Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A63931
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The case of the bankers and their creditors stated and examined by the rules of lawes, policy, and common reason, as it was inclosed in a letter to a friend / by a true lover of his King and country, and a sufferer for loyalty.
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Turner, Thomas, d. 1679.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing T3335; ESTC R23756
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39,443
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46
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Sir Francis Bacon then Atturney General said whilst the Praerogative runs within its ancient and proper Banks the main Channel thereof is so much the stronger for Overflowes he adds evermore hurt the River Guilme Jermyes Commentary on the Customier of Normandy If any man after all this Evidence be yet unsatisfyed in this point I will send him to France for I would rather find a President there and advise him to consider the case of Normandy That Dutchy had beâ—â—â—â—â— some time rak'd with Exactions contrary to their Franchise and Customes and thereupon complain to Lewis the 10th the then French King he by his Charter in the year 1314. recognizing the Right Priveledges of these people and the injustice of their Grievances grants that from that time forward they shall be discharged from all Subsidies and Impositions to be laid upon them by him or his Successors yet with this deadly sting in the tail of all Si necessitie grand ne le requiret Vnless in cases of great necessity which Minute and almost insensible exception we see hath eaten up upon the matter all their immunities Comines Hist of France Lib. 13. Fortescue cap. 35. for though these States do annually assemble yet their Conveâ—tion is little better then the carkass of a Parliament and they are become but the necessary Executioners of the Royal pleasure Obj. Ay but did not our Ed. 1. and Edw. 3. do greater things then stopping the Exchequer are not our Chronicles full of their breaking even into the Churches and Abbies and ravishing the Treasure of the Subject for Supply of their Warrs Admitting this Allegation to be true I Answer Sol. First we discourse not here what hath been done de facto but what may be done de Jure And to counterballance these we may put other Princes of this Realm of a contrary complexion into the other Scale Edward the Confessor restored the Danegeld Money a grievous Taxe formerly in use here to the persons from whom it was exacted Polydore Virgil. Ribaâ—â—â—â—ra Copgrave Surius it seeming to him as no mean Authors write that he saw the Devil danceing and triumphing upon that vast heap of Treasure when he was conducted by his Officers to view the same And by the way this Act of singular piety he did Sâ—lden's Mare clausum Lib 2 Spiâ—m Glossary title Danegueld when his people laboured under a dreadful Famine King Henry the Second say our Chronicles maintain'd great Wars and obtaind a larger Dominion then pertain'd at any other time to this Realm of England and notwithstanding never demanded Subsidy of his Subjects Speed Baker Haywards Hen 4.1 part p. 56 and yet his Treasure after his death was found to be Nine hundred thousand pounds beside his Jewels and Plate Certainly a prodigious summe in those dayes It is notorious also that Queen Mary did by her Letters Patents of her meer Grace and great Clemency for the succour and relief of her loving Subjects saith that Record pardon and remit a whole Subsidâ— given by them to her Predecessor Old Statutes 1 Maria sessio 2. cap. 17. which release was afterward confirm'd by Parliament And Queen Elisabeth also remitted one Subsidy of four granted to her saying Cambden vita Elizabethâ— It wâ—â— all one toher whether the Money were in Her Subjects Coffers or her own Secondly these Depredations begot many good Lawes for the firmer munition of property for future time and particularly this violence of Edw. 1. was executed in the 25th year of his Reign and in that very year and not in 340 as our Printed Statute Books say was made the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo De Repub. lib. 1. cap. 8. with which the English defend themselves faith Bodine quasi Clypeo as with a Buckler against their Prince Thirdly this King as our Chronicles affirm layd this outrage much to heart and that before his Royal Pallace at Westminster invironed with infinite numbers of his people thither by him purposely summoned and being rais'd upon an Ascent or Pedestal the better to be heard and seen Lib. 3. cap. 9. columna 2510. the Prince Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Earl of Warwick also standing with him Rogavit populum accepta licentia saith Knighton ut omnia condonaretur ei orarent pro eo He earnestly intreated the people that they would forgive him and pray for him And Matthew Westminster goes yet farther Kex erumpentibus lacrymis saith he veniam de commissis humillime postulavit The King bursting forth into Tears Math. Westminster pag. 409. 410. did most humbly aske pardon for what he had done a passionate transport of a Prince that before that time had rendred himself redout table among the Saracens as well as the French and that had triumpht over Scotland and Wales And after he had excused himself to them with all the sweetness of Expression adds Et omnia oblata reddam vobis Math. Westm ibid. And I will restore all that I have forct from you And in pursuance of this promise forthwith makes an * Bundelae Brevium de privato Sigillo in Turre London Anno 25. Ed. 1. pat 26 Ed. 1. Mem. 21. Ordination of Councel which have seen in French and can produce the Copy to issue forth Commissions of Oyer and Terminer into all the Counties of England to enquire what things had been forcibly taken by his Officers out of the Churches or else where from the Clergy or Laytye either to guard the Seas or for any other purpose with Warrants or without during his Wars with France and to determine those matters Et et qu serra pris seit returne a ceaux qe le damage ont receu saith the Record And that those things that were forct away might be return'd to them that had receiv'd the damage and to punish the parties offending which * Pat. 26. Ed. 1. Memb. 21. inquirendo super gravaminibus popu lo Regnifacti c. Commissions were accordingly executed many of which I have seen and can produce the Copies in which are contained many excellent particulars too long here to be recited And for those small Remainders of Moneys which hapned not to be restored or satisfied by vertue of those Commissions they were two or three years after recovered in the very ordinary Courts of Justice to prove which among many others I will eite this one Record Coia Pa. 29. Edw. 1. Rot. 18. The King pro urgentissimis Regni negotiis pro defentione totius Regni saith the Record had seized divers summes of money in all the Abbies Cathedrals and Religious Houses within the Realm quo citius commode poterit promised repayment In the Parliament of 29 Edw. 1. at Lincoln the King is Petitioned for repayment who promiseth payment Ita quod Regis conscientia super hoc exoneretur and there and Rot. 19. Divers summes are adjudged to be repaid Again it is not at all probable
