Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	crown_n	king_n	realm_n	5,962	5	8.3139	4	true

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

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

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 Printed in the Year 1676. as vve can vve shall yeild up to the Kings pleasure all the Lavvs vvhereby the Rights and Inheritances of the King and Subjects ought to be distinguished and determined Truly Sir these are edged Tooles not to be played with I would not come 200 miles to put my Neck in a noose An honest Old Cavalire whispered tother day to me That he supposed this prorogation came from French Counsels not only to prevent the Parliament from stoping in time the French Kings increase of povver at Sea and Land but to lead his Majesty in obscure undifcerned paths to the mount of absolute povver The French knovving too vvell that vvhensoever the English People shall discover their Liberties and Lavvs to be invaded such fires vvill be kindled as they may run avvay in the smoak and vveshall not be able to contest vvith them either the povver of the Sea or the equallity of trade But whosoever advised the prorogation Pray Sir let me know whether it be a Dissolution You may perhaps save me a scurvy winter Journey and Mony in my Pocket and I assure you we are all very poor and I do not expect to be paid for secret serviec I know you can resolve this question as well at least as my Lord Chancellor If it be but a doubtful point I should think I had best stay at home none but an undoubted parliament being able lawfully to deside the case His Majesty out of parliament is no competent Judge for himself in this point and if we should declare our selves to be a parliament legally continued by the Prorogation according to the Kings will though not according to the Lawes I should tremble to be assistant in such a sad doom of England that the meeting of our Parliament and the benefit of our laws are of the kings Grace and not of right to be injoyed only when as he pleaseth Neither should I think such a resolution to be of any authority because we should be parties and Judges and give sentence to continve our selves in power You must not Sir deny me your whole thoughts of this great affair I have come to parliament twice or thrice to provide against the multitude of mischiefs and grievancs that threaten our ruine but did but verifie the proverb That I came ninescore miles to suck a Bull you know we have not been suffeerd to do anything of moment for several Sessions but I shall fool my self more if I should now come 200 miles to sit gravely and prepare my self for the Gallowes when soever the subjects shall demand right against us or the Crown shall descend to any whose interest shall lead him to call in question what we shall do You know Sir you and I were Confessors of old under his Majesties father and narroly escaped being Martyred for the Protestant Religion the Lawes of the land and the Priviledges of Parliaments as we belived we carried as many of those Declarations in our Pockets as we had shillings of his Coyning whilst we fought under his Banner and should not I Sir be an impudent Knave if I should now come and sit in parliament to declare that his majesty may of right take away from his subjects the benefit of their principle fundamental Laws about their meeting in Parliament when and as long as he pleaseth and if he will never suffer a Parliament to sit to claim one of the priviledges we swore to maintain I long for your Opinion Sir upon the whole matter I would neither disobey any lawfull command of his Majesty nor diminish the just English regall Power I would not crop a leaf of any flower of the Crown yet I make as much conscience not to betray my Country or easily yeeld up the Antient lawes and Government of England by parliament to the kings Will to make English freemen tenants at will to the king of their lawes their parliaments their liberties and lives I am resolved to be an honest man and thy faithfull friend and hearty servant The Benchers ANSWER SIR YOu demand my Opinion in a Question of the greatest moment that ever was moved since England was established under civil Goverment the absolute ruin for our age or the safety of all the ancient English liberties and excellent Laws depend upon the right resolving your Question Whether this Parliament be actually Dissovled by the last Prorogation for 15 months He that will clearly answer you ought first to consider whether a prorogation ordered and continued beyond a year can be made to agree with our lawes and statutes concerning holding of parliaments which by the way are the birth-right of English men It seemes you have been told of two statutes which enact That a Parliament shall be holden every year doutbless they in ended those printed statutes of the 4. of Ed 3. Cap. 14. and that of the 36. Ed. 3. Cap. 10. where it is enacted That for maintenance of the statutes and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances vvhich dayly happen a parliament shall be holden every year as an other time vvas ordayned These are most taken notice of because they are printed and were re-inforced by that notable Act of the 16 of the late King which provided effectually for the summoning and electing a parliament every 3 year without the Kings concurent asent if he neglected or refused two years together to summon a parliament according to those statutes of Edvv. 3. And although this parliament hath repealed that statute and taken from the people that excel●ent meanes to secure their right of parliaments yet they have left us to the force of the antient laws in the case and in the same Act of repeale 16 Car. 2. they have declared and acknowleged those lawes of Ed. 3 to be still the lawes and statutes of this Realm and they have enacted no clause or article that derogates from them or abates their force Those latter clauses of that Act which seem to be enacting being as my brethren of the robe speak nugatory and insignificant only praying the King not to intermit the holding of parliaments above 3 years at the most but to call them as often as there shall be occasion which in plainer English is an humble motion that he would not neglect his duty to put the laws in execution longer than two years but that he would call parliaments as oft as ocasion did require and that Act was to commence from the end of this parliament what ever was intended by that Act it doth neither weaken the force of those two antient printed statutes nor of any other unprinted for annual parliaments this Act being only affirmative and consistent with the other And I ought to tell you that there are 4 more at least to thesame porpose That of the 1. Ri. 2. number 95. in