Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	common_a	law_n	realm_n	3,126	5	8.8443	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55894	A seasonable question, and an usefull answer, contained in an exchange of a letter between a Parliament-man in Cornwell, and a bencher of the Temple, London	Parliament-man in Cornwall.; H. P., Bencher of the Temple.	1676 (1676)	Wing P35; ESTC R5471	14,823	24

the Rolls relates to the Jurisdicttive power of parliaments which is often very necessary as well as the legislative It enacts That a Parliament be yearly holden to redress delayes in suites and to end such cases as the Judges doubt the 5. of Ed. 2. n. 9 and 13. and the 2. R. 1. 2. n. 73. and in the 50. Ed. 3. n. 177. In the parliament called the good Parliament the same thing was enacted and confirmed and in the opening the parliament in the 2. Ric. 2. n. 4. the Lord Chancellor in shewing the causes of calling that parliament gives for the second reason of it That it vvas enasted that a Parliament should be yearly holden And the message sent from the parliament to the King in the 9. Ric. 2. by the Duke of Gloster tells that King That one old statute and laudable custom is approved vvhich no man can deny that the King once in a year do summon his high Court of parliament there to consult vvith the vvise men and so you may read in Grafton Page 3. 48. It seems the course of holding yearly parliaments then passed not only for statute law wherein that Kings Ancestors had joyned with his kingdom to ordain it but as the most undoubted Custom of England that is the Common law de-declared in and by the statutes they clayming it as their most unquestionable inheritance being the only Root of all their Liberties and Properties and the only pollitick meanes of their defence and safeguard and no doubt our Ancestors had reason sufficient to claime their yearly parliaments as the custom or common law of England seeing no Antiquary nor record can shew the original of that usuage having its beginning with the Government it self Certain times for Parliament meeting are in truth of the essence of the English government Parliaments were the first appointers or creators of all other Offices Jurisdictions Powers and Prerogatives in the Government Don Wallo writing of the Brittish lawes tells us of Parliaments annuall or oftner amongst them above 400 years before Christ. And the Mirror of Justice tells us that king Alfred ordained it for a perpetuall usuage That tvvice in the year or oftner they should assemble at London to treat in Parliament of the Government of the People So it was in the Saxon's time and continued in the Normans being admitted by Duke William called the Conquerour as the Custom of England as appears by that antient Treatise called Modus antiquus tenendo Parliamenti And after great contest between the king of that Race and the people it was setled by Statutes often renewed That Parliaments should be yearly as the Statutes shew Upon the whole I think it beyond dispute that by the Laws and Statutes of our Realm a Parliament ought to be holden every year And surely it is as certain that the last prorogation beyond a year being persisted in by the king till the year is past over did prevent and defeat the execution of those Laws and is in direct opposition to them The sence of what the Lord Chancellor said to prorogue the parliament was a plain contradiction to these laws He tells them It vvas his Majesties Will that there should be no Parliament holden for one vvhole year and some months next follovving Then the question will be if it be any Whether the king's Will and Word in the Lavv or his Word in the Lord Chancelor's mouth is most potent The whole Kingdom in Parliament and all the Books of the Law have alwayes judged the Law to be the kings Superiour to judge of the validity of all his Grants Orders Commissions Patents under Great and Little Seal and every Court in Westminster-Hall have always thought its Authority sufficient to Judge His Grants under Seal or any thing he hath done void if they did not agree with the Law 'T is a Civility and honour that our Laws pay to the king that they will not suppose him to will any thing otherwise than as the Laws direct or allow him and thence it was received as a Maxim That the King can do no vvrong Indeed all he does contrary to Law is doing nothing 't is to be holden for nothing by Magna Charta it self therefore if the last Prorogation do not agree with the Laws it is a meer Nullity It is worth your remembring that in the 38 Chap. of the Great Charter it is ordained That no King should devise or invent any thing to infringe or vveaken the Liberties and Lavvs And if either King or Subject should seek out any thing against them it should be of no value and holden for nought If the Prorogation were a device or trick sought out to weaken the Laws for holding Parliaments every year 't is judged to be nought or no Prorogation by 30 or 40 Parliaments which have confirmed and re-enacted the same Charter But I ought to acquaint you that there are great endeavours to support the Prorogation some alledging with noise enough That many Kings have intermitted Parliaments not only for more than a year but for many years But these seem not to understand the Question which is of the validity in Law of what the king hath done to the Parliament 'T is not now enquired what Remedies there are if Kings shall leave undone what the Law and their Trust require in calling parliaments all the positive exercises of power by the king may and ought to be judicially sentenced and approved for good if agreeable to the Laws or holden for none if they be contrary to the Law And this hath been the un-interrupted usuage of England in all Ages They have sentenced all his Charters Grants yea his very Pardons that seem to come so singly from his Soveraign power or prerorogative and the Prorogation ought upon the same reason to be tried by the Law and judged void if so it be by the Rules of the Law But the kings omission to put the Laws in execution in calling Parliaments at the times limitted by the Statutes or in appointing sufficient Guards for the Seas or in issuing out Commissions to the Judges or any the like These I say cannot be brought into Question Judicially there being no possible relief for the People in such cases but by supplimentary laws to be made in Parliament in case of such Omissions as was done by the parliament 1641. 'T is well for the People that the law hath provided that whatever the king shall do contrary to law shall go for nought though they suffer by his neglect their right and laws remain to them and such Omissions of the king as are before mentioned have alwayes been esteemed by Parliaments and People Failers or breaches of the kings high and sacred trust and 't is a pittiful Argument to prove that the kings might of right or by the laws omit to do what the law hath trusted to their care because they have sometimes broke their Trust. His late Majesty in his Declaration of the 12 of

