Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A38468
|
The English-man's happiness under a Protestant-prince and the present condition of the kingdom considered.
|
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing E3100; ESTC R9047
|
6,331
|
4
|
The English-Man's Happiness under a PROTESTANT-PRINCE And the present Condition of the Kingdom Considered O Fortunati bona si sua norint AMongst so many Pamphlets which have been vented of late some I am very confident there have been of good use if read which have been thrown by because they were not crowded into the narrow compass of a Penny Sheet as if a greater Charge with an Hours serious Reading were too much to inform Mens Judgements and Reform their Principles and though it be very hard to keep within those bounds I shall endeavour if not altogether within to come as near them as is possible the end of this Paper is to convince some Malecontents who are uneasie under the Government and who reproach the King with want of Affection for his People onely because he has some for his Brother That we are most happy in many great things which the King has done for us and that he hath done them freely and consequently for the love and good will he bare us in doing of which I shall as much as in me lies avoid Notions Arguments which seldome or never reconcile contrary opinions and insist chiefly on matter of Fact which being of late time and in every Mans memory admits no Contradiction And here I shall not run back into the late times and step between them and the Act of Oblivion to encrease the Obligation which I do but just name though it may well be placed in the very Head of all Subsequent Benefits and perhaps had never more cause to be spoken of then now when most Men seem to have forgot that there has been such a thing I do heartily wish the Principles of those Times were as truly forgotten on our side as the practices that resulted from them are forgiven of his 't is from the Restauration the New Epocha of this Kingdome from whence we may much more truly date Annum Restauratae Libertatis that I shall begin After the Act of Oblivion the people were very sensible what vast Demands and Pretensions some Eighteen Years of such Killing and Slaying had given the King upon all Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service what Summs would be comming to him by the Court of Wards and Liveries how he had a kind of Command over every person and an immediate and very considerable Interest in every Estate by the Wardship of Minors Marriages Primerseisins and Fines c. so that unless this were remitted too the Act of Oblivion was in effect no pardon to them that hold in Capite since with their Lives it gave not their Estates but his Majesty prevents their fears and by Act of Parliament 12 Car. Ch. 24. deprives himself of the Richest Jewel of the Crown a Prerogative so truly Royal and of so vast Advantage that in England the people in the Judgement of the Learned in the Law were never truly free till then so strict an Hand of Power could the King keep over us by those Tenures that not the least Disrespect or Disobedience was to be feared and to the vast Advantages of this part of Prerogative must all the great Actions of our former Kings be imputed when the Gentry were bound to serve the King and the People the Gentry And because good and wholesome Laws are the best Security and greatest Happiness of a Nation I desire the Reader to observe that no one Vseful Bill has been tendred to his Majesty which he has Refus'd till within this Year and that but once of which hereafter if innumerable and continued Affronts Calumnies and Injuries which every private Man of Honour would resent and punish compelled him for his own Honour and that of all Kings to make War with a Neighbour no sooner was he informed that the same was Prejudicial to his People but he shuffles up a peace upon tearms very hard for himself and sacrifices his own just Resentments to the gainful desires of a part of his people and that in a time when such was the state of his Enemies he might by standing off a while have made his own Conditions But when a War has been entred into for Injuries offered to his People no Consideration no not Plague nor Fire which in the compass of Twenty Months impoverish'd the Land by the loss of so much Money and People could perswade him to end the War till ample offers of Satisfaction were made and they for whose sakes he began that War either weary of it or believing themselves sufficiently revenged desired it see the Articles of Peace with Holland in 1674 and those in Aug. 1667. If once upon Advice he granted a Tolleration of Religion did he not so soon as he was satisfied by his great Council of the pernicious and Dangerous Consequences of such a Liberty recall it when after that the Nation began to apprehend it self not sufficiently secured by the Laws then in Esse against Popery and that in their general opinion a Law was judged necessary to qualifie and distinguish all Persons in Office and place of Trust did not his Majesty Consent to all such Laws as they offered him and particularly to that great and memorable Act for preventing of Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants 25 Car. Ch. 2d thereby disabling a Papist from holding any Office or Employment tho' but of a Noble a Year and that without reservation of any one person on