give a Gracious Ear unto this your Petition And yet the third note exceedeth the other two former for in this note she conceiveth the abundance of your inward affection grounded upon her good Governance of you to be so great that it doth not only content you to have her Majesty Reign and govern over you but also you do desire that some proceeding from her Majesties Body might by a perpetual Succession Reign over your Posterity also a matter greatly to move her Majesty she saith to incline to this your Suit Besides her Highness is not unmindful of all the benefits that will grow to the Realm by such Marriage neither doth she forget any perils that are like to grow for want thereof All which matters considered her Majesty willed me to say that albeit of her own natural disposition she is not disposed or inclined to Marriage neither could she ever Marry were she a private Person yet for your sakes and the benefit of the Realm she is contented to dispose and incline her self to the satisfaction of your humble Petition so that all things convenient may concur that be meet for such a Marriage whereof there be very many some touching the state of her most Royal Person some touching the Person of him whom God shall join some touching the state of the whole Realm these things concurring and considered her Majesty hath Assented as is before remembred And thus much touching this matter As to the fourth part which concerneth a Declaration of the Laws passed in the Session whereunto you do pray that her Majesty would give her Royal Assent her Majesty hath Commended your travel and pains taken in devising of these Laws your Considerations and Carefulness in debating and consulting and your Judgments and Determinations in concluding and passing of the same and meaneth to give her Royal Assent to so many of them as her Majesty shall think meet and convenient to pass at this time But here I am to remember you that this is not all that her Highness requireth in this point for she is desirous that the great travels pains and great charges imployed about the making of these Laws should not be lost neither her Majesties Royal Assent granted in vain which must needs come to pass except you look better to the Execution of Laws than heretofore you have done for as I have before this time seen Laws without Execution be nothing else but Pen Ink and Parchment a Countenance of things and nothing in Deed a cause without an effect and serve as much to the good Governance of the Common-Weal as the Rudder of a Ship doth serve to the good Governance of it without a Governour and so serve to as good purpose to direct mens actions as Torches do to direct mens goings in the dark when their Lights be put out Were it not great folly trow ye yea and meer madness for a man to provide apt and handsome tools and instruments to reform and prune his Trees withal and then to lay them up in fair Boxes and Bags without use of them and is it not as strange trow ye to make Laws to reform mens manners and to prune away the ill branches and members of the Common-Weal and then to lay up those Laws in fair Books and Boxes without Execution of them Surely there is a small difference betwixt these Causes may it were much better to have no new Laws made at all than to have Laws not Executed for the former doth but leave us in the state we were in before the making of the new Laws but not to execute them is to breed a contempt of Laws and Law-makers and of all Magistrates which is the Mother and Nurse of Disobedience and what she breedeth and bringeth forth I leave to you to judge Now this offence of not executing of Laws growing so great it resteth to see in whose default this is and who ought to have the burthen of it First certain it is that her Majesty leaveth nothing undone meet for her to do for the Execution of Laws for first she maketh choice of Persons of most Credit and best understanding throughout the whole Realm to whom for the great Trust and Fidelity that she reposeth in them she giveth Authority by Commission to execute a great part of those Laws who also by Oath be bound to perform the same Besides the most special and needful Laws her Highness causeth to be Proclaimed and published unto her People as over this also lest men should be forgetful of their Duties she causeth a number of her Justices to be called into publick place and there to be exhorted and admonished in her Majesties name to see the Execution of her Laws and what can here be more devised for her Majesty to do Surely in my opinion nothing Then falleth it out necessarily and consequently that the burthen of all these Enormities Absurdities and mischefs that do grow in the Common-Wealth for not Executing of Laws must light upon those persons that have Authority from her Majesty to Execute them and do it not which is a burthen over-heavy for any to bear being justly charged For the avoiding of this therefore methinks men being thus remembred ought to seek with all diligence and endeavour to satisfie for their negligence and