Undertaking And it is a surprise to all thinking disinterested Men that Trade being the Source and Fountain of the Wealth Strength and Populace of a Nation and that this Kingdom being more adapted for it by its Situation Harbours and the Genius of its People than any other Country whatsoever that yet it should be so far from being encouraged in the way manner and degrees it ought that the Trade of England is more Clogged Loaded and has greater Burthens laid upon it than that of any other Nation But if this Method of counteracting the Scots should not be thought convenient when the Kingdom is to be charged with so many and large Grants of Mony to the Government for the upholding and carrying on the present War there is still another way of obviating all the Evils we are apprehensive of from the Scots Act and from the old East India Company yea and not only of defeating the Design of the Dutch who were the first and under-hand Advisers to it but of improving it into an Occation of strengthening our selves to chastise the Hollanders and to exact Reparations from them for all the Injuries of one kind and â—â—other which they have done us And that is the bringing these two Kingdoms into an Union of Councils Laws and Privileges of all Sorts as they are already united under one Monarch encompassed by the same Seas Inhabitants upon one Island and not differing in Language farther than in tone and dialect Which as it would be to the mutual Safety and Prosperity of both Nations so it is not to be questioned but that the Scots in consideration and acknowledgment of the Benefit that would accrue to them by an Incorporation with England would chearfully surrender their late Act and be as forward as we can wish to repeal it Nor would it be sound so difficult as some do imagine it to effect compass and perfect such an Union upon Terms that both Kingdoms may think equal could we on each side renounce national Piques and give up little private Interests in order to the obtaining a general common Good I am told that some are so ignorant and others so impudent as say That King William in virtue of that Sovereign Power which that Kingdom hath granted him may by his own personal and immediate Authority without the concurrence of a Parliament or the Prescription of a Law impose upon Trade what Duty Customs or Taxes he pleaseth and this they alledg to stand vested in him as a part of his Prerogative by the Gift and Concession of an Act of Parliament made in one of those Sessions when Launderdale was King Charles the Second's High Commissioner To which I reply three Things 1. That such a Supposition were to put all Traders of the Kingdom of Scotland into the state and condition of Slaves by making their whole Property acquirable by the way of Traffick to be under the protection of no Law but to be sâ—isable and disposable at the arbitrary Will and despotical Pleasure of the King which I think that Nation which justly boasts it self a free Kingdom as much as any other whatsoever will not easily acquiesce in and submit unto from any King But especially not from one of their own making who being as the Clay in their hands of which they have made a Vessel of Honour they may either break it or mould it again when the Humour takes them into a Vessel of Dishonour 2. Whatsoever Prerogative this Man under the Notion of being their King may have as to the laying Impositions upon Goods and Merchandise where no Law doth preclude and bar him from doing it and where the Concession Liberty and Right for them to trade to such and such Places and in such and such Commodities proceed and are derived meeâ—ly from his personal Grant and Charter which gives them all their Title so to do yet it is most absurd to imagine that he can have any such Prerogative or Power where a publick Law hath given them both a Right and Authority to trade and an Immunity from all Impositions whatsoever in reference to such Places and the Productions and Superfluities thereof and it is also Tyranny in him to challenge it For by this means no Laws can be a Fence about Mens Estates and Properties nor give them the Security which they both promise and were made and enacted for the ensuring to them And for King William to claim and exercise such a Jurisdiction and Authority were to usurp a dispensing Power that is both infinitely worse in it self and more fatal in its consequences than that for which we so much blamed and have hostily treated King James Seeing all the dispensing Power King James challenged was only in reference to penal Laws and those also relative meerly to Religious Matters as to both which the King has a greater extent and latitude of Jurisdiction inherent in him by reason of his Sovereign Power than he hath in reference to other Laws But should King William take upon him to dispense with the Act we are speaking of it were to usurp a dispensing Power both in reference to beneficial Laws and those made for the protection of our Civil Rights Properties