Paintings with which so deformed an Advice hath been sophisticated But let me tell you Sir if in the sequel of this discourse I shall not clearly wipe off all these Varnishes and false colours and effectively prove this advice to be as mischievous to his Sacred Majesty as his people I shall think I have very meanly acquitted my self in this business I hope I shall not be thought to reflect herein upon any person whatsoever any farther then his own Conscience may scourge him in this particular And I know there be many great and illustrious Hero's near his Majesty to whose service I could willingly sacrifice an hundred lives had I them that do abominate so pernicious a Councel 'T is not for me rashly to touch heads irradicated with the Beams of Royal favour For my part I meddle not with the person but with the Advice abstracted Amo hominem odi vitia is a good Rule And I praise God and the King we live not now in an Age wherein it is more hazardous to discover an evil action than to commit it or wherein the justly accused shall take Revenge of the just Accuser Neither would I be understood here to erect my self into an Advocate for the Trade and mistery of Banking A God's name where the Vsuries of those people are by the King found outragious and illegal let them be regulated and reduced to just moderations All that I contend for is that the Bankers whose concernments are now apparently become ours may by Opening the Exchequer be enabled to satisfy their just debts to their Creditors that so the good and bad the nocent and innocent may not thus be overwhelmed together in one and the same common Ruine Sir let us not flatter our selves posterity will assuredly discourse our Actions with the same freedome that we do those of our Ancestors Annalium lib. 4. Irridenda est eorum socordia saith Tacitus qui presenti potentia credunt extingui posse sequentis aevi memoriam The improvidence of those persons saith he is ridiculous who think by present power to extinguish the memory of future Ages No this cannot be the voluminous Histories of all Nations which we dayly read and handle prove this project altogether idle and impracticable Certainly there abides in mankind an immortal principle a Ray of the Divinity which natrually inclineth us to a desire of Glory and to have our names guilded to all Ages in the eternal Records of Farâ—e Now Sir because you shall see with what Candor and fairness I will prosecute secute this Argument I shall deduce my following Observations from the wisest Historians and Statesmen from the greatest and most glorious Princes that the world hath at any time afforded from justictaries of the most profound Learning and chastest integrity nay from bodies of the wisest men of this and other nations in conjunction from Parliaments and their Determinations remaining with us upon Record Bacons Essay of Councel Alphonso King of Cortile Lipsis Epistola ad porit Ad Nicoclem and because I would take off all imaginable objection â—o the credit of my Authors I shall produce only such which have long since departed this lise which for that reason as a wise King was used to say were the most faithful Councellors Such as these as Isocrates tells cannot be daunted with fear or blinded with affection or corrupted with preferments These have indeed the character of true Councellors Castâ—llanus de Officio Regis Lio. 1. cap. 55. which is Ut non modo ne quid fa si dicere audeant sed etiam ne quid veri non audeant that they will neither dare to tell a falsity or conceal a truth That would rather as Seneca tells Nero Veris offendere quam placere adulando De elemâ—ntia Lib. 2. cap. 2. Offend by telling Truth then please by destructive adulations and flattery And lastly such which Demetreus Phalereus advised King Ptolomy to converse with often Stobeus sermone 46. because quoth he ibi quae amici monere non audeant Reges ea sacile omnia possint reperire There Kings may discover those matters themselves which possibly their best friends sometimes dare not advise them to Sir I fear I have trespast too far upon your patience by way of Letter already I shall therefore for your farther satisfaction in all these particulars refer you to the ensuing discourse deteining you here no longer then while I subscribe my self Dear Sir Your most Faithful friend and Servant Sma Ro. THE Introduction THE Kings Debt to the Bankers with the miserable consequences thereof hath now for little less then three years together exercised the world with matter not only of discourse but astonishment For indeed who will not be startled to see the common Faith of a Nation violated and a forcible breach made upon all that may be card Religious and binding and this also in great measure to the Ruine of Orphans and Widows and several even of those who with unwearied constancy resisted unto blood and loss of whatsoever was dear unto them in defence of the Crown of England I shall not here lanch out into the story of particular cases that Theme will be infinite and of force to endue stones with speech and by a contrariety of Miracle to overwhelme the most eloquent with silence I doubt not but I have already Arrested my Reader with frequent amusements and he is by this time impatient to know what may be the reason of all these words and wherefore a private passenger in the Ship of the Common-wealth should in this manner concern himself in the sayling thereof I answer First that every Subject is obliged to vindicate and propugne the Honour and Innocency of his Soveraign and to cast the Envies and Malignancy of Pestilent Councels upon the Donors and contrivers thereof and perhaps this duty could never be more seasonably exerted then in this present Case For I should be sorry that this Advisor as a person of great Honour and worth said not long since of one of them openly should like a Rabbit start out of his Borough and look about him and then run in again and hide himself and think no body observ'd him Certainly he is no good Minister or Servant that will throw the odium of his own evil actions upon his Lord and Master I answer Secondly that all men are interressed in the safety of the Vessel they are imbarqut in though all ought not to preside at the Helme And pernicious Advices like the falcities of the Turkish Alchoran oftentimes gain strength by the prohibitions of disputing them I know I shall be thought to broach a Paradox if I should affirm that some moderate freedomes of this nature have been sometimes Characters and marks of the happiest and most peaceable Ages of the world and yet if this assertion be not in some measure true Eâ—ay of Sedition and troubles we must abandon faith to all History For as