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	statute_n	4,861	5	8.7366	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59752	A discourse of the rise & power of parliaments, of law's, of courts of judicature, of liberty, property, and religion, of the interest of England in reference to the desines of France, of taxes and of trade in a letter from a gentleman in the country to a member in Parliament.	Sheridan, Thomas, 1646-ca. 1688.	1677 (1677)	Wing S3225; ESTC R16270	94,234	304

matters of Law than for his strictness of Life in those of Religion From the Conquerors time downwards there have bin attempts of this kind almost in every Kings Reign But the Wars and Divisions and consequently Dissolutions that often happend between the Kings their Parliaments somtimes Lords somtimes Commons about the Liberty of the Subject or Prerogative of the Crown not without good reason concluded to have bin set on foot by the crafty Lawyers by this time grown considerable prevented bringing to pass the intended Reformation of the Law I wil not insist upon al the Kings Reigns where this was desin'd nor go farther back than Henry the Eight's time when ingenious Sir Thomas More was by him set on work to fram a Model But the succeeding accidents frustrated that attempt the Troubles and Revolutions that continued during the Reigns of Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth hindred this work which at wise Burleigh's advise was resolved on by the later Queen The learned King Iames determined to finish it and the knowing Sir Francis Bacon was pitched upon to fram a Schem of new Laws or model the old But the discontents about Religion with the greater artifice of the Lawyers then more numerous diverted that glorious Enterprize Some living were Actors others Spectators of the Troubles that have since happen'd which gave way not to a Reformation but Confusion of the Laws and yet the Long Parliament or rather Conventicle knowing their great and good Master purpos'd it resolv'd upon a new Method of Laws But the Idol themselves had set up as a just reward of their Treason prevented this by turning them out of doors with their beloved Magna Charta calling it in Contempt Magna f Too many in other Countries no less than this have wholly lost their Freedom by endeavoring to enlarge it beyond Law and Reason as it has also somtimes befallen ambitious Princes who striving to augment their Power and Dominions beyond the boundaries of Iustice have instead of new Acquists forfeited their antient and lawful possessions The Gardiners Ass in the Apologue desining to mend himself by changing Masters found at a dear-bought experience none so kind as the first The Observation of the Evil of those days has given us reason to believe That wisdom best which is learnt at the cost of others and to remember the Wise mans advice Meddle not with those who are given to change This I speak as to the Fundamental of the Government which can never be alter'd by the Wit of Man but for the worse But the Superstructures of Hay and Stubble are grown so cumbersom and rotten that they are fit for nothing but the Fire Though I am far from giving credit to any prediction or Prophecy but those of Holy Writ yet I can't but remember you of that old Latin one Rex albus c. on which you know our wishes taught us to fix a pleasing interpretation This hint wil bring to your mind what perhaps has not been there almost these thirty Years That both for his Innocence and the accidental Snow that fel on his Herse the late King Charles was that white King who for some time was to be the last in England That afterwards his Son shoud from beyond the Seas return to the possession of his Crown and that in his dayes Religion and Laws shoud be reform'd and setl'd upon the eternal Foundations of Truth and Iustice. The fulfilling of this Prophesie now wil seem as miraculous an Effect of Providence as that of our Soverain's Restauration and wil as much eternize the Wisdom of the Parliament as the other their Loyalty What remains of this undon we might hope to see finisht as old as we are if they woud be pleas'd to espouse it heartily and defend themselves against the noyse wranglings and opposition of the Lawyers and Clergy who are no more to be consulted in this Case than Merchants concerning Exchange c. because as the Wise Syracides observ'd their Interest woud byass them There is saith he that counselleth for himself beware therefore of a Counsellor and know before what need he hath for he wil counsel for himself There was Law before Lawyers there was a time when the Common Customs of the Land were sufficient to secure Meum and Tuum What has made it since so difficult nothing but the Comments of Lawyers confounding the Text and writhing the Laws like a Nose of Wax to what Figure best serves their purpose Thus the great Cook bribed perhaps by Interest or Ambition pronounced that in the Interpretation of Laws the Iudges are to be believed before the Parliament But others and with better Reason affirm That 't is one of the great Ends of the Parliaments Assembling To determin such causes as