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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70223	The history of Whiggism, or, The Whiggish-plots, principles, and practices (mining and countermining the Tory-plots and principles) in the reign of King Charles the First, during the conduct of affaires, under the influence of the three great minions and favourites : Buckingham, Laud, and Strafford, and the sad forre-runners and prologues to that fatal-year (to England and Ireland) 41 : wherein (as in a mirrour) is shown the face of the late (we do not say the present) times.	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1809; Wing H1825C; ESTC R12704	66,369	53

Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no Soveraign I wonder this Soveraign was not in Magna Charta or the confirmations of it If we grant this by Implication we give a Soveraign power above all these Laws mind that for all Power and Liberties and Prerogatives are bounded and limited by the Laws and though they be great as the Sea yet have their bounds the Law saying Hitherto shalt thou go and no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stay'd no Prerogative is infinite in England nor any power omnipotent except that of God alone the Law limits and bounds us all from the greatest to the least And therefore Sir Eward Cook goes on telling the House That Power in Law is taken for a power with force The Sheriff shall take the power of the County what it means here God only knows It is repugnant to our Petition that is the King shall not Billet Souldiers raise Money by Privy Seals Loans Imprison without cause in Law shewn c. saving by his Soveraign Power our Petition is a Petition of Right grounded on Acts of Parliament Our Predecessors would never endure a Salvo Jure suo no more than the Kings of Old could endure for the Church Salvo Honore Dei Ecclesiae we must not admit of it and to qualifie it is impossible Let us hold our Priviledges according to the Law that Power that is above this it is not sit for the King and People to have it disputed further Tant The Oath of Allegiance binds us all to maintain the Kings Prerogative Whigg No doubt on 't and let it be for ever Sacred let no Prophane Hand or Tongue touch it no nor so much as think upon it Irreverently both it and the Peoples Liberties as aforesaid are vast and great but they are not Infinite they have their known Bounds and ancient Land-marks and Cursed is that evil Councellor that makes such a Stir to Encroach or Remove them extend them or Stretch them such deserve to Stretch for it For 't is certain that there is no Soveraign Power or Prerogative wherewith any King of England hath been intrusted either by God or Man but what is for Edification not for Destruction for the Weal of his People and for their Protection Safety and Happiness Tant Our Gracious Soveraign in his late Declarations pretends to no other Prerogative but what is legal Whigg All the better for him and us his Royal Father of Gracious Memory seem'd to Disgust his Lords as aforesaid when he told them that he meant not to shew the Power of a King by diminishing their Priviledges Tory. He wanted not bad Instillers sometimes as he Confest afterwards Whigg The Summer shall want Flies e're the Crown want Sycophants swarming about it yet like Musketoes too they usually Burn their Wings in the Flame to this sort some ascribed those words in the Kings Speech I owe the account of my Actions to God alone c. But as for Tunnage and Poundage it is a thing I cannot want Tant No why should he Whigg The matter of taking it was not so much the question as the manner of taking it namely taking it before and without the gift thereof to the King by them that had the only power to dispose thereof Tant Then there was hard Measure to some as well as hard Imprisonment if the Parliament had the only power to give Tunnage and Poundage for the Kings Commission to the Customers begins thus C. R. WHereas the Lords of the Council taking into Consideration our Revenue and finding that Tunnage and Poundage is a principal Revenue of our Crown and has been continued for these many Years have therefore Order'd all those Duties of Subsidie Custom and Import as they were in the Twenty first of King James and as they shall be appointed by Us under our Seal to be Levyed Know ye that we by the Advice of our Lords Declare our Will that all those Duties be Levyed and Collected as they were in the time of our Father and in such manner as we shall appoint and if any Person refuse to Pay then our Will is that the Lord Treasurer shall Commit to Prison such so Refusing 'till they Conform themselves And we give full Power to all our Officers from time to time to give Assistance to the Farmers of the same as fully as when they were Collected by Authority of Parliament Whigg This occasion'd Debates that ended in the Dissolution of that Parliament after which the King call'd no more of eleven long Years and Straits and Necessities were urgent and remediless without a Parliament and woful work in Conclusion Tant Why did the Parliament meddle with the Customers Whigg Because they collected Customs in Tunnage and Poundage without Authority of Parliament Tant King James had them before they were given to him in Parliament Whigg King James had them by Authority of Parliament from the day before his first Parliament begun but the Statute gave him Power so to do but not from the first day of his coming to the Crown for he came to the Crown March 24. 