uncarefulness past which if they shall forget to do her Majesty shall be then driven clean contrary to her most Gracious Nature and Inclination to appoint and assign private men for profit and gain sake to see her penal Laws to be Executed The course which hitherto her Majesty hath taken hath been to have her Laws Executed by men of Credit and Estimation for the love of Justice uprightly and indifferently but if they shall refuse so to do forgetting their duty to God Soveraign and Countrey then of necessity rather than the Laws should be unexecuted her Majesty shall be driven I say to commit the Execution of them to those who in respect of profit and gain will see them Executed with all extremity And what a burthen that will bring to the Common-Weal I leave it to your consideration But it is to be hoped that if the respects before remembred will not move you to see better to your Charge yet the fear of this great inconveniency should constrain men that be in Commission to look to the better Execution of Laws And thus much touching the fourth part Now as to the fifth and last which concerneth the grant of a Subsidy her Majesty hath Commanded me to say unto you that that grant is a manifest Declaration by Deeds of that which before was declared by words for how could such a Grant be made and in such manner granted and by such persons but that of necessity it must proceed from the benevolent minds and hearty affections of such loving Subjects as are before remembred True it is that her Majesty in these your doings hath noted three things especially and principally every of them tending
and Duty and as the contrary doing in the first were Monstrous in nature so surely the contrary doing in the second were Monstrous in reason Now her Majesty having this Authority in her as Head of the Politick Body of this Realm and therewith being credibly informed of your approved Fidelity wisdom and discretion and of the long experience that you have had in Parliament matters thinketh that if her Highness should assent to your Desire it would be prejudicial to her Majesty and the Common-wealth of the Realm Besides also for as much as you have been chosen and enabled to this Office and place according to an Ancient and Laudable Order by so many wise sage and discreet Knights and Burgesses to whose Judgment and opinion her Highness thinketh it meet and convenient for her to have great regard and to give much credit and saith that for that respect also her Majesty may not conveniently grant your Petition Again your self seeking in humble and reverent manner your own discharge and disablement have indeed by well comely modest and orderly doing thereof given no small cause whereby you are to be enabled and therefore her Majesty upon these respects and divers others doth now presently admit this Election and presentation made of you nothing at all doubting but that you will with such diligence faithfulness and circumspection use and Exercise your Office as thereby the good hope and expectation that her Majesty hath received of you by that she hath heard of others already shall be by that her self shall see and hear not only confirmed but also increased and augmented And so as her Highness's Loving Subjects of her Common's House shall neither have just cause to repent their Election her Majesty her admission nor you your self the assumption and taking upon you this Charge Unto which Speech of the Lord Keepers Sir Thomas Gargrave humbly submitting himself to the undergoing of the Charge and service imposed on him made a discreet and submissive answer in which he expressed the great blessedness now accrewed to the Realm and all conditions therein by her Majesties attaining the Crown being a Princess so Richly endued with Piety Wisdom Mercy Justice and tender Care of her people's good and safety and with all other gifts of mind and body requisite for the Government of so great a Kingdom Then he proceeded to many hearty Prayers and feeling Expressions of the good success of the Parliament and for the uniting of their Councils in one Issue and to the repairing of the many losses and preventing of many dangers now imminent over the Realm And lastly he came according to the usual Form first to desire Liberty of access for the House of Commons to the Queen's Majesties presence upon all Urgent and Necessary Occasions Secondly that if in any thing himself should mistake or misreport or over-slip that which should be committed unto him to declare that it might without prejudice to the House be better declared and that his unwilling Miscarriage therein might be pardoned Thirdly that they might have Liberty and freedom of Speech in whatsoever they Treated of or had occasion to propound and debate in the House The fourth and last that all the Members of the House with their Servants and necessary Attendants might be exempted from all manner of Arrests and Suits during the continuance of the Parliament and the usual space both before the beginning and after the ending thereof as in former times