and Estates which all Men who have common Sense know to be more out of the verge and reach of Kings to supercede and controle than those are which refer to Ecclesiastical Officers and which are likewise of a penal Nature 3. Should it be admitted that by that Act of Lauderdale's Parliament an absolute unlimitted and despotical Authority became vested in King Charles and stood conveyed to King James in relation to this laying Taxes and Impositions on Trade yet no Power of this kind accrues by this Act to King William in that it was complained of as one of the Grievances which were presented to him antecedently to his having Crown conferred upon him and whereof Redress only was demanded But it was stipulated and made a part of the Original Contract betwixt the Kingdom of Scotland and Him That no such Power as Lauderdale's Act imported should ever be claimed or exercised over them And for King William now to pretend to it were not only to violate his Coronation Oath and proclaim himself perjured to all the World but it were to discharge that Nation from all Obligation of Fealty to him and to give them a legal Right as well as Cause to proceed to the deposing and abdicating him Before I shut up this Discourse which the variety and importance of the matter has already made longer than I at first designed it though I hope it will not be found tedious I shall for the sake of many Thousands as well as my own humbly applying my self to the Senate of the Kingdom to the Members of the Privy Council and to the Gentlemen of both the Gowns for their resolving me Two or Three Questions which it is of great Concernment with respect to our Constitution our Laws our Religâ—on and our Consciences
Purchasing of it than She is believed to have done And therefore not being Contented with Lands of Theobalds which were bestowed upon him soon after the Prince of Orange was Advanced into a Condition and Capacity of making Grants and Alienations of that Kind and of which he has made large Improvements and Raised vast Summes from thence by Sales and otherwise to the wonderful Wrong and Damage of all those that had Leases of and Tenant Right in them from and under the late Duke of Albemarle to whose Father they were Judged a very Royal and Valuable Recompence for the Noble Service He did in Retrieving and Re-establishing the Government upon its Ancient Legal Bottom the Restoring the late King Charles to his Rightful and Hereditary Soveraignity and for Re-estating these Kingdoms in the peaceable Possession of their Laws and Liberties I say that not being Satisfied with this ample Donative and Gift He hath lately Begged of King William the other Lands I have Mentioned and hath had them Granted unto Him without the least Regard to the Right of the Crown the Property of the Prince of Wales the Laws of this Kingdom or to the Interest which some Hundreds of Persons have more or less in them Of which Acquisition on Benting's part and Alienation on William's it will not be amiss to inlarge a little that we may the better Discern and come the more Sensibly under the Impression both of the Despotical and Unlimimited Absoluteness which the Usurper and his Minions Challenge over us and of the Slavish State and Tenure we are Reduced unto of having our Estates wrested from us and given away to what Degree Measure and Proportion one Dutch Man shall have the Impudence to Demand and the other the Insolency and Tyranny to Grant For if we look into the Extent and Largeness of this Grant it is the Giving away no less than the Dominion and Property of Five Parts of Six of one Entire County which as it is too great a Power and Inheritance for any Foreign Subject to Possess and Inherit So it may hereafter prove Unsafe for the Government to have so Numerous a People made Subject unto and Dependant on Him Seeing it is of that vast Dimension and ample Jurisdiction that near Fifty Mean Lordships Hold of those Mannors and above Fifteen Hundred Freeholders are Tenants there to the King and thereby Obliged unto Him under a particular Allegiance besides that which they ow him in the Quality and on the Foot of their being his Subjects And it is so particular a Revenue Anciently Vested in the Prince of Wales that it cannot Legally and according to the Customs Constitution and Laws of England be Alienated from him And therefore upon the Creation of a Prince of Wales there are upon the Right of Tenure under him and of Tenancy unto him Mises of Eight Hundred Pounds payable to the said Prince Nor is it unworthy of Remark that in the Preamble of the Statute of the 21. Jac. Cap. 29 it was brought into Doubt and questioned whether Charles the First that was then Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal whom the Statute Declares to have an Inheritance in both tho under special Limitation could Let or Rent Leases for Three Lives or any longer than his Own And it is there Declared that he could not unless such Leases were Confirmed in Parliament And the Reason