matters of Law than for his strictness of Life in those of Religion From the Conquerors time downwards there have bin attempts of this kind almost in every Kings Reign But the Wars and Divisions and consequently Dissolutions that often happend between the Kings their Parliaments somtimes Lords somtimes Commons about the Liberty of the Subject or Prerogative of the Crown not without good reason concluded to have bin set on foot by the crafty Lawyers by this time grown considerable prevented bringing to pass the intended Reformation of the Law I wil not insist upon al the Kings Reigns where this was desin'd nor go farther back than Henry the Eight's time when ingenious Sir Thomas More was by him set on work to fram a Model But the succeeding accidents frustrated that attempt the Troubles and Revolutions that continued during the Reigns of Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth hindred this work which at wise Burleigh's advise was resolved on by the later Queen The learned King Iames determined to finish it and the knowing Sir Francis Bacon was pitched upon to fram a Schem of new Laws or model the old But the discontents about Religion with the greater artifice of the Lawyers then more numerous diverted that glorious Enterprize Some living were Actors others Spectators of the Troubles that have since happen'd which gave way not to a Reformation but Confusion of the Laws and yet the Long Parliament or rather Conventicle knowing their great and good Master purpos'd it resolv'd upon a new Method of Laws But the Idol themselves had set up as a just reward of their Treason prevented this by turning them out of doors with their beloved Magna Charta calling it in Contempt Magna f Too many in other Countries no less than this have wholly lost their Freedom by endeavoring to enlarge it beyond Law and Reason as it has also somtimes befallen ambitious Princes who striving to augment their Power and Dominions beyond the boundaries of Iustice have instead of new Acquists forfeited their antient and lawful possessions The Gardiners Ass in the Apologue desining to mend himself by changing Masters found at a dear-bought experience none so kind as the first The Observation of the Evil of those days has given us reason to believe That wisdom best which is learnt at the cost of others and to remember the Wise mans advice Meddle not with those who are given to change This I speak as to the Fundamental of the Government which can never be alter'd by the Wit of Man but for the worse But the Superstructures of Hay and Stubble are grown so cumbersom and rotten that they are fit for nothing but the Fire Though I am far from giving credit to any prediction or Prophecy but those of Holy Writ yet I can't but remember you of that old Latin one Rex albus c. on which you know our wishes taught us to fix a pleasing interpretation This hint wil bring to your mind what perhaps has not been there almost these thirty Years That both for his Innocence and the accidental Snow that fel on his Herse the late King Charles was that white King who for some time was to be the last in England That afterwards his Son shoud from beyond the Seas return to the possession of his Crown and that in his dayes Religion and Laws shoud be reform'd and setl'd upon the eternal Foundations of Truth and Iustice. The fulfilling of this Prophesie now wil seem as miraculous an Effect of Providence as that of our Soverain's Restauration and wil as much eternize the Wisdom of the Parliament as the other their Loyalty What remains of this undon we might hope to see finisht as old as we are if they woud be pleas'd to espouse it heartily and defend themselves against the noyse wranglings and opposition of the Lawyers and Clergy who are no more to be consulted in this Case than Merchants concerning Exchange c. because as the Wise Syracides observ'd their Interest woud byass them There is saith he that counselleth for himself beware therefore of a Counsellor and know before what need he hath for he wil counsel for himself There was Law before Lawyers there was a time when the Common Customs of the Land were sufficient to secure Meum and Tuum What has made it since so difficult nothing but the Comments of Lawyers confounding the Text and writhing the Laws like a Nose of Wax to what Figure best serves their purpose Thus the great Cook bribed perhaps by Interest or Ambition pronounced that in the Interpretation of Laws the Iudges are to be believed before the Parliament But others and with better Reason affirm That 't is one of the great Ends of the Parliaments Assembling To determin such causes as ordinary Courts of Iustice coud not decide The Laws of England are divided into Common and Sâ—â—ate Law the Common are antient Customes which by the unanimous and continued usage of this Kingdom have worn themselves into Law Statutes are the positive Laws of the Land founded on particular accidents and conveniences not provided for by the Common Law Civil and Canon Law are of no force but as they are incorporated into the body of one or other of these Laws if either may be call'd a body which has neither head nor foot For they lye scatter'd in som few books Bracton Littleton Glanvil Fleta Cook Plouden Dier Crook c. their Commentaries or Reports or rather in the arbitrary Opinion of the Iudges or som celebrated Lawyers For nothing is in this Trade certain or regular what one gives under his hand for Law another gives the direct contrary Iudgments and Decrees reverst as if that coud be just one day that is unjust another and why in England must Law and Equity be two things Since Reason Conscience in all other parts of the World are one and the same and why cannot Laws be so plainly worded as that men of common sence may without an interpreter discover the meaning if they be not so order'd speedy and exact justice wil at best be retarded But you 'l tel me there woud be no need to complain if men woud follow Christ's advice If any man wil sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also the Reason was so plain that it was needless to express it viz. least the Lawyer shoud com between and strip you naked even of your shirt This you see is prudence as wel as Religion as indeed al Christs precepts are in the very affairs of this World Whatsoever was true of the Iewish Lawyers the present practise of some of ours renders them Obnoxious to the censures of the sober the curses of the passionate most men agreeing that to go to Law is like a Lottery or playing at Dice where if the game be obstinatly pursu'd the Box-keeper is commonly the greatest Winner But since som men wil be fools or knaves why shoud not the
