Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	justice_n	sir_n	thomas_n	2,590	5	8.4692	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41174	A just and modest vindication of the proceedings of the two last parliaments	Jones, William, Sir, 1631-1682.; Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1682 (1682)	Wing F741; ESTC R14950	42,088	51

with Treasons of an extraordinary nature But above all that it was a matter extreamly sensible to the whole Kingdom to see such Un-Parliamentary mean Solicitations used to promote this pretended Rejection of the Commons Accusation as are not fit to be remembred 'T is there that the delay of the Tryal is to be laid for had the impeachment been proceeded upon and the Parliament suffered to Sit F●tz-Harris had been long since executed or deserved Mercy by a full Discovery of the secret Authors of these malicious designs against the King People For though the Declaration says a Tryal was directed yet we are sure nothing was done in order to it till above a month after the Dissolution And it hath since raised such questions as we may venture to say were never talk't of before in Westminster Hall Questions which touch the judicature of the Lords the Priviledges of the Commons in such a degree that they will never be determined by the decision of any inferior Court but will assuredly at one time or other have a farther Examination We have seen now that the Commons did it not without some ground when they Voted the Refusal of the Lords to proceed upon an Impeachment to be a denial ●f Iustice and a violation of the Constitution of Parliaments and the second Vote was but an application of this Opinion to the present case The third Vote made upon that occasion was no more than what the King himself had allowed and all the Judges of England had agreed to be Law in the case of the five impeached Lords who were only generally impeached the Parliament Dissolved before any Articles were sent up against them Yet they had been first indicted in an Inferior Court and preparations made for their tryal but the Judges thought at that time that a prosecution of all the Commons was enough to stop all prosecutions of an Inferior Nature The Commons had not Impeached Fitz Harris but that they judged his case required so publick an Examinaon and for any other Court to go about to try condemn him tho it should be granted to be for another Crime is as far as in them lies to stifle that Examination By this time every man will begin to question whether the Lords did themselves or the commons Right in the refusing to countenance such a proceeding But one of the penmen of this Declaration has done himself and the Nation Right and has discovered himself by using his ordinary phrase upon this occasion The Person is well known without naming him who always tells men they have done themselves no Right when he is resolved to do them none As for the Commons nothing was carried on to extremity by them nothing done but what was Parliamentary They could not desire a conference till they had first stated their own case and asserted by Votes the matter which they were to maintain at a conference And so far were those Votes from putting the Two Houses beyond a possibility of Reconciliation that they were made in order to it and there was no other way to attain it And so far was the House of Commons from thinking themselves to be out of a capacity of transacting with the Lords any farther that they were preparing to send a Message for a conference to accommodate this difference at the very instant that the Black Rod called them to their Dissolution If every difference in Opinion or Vote should be said to put the two Houses out of capacity of transacting business together every Parliament almost must be dissolved as soon as called However our Ministers might know well enough that there was no possibilty of Reconciling the Two Houses because they had before resolved to put them out of a capacity of transacting together by a suddain Dissolution But that very thing justifies the Commons to the world who cannot but perceive that there was solemn and good ground for them to desire an inquiry into Fitz Harris's Treason since they who influence our affairs were so startled at it that in order to prevent it they first promoted this difference between the two Houses and then broke the Parliament lest it should be composed There is another thing which must not be past over without observation that the Ministers in this Paper take upon them to decide this great dispute between the two Houses and to give iudgment on the side of the Lords We may well demand what Person is by our Law Constituted a Judge of their Priviledges or hath authority to censure the Votes of one House made with reference to matters wherein they were contesting with the other House as the greatest violation o● the Constitution of Parliaments They ought certainly to have excepted the power which is here assumed of giving such a judgment and publishing such a Charge as being not only the highest violation of the Constitution but directly tending to the destruction of it This was the Case and a few days continuance being like to produce a good understanding between the Two Houses to the advancing all those great and publick ends for which the Nation hop'd they were called the Ministers found it necessary to put an end to that Parliament likewise We have followed the Writers of the Declaration through the several parts of it wherein the House of Commons are Reproached with any particular Miscarriages and now they come to speak more at large and to give caution against two sorts of ill Men. One sort they say are men fond of their old beloved Common-wealth Principles and others are angry at being disappointed in designs they had for accompl●shing their own Ambition and Greatness Surely if they know any such Persons the only way to have prevented the mischiefs which they pretend to fear from them had been to have discovered them and suffered the Parliament to Sit to provide against the evils they would bring upon the Nation by prosecuting of them But if they mean by these lovers of Common-wealth Principles men passionately devoted to the Publick good and to the common service of their Country who believe that Kings were instituted for the good of the People and Government ordained for the sake of those that are to be governed and therefore complain or grieve when it is used to contrary ends every Wise Honest man will be proud to be ranked in that number And if Common-wealth signifies the Common Good in which sence it hath in all Ages been used by all good Authors and which Bodin puts upon it when he speaks of the Government of France which he calls a Republick no good man will be asham'd of it Our own Authors The Mirror of Justice Bracton Fleta Fortescue and others in former times And of latter years Sir Thomas Smith Secretary of State in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in his Discourses of the Common-wealth of England Sir Francis Bacon Cook and others take it in the same sence And not only divers of our