ordinary Courts of Iustice coud not decide The Laws of England are divided into Common and S●●ate Law the Common are antient Customes which by the unanimous and continued usage of this Kingdom have worn themselves into Law Statutes are the positive Laws of the Land founded on particular accidents and conveniences not provided for by the Common Law Civil and Canon Law are of no force but as they are incorporated into the body of one or other of these Laws if either may be call'd a body which has neither head nor foot For they lye scatter'd in som few books Bracton Littleton Glanvil Fleta Cook Plouden Dier Crook c. their Commentaries or Reports or rather in the arbitrary Opinion of the Iudges or som celebrated Lawyers For nothing is in this Trade certain or regular what one gives under his hand for Law another gives the direct contrary Iudgments and Decrees reverst as if that coud be just one day that is unjust another and why in England must Law and Equity be two things Since Reason Conscience in all other parts of the World are one and the same and why cannot Laws be so plainly worded as that men of common sence may without an interpreter discover the meaning if they be not so order'd speedy and exact justice wil at best be retarded But you 'l tel me there woud be no need to complain if men woud follow Christ's advice If any man wil sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also the Reason was so plain that it was needless to express it viz. least the Lawyer shoud com between and strip you naked even of your shirt This you see is prudence as wel as Religion as indeed al Christs precepts are in the very affairs of this World Whatsoever was true of the Iewish Lawyers the present practise of some of ours renders them Obnoxious to the censures of the sober the curses of the passionate most men agreeing that to go to Law is like a Lottery or playing at Dice where if the game be obstinatly pursu'd the Box-keeper is commonly the greatest Winner But since som men wil be fools or knaves why shoud not the

in the South are chosen for the North and therefore are to the injury of the People as much strangers to the affairs of the Places for which they serve as those two points are distant from each other That they pass Laws witness that against Irish Cattel c. not for the common good but to shew their interest and power to mischief a man they hate or to revenge som receiv'd or supposed Injuries or Affronts That therefore it is necessary to dissolve This as not being a free Parliament and to cal a new one That to do so frequently is most agreeable to Reason and to former Statutes And to that end several Causes are prepared to put a Difference between the two Houses in point of Iurisdiction c. But such as more seriously weigh things may I hope be convinc'd These are the groundless surmises of som and false suggestions of others discontented and il dispos'd persons the old disturbers of our Israel's Peace who delighting to Fish in troubled Waters endeavour once more to put al into a flame of tyranny and confusion to see what Fish they may by that treacherous Light bring to their OWn Nets That it is idle to imagin the Court the best refiner of wit and Languag shoud not have as piercing a fore-sight as the Country That being allow'd they must be sensible of the fatal consequence of a divided Hous or Kingdom their loss is at least as great as any others their Al is at Stake 'T is therefore contrary to their Interest which never lies consequently to their practice to endeavor Parties 'T is irrational no less than scandalous to conclud Because som mens sense by second thoughts and fuller consideration of things is alter'd that therefore they are brib'd as if personages of so much Honor Wisdom and public spiritedness coud be induc'd by any sinister practices or by-respects to betray their Country and intail upon themselves and their posterities more lastingly than they can their Estates great and inexpressible Calamities And can it be supposed the Ministers have so little understanding as not to foresee that the taking off violent Members any other way than by conviction of their Errors were endlesly to encrease their Numbers and Hydra-like by cutting off one Head to give occasion to the sprouting up of many Nor is it less absur'd to beleive the Parliament when they find the conveniences the reason of Statutes ceased wil not repeal them 'T is no affront to their Iudgments nor to their-Loyalties so to alter with the times an obstinacy in the contrary resolution woud indeed be a disparagement to their Understandings That it is to be hop'd the Wisdom of the Parliament is such as not to quarrel for trifles after the manner of Women or Children That they wil lay aside al partial regards and without heats or personal reflections intend the great Work the common safety recollecting that they were the home bred Divisions more than the Conqueror's Forces that occasion'd Harold's Overthrow and England's intire Subjection to the French even those very Men who invited William suffer'd in the Ruin So just and natural it is To love the Treason and hate the