it woud be for the advantage of al That the Parliament woud exert its antient Power In regulating the many Abuses crept into inferior Courts Into which if there was ever need of looking there is now at this day when the complaints are loud By which tho perhaps Mole-hills may be made Mountains Yet al this Smoak cannot be without som Fire This I have bin told for certain That their Iudgments are founded as much upon Rules or interpretations of Statutes of their own pleasure introduc'd by the intrest of Lawyers and Officers as upon the strict letter of the Lawes in which your Education tho not your Practice and your long Observation has made it superfluous for me to particularise the many Irregularities in the administration of Iustice which woud fil a larg Volum But to begin with the Courts I think it were convenient that each of the Four at Westminster shoud be reduced to their antient Practice and not suffered to Encroah upon one another to the Subjects great vexation who often quits his Cause rather than follow it thro al the mazes of the several Courts where at last after som years tossing by Writs of Error c. from Post to Pillar if his mony does but hold out to make the Lawyers that sport he may sit down by his loss or have recours to the Arbitriment of two honest Neighbors which at first had bin the speediest and cheapest way of justice In antient days the Kings Bench intermedled only with the Pleas of the Crown But now an Ac Etiam ushered in by a feignd assertion of Force and Arms and by supposing the Defendant to be in Custodia Marescalli or the Plaintiffe privileg'd som other way in that Court robbs the Common Bench whose jurisdiction even by Magna Charta is of al Common Pleas between Party and Party The Common Bench by practice of Atturneys not to be behind hand has likwise of late days introduced an Ac Etiam and several Debts or Promises are suppos'd with intent to bind the Subject to special Bail wheras I am confident it cannot either by Common or Statute Law be evinced that antiently special Bail or a Capias before Summons was in any action required and that therfore it is a meer invention to get mony and to vex and impoverish the Subject The Exchequer was only to hold Plea of such Actions where the Plaintiff was really indebted to the King and perhaps too not able otherwise to pay it or where the Parties were by their Priviledg to plead or to be impleaded in that Court But now by falsly suggesting They are indebted to the King and not able to pay him but out of the thing in demand they are suffered to su in that Court alleadging a Quo minus c. in their Declaration But before such Irregularities were introduced it was not so much Law as Honesty Prudence and skil in Arithmetick that were the necessary Qualifications of the Barons In which Court a Chancery was erected to moderate the Rigor of the Fines and Amerciaments estreated into that Court and to extend to the Kings Debtors those favors which the Barons coud not shew The Causes then remaining for the High Court of Chancery were the Penalties and Forfeitures between man and man which at Common Law were du and al other Causes that for want of Evidence were no where els tryable But such have bin the mighty contrivance of the Practisers in that Court that they have found out a way for the Trial of al Causes there where notwithstanding a mans pretence in his Bil That he wants Witnesses tho that be but a tric to intitle the Court to the action after he has Obliged the Defendant to swear against himself contrary to the Common Law that of Nature Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum which seems to be the possitive intent of Magna Charta he takes out a Commission to Examin Witnesses In the Civil Law the Complainant if required is obliged as wel as the Defendant to swear the Truth of the Bill and sure that is as fitting to be don in the King 's great Court of Equity and Conscience as in the ordinary Courts of Iustice in other Nations Nor woud it be amiss That al Witnesses shoud in that Court as wel as others give their Testimony Viva voce and that there shoud be som unalterable Rules both for the Officers of the Court and the Clients since Conscience and right Reason are alwayes the same and unalterable which woud prevent the Reversing of Decrees a tacit Confession They were unjust and other Inconveniences too many to be recounted only One is so notorious I cannot pass it by The assuming a Power of Impeaching Iudgements at Common-Law which the Statute declares to be Premunire Another Practice as inconvenient as any is The Iudges giving too great an Authority to a former Iudges Report or Opinion It were to be wish'd That in the rest of the Courts the present Practice of the wise Lord Chancellor Finch were observed who considering That a Report is founded upon such Reasons as are not with the Report convey'd to us that only stating in brief the matter of Fact and that the Case is alterable by any one Accident rightly infers That no Report but the Reason of the present Case squared to the Rules of the Law ought to guide his Iudgment To this may be added That in every Court there shoud be a setled Number of Clerks Attorneys Lawyers as wel as Iudges That these how just soever shoud not continu above three Years in any one Court Whatever the Sherifs Power was formerly sure I am That exercised by the Iudges exceeds what now they are possest of and yet the Wisdom of former Ages thought not fit to intrust the former two years together That they shoud be oblig'd to give an Account in public of al their proceedings at the expiration of the said time That they be under a pecuniary Mulct besides an Oath to administer justice impartially in imitation of God who to mind them of their great Duty graces them with his own Title saying Ye are al. Gods and therfore must do as I do ye shal not regard in judgment the Power of the Mighty nor the Distress of the Poor That the Iudges Lawyers Atturneys and Clarks shoud have out of the public Revenu sufficient establisht Salaries To take no Fees or Gratuity whatsoever directly or indirectly It not seeming reasonable that the people shoud pay any thing for Iustice But as that Charge may be included in the public Taxes That no Offices whatsoever be Sold and nothing but Merit to intitle any man For if Offices be purchased by the interest of Friends or Mony it is unreasonable to expect That Iustice too may not be bought and sold And for this Reason it is as fit to make Laws against this practice in others as against Simony in the Clergy No man to have two Offices or to act by Deputy
liberty to wear Silk but in Summer I am told that within these six months to encourage a Woollen Manufacture newly set up in Portugal no man Native or Stranger is suffered to appear at Court in any other That useful neglected Act of Burying in Woollen shoud be strictly put in execution not prohibiting the People if they wil be so foolish but probably a little time wil make them wiser than to throw away linnen too which if they woud make at home might be the more tolerable The way I conceive by which it may be easily don is to injoyn the Minister under penalty of deprivation with allowance of Mony to the Informers not to bury any one whose Corps or Coffin they do not see cover'd with Flannel And since Death is said to be the Sister of Sleep or rather since Sleep is the representation of Death as our Beds are of our Grave or indeed that Death is but a very long Night if we shoud not only Bury but ly in Flannel Sheets at least the long cold Winter Nights I have bin assur'd by our old Friend That this Practise after a little use woud be found no less for the health if not som voluptuousness of our natural Bodies than the other woud prove for the Body Politic and I am the more induc'd to believe this assertion because Physitians prescribe Flannel Shirts to som persons for their Health I am certain the more ways are found for the Consumption of this Manufacture the Richer our Country woud grow by lessning the use of Forrein Linnen so greatly advantageous to our Neighbors of France whom we love so dearly that we study how to serve and enrich them tho to our own impoverishment and Ruin Besides this Course not a lock of Wool shoud be permitted into the Islands