1602. His first Parliament began at Westminster March 19. 1603. and took many things into Consideration and Enacted them before they took into consideration Tunnage and Poundage but 1 Jac. cap. 33. the Commons by the Advice and consent of the Lords gave the King the Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage at a very low rate namely but three Shillings a Tun for Wine and so proportionably for quantities greater or lesser than a Tun but this expir'd with the Kings Life his only Son and Successor took it without Authority of Parliament as his Father took it by Authority of Parliament to the great Disgust of his Parliament who did at length grant him Tunnage and Poundage upon certain Trusts and Confidences from the 9th of August 1641. for about three months 16 Car. 1.22 Tant What no longer Whigg Not at one loose then by 16 Car. 1.25 they trusted the King with the Customs from November 30. 1641. to February 1. namely for two Months longer Then the other Hitch for five Months namely from February 1. 1641. until July 2. 1642. Then they continued it for some little time by 16 Car. 1. c. 29. cap. 31. cap. 36. Tant But did the Free Free-Parliament in 12 Car. 2.4 give it to our gracious King for no longer time Whigg Yes yes for his Life but upon trust too so sayes the Act namely The Commons Assembled in Parliament reposing Trust and Confidence in your Majesty in and for the Guarding and defending of the Seas against all Persons intending or that shall intend the Disturbance of your said Commons in the Intercourse of Trade and the Invading of this Realm c. Tant Then it was granted for these Uses and Considerations belike and should be made Use of for no other end you would say Whigg Yea I do say so as the said Statute sayes Tant

But how will you mend your selves if I get some of it for secret Service Whigg Thou art capable of any secret Service but Pimping Tant Pimping that becomes not my Coat Whigg True but I could tell you a time when Pimping and Conniving at Whoredom and Adultery has been as ready a road to a Bishoprick as ever Sybthorp Manwaring or Mountague took Tant In what time I pray Whigg In what time Catch-pole in no good time Tant Well say tho' in what time good Whigg Whigg When Popish Councils prevail'd most and Popish Interest Tant Oh! a great while ago Whigg Yes yes Man-Catcher how fain thou wouldst find me tripping Tant But did King Charles 1. take Tunnage and Poundage and Imprison the refusers without Authority of Parliament for the first 15 years of his Reign Tory. Yes indeed Mr. Richard Chambers was Imprisoned for refusing to pay Customs and had also 7060 Pounds of his goods taken from him and was fined 2000 l in the Star-chamber Tant See what it is to be obstinate and Rebellious Whigg What language these Tantivees have Obstinate and Rebellious when it was Voted and Declared by the honourable House of Commons Anno 1627. 1628. That whosoever shall Counsel or Advise the taking or Levying of the Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage not granted by Parliament or shall be any Actor or Instrument therein shall be reputed an Innovator in the Government and a capital Enemy to the Kingdom and Common-wealth And if any Merchant or Person whatsoever shall voluntarily yield or pay the said Subsidy of Tunnage or Poundage not being granted by Parliament they shall likewise be reputed Betrayers of the Liberties of England and Enemies to the same As may appear by the said Order upon Record Now good Tantivee what shall a Subject do in this Case he must necessarily be ground-crusht between two Mill-stones if he Payes not the Kings party take all from him and if he Payes the Parliament punishes him for Betraying the Liberties of England and as a common and capital Enemy Tant There is but Right and Wrong in the World which of them were in the Right Whigg Neither of them would acknowledge themselves in the Wrong I 'le warrant 'till the longest Sword decided the Quarrel Tant But might not Mr. Chambers have been Pardoned if he would have Recanted these words They meaning the Merchants are in no parts of the World so screw'd and wrung as in England and that in Turkey they have more Incouragement Whigg Recant yes they brought him a Recantation to Subscribe and then he should be Released of his Fine 2000 l But the draught of Submission he Subscribed thus All the abovesaid Contents and Submission I Richard Chambers do utterly abhor and detest as most unjust and false and never 'till Death will acknowledge any part thereof Richard Chambers Also he underwrit these Texts of Scripture instead of Submission namely That make a man an Offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turn aside the just for a thing of nought Wo to them that devise Iniquity because it is in the Power of their hand and they covet Fields and take them by Violence and Houses and take them away so they Oppress a man and his house a man and his heritage Thus saith the Lord God let it suffice you Oh Princes of Israel Remove Violence and Spoil and execute Judgment and Justice take away your Exactions from my People saith the Lord God If thou seest the Oppression of the Poor and violent perverting of Judgment and Justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they Per me Richard Chambers Tant But did He that is higher than the highest regard and shew his Displeasure in this Affair Whigg It is neither safe nor easy to unriddle the meaning of Gods Providence