Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	king_n	lord_n	year_n	6,040	5	5.1085	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48267	The Sighs of France in slavery, breathing after liberty by way of memorial / done out of French.; Soupirs de la France esclave. Mémoires 1-2. English.	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.; Le Vassor, Michel, 1646-1718.	1689 (1689)	Wing L1796; ESTC R37610	22,922	36

great Imposts but the manner of raising them though it was very just yet did much less exhaust the Kingdom than the manner of raising them now At that time Credit and Protection had room the Gentleman that had Credit protected his Parish and especially his Farmers and caus'd their Taxes to be diminish'd The great Lord screen'd his Vassals from Oppression the Judge and the Magistrate had his People whom he upheld few rich Persons were there but made Friends to shelter themselves from Oppression Thus the whole burden fell upon People without Protection and without Friends who indeed were utterly miserable But at least there remained in the Kingdom a vast number of People who were at their ease and who did Honour to the State The present Government has succeeded that Monsieur Colbert has made a Project of Reformation of the Finances and has caused it to be executed with the utmost rigour But wherein does this Reformation consist It is not to lessen the Imposts for the ease of the People it is in augmenting them very much by spreading them over all those that formerly put themselves under cover by their own Credit and that of their Friends The Gentleman has no longer any Credit to obtain the diminution of the Tax to his Parish his Farmers pay as well as others and more The Officers of Justice Lords and other Persons of Character have now no longer any Credit to the Prejudice of the King's Revenue all pays this is a mighty Ayr a mighty shew of Justice But what has this fair Justice produc'd It has ruin'd all People The Wretches whom the Imposts have ruin'd in the former Years have been discharg'd but that discharge can in no wise contribute to the raising them up again they have now nothing left and of nothing nothing comes And besides the burdens that have been left upon them though something less are more than sufficient to hinder them from getting up again In the mean while those who had Protection having no longer any they bear the burden in their turns and by this means all is ruined without exception Thus you see to what that great shrewdness in Finances does redound that was so much boasted of in the late Monsieur Colbert He has augmented the King's Revenues above the half First He has augmented the Imposts Secondly He has assign'd the raising of them upon all People that were at their ease in the Kingdom And Finally He has retrench'd the great Gains of the Financiers He has stretch'd the King's Farms to the utmost extremity They who take up the King's Dues have nothing more left to gain by those Spunges are squeez'd dry Much the same Method did we use to make People of Business disgorge all they had got in the former Ministry Courts of Justice have been erected wherein the superintendant Foucquet as also all Intendants of the Finances Treasurers of the Exchequer Traitans Farmers Receivers even to petty Clarks are made to come to an Account They have been made to restore all they had taken nay and all they had not taken with unheard of Violences and Injustice The only Justice there has been in this Prosecution is that those Gentlemen who had done great Injustices to private Persons and other Individuals have run the Gauntlet of the same Injustice under the King and Governments Authority Thus do they exact and raise Imposts if this be not the utmost Tyranny I must own that I understand nothing of the matter After this if we consider the use that has been made of those immense Summs that are leavied with so many Excesses and Exactions we shall therein also see all the Characters of Oppression and Tyranny It sometimes happens that Princes and Sovereigns make Leavies that seem excessive and which indeed do extreamly incommode individuals But this is when they are forced thereunto by what is called the Needs and Necessities of the State There is no such like thing in France there is neither Needs nor State No State Formerly the State entered every where nought else was discours'd of save the Interests of the State of the Needs of the State of the Preservation of the State of the Service of the State to speak so now a-dayes would literally be accounted a Crime of High Treason The King has taken the Place of the State It is for the King's Service it is the King's Interest it is for the Preservation of the King's Provinces and Revenues In short the King is all and the State is no longer any thing and these are not only words and terms they are realities At the French Court there is now no other Interest known than the Kings Personal Interest that is to say His Grandeur and his Glory This is the Idol to which are sacrific'd Princes Grandees the Little Families Provinces Cities Finances and generally all Thus it is not for the good of the State that these horrible exactions are made for there is no longer any thing of the State nor is it for Needs for France never had fewer excepting within these few Months for these thirty Years it had no Enemies save such as it would by all means incurr It might have lived in perfect Tranquility All the Powers of Europe that might give it any Umbrage were brought low The Thrones were possessed either by Infant Princes or by Sovereigns of a mean Capacity and of a calm a peaceable humour exempt from ambition The Treaties of Munster and of the Pyrences had extended its Frontiers and had put under cover its antient Provinces by the New Countries that had been yielded to it Never did France see so propitious a time and so proper to live happy in and to become rich and powerful And on the contrary never did its misery and slavery mount to so high a pitch Wherefore its Money has not been employed in its defence and in repelling the Invasions of the Enemy This Money is only employed in fostering and serving the greatest Self-love and the vastest Pride that ever was It is so vast an Abyss that it would have swallowed up not only the Wealth of the whole Kingdom but that of all other States if it could have seiz'd it as it endeavoured to do The King has caus'd more false Incense to be given him than all the Demy-gods of the Pagans have had real Never was Flattery push'd to such a degree Never did Man love Praises and vain glory to the point that Prince has courted it He fosters in his Court and about him a crowd of Flatterers that enhance upon one another He not only permits the erecting of * The Statue of the Place des Victoires with this Inscription Viro Immortali Statues to him on the foot of which are engraven Blasphemies to his Honour and below which are fetter'd all the Nations of the World in Chains but he himself causes himself to be put into Gold Silver Brass Copper Marble Cloth Pictures Paintings triumphant Arches Inscriptions He fills