hath always been accustomed To which Speech of the said Speaker the Lord Keeper without any long pausing repli'd again in manner and form following MR. Speaker the Queen's Majesty hath heard and doth very well understand your wise and discreet Oration full of good meaning good Will and good Matter the Effect whereof as I take it may be divided into three parts of those the first containeth the commendation of the Queen's Highness The Second certain good wishes and desires of yours very honorable profitable and Commodious for the Realm to be followed and put into Execution The third divers Petitions concerning the Exercises of your Office and the Liberties and Priviledges of the Commons House For the first the Queen's Majesty giveth you most hearty thanks as for a good Exhortation made to her Highness to become such a one as you have commended her for but not acknowledging those vertues to be in her Highness Marry confessing that such as she hath be God's graces And therewithal her Highness wisheth as she trusteth you all do that for England's sake there were as many vertues in her as would serve for the good Government of this her Realm committed to her Royal Charge and desireth you all with her to give God dayly thanks for those which she hath and to make humble Petition to grant such increase of the rest as to his divine Providence shall be thought for his honour most Meet For the Second her Maiesty trusteth and verily believeth that those good wishes and desires of yours are so deeply graven and perfectly imprinted in the hearts of the hearers that the good success and sequel that should come thereof will evidently declare that you have not in vain spoken them nor they negligently heard them For the third and last you have divided into four Petitions The first for your access to the Queen's Highness and her Nobles for your reports and conference The Second that you be born with in any thing if you should in any of your reports be mistaken or overslipped and that without prejudice to the House it be better declared The Third Liberty of Speech for well debating of Matters propounded The Fourth and last that all the Members of the House and their Servants may have the same freedom from all manner of Suits as before time they used to have To these Petitions the Queen's Majesty hath commanded me to say unto you that her Highness is right well contented to grant them unto you as largely as amply and as liberally as ever they were granted by any her Noble Progenitors and to confirm the same with as great an Authority Marry with these Conditions and cautions first that your access be void of importunity and for matters Needful and in time Convenient For the Second that your Diligence and Carefulness be such Mr. Speaker that the defaults in that part be as rare as may be whereof her Majesty doubteth little For the Third which is for Liberty of Speech therewith her Highness is right well contented but so as they be neither unmindful or uncareful of their Duties Reverence and Obedience to their Sovereign For the last great heed would be taken that no evil disposed person seek of purpose that priviledge for the only defrauding of his Creditors and for the maintenance of injuries and wrongs These Admonitions being well remembred her Majesty thinketh all the said Liberties and Priviledges well granted To come to an end only this I have to put you in mind of that in the sorting of
passing but paused a while to see if any Member of the House would speak unto it which at this day is commonly most used upon the third reading of a Bill and whether any of the said House spake unto the said Bill or no doth not appear But the Speaker holding the Bill in his hand made the Question for the passing of it in this sort viz. As many as are of the mind that the Bill shall pass say Yea which being Answered accordingly by the House or the greatest part of them the Bill passed and so he delivered it again unto the Clerk who because the Bill was Originally begun and first passed in the House of Commons wrote within the said Bill on the top of it towards the right hand these words viz. Soit baille aux Seigneurs The House was Adjourned until Thursday next because the Morrow following being Ash-Wednesday there was a Sermon to be Preached at the Court before the Queen at which as it should seem the greatest part of the House desired to be present On Thursday February the 9 th the Bill for Melcomb Regis in the County of Dorset to be fortified was read the first time And the Bill also to restore the Supremacy of the Church of England to the Crown of the Realm was read the first time and committed to M r Cooke as he is there termed and elsewhere Sir Anthony Cooke and as is very probable also to some others not named For it may be here noted that in the first Journals of her Majesties time the title of M r only is ordinarily given to Knights M r Sollicitor and M r Martin brought from the Lords the Bill for the Queens Title to the Crown which was delivered in such order and manner as was the