Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/262

 *' " A N D E R S O N ports in his time, publilhed by Mr. Goldefborough : " The " cafe of Refceit was moved again; and Shuttleworth faid, " writ; and laid, that he had fearr.hed all the books, and there is net one c;ile where he which is named in the writ, may he received." ' What of that?" faid judge Anderfon, ihall y*e not give judgement, becaufe it is not adjudged in th. bc-oks before? we will give judgement according to J '" reg.ifd them " His fleadinefs was fo great, that he would not be driven from what he thought right, by any authority whatever. ! his appeared in the cafe of Cavendifh, a crea- iuie of the earl of Leicefter; who had procured, by his in'e- reft, the queen's letters patent for making out writs of fuper- fedeas upon exigents in the court of common pleas, and a Ibid. me/Tage was fent to the judges to admit him to that office : If with which, a.-* they conceived the queen had no right to, "'grant any fuch patent, they did not comply. Upon this Mr. CavenJifh. by the adiftance of his patron, obtained a let- ter from the queen to quicken them, which yet did not pro- duce vi hat 'v ;s expected from it. The courtier again pur- fue-i his point, and obtained another letter under the queen's fi^net and hgn manual; which letter was delivered in pre- fence or the lord chancellor and the earl of Leicefter, in the beginning of Eafler term. The judges defired time to con- fider it, and then anfwered, that they could not comply with the letter? becaufe it was inconfiftent with their duty and ther oaths of office. The queen upon this sppointed the chancellor, the lord chief juftice of the queen's bench, and the mafter or the rolls, to hear this matter ; and ihe queen's ferje^nt having fet forth her prerogative, it was {hewn by the judges, that they could not grant offices by virtue of the queen's letters, where it did not appear to them that fhe had a po^er to grant; that as the judges were bound by their oaths of office, fo her majefty was retrained by her coronation- oath from fuch arbitrary interpofitions : anJ with this her majefly was fatisfied. He concurred alfo with his brethren in remonftrating boldly againft feveral ais of power pra&ifed in Elizabeth's reign. On the accefiion of king James he was continued in his office, and held it to the time cf his death, which happened Auguft i, 1605. The printed works of this great lawyer, befides his ct Readings," which are ftdl in manufcript, are, i. " Reports of many principal Cafes ar- " gued and adjudged in the Time of Queen Elizabeth, in, " the Common Bench:" London, 1644, folio. 2. " Re- tj folution*
 * ' that he cannot be received, becaufe he is named in the
 * 04 < reafon ; and if there be no reafon in the books, I will /'>t