of Iersy Guernsey Aldarney or Sark under colour of what is allow'd they are enabled to supply their own occasions and carry much more of which I am wel assur'd to France which reaps the benefit of the great industry of those populous Islands to make them beneficial at least not hurtful to England is to deny them Wool if that woud bring the People thence into this Country it wil prove a double advantage And lastly I think the only certainty of keeping our Wool from Forreiners is to erect a Company by the Name of State Merchants or Oblige the East-India Company whose Stock and Credit wil enable them with ease to buy up at good rates yearly all the Wool of England and Ireland which manufactur'd at home woud bring them in a little time as profitable returns as those from Bantam c be many Millions in the Riches of the People by raising the Rents c. anâ— Hundred Thousands in the Kings Exâ—chequer employ Thousands of our Pooâ— now starving and invite in many oâ— other Nations to the great encrease of our Strength and Wealth and so prove no less a particular than an universal good That all Forestallers Regrators and Higlers be prevented who now doe as much mischief to the City of London as formerly purveiance did the Kingdom That the present confus'd business of weights and measures which appears by many statutes to have bin the care of our ancestors be fully ascertain'd and adjusted And because this does greatly tend to the regulation of trade and administration of Iustice it were convenient particular persons were impower'd who shoud receive complaints and correct abuses in those and all other penal statutes referring to trade by some more speedy course than that of information or indictment c. That no particular Person or Incorporations have any places priviledg'd against the Kings Writs That the Parliament woud be pleas'd to redress the great Obstruction of Iustice by Protections of which no less than sixteen Thousand are said to be given in and about London I am perswaded that either the Report is a Mistake or that the Member's Hands are Counterfeited for 't is very unreasonable to believe the Makers of our Laws woud prevent their Execution But be the Case one way or other the Evil may be easily remedyed by the Members registring the Names of their servants in the House at the beginning of the Sessions and upon the Alteration of any That all manner of Courts in Corporations whether by Grant or Prescription be taken away because of the many Abuses dayly committed and in every Corporation a Court of Merchants Erected for the quic dispatch and determination of all Controversies relating to Trade and Commerce every Man to be oblig'd to tel his own Story without Charge or the Assistance of Atturneys or Lawyers The Iudges to be annually chosen five in number together with two Registers one for the Plaintif the other for the Defendant out of the most experienced and best reputed Citizens or Tradesmen no Salary or Fee to be paid to Iudge or Officer To retrench by Sumptuary Laws the excessive wearing forrein Silks Embroideries and Laces to prohibit absolutly the use of Silver and Gold-Lace Gilding or Lackering Coaches c. When Riches are thus not so much us'd as abus'd 't is no wonder they do not only moulder into Dust but take wing in Solomon's Phrase and fly away Our wiser Neighbors in France and Holland prevent this Evil the First make a Shew but at an easy and cheap Rate the later leave off their Cloaths because they are worn out not that they are out of Fashion Our contrary Practice in imported Commodities make us complain That Trade is decaying in which our Folly has made us a By-word among the French As a People that consume our All on the Back and the Belly and if none spent more the Mischief were but particular But many are not contented to run out their own Estates but resolve to have the Pleasure of undoing others for Company So long as we indulge our selves in this Vanity we may indeed have the satisfaction if it be any to talk of mending Trade but in spight of our Chat it wil stil decay we shal Buy and Sel more and more and yet live by the Loss til at last we are wholy Broke How long that wil be a doing we may guess by the Fal of the Rents and Valu of Lands not to be avoided while the Ballance of Trade is so much greater on the Imported side than the Exported The way to make us Rich is to manage our Trade in the same manner it was don in Edward the Thirds time To make the Proportion of our Exports exceed our Imports as much as they then did by an Account taken in the Seven and Twentyeth Year of that King as Cotton sayes our exported Commodities amounted to 294184 Pound the Imported but 38970 Pound so that the Kingdom got clear in that Year 255214 Pound By which it appears that our present Trade is about thirty times greater than it was then tho we complain of its Fal 'T is our own Fault we are so imprudent as to consume more
yet pick out of both this Truth That tho the Rise of Parliaments like the Head of Nilus be unknown yet they have bin of long standing and of great Power And we shall find it reasonable they shou'd be so if we look back into the grounds and Origin of Goverment which we may suppose to have bin introduc'd by the general consent and agreement of as many Families as upon the encrease of Mankind joyned in one common Society divided the Earth into particular proportions and distinguished between Meum and Tuum To this they were induced by Love not Fear which is but the consequent of that Reason convincing that the enjoyments of life were thus best serv'd and promoted And because that Being and well-Being cou'd not be continued or enjoyed but by the Society of Women and the Products of Labor and that if some wou'd be idle and many covet the same Woman the great Desine of Nature Happiness founded on Living well and in Peace might be perverted into the state of Misery War To prevent the two necessary Consequences Poverty and Death they entred into mutual Compacts Articles or Laws agreeable to that great and fundamental Law of Nature rivited into their Beings To do as they wou'd be done unto That is They resolv'd agreed and promis'd one another to be guided by the Rules of Reason or which is one and the same To continu Men. But because it was probable som yielding too much to their Passions might swerve from this great Rule and so wrong Others as well as Themselves Therefore that no man might be Iudge and Party they unanimously confirmed to the Elder person the continuance of that Right which Nature had given him over the Fruit of his Loynes during its Minority To determin what ever Differences shou'd happen Believing Him as the common Father of the Family to be most impartial and as the longer Experienced the Wisest Man This Power tho Great exceeded not the Limits of their then-enacted Laws in their tru and natural Meaning which they took care to make very few and plain That all Disputes and Intricacies not only the Disturbers but Destroyers of Iustice might be avoided And finding they were not only lyable to Danger at Home but from Abroad from such other Societies as had already or might afterwards set up for themselves and that it was not possible for all to watch against these Dangers they therefore resolv'd to put that Care into the Hands of one Man for which great Undertaking the Coward as the Fool if those two really differ were equally unfit Inconsideration in the One being what Fear is in the Other a Betraying of