By the Common Law we find, as Bracton Lib. 3. fol. 105. gaolers are ordained to hold Prisoners, not to punish them. For Imprisonment by the Law is( neither ought to be) no more then a bare restraint of Liberty, without those illegal and uujust Destructions of close and open Prison( as is usual) See Stamf. Ple. Cro. sol. 70.  
Therefore Cook in his 3 Inst. 91. saith, That if the gaoler keep the Prisoners more straightly then he ought of right, 
briton sol. 18.  whereof the Frisoner death, this is felony in the gaoler by the Common Law. And this is the Cause, That if a prisoner die in Prison, 
Flet. lib. 1 Chap. 26.  the the Coroner ought to sit upon him. See also the said Cook Fol. 34. Cap. Petty Treason; how Prisoners are to be used wherein is also an account of an Indictment of a gaoler for evil acknowledge of his Fol. 35. in Trin. Term, 7 E. 3. cor Regerot. 44.— That whereas one R. B. of T. was taken and detained in the Prison of Lincoln Castle, for a certain Debt of Statute Merchant, 
1 E. 3. cap. 7.  in the custody of T. B. Constable of L. aforesaid; That the said T. B. put the said R. into the Common-Goal amongst Thieves, in a filthy Prison, contrary to the form of the Statute, &c. and there detained him, till he had paid him a Fine of 40. s. Whereupon Cook makes this Observation, So as hereby it appeareth, where the I awe requireth that a Prisoner should be kept in safe and sure Custody; yet that must be without any pain or torment to the Prisoner.  
So Co. 3 Inst. 52. saith, If a Prisoner by the Dures, that it is hard usage of the gaoler, cometh to untimely Death, this is murder in the gaoler. And in the Law implieth Malice, in respect of the Cruelty.  
Horn, in the Mirror of Justice page. 288. saith, That it is an Abusion of the Law, that Prisoners are put into Irons, or other pain, before they are attainted.  
See also Cook 3 Inst. 34, 35.  
And Horn also Pag. 34. 36. 
Vox plebis par. 1. sol. 55, 56.  Reckons the starving of Prisoners by Famine, to be among the Crimes of Homicide in a gaoler.  
Which also Cook in his 3 Inst. Chap. 29. Title of felony in gaolers by Dures of Imprisonment, &c. by Statute and by the Common Law.  
And next, let ussee what the Law saith for the Fees due to gaolers, fol. 91. The Mirror of Justice, page. 288. tells us, That it is an Abusion of the Law, that Prisoners or others for them, to pay any thing for their Entries into the Goal, or for their Going-out: This is the Common Law, there is no Fee due to them by the Common Law. See what the Statutes say, The Statute of Westm. 1. chap. 26. saith. That no Sheriff, or other Minister of the King, shall take Reward for doing their Offices, but what they take of the King, if they do they shall suffer-double to the Party aggrieved, and be punished at the will of the King. Under this word, Minister of the King, are included, all Escheators, Coroners, gaolers, and the like. See Cook 2 Inst. fol. 209. affirms. And agreeable is Stamf. pl. Coron. 49. Nay by the Statutes of 4. E. 3. Chap. 10. gaolers are to receive Thieves and felons, taking nothing by way of Fees for the receipt of them. So odious is this Extortion of gaolers that very Thieves and felons are ezcept from payment of Fees.  
And we find in our Law-Books, That no Fees are due to any Officer, gaoler, or Minister of Justice, but only those which are given by Act of Parliament; for if a gaoler will prescribe for any Fees, the Prescription is voided, because against this Act of Parliament, made 3 E. 1. being an Act made within time of Memory, and takes away all manner of pretended Fees before; and we are sure none can be raised by colour of prescription since: And therefore we find by the Books of 8. E. 4. fol. 18. That a Marshal or gaoler cannot detain any prisoner after his discharge from the Court, but only for the Fees of the Court( the Court being not barred by this Statute of Westm. 1. aforementioned) and if he do, he may be Indicted for Extortion. And agreeable to this is the Book of 21. F. 7. fol. 16. where amongst other things itis held for Law, That if a gaoler or Guardian of a Prison, takes his Prisoners proper Garment, Cloak, or Money from him, it is a Trespass, and the gaoler shall be answerable for it: So that we may undeniably conclude, That there is no Fee at all due to any gaoler or Guardian of a Prison from the Prisoner( but what is due unto him by special Act of Parliament.  
