Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	nature_n	1,568	5	5.4669	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86390	The libertie of the subject against the pretended power of impositions. Maintained by an argument in Parliament an[o]. 7[o]. Jacobi Regis. / By William Hakevvil of Lincolns Inne Esq.	Hakewill, William, 1574-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing H210; Thomason E170_2; ESTC R9193	77,405	152

Magna Charta cap. are called old and ancicient duties this is Vectigal Patrimoniale of which sort I could produce many others all which have like certainty Nay there is one duty well known to us all which the common-Common-Law giveth to the King and is in his nature a Custome our very case in which the King is bound to a certainty which he cannot exceed and that is Prisage a duty given by the common-Common-Law to the King upon every shiploading of Wine brought into the kingdom by English Merchants and is one Tun of Wine before the Mast and another behinde I am unwilling to trouble you with any more particulars of this kinde but let any man shew me one particular to the contrary and I will then yeeld that my position being false in one may be in more But till my position hath been in this point infringed this generall concordance of the Law in all these particulars is argument enough for me without having aleadged other reasons to conclude that Custome being as all these are a revenue due to the King by the Common-Law arising out of the Property and interest of the Subject is as all these are limited and bounded by the Common-Law to a certainty which the King hath not power to increase Vbi eadem Ratio eadem Lex It may perhaps be here objected that the Ayd paid to the King upon the Knighting of his eldest Sonne or marriage of his eldest Daughter was by the Common-Law uncertaine and that the King did take more or lesse at his pleasure untill he was bound to the contrary by Statute To this I make divers answers Though it were indeed a summe uncertaine yet the Common-Law did in some sort give it a limitation for it is by a speciall name called Reasonable Ayd So as if the summe demanded doe exceed Reason it became from a Reasonable Ayd an unjust exaction Besides this revenue was a thing happening very rarely and therefore the certainty thereof not so much regarded by the Law and yet it is to be observed how the frame of this Common-wealth could not long indure incertainty even in this casuall Revenue but it was reduced to a certainty of twenty shillings upon a Knights fee and 20s. upon every twenty pounds Soccageland by the Stat. of West 1. cap. 35.3 Ed. 1. If in this casuall Revenue they were so carefull to be at a certainty to avoid unreasonable exactions as the words of the Statute are how much more carefull would they have been for the same cause to have reduced the great and annuall Revenue of the Custome to a certainty if they had not thought it to have been certaine by the Common-Law or limited by Statute-Law before that time made But Sir that which I rely upon for answer to this objection is this Reasonable Ayd was and is by the Common-Law due as well to meane Lords as to the King But meane Lords were not limited to a certainty otherwise than in generall that it must be reasonable as I have said therefore to limit the King any further was no reason And this answer may be given for all uncertaine Revenues belonging to the King the like of which mean Lords have of their Tenants for the incertainty of which there may also be given especiall reason because these duties first began by speciall contract and agreement between the Lord and the Tenant and not directly by operation of the Common Law and so were certain and uncertain as they did at first agree and therefore you may be pleased to remember how in laying my positiō I was wary to say That such revenues as are due to the King as to the head of the Common wealth by which I purposely excluded such revenues as are common to him with other mean Lords are alwayes certaine I am now according to promise and in maintenance of a second part of my position to shew you That where the Common-Law giveth the King a Revenue not certaine at the first that is alwayes reduceable to a certainty by a legal course as by act of Parliament Judges or Jury and not at the Kings pleasure Every man that by his tenure is bound to serve the King in his warres and faileth is to pay according to the quantity of his Tenure a fine by the name of Escuage this cannot be assessed but in Parliament Upon forfeitures for treason or otherwise to the King though it be a kinde of a certainty that the Law giveth in giving him all the estate of the party convict both in goods and Lands or in goods onely as the case is yet for reducing it to a more expresse certainty the Law requireth that it be found by Office Wayfe Stray Wreck Treasure-Trove and such like are no lesse certaine for the King hath the things themselves in kinde Fines for misdemeanors are alwayes assessed by the Judges Amercements in all cases are to be afferred by the Country and not to be assessed by the King though the forme of the Judgement be Et sit in misecordia Domini Regis in the Kings mercy pro contemptu predict Nay though for punishment of an offence it be by Statute-Law enacted that an offendor shall make Fine and Ransome at the Kings pleasure the Law even in this case which is as strong a case as may be will not leave the assessing of the Fine to the Kings pleasure to be by him rated privately in his Chamber but it must be solemnly and legally done in an open Court of Justice by the Judges who in all other cases are to judge between the King and his people where the interest or property of the Subject or any charge or burden upon them doth come in question as may be proved by the booke of 2 R. 3. fo 11. Insomuch that I am of opinion that if a Statute were made that the King might raise the Customes at his pleasure yet might it not be done as now it is by the Kings absolute power but by some other legall course of which the Common-Law doth take notice as in the case of the Fine and Ransome much lesse then will the Common-Law permit that it should depend upon the Kings absolute pleasure there being no such Statute in the case You have heard out of what grounds I first deduced this my position That the Law requireth certainty in matter of profit between the King and his people You have heard likewise the particular reasons of that position you have also heard what proofe I have made by particular cases of like nature to this in question and how I have applyed them to the point And so leaving the Judgement of the whole to your wisedomes who can best discerne whether the Argument be of weight I proceed to my second Reason which is drawne from the policy and frame of this Common-wealth and the providence of the Common-Law The which as it requires at the Subjects hands loyalty and obedience to their Soveraigne so doth it likewise