Traytor Does not every Man know That the Power of whol France is greater than that of a part that of Normandy could be That William can't be suppos'd to have been more watchful to seize the Prey than Lewis is who perhaps has set those very Men at least their Leaders on work that openly pretend most to oppose his Desines while in the mean time by sowing underhand Discords and Fears among the People they best promote his Purposes 'T is no unheard-of Practice for Politicians as well as Water-men To look one way and Row another But I hope no cunning Achithophel will be able to divert the Parliament from the great Business of this Conjuncture When they have don That I wish they woud think it worth their Labor To look into the Laws and observe what of them are fit to be repeal'd and what continued The Happiness of a State consists in a regular Form of Goverment by just and equal Laws few and plain fitted to the most ordinary Capacities These Qualifications are as necessary to the well-being of the People as that of Promulgation was ever accounted to the essence of a Law But such is the Fate of England that the Laws are almost numberless which makes them unpossible to be remembred and what is worse are so very intricat that they may more reasonably be looked upon as the devices of cunning men to entrap the simple than as the Rule by which al are to square their Actions and their Lives And what is yet worse They were never promulgated tho provided for by those Statutes that enact the reading of som of them in Cathedrals at least once a year and of others four times Is it fit or just Men shoud be punished by Laws they neither know nor can remember There is no one intire Body of Laws That of the Statutes is so tedious and som yet remain in the Parliament Rolls not printed that it can hardly be read over in a months time tho an hundred times reading wil not enable a man to remember them and yet he may suffer for not observing what he has not or if he had coud not remember But what is the greatest Evil If they coud remember they coud not understand since the very Iudges who have not only been bred at the Feet but are themselves the Gamaliels of the Law and much more are wont to spend whol Terms in the reconciling and expounding of particular Statutes And it often happens That after these long Advisements they being divided in their Opinions the Parties concern'd wearied in those Toyles endeavor after all their Cost and Labor to quit their Right or impatiently expect the making of new and more intelligible Laws These great disorders have bin occasion'd by several conspiring accidents length and warping of Time crooked Interests of some Lawyers and the continual Wars Forreine or Domestick with which this Country has bin harassed I might say since the Invasion of the Romans c. But to com nearer our own times since the Conquest since the first making of these Acts England has not enjoyed one half Century an intire Peace To which unhappiness I know not whether the vexation of the Law or Bigottre of Religion have contributed most I do not doubt but in other Ages they were as sensible of the Evil as we are in this But the same Accidents continuing rendered it remediless Edward the Confessor regulated the Saxon Laws but his care prov'd of little advantage after the coming in of the Conqueror who desining to set up a new Form more agreeable to the Customs of Normandy or his own Will made himself deaf to the peoples desires of being govern'd by the Rules of that holy Prince who was deservedly Sainted no less for his Zeal and love of Iustice in

haughty Opinion he conceives of his being the only Person qualify'd for the Goverment of more Worlds than one declares his Resolutions of admitting no Rivals in Soverainty looking upon all other Princes but as so many smaller Stars or wandering Planets compar'd with him the Sun from whom after the antiquated and justly exploded Opinion of som Philosophers they are to receive their borrowed Light or Power as it shal please his Mightiness to dispense So that Crowned Heads Princes and Republics as wel as their Subjects are to expect the same meat that of Slavery and tho that be not sweet yet the sawce wil be sorer poinant to all tho perhaps a little differenc'd The former may be allow'd Golden while the later are to be manacled with Iron-Chains In order hereunto his Ambition has made him resolve the Conquering of the World after the Example of Alexander whose Title of Great as an earnest of his future Hopes he has already assum'd He has vow'd to make himself as Famous to Posterity by his Sword tho not by his Pen as Caesar has don That Paris shal give Law to the Universe as Rome once did and that the Ocean shal yield no less to the Sene than formerly it did to Tyber Now if England which alone is able to do it prevents the Execution of these vast Purposes what can we expect but that one time or other he wil seek a Revenge and notwithstanding his Promises and solem Confirmations of Peace try against us the success of his Arms and by numbers endeavour for this mighty Insolence to chastise those for whom even their own