the succors which Reason offers Nature then by giving their Iudge most Authority Wisdom and Conduct which with tru Courage the Effect also in a great measure of Experience are the great Qualifications of a General desin'd him for that Honor which the People readily confirm'd promising Obedience and investing him with the Power of making War and Peace But at his Instance reserving to themselves the Liberty of Examining and approving the Reasons Which the Great and Wise Captain judg'd convenient knowing without the Consent of All he cou'd not but want the Assistance of Som which might dis-able him to defend himself or them whereupon the Ruin of the Whole must inevitably follow And because the Prince his whole time must be employed in this great Work part of which was the preparing his Son for the Succession by instilling into him the necessary Seeds the Principles of Vertu Religion Wisdom Courage Munificence and Iustice The People willingly agree'd to entail upon Him and his Successors a certain Excisum or Proportion of every Man's Labor answerable to the Occasions of the Public and to the particular State and Grandeur necessary for the Support and Maintenance of his Authority and Reputation But because a greater proportion was needful for extraordinary accidents as of War c. They set apart annually another Quota to remain for such Uses in a kind of public Bank so to be order'd as might greatly increase their common Treasure and do good to the poorer sort of Laborers and Trades-men and maintain in Hospitals such Impotents or aged Persons as shoud be disabled to make Provisions for themselves The Revenu they made Great enoff as wel as Certain that the Prince might not ly under any necessity of contriving from time to time new Artifices and Wayes of raising Money that great Rock of Offence on which they foresaw no Prince could stumble without Vexation Animosities and Hatred not only discomposing the Happiness but occasioning the Overthrow of any State And so the People being sure of the Remainder they proportion'd their Expence to their Gettings The former they moderated not only by prudent Sumptuary Laws but by the hazard of their Reputations esteeming it infamous not to lay up yearly somthing of their Labors by which Course the Public Taxes became easie Which they made perpetual that their Children shoud be under a necessity of following their Examples of Thrist and so might likewise be insensible of the Burden Fore-seeing that Taxes impos'd upon People who are so far from saving ought that they account themselves good Husbands if they do but yearly make both Ends meet beget il Blood murmuring and discontent crying that the Bread is taken out of their Mouths or the Cloths from their Backs which are often followed by the evil Consequences of Rebellions and the Subversion of the Common wealth For such never consider That their own Extravance made those imaginary Needs which when they happen are no otherwise to be removed but by moderating former Expences Thus they wisely contriv'd and interwove the perpetuating the Subjects Safety and the Princes Dominion never secure but when founded on mutual Love and Confidence I do not find the practice of this Policy any where so wel continued as in the States of Venice and Holland which has preserved the first about 12 Centuries and made the later increase so prodigiously in less than one Now because they foresaw the products of their Labor wou'd exceed their Expences and that the remainder wou'd be useful for commutations with their Neighbor for som of their Commodities but that in driving this Trade they wou'd be exposed on Sea to Pyracies c. To make their Navigation safe they agreed that the public for securing them shoud receive by way of praemium or insurance a certain Excisum out of all things Exported or imported which we now cal Customes And lest the too great desire of Wealth shou'd make them forgetful of their Duty to God their Parents and their Country that is to one another They ordain'd that a sufficient number of the Elders of the People grave sober discreet persons shou'd at certain times set apart for that purpose remind them of their Duty in every of those particulars and also instruct their Children in the Laws of God and of their Country And
our Brains by the number of Bottles our Stomacs can hold This Vice among the Iews was accounted so ridiculously silly that they coud not believe it was possible for Men grown to the ordinary years of Understanding to be guilty of it and therfore we find no Punishment allotted but for Children viz. That if drunken or gluttonous Children did not by the Parent 's Admonition and Correction learn more Wit that then their Parents were oblig'd to bring them forth and testify their Folly and with the Congregation stone them to Death But this abominable childish Crime the Mother of al imaginable wickedness has among us no Punishment or what is the same if not worse none inflicted As to the third part of the Assertion viz. That the loss of Life is ineffencive of the Intent of the Law Amendment This will appear tru by observing that Men whose loose Education has made it their Interest to wish there were no other Life by often wishing and never considering come at last to be Fools and with them to say in their Hearts there is no God we have no way to live thanks to our good Parents or our Country but to rob or steal as for the next Life if there be any such thing let that look to it self let us provide for this a short one and a merry who knows but we may escape seven years and that 's the Age of a Man If we are taken and can't get a Pardon 't is but a few Minutes Pain and there 's an end Thus these foolish Wretches discourse themselves to the Gallows on which did you but know the vast numbers hang'd for som years last past you woud quicly believe that sort of Punishment rather makes more than frightens any from being Thieves Robbers or other Criminals In the Eastern Monarchies the greatest Emperors the Turk himself tho always in War fancy some kind of Art or Trade and by this do not only divert themselves but by their Examples more powerful than any precept oblige the People to so necessary a Practice The Ladies even the greatest of al other Countries have callings too and spend not their whole dayes in making and receiving Visits or in Preparations for them exquisit Dressings If by such a Course or any other People were induc'd not to live in Idleness none woud be under a necessity of starving or breaking the Laws as many now are And if afterwards any were stil found guilty a Punishment likely to prevent others and do a farther Good to the Public woud be to take away the Names of al Criminals that They may be no more had in Remembrance put them into a common Livery a Fools-coat red and yellow keep their Heads continually shav'd their Fore-heads stigmatiz'd with Marks distinguishing their Crimes and their Estates forfeited to increase the Princes Revenu condemn them to public Work houses Mines or Galleys The Labor and Toyl the hard Fare and the Disgrace woud deter more than Death and as som believe be more agreeable to the dictates of Nature to the Law of God and to the profit of the Common-wealth In Cases of Murther the Public loses too much by the Slain It wil not fetch him back to send another after him Why then shoud they think themselves satisfy'd for one Loss to have it doubled upon them by another But supposing which I never can allow that Reason