caling Parliaments that is as often as there should be ocasion within every year and not otherwise Our government was never originally founded upon such rediculous folly by our wise Ancestars as to intend themselves to be a Free People to make and alter their own lawes for their Government with their kings and he to call them to parliament to that intent and to leave it absolvtely to the kings Will even lawfully or of right by their Fundamental laws to defeat their meeting in Parliament for ever If our Government were so founded and doth so continue our English Crown is of right or by law in no kind restrained limitted or bounded in the exercise of the Regal power unless it please and if the kings shall condescend to consult with Parliaments and agree to some Statutes to limit themselves there is no more done than was by the men of Gotham that made a Hedge for the Coockows These Reasons Sir are not urged to shew any defects in our Government which may or ought to be amended but to prove that our Government was founded upon such certain laws and Customs that the kings never had absolute power but that the power of Parliaments and their certain Meetings were of right and as much a part of our Government as the kings themselves And I think it self evident from the nature and manner of the English Government owned in all Ages to be quallified by laws binding both King and People that the king cannot more dispence with the Laws which limit the times wherein parliaments ought to be holden than with the laws that preserve our lives and estates from being subject to this Will Parliaments are of the Essence of our Government and must have the times of their assembling indispensible and if it be not of right by law that they are to be held within cercain Circles of time as Custom and law have appointed then there 's no necessity in law that they should be held at any time if the king please and by consequence they are none of the Essentials of our Government but the Government may be without them If the kings may of right dispence with the times appointed for holding Parliaments they may break all the bonds of other laws no other power daring to question them all but parliaments deriving their power from them Charles the seventh and Levvis the eleventh of France first subverted the liberty of the French and all their antient Customs and laws by usurping that pretended prerogative of dispensing with the certain times of the meetings of their assembly of Estates by that means they suffered them to meet very seldom and their immediate Successors proceeded to arrogate to themselves more power over those Assemblies untill they have in fact perhaps not in right abolished almost the memory of them and reduced the people to a miserable slavery the people having no other fence of their liberty Dear Sir to deal plainly I believe the opinion that the King might dispence with Parliaments meeting notwithstanding the statutes or prorogue them as long as he pleaseth is built upon that gross vulgar Error That Parliaments are the Creatures of the kings Will because they are summoned by his Writs and dissolved also vvhen he thinks sit I wish our Government were better understood both by our Lords and Commons they ought to know that the Writts of Summons for a Parliament once a year are to be issued by the king in obedience to the laws and if there be occasion for calling them oftener the Writts issue in performance of the kings Trust and Oath to remove by Parliaments the mischiefs that afflict the People The Statute of Provisors 25 Edvv 3. speakes this plainly viz. The Commons pray the King that sith the right of the Crovvn of England and the Lavv of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs and dammages vvhich happen to his Realm he ought and is bound by his Oath vvith the accord of his People in Parliament thereof to make remedy and Lavv. This king and people agreed that it was the English Constitution and Kings Duty to Call Parliaments as the Lawes required and if any mischiefes happened he was bound by his Oath then to call them and to joyne in accord with them to remove the mischiefs and dammages before they were dissolved else by the declaration in this law he saved not his Oath by calling them And as the law binds the king upon Oath to send out the summons for parliaments so it provides the very form of the VVrit which must be sent the king must summon them in no other form than the law hath appointed The law hath not trusted the king to adde to leave out or alter one word in the writ of summons an Act of parliament only can vary one tittle of it The law hath also prescribed to parliaments their business in general which are the matters that concern the king the state and the defence of the Realm These are words so large that there seemes to be nothing that concerns the wellfare of king or people which doth not fall under their consultations But Pray Sir observe that 't is not the kings will that impowers your brethren that 's no more than a Command of the law by the king ex Officio that the people do impower such as they elect they are to authorize them as the writ declares to do and consent to what shall by the Common Council of the kingdom be then ordained Ita quod saith the VVrit pro defestu potestatis hujusmodi c. So that for want of such power the foresaid business may not remain undone The Parliament derives not any power from his Majesty but from the first Root of Government the Peoples Choyce according to the laws For that reason Indentures are and ought to be sealed between the People and the Elected and then they are immediately invested with a share of the legislative power for that time which is the greatest and highest power and therefore in its own nature independent every estate having share in the legislative power for the Proportion it hath therein hath its independency of the other two and of its proper right as founded in the fabrick and fram of the policy and government not derived from the grace of the king by grant or Commission I have said too much I doubt against the power of the king to despense with the statutes for yearly parliaments and yet I must adde this one thing more That parliaments are by many statutes as well as by the Common law our highest Court of Judicature before whom comes writts of error And the last appeales in all cases And that Ancient Mirror of Justice tells us that their Judicature was intended to hear and determine the complaints of the wrongfull Acts of the king the Queen and their Children and of those persons against whom the subjects otherwise could not have common Justice now if the king can of right