Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/22

xvi by ſuch ſummary courſe and order as is agreeable to martial law, and as is uſed in armies in time of war, to proceed to the trial and condemenation of ſuch offenders, and them to cauſe to be executed and put to death according to the law martial.

“ pretext whereof ſome of your majeſty’s ſubjects have been by ſome of the ſaid commiſſioners put to death; when and where, if by the laws and ſtatutes of the land, they had deſerved death, by the ſame laws and ſtatutes alſo they might, and by no other ought, to have been judged and executed.

“And alſo ſundry grievous offenders by colour thereof, claiming an exemption, have eſcaped the puniſhments due to them by the laws and ſtatutes of this your realm, by reaſon that divers of your officers and miniſters of juſtice have unjuſtly refuſed or foreborne to proceed againſt ſuch offenders according to the ſame laws and ſtatutes, upon pretence that the ſaid offenders were puniſhable only by martial laws and by authority of ſuch commiſſion as aforeſaid; which commiſſion and all others of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the ſaid laws and ſtatutes of this your realm. “