requires Life for Life can it think it equal to set the Life of a Man but at a Shilling Is a Horse or a Cow a Sheep or a Deer or a less thing a Cock or a Hen an equal price for a Man's Life And yet for Perjury he suffers but a pecuniary Mulct or loss of ears Why shoud not he that swears falsly at least have his Tongue cut out In the Iewish Law the Perjurer was to suffer the same kind of Evil that he brought upon his Neighbor and at this day among the Persians and Indians a lyer is not only depriv'd of Honor but of al further speech had it bin thus enacted among Christians the false Tongue and the lying lips woud not have destroy'd so many mens lives and fortunes But if we wil not after the Iewish and Roman manner bring in reparation or the lex talionis which with them was practis'd in other cases besides that of felony Let us at least make some further provision for the security of mans Life let it be put out of the Power of one Witness observing that great Law that said at the mouth of two Witnesses or three shal he that is worthy of Death be put to Death but at the mouth of one witness he shal not be put to Death What I seem to say paradoxically on this subject I woud have you understand as I intend it of the first societies of mankind and you may likewise further observe that tho custom and the positive Laws have made punishment by Death the practise of al Nations yet with humble submission to my superiours I perswade my self it was introduc'd by absolute power among the Heathens and since continued among Christians because they did not fully consider that a better way might be found for correcting and avoiding crimes Having now provided against Death upon the account of any Crime it may wel enuff consist with the Kings Mercy and goodness which invite him to be tender of the Lives of his Subjects to determin positively never to grant a Pardon or remittal of the punishment to any Criminal tho never so great a Person In Edward the thirds time it was enacted That no Pardon shoud be granted out of Parliament I wish it might graciously please his Majesty with his Parliament To enact further That no Pardon shoud at any time be granted Then which I am sure nothing woud more contribute to the perfect observance of the Laws Tho our Laws cannot yet an intire execution of them in their utmost severity may be as unalterable as those of the Meads and Persians which cours woud prevent the many il effects the hope of Pardon does now daily occasion tho there never were fewer granted yet so long as there is any ground of hope the Debauchee is incouraged to go on in his folly and none being particularly excluded he reckons himself not incapable of that Grace But now admitting that the Laws were never so good if they be not duly and equally Administred by the several Courts of Iudicature the Evils do stil remain To prevent which great Inconvenience such has been the happy Contrivance of England's Constitutions that the same Power that gives the Law cannot only pronounce it in spite of Cok's Assertion to the contray but has also determined That it shoud be a part of its own Power To cal al inferior Courts and Officers Iustices of the Peace and others to a strict examination How they have squared their Actions and Proceedings to the Rule they have given them From which when they are found to deviat
all the rest of Europe unless you can dream they may have a Fleet greater than all and may at once resist by those Walls the Invasion of others and defend their Merchant-men at Sea which if not don without an Invasion by spoiling the Trade England will be destroy'd or which is altogether as bad be render'd very poor and inconsiderable And that this has bin his Majestyes sense may be guess'd by the Progress he has made since the War mediating a Peace as best became a good King and giveing his Subjects an opportunity of enriching themselves and inabling them to bear the necessary Taxes by ingrossing most of the Trade of Europe and at length finding his endeavours ineffective he prepar'd himself to resist the French desines by force by providing a Fleet and knowing that he that fights with another must have skil at the same Weapons he suffer'd such of his Subjects as were willing but on capitulations to return when he pleased to serve either the Confederates or the French not only to be fitted to lead others but also to understand the new Arts of fighting which are greatly alter'd from what they were in former times The King having thus prepared things I hear he is so far from being backward to declare War with France that he wil gladly do it if his Parliament wil but find out a sufficient means for carrying it on effectually which I apprehend must not be ordinary for that the War if undertaken is like to be of long continuance And you wil guess that 't is no longer to be delay'd if you wil but bring before your Eyes the danger we and all Europe are expos'd to by comparing the present Power of France with what it was in the Days of Francis the First and observing what he was then able to do when assaulted by Charles the Fifth who was not only Emperor but had all the Power of Spain the Seventeen Provinces of Naples Sicily Sardinia the Dukedom of Milan and the Riches of the West-Indies who was as Wise Couragious and Fortunat a Captain as most Ages of the World have known one who manag'd his own Councils like Alexander in every Action appear'd at the Head of his Army who had above a hundred Thousand wel disciplin'd Men led by many great and experienc'd Commanders who was able by a mighty Naval Power to begirt France on both sides from Flanders and from Spain Yet at that time France Courting the same Mistriss the universal Monarchy was so powerful a Rival that he durst not attempt his removal out of the way of his Ambition without the aid and assistance of Henry the Eighth the Pope and several Princes of Italy nor even then did he think himself secure til he had drawn to a defection Charles Duke of Bourbon the most considerable Prince of France And yet after all he was forc'd to clap up an Accommodation on Terms sufficiently advantageous to that Crown If so mighty a Power and so united coud not prevail against Francis the First How unlikly is it to resist Lewis the Fourteenth a much greater Prince when that Power is now so much lessen'd by being broken and divided into several Hands When the Emperor gives himself up more to Devotion than Martial or State-Affairs When the King of Spain is a Youth of Sixteen and when the Seventeen Provinces are canton'd between the Spaniard and the States General When these several Divisions and Interests occasion long Debates different Opinions and slowness in Preparation and Action When all that was formerly manag'd by one single Head is by these Accidents brought under the Conduct of several Governors of whom it 's possible som may prefer their privat Advantages to the Interests of their Masters This has made som Conjecture the French King has open'd more Gates with Silver Keys than by Force of Arms and has induc'd others to conclude That the Confederates wil hardly be able to defend the Remainder of the Spanish Netherlands another Campagne if not assisted by the joynt Power of the rest of Europe This you wil easily believe not to be ill grounded if you consider the present Greatness of France Lewis has about four times the Revenu Francis had and at least four times the Army Nay rather all his People are now in a manner Souldiers 