The Security of Englishmen's Lives: Or the Trust, Power and Duty..

1766. London: Printed for J. Almon, 1766. 5th ed.. London: Printed for J. Almon, 1766. 5th ed. The Right to a Grand Jury - the Priority of Law Over the English Crown Somers, John, Baron [1651-1716]. The Security of Englishmen's Lives: Or the Trust, Power and Duty of the Grand Juries of England Explained According to the Fundamentals of the English Government, And the Declaration of the Same Made in Parliament by Many Statutes. First Printed in the Year 1681. London: Printed for J. Almon, 1766. 112 pp. Octavo (8" x 5"). Stab-stitched pamphlet bound into recent period-style quarter calf over marbled boards, raised bands and lettering piece to spine. Interior notably fresh. Light toning to text, light soiling to title page and p. 112, internally clean. $450. * Fifth edition of a work first published in 1681. This influential pamphlet defined a hearing before a grand jury of peers as a fundamental English right. An assertion of the priority of the law over the English crown, it was written to support the right of a grand jury to reject the bill of indictment against Anthony Ashley-Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, issued by Charles II. Somers, a barrister of the Middle Temple and an important Whig statesman, was Lord Chancellor of England during the reigns of William and Mary and Queen Anne. He presided over the framing of the Bill of Rights (1689). Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth 1:378 (34). English Short-Title Catalogue T47413.