11-11-328683 THE SPEECH O F Mr. John Checkley, Upon his Tryal at Bofton in May it please your Honours, and you M Y Counsel having made fo very good a Defence on my Behalf, the faying any thing for myself may feem needlefs and unneceffary. And indeed it would be fo, if the Charge against me was not out of the common Road, and very extraordinary. A 2 But But (may it pleafe your Honours) I am represented as a Perfon Guilty on many Accounts: ft, For wickedly and maliciously imagining and contriving, by the Subtilty of Arguments, to draw into Difpute his prefent Majefty's Title to the Crown, &c. 2dly, Of fcandalizing the Minifters of the Gospel by Law established in this Province. 3dly, I am charged with falfifying the holy Scriptures. 4thly, With reprefenting the Church of Rome as the prefent Mother Church; and lastly, With railing Divifions, Jealoufies, and Animofities, among his Majefty's loving Subjects of this Province. ,༥༢ Thefe are Crimes of a very heinous Nature; and had they been as fully prov'd, as they have been ftrongly suggested in the Indictment, I muft acknowledge I fhould deferve a very fevere Punishment. Since then the Charge against me is fo very extraordinary; fince thefe Proceedings, and the Methods of my Profecution, feem to be fomething NEW in this Country; and fince I am fo fully confcious of the Innocency of my Intentions, and that I had no Malice in my Heart : I believe your Honours will readily allow, that to be filent, at this Juncture, would look like an Argument of Guilt, and be truly Criminal. With your Honours Permiffion, then, I fhall go on, and will endeavour to take up no more Time, than to adyert to fuch Things, not not fo fully infifted on by my Counsel, as will further fhew the Innocency of my Intentions, and that I had no Malice in my Heart, nor defigned any thing against the Government, May it please your Honours, and you The firft Paffage pretended to be against the Government, is this, P. 63. "As the "Neceffity of Government, and the general "Commands in Scripture of Obedience to "Government, do require our Submiffion "to the Government in being, where there " is no Competition concerning the Titles; "that is, where no one claims a better "Right than the Poffeffor:" thereby (faith the Indictment) fubtilly, by Arguments, to traduce and draw into Difpute the undoubted. Right and Title of our faid Lord the King, Sc. But this was not defigned, nor can it poffibly be wrefted, to hurt the Title of his prefent Majefty; unless any Perfon will make it appear, that another hath a better Title to the Crown than his prefent Majefty; which I am fure is not averred here, nor any thing like it. For the whole Sentence is no more than an hypothetic Propofition concerning Government in general (without any Averment of any particular Government); and founded founded upon this Maxim of the Law, that bare Poffeffion is a good Title, till a better can be produced. But, (may it please your Honours) to fhew you farther, that I had no evil Design against the Government, I beg Leave to remark, and to fhew wherein I induftrioufly alter'd the Phrase, to prevent any fuch Misapplication of it. In the Book from whence this Paffage is tranfcrib'd, the Words run thus; P. 36. "As the Neceffity of Government, and the "general Commands in Scripture of Obe"dience to Government, do require our "Submiffion to the Government in being, "where there is no Competition concerning "the Titles, or any that claims a better Right "than the Poffeffor. Here I beg your Honours, and you Gentlemen of the Jury, to obferve, that these Expreffions, where there is no Competition concerning the Titles, or any that claims a better Right than the Poffeffor: I fay, these Expreffions in this Book, are not explanatory one of the other, but are disjunct; and by the Affiftance of a few, ufeful Innuendo's, this Expreffion, where there is no Competition concerning the Titles, might have been fo drefs'd up, as to have looked like Something against the prefent Government. For every body knows, that there is a Com petition |