'T is not only scandalous but a vain attempt for any Gentleman there to make Court for a Wife before he has serv'd a Campaign or two nor are any of the Nobless sufferd to live at ease in the Country that do not go or send som of their Sons to the War These practises enabl'd him last summer in fifteen days to send forty-five Thousand Gentlemen with their Servants at their own Charge to raise the Siege of Charleroy And to make the Monarchy more absolute Matters have bin so order'd that their Parliaments are become ordinary Courts of Iustice and have no other Laws than the Edicts of the Prince's wil And if at any time he condescends in Formality to assemble the three Estates who had in Francis the First 's time the Power of Parliaments 't is but to tel them by his Chancellor the King Wils you do thus or thus you are not to advise or dispute but immediatly ratify his Commands which accordingly are obey'd as the Effects of a Despotic Power In the beginning of the Year 1665 he was not able to man out twenty Ships of War and now he has about two hundred He has not only vast Treasures heaped together but the Strings of all the Purses of his Slaves rather than Subjects in his own hands If without any Assistance he has already gain'd Lorrain Franche Comte a great part of Flanders and no inconsiderable Footing in Germany and Sicily and in the beginning of the last Campaigne three such strong Holds as Valenciennes St. Omer and Cambray the weakest of which most men thought woud at least have made him whole a Summers work what wil he not be able to compass against the rest of Europe when he has got the accession of Germany and all the Low-countryes to that already too boundless Power by which he has fetter'd his own People and subjected them to an absolute Vassalage Wil other Nations expect better Terms than he has given his own 'T is wel if he wil allow them even Canvas and Sabows But above all what can England hope having for many years forc'd him to check the Reins of his Ambition and is I presume at this time ready to put on the Caveson Books have already bin printed shewing his pretentions to this Country which tho weak and silly may help to spur him on in the pursuit of his Glory Nor can less be expected from those who by a Confederacy with the late Usurpers gave an opportunity of taking away the Life of the first Charles and of pursuing that of the Second to whom his own Cousin German unhospitably deny'd the continuance of a retreat when the
vicissitudes of human affairs to make him afterwards appear more glorious vail'd him in Clouds of misfortunes What can be hop'd from him who contriv'd that never to be forgotten affront of burning our ships at Chattam and who is said to have had no smal hand in the firing of London Who tho stil'd the most Christian declares as an unalterable Maxim no Treaty binding longer than it consists with his Interest not founded on Religion or Reason but on Glory The very Heathens were anciently and the Turks at this day are more punctual to their Oaths and Promises The falsifying of any thing confirm'd by the Adiuration of their Gods or Mahomet was and is accounted infamous But what Treaties or Capitulations can be reckon'd which the French Ministers have not violated Have they not broken the famous Pyrenean Treaty confirmd by Oaths and Sacraments And contrary to a solemn Renunciation and the double Ties of Blood and Marriage before a breach complain'd of or a War declar'd invaded the Territoryes of an Infant King Have not they by address and Cunning by Bribes and Rewards endeavored to corrupt most of the Ministers of Europe Such practises amongst privat Christians woud be abominable and much more so between any Kings not stil'd the most Christian. Do they not publicly abet the proceedings of the Rebels in Hungary against their lawful Prince And whatever the Pope may be induc'd to beleive not for the Propagation of the Romish Religion for they are Protestants but to serve his own ambitious purposes of enslaving the World of which rather than fail he has decreed to bring in the Turk in whose Courts also he has found Arts to make his Coyn current Nor is the Infallible Man whom he has already Pillard to scape him at least as to the Temporal part of his Power for not thinking that affront great enuff and concluding he has not as he ought imploy'd it for the French Interest he is said to have privatly vow'd not only the lessening but the abrogating of that great Authority in which his Predecessors Pepin and Charlemain's Charity had vested him Nor is his Countenanceing the Iansenists a Sect more dangerous to the See of Rome than that of Luther or Calvin a smal Argument that he intends to pul down his spiritual Grandeur by fixing it in a Gallican Patriarch But to com nearer home have not the French had a main hand in our Civil Wars and were they not since the secret Instruments of spilling the Blood of many thousands of our fellow Subjects To som of whom tho now they pretend civility 't is not to give them a share in their Glory so much as to hazard their Lives making them steps to the Throne of an unjust Empire in order to which they have expos'd them on all occasions in hopes by weakning us to remove out of their way the greatest block which has already given them check and wil now I hope stop their Carreir and mate them And is it not time think you that all the Princes in Christendom for their common safety shoud unite not only to Chase the French King out of his new Conquests but confine him to his ancient Dominion and manner of Government If this be not speedily put in Execution I may without the spirit of Prophecy foretel som of the Princes of Germany and Italy who now seem unconcern'd wil when 't is too late repent the oversight The fire is already kindled in their Neighborhood and if they do not help to quench the flame they wil quicly see their own dwellings laid in Dust and Ashes Every new acquist and accession of Power inlarges our desires and makes the ambitious man think that which before seem'd not only difficult but impossible to be very plain and feasible The success of the French has already made them think no enterprise too hard and and stil prompts them to push on their good Fortune which nothing can withstand but a general opposition of other Princes You see then 't is not so much honor nor friendship nor a desire of succorring the injur'd and oppressed that invites the rest of Europe to the assistance of the Netherlands but the care and preservation of their Laws and Liberties their Glory and their Fortunes And tho I am apt to believe on Englands entring into the League the French King woud gladly conclude a Peace Yet I can't but think the doing so woud be against the common interest on any other Terms than quitting all his new Acquisitions and even then the Confederats wil be out in Policy if they do not stil continue in a posture of defence both by Sea and Land The Dutch paid dear for the contrary practise and their sufferings in 1672 wil convince them and others that so long as Lewis the fourteenth lives his Neighbors must not expect to sleep in quiet they cannot prudently hope his future Practises wil be more just than his former he that has already broke thro so many Obligations of Oaths and Treatyes is likely to do so agen whoever cannot be kept within bounds by the sense of Reason and Iustice wil despise the weaker tyes of forced Oaths For he that avows Power to be the Rule and strength the