Bill for the Restitution of Tenths and First-Fruits on Monday the sixth day of this Instant February foregoing Friday 10 Feb. the Bill for one Subsidy and two Fifteens and Tenths was read the third time and past M r Speaker declared the Queens Majesties Answer to the Message which was read to the House by M r Mason to the great honour of the Queen and the contentation of this House which is all that is contained in the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons touching this great business of their Petition preferred to her Majesty to induce her to marry and therefore it shall not be amiss to leave some larger memorial thereof for this business having been first propounded and resolved on in the said House on Saturday the 4 th day of this instant February foregoing and preferred to her Majesty as it should seem on the Monday following in the Afternoon was not answered by her Majesty until this Morning and was then also read in the said House as appeareth by the foregoing imperfect mentioning thereof And I am the rather induced to conceive that her Majesty gave not her Answer until this Morning to the said Petition of the Commons from a Copy of the said Answer which I have by me written by Alexander Evesham which said Answer out of the said Copy in which it is referred to this instant 10 th day of February with the title and subscription thereof do now in the next place follow verbatim Friday 10 th of Feb. 1558. c. The Answer of the Queens Highness to the Petition propounded unto her by the Lower House concerning her Marriage AS I have good cause so do I give you all my hearty thanks for the good Zeal and loving Care you seem to have as well towards me as to the whole Estate of your Country Your Petition I perceive consisteth of three parts and my Answer to the same shall depend of two And to the first part I may say unto you that from my Years of Understanding sith I first had consideration of my self to be born a Servant of Almighty God I happily chose this kind of life in the which I yet live which I assure you for mine own part hath hitherto best contented my self and I trust hath been most acceptable unto God from the which if either Ambition of high Estate offered to me in Marriage by the pleasure and appointment of my Prince whereof I have some Record in this presence as you our Treasurer well know or if eschewing the danger of mine Enemies or the avoiding of the peril of Death whose Messenger or rather a continual Watchman the Princes indignation was no little time daily before mine Eyes by whose means although I know or justly may suspect yet I will not now utter or if the whole cause were in my Sister her self I will not now burthen her therewith because I will not charge the Dead if any of these I say could have drawn or disswaded me from this kind of life I had not now remained in this Estate wherein you see me But so constant have I always continued in this determination although my Youth and words may seem to some hardly to agree together yet is it most true that at this day I stand free from any other meaning that either I have had in times past or have at this present with which Trade of Life I am so throughly acquainted that I trust God who hath hitherto therein preserved and led me by the hand will not of his goodness suffer me to go alone For the other part the manner of your Petition I do well like and take it in good part because it is simple and containeth no limitation of place or person if it had been otherwise I must needs have misliked it very much and thought it in you a very great presumption being unfitting and altogether unmeet for you to require them that may command or those to appoint whose parts are to desire or such to bind and limit whose Duties are to obey or to take upon you to draw my Love to your liking or to frame my will to your fantasie For a Guerdon constrained and gift freely given can never agree together Nevertheless if any of you be in suspect whensoever it may please God to incline my heart to another kind of Life you may very well assure your selves my meaning is not to determine any thing wherewith the Realm may or shall have just cause to be discontented And therefore put that clean out of your heads For I assure you what Credit my assurance may have with you I cannot tell but what Credit it shall deserve to have the sequel shall declare I will never in that matter conclude any thing that shall be prejudicial to the Realm For the well good and safety whereof I will never shun to spend my Life and whomsoever my chance shall be to light upon I trust he shall be such as shall be as careful for the Realm as you I will not say as my self because I cannot so certainly determine of any other but by my desire he shall be such as shall be as careful for the preservation of the Realm and you