by the Events But as to matter of Fact History tells us that Richard Chambers notwithstanding his vast Losses for which he never had considerable Reparation when time serv'd so thankless an Office it is to be a State Martyr as to the gratitude of men but by Gods goodness to him he liv'd to be Sheriff of London and a worshipful Alderman thereof but his Judges in the Star-Chamber many of them did not come to the Grave in Peace but went out of the World as naked as they came into it stript of all before they were bereav'd of Life yet the Lord Treasurer Weston dyed of his fair death flying beyond Sea and withall he dyed a professed as before he was vilely suspected and taken upon suspition for a Masquerade Papist Tant You Whiggs thought him a Covert-papist or a Protestant in Masquerade when he was so preferr'd at Court from Chancellor of the Exchequer to be the great Lord Treasurer Whigg He was a Creature of Buckingham's making and Bishop Laud's Confirming Tant Do Bishops confirm Lord Treasurers Whigg Sometimes as well as turn Lord Treasurers themselves as they used to be Tant The worst of the Disciples carryed the Bag. Whigg That Rule holds not always true Tant But if the said Treasurer did Dye a profest Papist that looks not well on our side Tory. Nor can it surely be deny'd and the Commons were so sensible of it that they agreed upon this ensuing Petition to his Majesty concerning Recusants long before Weston grew so high in these words To the Kings most Excellent Majesty YOUR Majesties most Obedient and Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled do with great Comfort remember the many Testimonies which your Majesty hath given of your Sincerity and Zeal for the true Religion Established in this Kingdom and in particular your gracious Answer to both Houses of Parliament at Oxford upon their Petition concerning the Causes and Remedies of the Increase of Popery that your Majesty thought fit and would give Order to Remove from all Places of Authority and Government all such Persons as are either Popish Recusants or according to direction of former Acts of State justly to be suspected which was then Presented as a great and principal Cause of that Mischief but not having received so full redress herein as may conduce to the Peace of this Church and safety of this Regal State they hold it their Duty once more to resort to your Sacred Majesty humbly to Inform you that upon Examination they find the Persons underwritten to be either Recusants Papists or justly suspected according to the former Acts of State who now do or since the Siting of the Parliament did remain in places of Government and Authority and Trust in your several Counties of this your Realm of England and Dominion of Wales The Right Honourable Francis Earl of Rutland Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln Rutland Northampton Nottingham and a Commissioner of the Peace and of Oyer and Terminer in the County of York and Justice of Oyer

and great Oppressions both in Religion and Liberty and his acquaintance here is not great or his ingenuity less who doth not both know and acknowledge that a great if not a principal cause of both these have been some Bishops and their adherents Master Speaker a little search will serve to find them to have been the Destruction of Unity under pretence of Uniformity to have brought in Superstition and Scandal under the titles of Reverence and Decency to have defil'd our Church by adorning our Churches to have slackned the strictness of that Union which was formerly between us and those of our Religion beyond the Sea an action as unpolitick as ungodly Master Speaker we shall find them to have Tith'd Mint and Anise and have left undone the weightier works of the Law to have been less eager upon those who damn our Church than upon those who upon weak Conscience and perhaps as weak reasons the dislike of some commanded Garment or some uncommanded posture onely abstained from it Nay it hath been more dangerous for men to go to some neighbours Parish when they had no Sermon in their own than to be obstinate and perpetual Recusants while Masses have been said in security a Conventicle hath been a crime and which is yet more the conforming to Ceremonies hath been more exacted than the conforming to Christianity and whilest men for Scruples have been undone for attempts upon Sodomy they have onely been admonished Master Speaker we shall find them to have been like the Hen in Aesop which laying every day an Egg upon such a proportion of Barly her Mistress increasing her proportion in hope she would encrease her eggs she grew so sat upon that addition that she never laid more so though at first their Preaching was the occasion of their preferment they after made their Preferment the occasion of their not Preaching Master Speaker we shall find them to have resembled another Fable the Dog in the manger to have neither Preached themselves nor employ'd those that should nor suffered those that would to have brought in Catechising only to thrust out Preaching cryed down Lectures by the name of Factions either because their Industry in that Duty appeared a reproof to their neglect of it not unlike to that we read of him who in Nero's time and Tacitus his story was accused because by his Vertue he did appear Exprobrare vitia Principis or with intention to have brought in darkness that they might the easier sowe their tares while it was night and by that Introduction of Ignorance