Law of Iustice wil not stick to say This Peace was an imposition an unjust restraint of the lawful pursuit of his Greatness And therefore as soon as he gives his wearyed Armies a breathing time and sees the Confederates dispers'd and their Troops disbanded he wil like an unexpected Torrent break-in upon som of his Neighbors The Common Inscription of his Cannons Ratio ultima Regum is by him inverted to a contrary sense and made a public Warning to Mankind that he desines as God did of old to give Law to the World in Thunder and Lightening to scatter by the Flames of his Artillery al those Clouds of the Confederat Forces that intercept and eclipse the Rayes of his Glory He makes the Power of his Arms his first and last Reason He do's not only pursu but commonly wounds his Adversary before he declares him such or gives him leisure to draw First invades a Prince's Territories and after sets up his Title and Cause of the War is not concern'd that all the World observes the Pretence is false and trifling vain and unjust warranted by no other Reason than that of absolute and unbounded Wil That he wil do so because he wil which is the Foundation and Conclusion of all his Actions and Wars abroad as wel as of his Laws and Edicts at Home express'd in these imperious Words Tel est nostre plaisir He do's not only tread in the Steps but out-go one of his Predecessors who in a Quarrel with his Holiness sent him word That what he coud not justify by Cannon-Law he woud by the Law of the Cannon His Device the Sun in its Meridian with his Motto Non pluribus impar sufficiently shews his Intentions for the Universal Monarchy and the
were kept out of their Rights he must have contracted vast debts for the support of himself his Army and his followers That the great Revenu of the Crown was in a manner gon That other Kings had squees'd vast sums from their Subjects by Loanes Monopolies c. of which no mention was made in the computation That the building of ships and above four years of such War at Sea consum'd more than any one hundred years War at Land since the Conquest That the consideration of the vast Charge Dunkirk put the Crown to at least three times more than it yeilded occasiond the Advise of its Sale That Tangier has stood the King in very great sums That til of late the supporting the Charge of Irelana helped to drein the Exchequer of England That the intrinsic Valu of one Million formerly was equal to that of three Millions now and in real use to thirty millions For the tru intrinsic Valu or worth of Mony is no otherwise to be computed than according to what it wil purchase for our present Consumptions which I have reckond to exceed those of old but by ten tho I have heard others say much more But that which has made these Complaints so loud has not bin only inconsideration or perhaps malice but the inequallity of imposeing the Taxes Those great inconveniencies may be easily obviated for the future by makiâ—g and applying to particular Uses such sufficient and equal Fonds as are necessary to be setled I wil only instance in one That of the Customes which seems originally to have had its Rise for that End therefore ought to be appropriated to the Use of the Navy I wish it were great enuff for such as our safety requires And if this Course be taken in apportioning the Revenu the Public and Privat Expences are to be generously computed the doing so wil remove Iealousies and Distrusts on all sides the King wil be under no necessity of straining his Prerogative by hearkning to the devices of Projectors the People wil be quiet and at ease and then every Man may safely sit under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree and enjoy with pleasure the Fruits of his Labor If you look into the Histories of past Ages you wil find the Disputes of the Prerogative on one hand and of Liberty on the other were alwayes founded on the want of Mony and he that considers the Evils that have ensued wil soon believe it very necessary to prevent the like for the future by applying to every use of the Crown or State I do not say to the Person of the King whose greatest Share is the Trouble while the Subjects is Security and Ease a sufficient and perpetual Revenu This Act wil beget an intire Confidence and Love and so unite us to one another as wil make it impossible for any Storms without or Commotions within to shake this Kingdom so founded on a Rock against which all who make any attempts must needs split themselves and Fortunes I have according to my wonted Freedom given you my Thoughts why I think it more convenient both for Public and Privat That the Revenu were sufficient and perpetual against which I never met but with one Objection to wit That if that were don the King woud not so frequently if at all call his Parliament As if there were no use for this great Council but raising of Mony The altering or repealing the old and making new Laws the reforming of Errors and Abuses in Inferior Courts of Iustice the deciding the Controversies those Courts coud not and many other things woud make their Meeting necessary The King woud see 't were his Advantage to cal them often since besides that there is safety in the multitude of Counsellors all that happens to be severe and harsh woud light on them and yet none coud be offended because the Act of the whole Nor coud His Majesty but be sensible that all Innovations are dangerous in a State for it is like a Watch out of which any one peece lost woud disorder the whole That the Parliament is the great Spring or Heart without which the Body of the Common-wealth coud enjoy neither Health nor Vigor Life nor Motion That while they mind their Duty in proposeing and advising what is best for King and People without privat Respect leaving him the undoubted Prerogative of Kings of Nature and Reason of Assenting or Dissenting as he is convinc'd in his Conscience is best for the Common Good which is to be his measure in all Actions as the Laws are to be the Subjects Rule I see not why it shoud not be his interest to cal them frequently That none can be suppos'd to advise the contrary unless som few great Men to avoid not so much perhaps the Iustice as the Passion Envy and Prejudice of som in that Iudicature to whom they may think themselves obnoxious But granting this 't is unreasonable to think so wise and so good a Prince wil prefer the Privat Interest of any single Man tho never so Great before the general Good and Satisfaction of his People I shoud rather think He wil in the Words of his Royal Father in a Speech to his Parliament give in this a ful Assurance I must conclude that I seek my Peoples Happiness for their slourishing is my greatest Glory and their Affection my greatest Strength His Majesty wel knows with what tenderness and Love his Subjects are to be treated that 't is more safe more pleasing and more easy to erect his Throne over their Hearts than their Heads to be obey'd for Love rather than Fear the Dominion founded on the later often meets the same Fate with a House built upon the Sands while that establish'd on the former continues firm and immovable as a Rock He is not ignorant That as the multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world so does the Being and Wel-Being of the English Nation consist in the frequent Counsels Deliberations and Acts of King and Parliament in which Providence has so blended the King and People's Interests that like Husband and wife they can never be sunder'd without mutual inconvenience and unhappiness The sense and observation of this makes our King's Reign prosperous and gives Him a more Glorious Title than that of King viz. The Father of the Country and the great God-like Preserver of his Children's Rights and Liberties who out of a deep sense of Duty and Gratitude must own and remember who tels them That a wise King is the upholding of his People and therefore cannot but pay him even for their own Interest all imaginable Loyalty Deference and Respect giving up their Lives and Fortunes for His or which is all one their own Safety who studies nothing so much as their Good and wel-fare Besides the King has already past an Act that a Parliament shal sit at least once in three Years and in several Speeches he has declar'd himself ready to do
