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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A44189 The Long Parliament dissolved Holles, Denzil Holles, Baron, 1599-1680. 1676 (1676) Wing H2463; ESTC R7214 14,305 24

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particular and private cases and concernments not upon the Laws themselves And our Histories of later times say That Sir W. Thorp Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the reign of Edvv. 3. for receiving but one poor hundred pounds in Bribes was for that alone adjudged to be hang'd and all his Lands and Goods forfeited and this reason rendred for his condemnation Becruse thereby as much as in him lay he had broken the Kings Oath made unto the people vvhich the king had entrusted him vvithall And in the 11th year of Richard the second The Lord chief Justice Trisilian was hanged drawn end quartered for giving his judgement that the king might act contrary to one particular Statute And Black the kings Council and Uske the Unde-sheriff of Middlesex with 5 more persons of quality were also hagng'd for but assisting in that Case And in the first year of Hen. 8. Empson and Dadley notwithstanding they were two of the kings privy council were hang'd for procuring and executing an Act of parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the kingdom and to the great vexation of the people And in the of Hen. 8. Cardinal Woolsey was accounted guilty of High Treasor for endeavouring to sublert the Common Laws of the land and to introduce the Civil Law in its stead Divers later instances might be given but that it is not prudence to follow Truth too close at the heels neither will it be necessary to name more if these are well considered For if the Lord Chief Justice Thorp for receiving the Bribery of a hundred pounds was adjudged to be hanged as one that had made the king break his oath to the people how much more guilty are they of making the king break his Coronation Oath that perswad him to actagainst al the laws for holding parliaments which he is sworn to maintain And if the Lord chief Justice Tresilian was hanged drawn and quartered for advising the king to act contrary to one Statute only What do they deserve that advise the king to act not only against one statute but against all thess antient laws and statutes of the Realm And if Blake the kings Council but for assisting in the matter and drawing up Inditements by the kings Command contrary to law though it is likely he pleaded the kings Order for it his duty to do it and that it was but pro forma what he did yet if he was hang'd drawn and quarterd for that what Justice is due to them that assist in the total destruction of all the Laws of the Nation And if Uske the Under-Sheriffe whose Office t is to execute the laws for but in deavouring to aid Tresilian Blake and their accomplices against one single Statute was also with 5 more hang'd drawn and quartered what punishment do they deserve that ayd and endeavour the subversion of no less than all the laws of the kingdom Nay if Empson and Dudley tho they had an Act of Parliament on their side yet that act being against the known laws of the land were hang'd as Traitors for putting that statute in execution and if Woolsey was accounted guilty of high Treason for endeavouring to exchange the laws of England for the Civil laws How great must be your condemnation and of how much sorer punishment must you be judged worthy if you shall but endeavour to sit and act as a Parliament upon this prorogation For you have not only no law to plead as Dudley and Empson had but are directly contrary to all our laws of every kind And you will thereby not onely atempt to exchange our lawes as Woolsey did but to put us into a state of no law at all Having thus faithfully discharged our duty and layd yours before you that through no inadvertency you may be surprised we have done Not at all doubting the issue thereof for if it be his Majesties honour and true intrest to keep the lawes he hath so solemnly sworn and protested to do as assuredly it is we have no Reason to doubt him And if those worthy patriots in the lords house whose names can never be mentioned with that Honor they deserve from the people did desire to addrese to his Majesty fifteen months agoe for the Parliaments dissolution and since all the resons that moved them thereto at that time do still continue and that this main reason is now also added That this parliament can sit and Act no more as a parliament without the total subversion of the laws and the very constitution of the Government of England we have no reason to doubt the lords And if the Commons shall but consider from whence and for what end they received their trust we have no cause at all to doubt them neither for certainely among them as well as among the lords are a greater number of persons of honor wisdom and fortune then of those that are Indigent of all and that will think with themselves that if not above halfe the people of England are represented by them and that two thirds of that halfe that are represented are weary of their siting and desirous of their dissolution and that 5. Parts of 6 do believe they can never more legaly sit as a parliament and that sixth seem doubtful And since that worthy part of the Commons can get nothing to themselves in particular by sitting and that if 5 10 or 20 years hence they should by another parliament be found to have usurped the legislative power of England to the Ruine of our lawes and the destructon of the people they would be sure to answer it with no less then their Lives and Fortunes and since if they should presume to fit so many person of quality are resolved not to pay any taxes or obey any other of their acts without first trying their validity by due process of Law And what pleasure or aduantage his Majesty can take or they themselvs can have in their sitting as a perliament when their very Jurisdiction is like to be questioned in all the Courts of England And whether it be likely that English Juries should find against their neighbours and therin against themselves to uphold a parliament that hath so many yeares imposed it self upon them contrary to their desire And that novv is Legally dissovled we leave to themselves to Judge FINIS Rot. Parl. 13. Edv. 4. No 43.