And if a Goaller or Guardian of a Prisoner, shall take any thing as a Fee of his Prisoner, he may and ought to be Indicted of Extortion, and upon conviction to be removed for his Office; and if his Prisoner, by Constraint, Menace, or Dures, be enforced to give him Money; he may recover that Money against the gaoler again, in an Action of the Case at Common Law.  
Item, 
Stat. 23 H. 6. Chap. 10.  The King Considering the great Perjury, Extortion, and Oppression, which be and have been in this Realm by his Sheriffs, Under-Sheriffs, and their clerks, 
Stat. 4. H. 4. 5,  Bailiffs, and Keepers of Prisons, &c. hath ordained by Authority aforesaid, in eschewing all such Extortion, 
Rast. predict. fol. 318.  Perjury, and Oppression, that no Sheriff shall let to Farm in any manner his County, nor any of his Bailiwicks. Nor that any of the said Officers and Ministers, 
Cook predict. 365.  by occasion, of under colour of their Office, shall take any other thing by them, 
21. H. 7. fol. 16.  nor by any other Person to their use, profit, or avail, if any Person by them or any of them to be Arrested or Attatched, for the ommitting of any Arrest or Attatchment to be made by their Body, or of any Person by them, or any of them( by force or colour of their Office Arrested or Attatched) for Fine, svit of Prison, mainprize, letting to Bail, or showing any Ease or Favour( to hny such Person Arrested or to be Attatched) for their Reward or Profit; but such as follo&, that is to say, For the Sheriff 20 d. The Officer which maketh the Arrest or Attatchment, 4 d. And the gaoler of the Prison if he be committed to Ward, 4 d.— And that all Sheriffs, Bailiffs, 
Rast. predict. fol. 371.  gaolers, or any other Officer or Ministers, which do do contrasy to this Ordinance, in any Point of the same, shall lose to the Party in this behalf endamage or grieved, his treble damages, 
Stat. 21. Ed. o.  and shall forfi the the Sum of 40 l. for every such Offence, the one Moiety to the King, the other to the Prosecutor, to be Recovered at Common Law, in either of the Courts of Kings-Bench, or Common-Pleas at Westminster.  
This is a perfect Account of the gaolers Fees in all Cases, where Persons are laid in Prison upon Civil Matters and Causes, which Fee of 4 d. is more then any other Statue or Law allows them to take from their Prisoners: But in such Chses where the King is Party, itis established, That the Prisoners in all the Kings Prisons should be maintained at the Kings Charge, and out of the Kings Revenues, according to the Old Law of the Land, much less to have Money extorted from by the gaoler. But look into the Prisons in and about the City of London, what horrible Oppressions, Extortions and Cruelties, are Exercised upon the Free-born People of England, yea in most Prisons throughout this Kingdom.  
So that by the Laws of the Land it appears, that those who Sell, or take any manner of reward for any public Office or place, or those who do receive any greater Fee than therein is expressed, have no more Property, Right or Interest to do, than the pirate has to the peaceable Merchantmans Ship, a Robber to the innocent Traveller's Purse, or the Wolf to blood of the Lamb: And in case such Laws as those are not to be Observed, who can be assured to enjoy their Rights, Liberties, nay, their Wives, Children or Estates, longer than it pleaseth the will and pleasure of Cruel, Ravenus and Mercenary Extortioners, &c. who stick not to turn Butchers to the Peoples privileges, and Conspirators against their Liberties, & c? What Game such Persons play at you may guess, and I would with case express; but Modesty engages me at this time to forbear; since the Generality of this City and Nation too, have been strike with an amazement to see the many Breaches herein, against the very Face of Law, wrested to Usher in Oppression. judgement is turned back, Justice in this Particulars stands a far off, and our ancient, Just, and Fundamental Laws of Mercy, are turned into a shadow, and they who endeavour to reclaim such Evils draw on themselves the Frowns and Displease of Such and Such.  
But as God's Indignation restend upon the Children of Israel, till Achan's Theft was discovered and punished: So this City suffers sore Judgments, till it purgeth itself of those many Achan's that lodge in her Bosom, and live upon the ruin of her most necessitous Inhabitants.  
James Whiston.  
FINIS.