in the South are chosen for the North and therefore are to the injury of the People as much strangers to the affairs of the Places for which they serve as those two points are distant from each other That they pass Laws witness that against Irish Cattel c. not for the common good but to shew their interest and power to mischief a man they hate or to revenge som receiv'd or supposed Injuries or Affronts That therefore it is necessary to dissolve This as not being a free Parliament and to cal a new one That to do so frequently is most agreeable to Reason and to former Statutes And to that end several Causes are prepared to put a Difference between the two Houses in point of Iurisdiction c. But such as more seriously weigh things may I hope be convinc'd These are the groundless surmises of som and false suggestions of others discontented and il dispos'd persons the old disturbers of our Israel's Peace who delighting to Fish in troubled Waters endeavour once more to put al into a flame of tyranny and confusion to see what Fish they may by that treacherous Light bring to their OWn Nets That it is idle to imagin the Court the best refiner of wit and Languag shoud not have as piercing a fore-sight as the Country That being allow'd they must be sensible of the fatal consequence of a divided Hous or Kingdom their loss is at least as great as any others their Al is at Stake 'T is therefore contrary to their Interest which never lies consequently to their practice to endeavor Parties 'T is irrational no less than scandalous to conclud Because som mens sense by second thoughts and fuller consideration of things is alter'd that therefore they are brib'd as if personages of so much Honor Wisdom and public spiritedness coud be induc'd by any sinister practices or by-respects to betray their Country and intail upon themselves and their posterities more lastingly than they can their Estates great and inexpressible Calamities And can it be supposed the Ministers have so little understanding as not to foresee that the taking off violent Members any other way than by conviction of their Errors were endlesly to encrease their Numbers and Hydra-like by cutting off one Head to give occasion to the sprouting up of many Nor is it less absur'd to beleive the Parliament when they find the conveniences the reason of Statutes ceased wil not repeal them 'T is no affront to their Iudgments nor to their-Loyalties so to alter with the times an obstinacy in the contrary resolution woud indeed be a disparagement to their Understandings That it is to be hop'd the Wisdom of the Parliament is such as not to quarrel for trifles after the manner of Women or Children That they wil lay aside al partial regards and without heats or personal reflections intend the great Work the common safety recollecting that they were the home bred Divisions more than the Conqueror's Forces that occasion'd Harold's Overthrow and England's intire Subjection to the French even those very Men who invited William suffer'd in the Ruin So just and natural it is To love the Treason and hate the Traytor Does not every Man know That the Power of whol France is greater than that of a part that of Normandy could be That William can't be suppos'd to have been more watchful to seize the Prey than Lewis is who perhaps has set those very Men at least their Leaders on work that openly pretend most to oppose his Desines while in the mean time by sowing underhand Discords and Fears among the People they best promote his Purposes 'T is no unheard-of Practice for Politicians as well as Water-men To look one way and Row another But I hope no cunning Achithophel will be able to divert the Parliament from the great Business of this Conjuncture When they have don That I wish they woud think it worth their Labor To look into the Laws and observe what of them are fit to be repeal'd and what continued The Happiness of a State consists in a regular Form of Goverment by just and equal Laws few and plain fitted to the most ordinary Capacities These Qualifications are as necessary to the well-being of the People as that of Promulgation was ever accounted to the essence of a Law But such is the Fate of England that the Laws are almost numberless which makes them unpossible to be remembred and what is worse are so very intricat that they may more reasonably be looked upon as the devices of cunning men to entrap the simple than as the Rule by which al are to square their Actions and their Lives And what is yet worse They were never promulgated tho provided for by those Statutes that enact the reading of som of them in Cathedrals at least once a year and of others four times Is it fit or just Men shoud be punished by Laws they neither know nor can remember There is no one intire Body of Laws That of the Statutes is so tedious and som yet remain in the Parliament Rolls not printed that it can hardly be read over in a months time tho an hundred times reading wil not enable a man to remember them and yet he may suffer for not observing what he has not or if he had coud not remember But what is the greatest Evil If they coud remember they coud not understand since the very Iudges who have not only been bred at the Feet but are themselves the Gamaliels of the Law and much more are wont to spend whol Terms in the reconciling and expounding of particular Statutes And it often happens That after these long Advisements they being divided in their Opinions the Parties concern'd wearied in those Toyles endeavor after all their Cost and Labor to quit their Right or impatiently expect the making of new and more intelligible Laws These great disorders have bin occasion'd by several conspiring accidents length and warping of Time crooked Interests of some Lawyers and the continual Wars Forreine or Domestick with which this Country has bin harassed I might say since the Invasion of the Romans c. But to com nearer our own times since the Conquest since the first making of these Acts England has not enjoyed one half Century an intire Peace To which unhappiness I know not whether the vexation of the Law or Bigottre of Religion have contributed most I do not doubt but in other Ages they were as sensible of the Evil as we are in this But the same Accidents continuing rendered it remediless Edward the Confessor regulated the Saxon Laws but his care prov'd of little advantage after the coming in of the Conqueror who desining to set up a new Form more agreeable to the Customs of Normandy or his own Will made himself deaf to the peoples desires of being govern'd by the Rules of that holy Prince who was deservedly Sainted no less for his Zeal and love of Iustice in