one aide or other in Parliament sometimes a taxe sometimes a Fifteenth sometimes a Subsidie of Tonnage Poundage In the eighteenth yeer he was inforced to go in person into Ireland to settle the state of that Country then in Rebelion all these troubles he had from abroade besides those famous Rebellions here at home which afterwards cast him out of his Seat yet did he never for all this attempt to lay impositions though he wanted not about him to put him in minde of his absolute power For Edward Strafford Bishop of Exeter Lord Chancellor of England in a Sermon made to the Parliament held anno 21. as our Chronicles report did publiquely maintaint that the King was not bound by any Law but was of himself absolute above Law and that to controle any of his actions was an offence worthy of Death at which Parliament all that were present came armed for fear of the King and the Parliament House it selfe was beset with 4000. Archers by his appointment I will speak no more of him then this though he were a King of a weak spirit yet did he not spare to practise upon his people the most grievous things that were Insomuch that he so farre discontented them that they deposed him by common consent in Parliament the onely desperate example of that kinde that our Histories doe afford or I hope ever shall His successor Henry the fourth Hen. 4. in respect he held the Crown by so weak a title had cause to give the people all the content he could possible and yet he was so oppressed with warrs on all sides from France and Scotland but especially by continuall and dangerous invasions made by the Welsh as without the aide of his people for the supply of his treasure it had not been possible for him to have held his Crown on his head and therefore he pressed his people so farre that in a Parliament held the fifth yeere of his reigne they yeelded to him so great and so unaccustomed a tax as that the grantors thereof as our Chroniclers say tooke speciall order that no memory thereof should remaine of record onely to avoide the president and yet the very next yeere following his wants were againe grown so great as his Subjects being assembled in Parliament to give him further ayde did resolve that there was no other way to supply his want then to take from the Clergie their temporall Lands and goods and to give them all to the King which being withstood by the Clergie a resumption of all the guifts of Ed. 3. and Ric. 2. was propounded at last after they had sate a whole yeere they gave him two Fifteenths at this time most of his Counsell and the great Officers of the Kingdome were Spirituall men had they not now if ever a just occasion given them to have put the King in minde of his Prerogative of laying impositions not onely to the intent to have diverted him from the harkning to that desperate motion that had been made against them to all their utter undoings but were they not also bound in duty and conscience in this time of so great necessitie seeing the Parliament knew not otherwise how to supplie the Kings wants to have advised him to have made use of his lawfull right of imposing by which means he might without troubling the Parliament quickly have raised great summes of money certainly it was not because they were ignorant of any such practise in former times For none of them that were then of the Counsell to Henry the Fourth but they lived in Ed. 3. time and most of them doubtlesse were in Ed. 3. time men of age and discretion But in all likelyhood as they knew that Edward the Third did lay impositions so likewise they knew that impositions had been from time to time in those daies condemned as unlawfull and were become hatefull to the people and onely for that reason they did forbeare to advise the King to take that course though the necessitie were never so great Another Prerogative as much concerning the interest of the Subject as this of Impositions namely the abasing of Coyne this King made no scruple at all to put in practise because he held it to be lawfull His Sonne and next Successor Hen. 5. who by his many victories over the French Hen. 5. and his noble disposition and behaviour towards his people was so farre beloved of them as never was King of this Realme more though the Kingdome were now by one degree of discent more firmely setled upon him then it was on his Father who usurped it though also his expence of treasure by reason of that great warre in France were as much as any king's of England ever were though he had troubles also from his Neighbours the Scots and within his owne Realme by Rebellions and lastly though he spared not for supplie of treasure to suppresse above a 100. Priories of Aliens yet neither out of the strength of his love with the people nor in his extreame necessity by reason of these honorable warres in France for the maintenance of which the people would willingly have undergone any burden which he would have laid upon them especially after the victory at Agencourt did he ever so much as attempt the laying of Impositions His Successor Hen. 6. Hen. 6. though indeed of a meek spirit yet he was so followed with troubles within the Realme and from abroad that he was inforced to crave such an extraordinary aide of his Subjects in Parliament as the levieing thereof was the cause of that famous Rebellion of Jack Cade in his time Besides in the 18 yeer of his Reign for the ease of his charge and supply of his wants all Grants by him made of any Lands Rents Annuities or Fees whatsoever since the first day of his Reigne were resumed and this is never yeelded to but in cases of extreame necessity As for Impositions notwithstanding his great wants he thought not of them Edw. 4. Edw. 4. that succeeded him was no lesse free from troubles for he was as you know driven to forsake his Kingdome and to live for a while like a banished man with the Duke of Burgundy He was also inforced in the 5 yeer of his Reign to make a Resumption and the same yeer to abase his Coyne And Comines observeth of him that he obteined a Subsidie of his Subjects in Parliament upon condition that he should himselfe in person undertake the war in France and that only to get the Subsidie he passed the Seas into France but presently returned without doing any thing What should such shifts as these have needed if he might without being beholding to his Subjects lawfully and without controll have raised Treasure by laying of Impositions It is well worth the remembring that which the same Comines speaking in commendation of the frame of this Common-wealth saith That this State is happy in that the people cannot be compelled by the