Grey Marquess Dorset and Frances his Wife the Eldest Daughter and Coheir of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk by Mary the French Queen being the youngest Daughter of Henry the Seventh and especially seeing that the Queen of Scots having Married the Lord Darley whom she had Created Duke of Albany and had by him Issue a Son born before the beginning of this Session of Parliament who afterwards was Monarch of Great Britain and duly considering also that the Scottish Queen had during the Life of the French King her Husband by his means pretended a right to the Kingdom of England before the Queen her self in respect of the Popes Authority and that some also did not stick to set a broach the Title of the Lady Elianor being the younger Sister and Coheir with the Countess of Hartford Married to the Earl of Cumberland therefore I say all these said premisses being duly weighed by both the said Houses of Parliament it made them to be more earnest in Petitioning her Majesty at this time to the same effect although it seemeth that the Petition delivered at this time was chiefly preferred in the name of the Lords of the Upper House as that other Petition had formerly been preferred in the Name of the Commons in the first Session of this Parliament in An. 5 Regin Eliz. whence it hath come to pass that neither of these Petitions being set down in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House of Commons in either of these two Sessions of Parliament the times of their delivery have been exceedingly confounded together in all such several Copies as I have perused of them in which as also in Sir Robert Cotton's first Volume of the Journals of Parliament of the Queens time which are very imperfect and fragmentary they are erroneously Entred to have been both delivered in An. 1563. in which Year as also in part of the Year 1562. the Session in An. 5 Regin Eliz. was continued Post Meridiem The Archbishop of York the Lord Treasurer and the other Lords whose names are mentioned in the former part of this day with Sir Edward Rogers Knight Comptroller of her Highness Houshold and Sir William Cecill Knight her Majesties Principal Secretary and divers other Members of the House of Commons repaired to her Majesty this Afternoon being at her Palace of Whitehall to receive Answer from her Highness touching those two great businesses of her Marriage and the Declaration of her Successor as appeareth plainly by the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons fol. 266. a. where the report of her Majesties Answer is set down which she gave this Afternoon although there be no mention at all thereof in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House And that this was the cause and ground of their attending upon her Majesty at this time appeareth also plainly by a certain Manuscript Memorial or Diary kept and set down by Sir William Cecill her Highness Principal Secretary and afterwards Lord Treasurer of England of the passages of the greatest part of her Majesties Reign in which the words are as followeth Nov. 5. The Queen had before her thirty Lords and thirty of the Commons of the Parliament to receive her Answer concerning the Petition for the Succession and for Marriage But whether the Lords preferred their said Petition this Afternoon or whether they had supplicated her Majesty any time before doth not any where certainly appear neither can I possibly gather further than by conjecture and so it is most probable that though her Majesty had notice before what their Petition was yet it was not preferred till this Afternoon For but on Saturday Morning foregoing which was the second day of this instant November it is plain that the Committees of the House of Commons as appeareth by the Original Journal-Book of the same House on Thursday the 31 th day of October fol. 264. b. on which day the said meeting of the Committees was appointed did then meet to consider and agree upon such reasons as they should shew to the Committees of the Lords whereby they might induce her Majesty both to encline to Marriage and to declare a Successor And however Sir Nicholas Bacon Knight Lord Keeper of the Great Seal be not nominated in either of the Original Journal-Books of the Upper House and House of Commons to have been present with the before-mentioned Lords and others yet it is plain that if the said Petition was preferred this Afternoon or whensoever else it was delivered from his mouth as may be gathered from the very Petition it self ensuing and is so also expresly set down by M r Camden in Annal Regin Eliz. edit Lugdun Batav A. D. 1625. pag. 99. and though he had abstained a while about this time from the Upper House by reason of his infirmity of the Gout yet he was now in the way of amendment and recovery repairing again to the said House on Saturday the 9. day of this instant November ensuing and therefore might very well meet the before-mentioned Lords and other the selected Members of the House of Commons at the Court this Afternoon So then it being most probable that the Lords did both prefer their Petition this Afternoon to her Majesty touching those two great matters of the Marriage and Succession and also received her Majesties Answer Therefore