Selected quad for the lemma: king_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A59475
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A letter from a person of quality to his friend in the country
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Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 1621-1683.; Locke, John, 1632-1704.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing S2897; ESTC R3320
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30,815
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37
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the penalty of 500 l. and also that this Act had a direct retrospect which ought neâ—er to be in Penall Laws for this Act punishes Men for having an Office without taking this Oath which office before this Law pass they may now lawfully enjoy without it Yet notwithstanding it provides not a power in many cases for them to part with it before this Oath overtake them For the clause whoever is in Office the 1. September will not relieve a Justice of the Peace who being once Sworn is not in his own power to be left out of commission and so might be instanced in several other cases as also the members of the House of Commons were not in their own power to be unchosen and as to the Lords they were subjected by it to the meanest condition of Mankind if they could not enjoy their Birthright without playing Tricks sutable to the Humour of every Age and be enforced to swear to every fancie of the present times Three years ago it was All Liberty and Indulgence and now it is Strict and Rigid Conformity and what it may be in some short time hereafter without the Spirit of Prophesying might be shrewdly guest by a considering Man This being answerd with silence the Duke of Buckingham whose Quality admirable Wit and unusual pains that he took all along in the debate against this Bill makes me mention Him in this last place as General of the partie and coming last out of the Field made a Speech late at night of Eloquent and well placed Non-sense showing how excellently well he could do both ways and hoping that might do when Sense which he often before used with the highest advantage of Wit and Reason would not but the Earl of Winchilsea readily apprehending the Dialect in a short reply put an end to the Debate and the major Vote ultima ratio Senatuum Conciliorum carried the Question as the Court and Bishops would have it This was the last Act of this Tragi-Comedy which had taken up sixteen or seventeen whole days debate the House sitting many times till eight or nine of the Clock at night and sometimes till Midnight but the business of priviledg between the two Houses gave such an interruption that this Bill was never reported from the Committee to the House I have mention'd to You divers Lords that were Speakers as it fell in the Debate but I have not distributed the Arguments of the debate to every particular Lord. Now you know the Speakers your curiosity may be satisfied and the Lords I am sure will not quarrel about the division I must not forget to mention those great Lords Bedford Devonshire and Burlington for the Countenance and support they gave to the English Interest The Earl of Bedford was so brave in it that he joyn'd in three of the Protests So also did the Earl of Dorset and the Earl of Stamford a Young Noble Man of great hopes The Lord Eure the Lord Viscount Say and Seal and the Lord Pagitt in two the Lord Audley and the Lord Fitzwater in the 3 d and the Lord Peter a Noble Man of great Estate and always true to the maintenance of Liberty and Property in the first And I should not have omitted the Earl of Dorset Lord Audley and the Lord Peter amongst the Speakers for I will assure you they did their parts excellently well The Lord Viscount Hereford was a steady Man among the Countrey Lords so also was the Lord Townsend a Man justly of great Esteem and power in his own countrey and amongst all those that well know him The Earl of Carnarvon ought not to be mention'd in the last place for he came out of the Countrey on purpose to oppose the Bill stuck very fast to the Countrey partie and spoke many excellent things against it I dare not mention the Roman Catholick Lords and some others for fear I hurt them but thus much I shall say of the Roman Catholick Peers that if they were safe in their Estates and yet kept out of Office their Votes in that House would not be the most unsafe to England of any sort of Men in it As for the absent Lords the Earl of Ruttland Lord Sandys Lord Herbert of Cherbury Lord North and Lord Crew ought to be mentiond with Honor having taken care their Votes should maintain their own interest and opinions but the Earls of Exceter and Chesterfield that gave no proxies this Sessions the Lord Montague of Boughton that gave his to the Treasurer and the Lord Roberts his to the Earl of Northampton are not easily to be understood If you ask after the Earl of Carlisle the Lord Viscount Falconbridge and the Lord Berkely of Berkley Castle because you find them not mentioned amongst their old Friends all I have to say is That the Earl of Carlisle stept aside to receive his Pention the Lord Berkely to dine with the Lord Treasurer but the Lord Viscount Falconberg like the Noble Man in the Gospel went away sorrowfull for he had a Great Office at Court but I despair not of giving you a better account of them next Sessions for it is not possible when they consider that Cromwell's Major General Son in law and Friend should think to find their Accounts amongst Men that set up on such a bottom Thus Sir You see the Standard of the new Partie is not yet set up but must be the work of another Session though it be admirable to me how the King can be enduced to venture His Affairs upon such weak Counsels and of so fatal consequences for I believe it is the first time in the World that ever it was thought adviseable after fifteen years of the highest Peace Quiet and Obedience that ever was in any Countrey that there should be a pretense taken up and a reviving of former miscarriages especially after so many Promises and Declarations as well as Acts of Oblivion and so much merit of the Offending partie in being the Instruments of the King 's Happy Return besides the putting so vast a number of the King's Subjects in uâ—ter despair of having their crimes ever forgotten and it must be a great Mistake in Counsels or worse that there should be so much pains taken by the Court to debase and bring low the House of Peers if a Military Government be not intended by some For the Power of Peerage and a standing Army are like two Buckets the proportion that one goes down the other exactly goes up and I refer you to the consideration of all the Histories of ours or any of our neighbor Northern Monarchies whether standing forces Military and Arbitrary government came not plainly in by the same steps that the Nobility were lessened and whether when ever they were in Power and Greatness they permitted the least shadow of any of them Our own Countrey is a clear instance of it For though the White Rose and the Red chang'd fortunes often to the ruine slaughter and beheading