is Because upon want of a Prince of Wales that Inheritance becomes immediatly Vested in the Crown So that if the Prince of Wales himself who has an Inheritance in that Revenue cannot Grant Estates out of it for any longer than his own Life without the Consent and Authority of Parliament it demonstratively Follows that the Prince of Orange who by the very Title that he possesseth the Crown hath at most only an Estate in it for his own Life cannot Grant away and Alienate it without the Consent of both Houses of Parliament Declared in and by a formal and express Statute To which I will presume to add that in Case of a Failure of a Prince of Wales it doth not settle in the Crown as a Propriety but as an Usufructuary till a Prince of Wales be Created to whose Creation that Revenue is Annexed by those words in our Law To him and his Heires who shall be Kings of England Nor was there ever a Disposal or Alienation of that Estate from the Crown save when Queen Elizabeth who was as much the Idol as she was called the Protectoress of her People ventured to grant it unto and bestow it upon the Earle of Leicester but that both occasioned such an Insurrection and Rebellion and was likely to raise and continue such a Civil War in the Kingdom that Leicester was glad both to depart from all Pretence of Claim that was made unto him by that Grant and quietly to Resign it and the Queen who wanted neither Spirit to Assert her legal Rights and Prerogatives nor Interest in the Affections of her Subjects for Support and Justification of them was joyful to put an End to those Intestine Divisions and Troubles bâ— Reassuming those Lands to the Crown where they have ever since continued Nor can a rightful and hereditaâ—y King of England even in the Case and on the Sâ—pposal that there were no Prince of Wales legally Alienate and Give away those Lands from the Crown seeing they are no otherwise Vested in it than in Trust to be Preserved forth coming to the Use Profit and Honour of such a Prince when there comes to be One and at what time he is Created and Declared And therefore in and by the very Statute of Charles II. which gave Power as well as Liberty for the Sale and Disposal of the Fee Farm Rents there is a particular and express Exception of the forementioned Welch Rents tho there was then no Prince of Wales nor any Prospect that there would be one of that King's Body which plainly Imported that the Parliament took the Welch Revenue nor to be Alienable Much less then can the Prince of Orange that hath no hereditary Right to the Crown but hath only Obtained it by the illegal and merely pretended Choice of the People which is in other Terms to have Usurped it and who by the very Act of Settlement has but an Estate for Life in the Possession of it Grant away the Inheritance and absolute Fee of the Principality of Wales For it is no less an Absurdity in Law to say that a Tenant for Life can Grant a Fee than to say that a Tenant in Fee can Grant no more than for a Life But it appears that that tho the Power of a lawful King and of a legitimate Prince of Wales be Limited and Restrained within the Precincts of Law yet that the Power of an Usurper is boundless and unconfined However it is no way incongruous that he who has violently Snatched his Father in Law and Uncle's Crown from his Head and Drove him from his
by a solemn Address to King William but who in their profound Wisdom are considering both how to obviate the Evils which that Law threatneth to the Traffick of the Kingdom and how to settle the Trade of the Nation upon such a Foot and Bottom as may give Encouragements to it and make it revive and flourish I do know that all which the two Houses are to expect from their Belgick King in answer to their Address is That he was surprised into the passing of the Scotch Act which I hope all Men will believe he as truly was as he pretends to have been into the Massacre of Glenco for the perpetration whereof he gave several positive and reiterated Orders For Fides Belgica and Fides Punica are equivalent and the Word of a Carthagenian Senator or General and that of a Dutch Prince are of the same alloy and stamp But as the Scots are a wiser Nation having obtained the passing of such a Law than upon any Consideration whatsoever to be prevailed upon to repeal or to part with it either to gratify King William or to humour and accommodate this Kingdom so no Man in the present Circumstances in which England is will judge it the Interest of this Nation to quarrel with Scotland or too much to rally and vex the Scots upon this Account Not but that there are many ways and means within the Circle and under the Power of the Parliament of England by which they may not only vent their Anger against those English that have subscribed to the Scots East India Stock but make Scotland it self first uneasy and then enraged But as this were to spend their Resentment and Anger where they ought not seeing all their Indignation ought in Justice and Equity to