the said Petition doth here first ensue which the Lord Keeper pronounced in these or the like words following MOST humbly beseecheth your Excellent Majesty your Faithful Loving and Obedient Subjects all your Lords both Spiritual and Temporal Assembled in Parliament in your Upper House to be so much their good Lady and Soveraign as according to your accustomed benignity to grant a Gracious and Favourable Hearing to their Petitions and Suits which with all Humbleness and Obedience they are come hither to present to your Majesty by my Mouth in matters very nearly and dearly touching your most Royal Person the Imperial Crown of this your Realm and Universal Weal of the same which Suits for that they tend to the surety and preservation of these three things your Person Crown and Realm the Dearest Jewel that my Lords have in the Earth therefore they think themselves for divers respects greatly bound to make these Petitions as first by their Duty to God then by their Allegiance to your Highness and lastly by the Faith they ought to bear to their natural Country And like as most Gracious Soveraign by these Bonds they should have been bound to make the like Petition upon like occasion to any Prince that it should have pleased God to have appointed to Reign over them so they think themselves doubly bound to make the same to your Majesty considering that besides the Bond before-mentioned they stand also bound so to do by the great and manifold benefits they have and do receive daily at your Highness hands which shortly to speak be as great as the Fruits of Peace common quiet and Justice can give and this
more in Kingdoms as it plainly appeareth by the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah Unto the Kingdom of Judah containing but two Tribes or thereabouts God gave Lineal Succession by Descent of Kings and therefore it continued a long time The Kingdom of Israel containing ten Tribes or thereabouts often destitute of lawful Heirs the one half of the people following the one and the other half following the other by Wars and Seditions being weakned came soon to ruine as plainly appeareth by the third and fourth Book of Kings And again in the time of the Judges because there was no ordinary Succession the people were often-times overcome and carried into Captivity Besides it is plain by the Scriptures that Godly Governors and Princes as Fathers of their Countries have always been careful to avoid the great evil that might ensue through want of limitation of Succession therefore Moses did enjoin Joshua to be his Successor and David his Son Solomon whereby a Sedition was appeased begotten by Adonijah of this there be many Examples Further seeing it may be easily gathered by Experience of all Ages past that Civil Wars effusion of Christian Blood and consequently ruines of Kingdoms do follow where Realms be left without a certainty ofSuccession and your Majesty is also informed of the same and sued unto for redress if therefore now no sufficient remedy should be by your Highness provided that then it should be a dangerous burthen before God to your Majesty and you were to yield a strict account to God for the same considering you are placed as the Prophet Ezechiel saith in Altissimo speculo of this Common-Wealth and see the Sword coming and provide no remedy for the defence of it Lastly The Spirit of God pronounceth by the Mouth of S t Paul to Timothy that whosoever maketh no due Provision for his Family is in very great danger to Godward and also by the Mouth of S t John that whosoever seeth but one Brother in necessity and doth shut up the Bowels of Pity and Compassion from him hath not the Love of God remaining in him whereby it is plain and manifest how fearful a thing it were if this whole Realm containing so many Families were not in a perillous Case upon their Suit provided for or if the Bowels of Mercy should be shut up from so many thousands which every way were like to fall into most extream miseries if God should call your Highness without certainty of Succession which we pray to God may never happen Most Excellent Princess the places of Scriptures containing the said threatnings be set forth with more sharp words than be here expressed Thus most Gracious Soveraign your Lords and Nobles both Spiritual and Temporal have as briefly as they can first shewed to your Majesty how diversly they take themselves bound to make these their humble Petitions unto you And then what their Petitions be And after that what reasons for Worldly respects and what by the Scriptures and for Conscience sake have moved them thus to do which here upon their Knees according to their bounden Duty they most humbly and earnestly pray your Majesty to have consideration of in time and to give them such favourable and comfortable Answer to the same that some good effect and conclusion may grow before the end of the Session of this Parliament the uttermost day of their greatest hope whereby this Common-Wealth which your Highness found to be lateritia as Augustus did his and