what would it avail since it is directly contrary to so many known Lavvs For if a President can make an illegal thing lawful there is no wickedness under the Sun but may bring a President to warrant it And therefore the greatest Sages of the Law have alwayes asserted That the Lavv is the Met-vvand and Standard of Presidents And that all Presidents against the Lavv vvere to be rejected as vvicked and unvvarantable or else you give Presidents the Mastery over the Lavv Nay null the Lavv and set up a new Rule of our practice We have presidents and very an●ient presidents to that that this kingdom was of the Romish profession what is it therefore warrantable for us to follow those Presidents contrary to law and turn Papists we have a president that king John contrary to law resign'd the realm of England to the Pope Is it therefore lawful for any other king of England to do the same VVe have also a president that Queen Eliz. from whence your president is fetch'd contrary to law Imprisoned some Members of the House of Commons for speaking their mind in parliament Is it therefore ever the more lawful for the king and his successors to violate your priviledges VVherefore unless the presidents be lawful it is not lawful to follow your presidents unless you your selves would be made presidents to future Ages And therefore it was well said by the Lord chief Justice Brampston We are not to stand upon presidents but upon the lavvs and the presidents look either the one vvay or the other they are to be brought back unto she Lavv. And the Lord Justice Vaughan tells you thus Though Presidents have been so often that they may be called by the Name of Usuage yet that if usuage hath been against the obvious meaning of an Act of Parliament in the vulgar and common acceptation of the Word then is it rather an Oppression of those concerned than an Exposition of the Act. VVherefore unless you will stand upon record as the oppressors of all the people of England for no less than all the people of England are concerned herein you can never admit of any president against the obvious meaning of not one Act alone but so many Acts of parliament and that not in a wrested sence but in the plain vulgar and common acceptation of the word Your duty lying thus manifestly before you there is nothing worthy a man that can obstruct you For it is only the single fear that the people will not choose you again that canmake you deny it and to deceive any in thetrusts they have given you because you doubt they will credit you no more is but an odd kind of honesty neither does the policy thereof look over strong for to be sure your betraying your trusts in opposing the Laws and the Interest of the People is never the way to be chosen again But on the contrary your stout and faithful standing for and defending them is an infallible way to have your trusts renewed And to think to keep it against the peoples will is a weakness too great for any man that would be reckoned more than once removed Pray remember your Elder Brother the former long Parliament they would sit against the peoples desire and yet though they had a special Act of Parliament for their sitting and an Army to back that Act yet you see when the peoples minds were turned against them do they and their Army what they could the people never left till they had unroosted them they took such vengeance on them as cost many of them their Lives their Liberties and the Fortunes of almost all of them All which it is possible might have been saved had they observed their season and instead of imposing themselves let the People have had their yearly Representatives for lack of which the dissatisfaction and revenge of the People was engaged against them so that it was engaged against them so that it was themselves that first pull'd dowin ruine upon their own heads For by their long sitting they wearied the Roundhead as you have done the Cavalire And the worst Omen that befa●ls a Government is when its friend falls from it And look what was the reason that turned the Gentlemen that were on the Parliament side against them and you will find the self-fame reason turneth your old Friend against you for as they stomack'd it then to see a few of themselves perpetuating their own Rule to the exclusion of all others so do we now And if the Nation would not endure that parliament though they had a Law for their sitting because of their strange and unwonted length can you think the same people will abide your longer sitting in express and utter defiance of all the laws of the kingdom And shall it be told to future generations That England chose a Parliament in sixty one who after they had sate fifteen years and were by an illegal Prorogation legally dissolved yet out of a wretched unconscionable desire to sit yet longer Betrayed the People that chose them and sate upon a Prerogative account contrary to the knovvn Laws of the Kingdom Nor let any man think it strange that we account it Treason for you to sit and Act contrary to our Laws For if in the first parliament of Richard the second Grimes and Weston for lack of Courage only were adjudged guilty of Treason for suarendring the places committed to their Trust How much more you if you turn Renegadoes to the People that entrusted you and as much as in you lies surrender not a little pittifull Castle or two but all the legal defence the People of England have for their lives liberties and properties at once Ne●ther let the vain perswasion delude you that no president can be found that one English Parliament hath hang'd up another though peradventure even that may be proved a mistake for an unpresidented crime calls for an unpresidented punishment and if you shall be so wicked to do the one or rather endeavour to do for now you are no longer a parliament What ground of confidence you can have that none will be found so worthy to do the other we cannot understand and do faithfully promise if your unworthyness do provoke us to it that we will use our honest and uttermost endeavours whenever a New parliament shall be called to choose such as may convince you of your mistake The old and infallible Observation That parliaments are the pulse of the people shall loose its esteem or you will find that this your presumption was overfond however it argues but a bad mind to 〈◊〉 because it believes it shall not be punished But all grand offenders against the Law ever were of that belief but it hath faild them very oft For Andrevv Horn in his Mirror of Justice tell us That Alfred hanged Darling Segnor Cadvvine Cole and 40 Judges more for judging contrary to Law And yet all those false judgements were but in