Histories wil convince them they are Man to Man a very unequal Match The dis-banding his Forces for the present is far from being a security since he may raise them again at his Pleasure Nor indeed do I imagin he wil discharge his Armies since that were to give them an opportunity of Rebelling for which he is sensible his People are sufficiently prepar'd and only want either Domestic Heads and Partisans or Forrein Assistance to rescu themselves from Tyranny and Oppression And is it fit while so potent and so near a Monarch is in Arms that we sh●ud stand with our hands in our Pockets No I am perswaded tho a present Peace shoud be concluded that the King and his Ministers wil think it for the common safety and the particular Interest of England not only to enter with the Confederats into a strict Allyance offensive and defensive but also to put themselves into a Posture of War both at Sea and Land The end of War is Peace but a Peace with France seems to me to be the beginning of War or at least a Preparation for One and I must ingenuously profess tho War be a great Evil yet from all Appearances I dread the Consequences of a Peace more for that without great care it wil be of the two the most fatal to England But this Consideration as most fit I leave to my Superiors and wil only ask You whether before we engage in a War abroad it be not fit To secure a Peace at home To reconcile by Toleration our Differences in point of Religion That the French Emissaries or others may not be able to strike Fire into the Tinder already prepared for the least Spark It must not be forgot That to divert or disable Queen Elizabeth from assisting France or def●nding Holland Phillip the Second of Spain incouraged and assisted Tyrone to Rebel in Ireland That in the long War between Us and France it was the frequent Practice of that Crown to incite the Scots to make Incursions upon us And I presume it wil be consider'd Whether some ambitious Men of that Kingdom may not influence the People to favor or side with a Prince who maintains great numbers of their Nation by the Considerations that they are now but a Province that England denyes them an equal Freedom in Traffic That they may have better Terms from the French in that and Religion in which by denyal of Liberty they seem dis-satisfy'd Tho such persons can't possibly work on the Wise the considerative of the People yet sure it were not improper to study a course to prevent the unthinking Croud the Rabbles being deluded by such fals and groundless pretensions which in my Opinion are with more care to be provided against in Ireland where 't is said those and other Motives may be urged For there are computed to be in that Kingdom about eleven hundred thousand persons of which 800000 are Irish and of them above 10000 born to Estates dispossest these for their losses and others for restraint in matters of Religion are discontented not considering their own Rebellion occasion'd their Ruin by their Murmurings I perceive let the Sentence be never so just it wil not hinder the condemn'd from railing against the judg That besides their suffering in Estate and Religion they are yet further beyond the Scots renderd uncapable of injoying any Office or Power Military or Civil either in their native or any other of their Princes Countryes Their folly having thus reduced them to a condition more like that of Slaves than Subjects many of the Gentry go frequently into other Kingdoms but most into France who may possibly be incouraged to return to move the People to a new Sedition especially if they can give them assurance of forrein Assistance The King wisely foreseeing this directed in 1673. his late vigilant and prudent Vicegerent the Earl of Essex to disarm the Irish Papists and netwithstanding the exact execution of that command it s said that his Majesty intends to put himself to the further Charge of increasing his Army in that Kingdom beyond what now it is and to appoint a considerable Squadron of Ships to guard and defend its Coasts from any Attempts of Invasion without which there is not the least fear of any intestine Commotions This with the charge he has bin at in Erecting a new Fort in the Harbor of Kinsale the most likely place to prevent the entring of any Forrein Power into that Country shews he has bin watchful to secure himself and People against the French desines And now I touch upon Ireland I have heard som say that it is not only convenient but necessary to unite that Kingdom to this To make a new division of Shires To send only so many Members to Parliament as coud no more join to out-Vote us than Cornwal and Devonshire with two or three other Countyes But I see not if they were thus made one wherein their interest woud be different from ours many rather think they woud be losers by the Bargain Others fancy Pointings Act shoud be repeal'd that at first tho a trick it was necessary but now is not all the power and almost all the Land being devolved upon such as are mediatly or immediatly English and Protestants And that by an easy contrivance they might be still oblig'd to a dependence on the Crown