introduce the better that Religion which accompts it the Mother of devotion Master Speaker in this they have abused his Majesty as well as his people for when they had with great wisdom since usually the Children of darkness are wiser in their generation than the Children of light I may guess not without some eye upon the most politick action of the most politick Church silenced on both parts those Opinions which have often tormented the Church and have and will alway trouble the Schools they made use of this declaration to tye up one side and let the other loose whereas they ought either in discretion to have been equally restrained or in justice to have been equally tolerated And it is observable that that party to which they gave this License was that whose Doctrine though it were not contrary to Law was contrary to Custom and for a long while in this Kingdom was no oftner Preached than recanted The truth is Master Speaker that as some ill Ministers in our State first took away our Money from us and after endeavoured to make our Money not worth the taking by turning it into Brass by a kind of Antiphilosophers-stone so these men used us in the point of Preaching first depressing it to their power and next labouring to make it such as the harm had not been much if it had been depressed the most frequent Subjects even in the most sacred Auditories being the Jus divinum of Bishops and Tithes the Sacredness of the Clergy the Sacriledge of Impropriations the demolishing of Puritanism and propriety the building of the Prerogative at Pauls the introduction of such Doctrines as admitting them true the truth would not recompense the scandal or of such as were so far false that as Sir Thomas Moore says of the Casuists their business was not to keep men from sinning but to inform them Quàm propè ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere so it seemed their work was to try how much of a Papist might be brought in without Popery and to destroy as much as they could of the Gospel without bringing themselves into danger of being destroyed by the Law Master Speaker to go yet further some of them have so industriously laboured to deduce themselves from Rome that they have given great suspition that in gratitude they desire to return thither or at least to meet it half way Some have evidently labour'd to bring in an English though not a Roman Popery I mean not only the outside and dress of it but equally absolute a blind dependance of the People upon the Clergy and of the Clergy upon themselves and have opposed the Papacy beyond the Sea that they might settle one beyond the water Nay common Fame is more than ordinary false if none of them have found a way to reconcile the Opinions of Rome to the Preferments of England and be so absolutely directly and cordially Papists that it is all that fifteen hundred pounds a year can do to keep them from confessing it Master Speaker I come now to speak of our Liberties and considering the great Interest these men have had in our common Master and considering how great a good to us they might have made that Interest in him if they would have used it to have informed him of our general Sufferings and considering how little of their freedom of Speech at Whitehall might have saved us a great deal of the use we have now of it in the Parliament-house their not doing this alone were occasion enough for us to accuse them as the betrayers though not as the destroyers of our Rights and Liberties Though I confess if they had been onely silent in this particular I had been silent too But alas they whose Ancestors in the darkest times excommunicated the breakers of Magna Charta did now by themselves and their adherents both write preach plot and act against it by encouraging Doctor Beal by preferring Doctor Mannering appearing forward for Monopolies and Ship-money and if any were slow and backward to comply blasting both them and their Preferment with utmost expression of their hatred the title of Puritans Master Speaker we shall find some of them to have labour'd to exclude both all persons and all causes of the Clergy from the ordinary Jurisdiction of the temporal Magistrate and by hindring prohibitions first by apparent power against the Judges and after by secret agreements with

them can tell what or who is the Church but usually by the Church they mean themselves the Clergy that is the promoted and Dignifyed Clergy-men and how the Vilest and worst of Clergy-men came to be promoted by their Vileness and Villanies you have heard for no other Clergy-men could be found so to Debauch their Consciences the Laws of England and the Protestant Religion and these are the men Forsooth whose Spitle we must all lick up and be punish'd if we speak never so little against them Ten thousand times more than when by Curses and Oaths we Blaspheme the Holy Name of God Oh brave World and brave Holy Religion and bravely managed Tant You are warm upon us Whig Is this a time to be Meally-mouth'd To sit weeping and wailing and wringing of hand with Prayers and Tears only when Tant When what Speak out Whig I will not Catch-pole you do but ly at lurch to undo a man for speaking Truth if you can but by hook or Crook drill him in and bring him within the reach or swing of some Old Stretch'd Law to colour as well as vindicate safely the private Spleens and Revenge every body sees you and yet you think you walk invisible and now too having got Tory here to be a Fellow-witness with you