by your great Providence is now come to be marmorea shall not for want of performing this if God shall call your Highness without Heir of your Body be in more dangerous Estate and Condition than ever it was that any man can remember True it is that this Suit is made by my Lords not without great hope of good success by reason of the Experience that they have had of your bountiful goodness shewed to them and the rest of your loving Subjects divers and sundry ways since the beginning of your Reign which they pray to God long to continue to his Honor with all Felicity The Petition of the Lords being thus set down of which it cannot be absolutely and undoubtedly determined whether it were preferred this day or no Now in the next place must follow her Majesties Answer which was without all doubt given this Afternoon to the before-mentioned Lords and those other thirty Members of the House of Commons yet there is no mention at all thereof either in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House or in that before-cited Memorial or Diary of the greatest part of the passages of her Majesties Reign collected and set down by Sir William Cecill at this time her Majesties Principal Secretary and therefore the greatest light of it being gathered out of the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons containing the agitations of this Session of Parliament de An. 8 Regin Eliz. fol. 266. A. where on the Forenoon of the next day ensuing this Afternoon being Wednesday and the 6 th day of this instant November report thereof was made to the said House by Sir Edward Rogers Knight Comptroller of her Majesties Houshold and Sir William Cecill her Highness Principal Secretary above-mentioned it doth plainly appear that touching her Marriage her Majesty gave them some hope of it but excused her self in not declaring a Successor in respect of the great danger thereof and therefore comparing this with that which M r Camden hath set down touching this Answer in Annal. Regin Eliz. edit Lugdun Batav A. D. 1625. pag. 101 102. it may very well be gathered and it is most likely that that Answer of her Majesty of which I had a Copy by me being erroniously placed as that also of Sir Robert Cottons is in the first Volume of his Parliamentary Journals being very imperfect and fragmentary amidst the passages of the Parliament of the fifth year of her Majesties Reign that that Copy I say contains the Answer which her Majesty gave at this time to the before-mentioned Lords and others being as followeth save only that through often transcribing without comparing it should seem it is somewhat defective SInce there can be no duer Debt than a Princes word to keep that unspotted for my part as one that would be loth that the self same thing that keepeth Merchants Credit from craze should be the cause that a Prince's Speech should merit blame and so their honor quail Therefore I will an Answer give and this it is The two Petitions that you presented me which must doubtless relate to the two several parts of one and the same Petition viz. the Marriage and the Succession and might not improperly be so called though couched in one Body and as the words also following do in manner explain it expressed many words which contained in sum these two things as of your cares the greatest My Marriage and my Succession Of which two I think the last best to be touched and of
universal profit of the Realm which is their surety and defence they respect themselves as private persons and not as Members of the Universal Body but their imperfection would be supplied by the wisdom and perswasion of such as the Queens Majesty shall commit trust unto by her Commission to see this Subsidy well and truly levied And thus much for the Execution of the Grant Now to the Execution of Laws made by you and the rest made heretofore by others I am to remember you that all these labours travels and pains taken about the Laws now made and before time taken about the rest heretofore made and all the Charge sustained by the Realm about the making of them is all in vain and labour lost without the due Execution of them For as it hath been said a Law without Execution is but a Body without Life a Cause without an Effect a Countenance of a thing and indeed nothing Pen Ink and Paper are as much towards the Governance of the Common-Wealth as the Rudder or Helm of a Ship serveth to the Governance of it without a Governour and as Rods serve for Correction without hands Were it not a meer madness for a man to provide fair Torches to guide his going by Night and when he should use them in the dark to carry them unlight or for one to provide fair and handsome Tools to prune or reform his Orchard or Garden and to lay them up without use And what thing else is it to make wholesome and provident Laws in fair Books and to lay them up safe without seeing them Executed Surely in reason there is no difference between the Examples saving that the making of Laws without Execution is in much worse Case than those vain provisions