his side tho' he had then several by him of whose Truth and sincere Affection to his Person and Government he had unquestionable proofs Was not this one thing alone sufficient to belye those Villains who let fall Words as tho' the King himself leaned a little that way for it is not to be imagined by a Man of Sense that a Prince who had power to refuse a Law would ever pass one to the utter defeating all designs and measures of a party whose Interests he secretly favoured and meant to Advance When afterwards that party restless in contriving Mischief contrived or rather continued and carried on the most Hellish Design that was ever inspired from thence into the very worst Order of Men and that Design was happily discovered how did his Majesty behave himself in that matter he Summons his Parliament and till that can come proceeds by all imaginable means to search into the Plot and after the Plotters to seize their Persons and Papers then lays the whole before the Parliament assuring them That he would be always ready to aid them in the Inquiry into the Plot in any thing where his concurrence was necessary and accordingly as they desired by several Proclamations assisting them by some commanding the Absence of Papists by others enquiring after Blood with most bountiful promises of pardon and recompence Searching all Counties securing the Ports to prevent any flight from and looking into the very Prisons to bring all Malefactors to Justice For such as laid hold of mercy and came in upon his Proclamation he not only pardoned
might be wanting on his part to secure his People that he meant for to leave them in as good a Condition as to their Religion and Liberties and in a much better indeed than he found them but for further satisfaction we will turn to his own Speech to the Parliament 6 March 1679. I have done says he many great things already as the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament the Execution of several Men both upon the score of the Plot and the Murder of Sir Edmund-Bury-Godfrey and it is apparent that I have not been idle in prosecuting the Discovery of both as much further as has been possible for me in so short a time and above all I have commanded my Brother to absent himself from me because I would not leave the most Malicious Men room to say I had not removed all causes which could be pretended to influence me towards Popish Councils From these Words of the King we may very reasonably inferr what is true in the judgement of as great a Man as this and I believe any other Nation can show that he who for our sakes could part with such a Brother has now to be sure no Favourite but his people and truly 't is to be believed that he who in so many Years has denyed nothing to his People that one thing excepted so often desired and as often denyed the Dukes Exclusion were he really as well satisfied that he might as rightfully for no Man questions but he may legally and in good Conscience put him by the Crown for ever as he may remove him from his person for a time without all doubt he would do it if then so many Denyals to depart from his Resolution of Preserving the Descent be as sure they are the effect of his Judgement It is not perhaps a matter of such Wonder that a Consciencious Prince should refuse to do what he really believes would be a wrongful Act how profitable and expedient soever it might be Nay further it is perhaps the very worst Condition of a people to have a Prince who in acting takes not his measures by what is Right and Honest but Profitable and Convenient yet notwithstanding all this the Effects of Judgement are mistaken and I fear by some wilfully misconstrued for Inclination and the King in some Mens judgements believes not the Plot an opinion however much more tolerable than that which concludes him Disaffected to Religion severe and impertinent for without all doubt a Prince in all Respects so merciful would never have given way to the Execution of so many Men if he had not believed them guilty they no doubt guess better who conclude he believes not his Brother in the Plot now that execution of so many Men does as clearly convince me that the King believes the Plot as the design in that Plot against his person does assure me that he is not a Man for their turn but a firm adherer to the most excellent Church of England and its pure and primitive Doctrine Hitherto I have run over some few of the Kings Actions I have but Two Words as to his Inclinations which as they much contribute to our Happiness can no wise be omitted 'T is allowed by all Men that Two Vices there are above all others dangerous in a Prince Cruelty and Covetousness for they alone strike at all Men hold most dear Lives and Fortunes and if this be so the contrary of those Vices Mercy and Liberality may justly be reckoned the Cardinal Vertues of Majesty which are no where more remarkably united then in the person of our King so that he may well say Whose Ox or whose Ass has he taken and it shall be restored May their Oxes and Asses their Estates Liberties and Lives when the Law has adjudged them his how often has he remitted how unreasonable then are some persons who to prevent a possibility and that a remote one too of Troubles hereafter would brake the present peace and happiness of the Nation under so excellent a Ruler FINIS London Printed for T. B. in Green's-Rents neer Fleet-Bridge 1681.