Oh how you will Strain a word and your own Consciences To bring a man that Thwarts your Evil purpose to be Maul'd by Law especially when you get which is not difficult a Jury and for your Turns Tory. You speak feelingly Whigg Jeet on and mark the end on 't there is an over-ruling Providence and God of Justice the very Heathens apprehend it and the Wheel of Fortune comforted the Captive Prince that drew the Conqueror's Chariot the Wheels whereof turning round and the upmost side forthwith undermost and the undermost again uppermost comforted and cheer'd his Captivity with the certain incertainty inconstancy and vicissitude of things And therefore good Rampant Tory let not him that putteth on his Armour boast himself yet you think you have got the World in a string and since the days of Blessed Mary Popery Coleman says had never so fair and likely a Prospect Tant I am not for Popery Whigg No not for the Name I believe thy Religion is 1500 l per Annum call it by what Name any body pleases Tory. But did not you say Whigg that you would prove by Common-Law Statute-Law Reason and Equity that the Law determines how and when Parliaments shall sit or be Dissolv'd How long they shall sit and when they shall be called all which I understand lay no where but in the Hallow of the Kings-Breast His Will and Pleasure Whig No Acts of Justice as a King lyes so incertainly only as at the will and pleasure of the King so as not to be determined by Law though some Acts of Mercy and Pardon are purely Arbitrary to adorn the Throne For if that did all our other Laws are nothing worth but at the good pleasure of the King and His Ministers Arbitrarily For for all their Transgressions none can call Evil Ministers to Account but a Parliament at least none more properly And if they can stave off a Parliament at pleasure and Dissolve it at pleasure we hold all our other Liberties Charters and Properties at pleasure which they have often oppress'd and invaded as aforesaid and when a Parliament call'd them to a Reckoning and Account for their Roguery and worse than march them off Here the Remedy by this Rule is left to the mercy and good will and pleasure of the Disease when Evil Ministers Disease the Common-wealth and this Disease may not be inquired into by the only Physitians the Parliament For Alas the Judges know who gives them and continues to them their Places and Soft Seats Tory. You see as aforesaid in King Charles I. his Speeches his Declarations c. Still he inculcates and bids them remember that the Calling Adjourning Prorogueing Holding and Dissolving Parliaments are in his Power Whig I believe you mistake for the Houses usually if not always do Adjourn themselves but they are Prorogued and Called and Dissolved by the King so all Criminals or so suspected are Indicted by the King that is in the Kings Name but the Law directs it both how and wherefore Tory. So you would say the Law directs the formal part also of Calling and Dissolving of Parliaments to be by the King in His Name but the wherefore or cause of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments is limited and determined by the Law and the time of Intervals which the King cannot pass or dispute with Whig Yes surely or else the great foundation of our Laws Parliaments the banks that limit and bound the out-ragious swellings and overflowings of Arbitrary and unlimited dominion would be strangely deficient and lame in not providing first and especially for its own Preservation against Arbitrary Will and Pleasure Tant Nay I suppose you are a Learned and Stout Champion for the Laws and for the Laws of Parliament and much Skill'd in them Whig I pretend to no Skill therein nor to the Honour of it all I have to say or have said on this Subject is only as an Historian of Whiggism a bare summary Collection of what others have done and said as to these particulars in the Reign of King Charles I. to rub up your memory with my brief Notes not to tell you any thing you have not heard before but with little Cost and Charge give you the Marrow of greater and more Elaborate works at an easier rate and minute Expence both of Money and Time Tant Well said I like that very well for I have not much of either to spare but first say what the Common Law enjoynes as to the Holding or Dissolving Parliaments Whig Few know what the Common Law is Coke says it is founded in the Immutable Law and Light of Nature agreeable to the Law of God requiring Order Government Subjection and Protection containing Ancient usages warranted by Holy Scripture and because it is generally given to all King and People Poor and Rich Lords and Commons it is therefore called Common Now consider that never any King of England had any Prerogative but what the Common-Law or Statute-Law gives them nor any Liberty or Priviledge but by Law The Prerogative is a Royal Priviledge Privilegio quasi privatae Leges Priviledges are Private Laws which always yields to the Common-Law Common-weal and Common-Benefit The King has no Priviledge or Prerogative contrary to the Publick-weal Order Government and Protection of the People Apply this to the question in hand concerning Holding or Dissolving of Parliaments And therefore in the Mirror of Justice a Book so commended by the Lord Coke that he saith it contains the whole Frame of the Ancient Common-Laws of this Realm from the time of King Arthur till near the Conquest Citesout of it one Law Concerning Parliaments made Reg. R. Alfred Anno Dom. 880.