before remembred for those albeit they do no good yet they do no hurt but the making of Laws without Execution does very much harm for that breeds and brings forth contempt of Laws and Law-makers and of all Magistrates which is the very foundation of all misgovernance and therefore must needs be great and hainous in those that are the Causers of this indeed they are the very occasions of all injuries and injustice and of all disorders and unquietness in the Common-Wealth For certain and evident it is that the Queens Majesty that is Head of the Law doth all meet for her Majesty to do for the due Execution of them First She giveth her Royal Assent to the making of them the most material of them she Commandeth to be Proclaimed and published and yet ceaseth not there but she granteth out her Commission into every of her Shires to men which are or should be of greatest consideration within the limits of their Charge which for the better Executing of them are Sworn to see the Execution of her Laws to them Committed within the Limits of their Commissions and yet besides all this by her Majesties Commandment a number of these Justices are Yearly once at the least called into her Highnesses Star-Chamber and there in her Majesties Name Exhorted Admonished and Commanded to see the due Execution of their Charges And thus you see her Majesty Enacteth Proclaimeth Committeth Exhorteth Admonisheth and Commandeth from time to time yea what can be devised meet for her Majesty to do for help if this that is left undone Surely nothing to her Majesties Honour and Renown Whereupon it followeth necessarily and consequently that the whole burthen of the offence and enormity must light upon us that are put in trust by her Majesty to see those Laws Executed and certainly this offence groweth great or little as the trust Committed for the Execution of Laws is great or little and therefore it standeth us greatly upon to use our whole Cares and Endeavours for the help of this hereafter Were it possible trow you that if Justices being dispersed through the whole Realm as they be did carefully and diligently endeavour themselves according to the Trust committed unto them by their Soveraign duly and truly to Execute their Charge as they be bound by their Oath to God and by their Allegiance to their Soveraign and by Duty to their natural Country and rightly considered by the love they should bear to themselves and their Posterity for if their Country do not well they shall fare but illfavouredly were it possible I say if this were so done that Laws should be thus remisly and negligently Executed No doubtless Is it not trow you a monstrous disguising to have a Justice a Maintainer to have him that should by his Oath and Duty set forth Justice and Right against his Oath offer Injury and Wrong to have him that is specially Chosen amongst a number by a Prince to appease all Brawlings and Controversies to be a Sower and Maintainer of Strife and Sedition by swaying and leading of Juries according to his will acquitting some for gain Indicting others for Malice bearing with them as his Servant or Friend over-throwing others as his Enemy procuring the Questmonger to be of his Livery or otherwise in his danger that his winks frownings and Countenances may direct all Inquests Surely surely these be they that be Subverters of all good Laws and Orders yea that make daily the Laws which of their nature be good to become Instruments of all Injuries and Mischief these be they indeed of whom such Examples would be made as of the Founders and Maintainers of all Enormities and these be those whom if you cannot reform for their greatness you ought to complain of them and like as this is not said of those that be Good so is this and much more to be said and done against those that be Evil. But here it may be said The mischief appears what is the remedy to make all Laws presently Executed I can hardly hope to make them in better Case than now they be and although I had such hopes I could find no more helps but these The first is having great Care in the choice of the Officers The second by sharp Corrections imposed upon such Offenders There should be throughout the Realm a Triennial or Biennial Visitation in this nature made of all Temporal Officers and Ministers that by Vertue of their Office have in Charge to see Execution of Laws By this I mean that the Queens Majesty should make choice every second or third year of certain expert and approved persons to whom Commission should be granted to try out and examine by all good means and ways the offences of all such as have not seen to the due Execution of the Laws and according to the offences so found and certified to be sharply punished without Omission or Redemption Of effect like unto this and to the like end was the Visitation of the Church first devised whereof came in the beginning great good doubtless and reason I see none but that a like good ought to follow upon a like Visitation made amongst Temporal Officers Now to find out the faults seemeth not