fall no where but upon Kensington and Holland so it were to make themselves Tools in promoting the Design of separating these two Kingdoms which the Dutch contrived this Act for the Establishment of the forementioned Company as a Foundation of and a Path unto For should they at Westminster as they easily may make all those English that have put in their Shares into the Scots Stock pay quadruple Taxes to the War which they are upon Ways and Means to support this would but make many wealthy and industrious Merchants to forsake England and retreat to Scotland where they will be heartily welcomed and effectually protected against all the Operation of such a stingy Law Or should the Parliament of England enjoyn these English that have subscribed to the Scots Stock to abandon and renounce their Membership in that Company this would not only entitle the Scots to so much Mony as was the Quota of theiâ— first Payment which having already received they are not so silly as to refund but it would also occasion those that have ventured so much in that Bottom rather to carry their whole Capital after it than to be both shut out from the Benefit of such a Proportion of their own Estates and likewise to forfeit so much of their very Principal Nor would the Parliament of England act with less imprudence and in greater inconsistency with their own Interest should they suffer themselves to be provoked to turn the Payment of all the Scots Regiments in Flanders off from the English Establishment and cast it upon the Scots as the equivalent of the Customs which they are excused from by the forementioned Statute but which they would be obliged to pay to the Government were they to trade to Africa and the East Indies upon the like bottom and terms which the English do But as this were to enfeeble the Confederate Army by robbing it of Seventeen thousand as good Men as any it is constituted of or else to necessitate England to hire and pay so many Foreigners in their room which they cannot in that Method of acting avoid doing towards the compleating of the Eighty seven thousand four hundred and forty Men which the House of Commons by their Vote of December the 14th have declared necessary for the Year 1696. So such a Procedure of this Kingdom towards Scotland would enforce the Scots both to call home their Troops and to employ them where England will not find any Advantage in giving them Provocation as well as Occasion to do it So that in a Word all the Anger that boileth in English Breasts upon the Account of this Scots Act ought to vent it self upon the Dutch who gave the Advice and upon our Belgick King who gave it the legislative Stamp and ratified it into an Act by what he calls his Royal Authority And to shew that all his little Excuses and particularly what he gave in answer to the Address of the Two Houses when presented to him Octob. 17. viz. That he had been ill served in Scotland is all Cheat pure Grimace in that he has not in Evidence of his being imposed upon and misled turned out or laid aside one of those Ministers of State whom he would have this credulous Nation believe to have deluded him to it Which were it true as it no wise is it ought not to vindicate him from being accountable for the wrong he hath therein done to the Kingdom of England seeing he who drove away King James by a President of his own making meerly for the Offences of that King's Ministers and which Ministers he has not only taken into his Friendship and Confidence but made some of them the chief Superintendants of all his Affairs must not think to Sham the World off with Pretences that the Ministers are only guilty whilst he is to be looked upon as one as innocent as the Child unborn Yea I will presume to add That whereas K. James was not by any Laws of the Kingdom responsable for the Transgressions of his Councillors and Offâ—cers but his Person and Royal Dignity were in all Cases to remain Sacred and Safe K. W. is justly and legally Arraignable for all the Crimes of his Ministers as well as for his own and that both by his authorising that unjust and barbarous Fact of abdicating his Uncle and Father in Law and also by virtue of the Stipulation Contract and Term upon which he accepted the Crown But if nothing else will serve and content the Parliament of England save the making Reprisals and taking Revenge upon the Scots for their establishing an East India Company with so many ample Privileges and Immunities the way of doing it is open and easy without their committing any thing that the Scots can call unjust or which they themselves may either repent or be ashamed of namely To grant unto their own trading Company especially to those of Africa and the East Indies such an Establishment by Law with ease from Custom and Impositions at least with such an Abatement and Moderation of them as caeteris paribus may be an Equivalent to all the Privileges and Immunities in the Scots Act and thereby discourage and cripple if not stifle and smother their