there reigned any King over the Children of Israel And these are the Names of the Dukes that came of Esau according to their Families after their Places by their Names And Verse the last These be the Dukes of Edom according to their Habitations in the Land of their Possessions he is Esau the Father of the Edomites Now what can be more particular or express than what I have here produc'd Or what can he mean by tracing the Foundation of Polities which are or ever came to our Knowledge since the World began if these will not pass for such He cannot pretend that we should bring a long Roll of Parchment like a Welch Pedigree ap Shinkin ap Morgan and so from the Son to the Father untill we arrive at ap Ismael ap Esau ap Magog ap Javan and so forth that would be too childish to imagine of him for we know very well that all the Kingdoms upon the Earth have oftentimes chang'd their Masters and Families But if he means as surely he must if he mean any thing that we cannot name any such Kingdom or Government that hath been so begun then he is grosly mistaken for the Assyrians the Medes the Ethiopians or Cusoei the Lydians the Jones or Greeks and very many others are sufficiently known and preserve to this day the very names of their first Founders who as is made appear were all Fathers of Families Mer. Cousin I begin to be very weary of this rambling Author Pray therefore let us go on as fast as we can Trav. Read then what follows Mer. As for Abraham whilst he liv'd as also his Son Isaac they were but ordinary Fathers of Families and no question govern'd their Housholds as all others do What have you to say to this Holy Patriarch and most excellent Man Trav. I say we are beholden to our Author that he did not call him a Country Farmer some such a one it may be as in his new Model of the Government is to share the Royal Authority Indeed it is hard that whom the declar'd Enemies to the Hebrew People have thought fit to call a King we who adore the Son of Abraham will not allow to be better than a common Housholder Mer. I confess my Reading is not great but as far as the Bible goes I may adventure to give my Opinion And if I mistake not the Children of Heth own'd him to be a mighty Prince among them Trav. Yes Sir and the Prophet David in the hundred and fifth Psalm calls him the Lords Anointed But because I perceive the Word of God is too vulgar a Study for our Learned Statesman I have found out a Prophane Author who concurs with the History of the Bible And first Justin makes no Scruple to call him in plain Words a King Post Damascum Azillus Mox Adores Abraham Israel Reges fuere lib. 36. Josephus also and Grotius who are Men of no small Repute even amongst the most Learned have quoted Nicolaus Damascenus to vindicate the Regal Authority of Abraham His Words are very intelligible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And tells us moreover that in his Days which was in the Reign of Augustus the Fame of Abraham was much celebrated in that Country and that there was yet a little Town remaining which was called by his Name Mer. I perceive when Men grow fond of their own Imaginations they run over all and neither Reason nor Religion have any Power to stop them Trav. Then he introduceth Samuel upon the Stage chiefly I suppose to insinuate that the People had a Power and did choose themselves a King which is so notoriously false that they never had the least share or pretended any in the election of Saul It is true they chose rather to be govern'd by a temporal King who was to live amongst them and rule as other Kings did than continue under the Government of the King of Heaven and Earth and so the Word chose relates wholly to the Government but not to the Person of the Governour For which Samuel also reproves them and accordingly they acted no farther leaving the Election of their new King wholly to God and their Prophet and God did particularly choose him from the rest of their People and Samuel actually anointed him before the People knew any thing of the matter Afterwards lest some might have accus'd Samuel of Partiality in the Choice he order'd Lots to be cast which in the Interpretation of all men is leaving the Election to God and Saul was again taken What Junius Brutus another old antimonarchical seditious Brother objects concerning renewing the Kingdom at Gilgal where it is said And all the People went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord will serve very little to prove any Right of Power in the People no not so much as of Election for confirming and renewing the Kingdom and such like Expressions signifie no more than the taking by us the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which I think were never thought to give the King any Right to the Crown but only a just Right to punish us for our Perjury as well as Disobedience in Case of Rebellion So renewing the Covenant with God as particularly a little before the Death of Joshuah cannot be supposed to give a greater right of Power to God Almighty than what he had before but is only a stricter Obligation for the Peoples Obedience that they might be condemned out of their own Mouths And Joshuah said unto the People See ye are Witnesses against your selves So Samuel makes the People bind themselves to God to their King and to their Prophet that they would faithfully obey him whom the Lord had set over them And behold saith Samuel the Lord hath set a King over you But having spoke more to this purpose elsewhere and the Case being most clear as well by the History it self as by the Authority of Grotius and other learned Men that Saul and the rest of the Hebrew Kings did not in the least depend upon their People but received all their Right of Power wholly from God we will proceed with our Author Only I must note by the way that with the learned Gentleman's leave neither the Sanhedrim the Congregation of the People nor the Princes of the Tribes had any manner of Power but what was subordinate and that only to judge the People according to the Laws and Institutions of Moses And so they continued to the Babylonish Captivity Grotius only observing in favour of the Sanhedrim that they had a particular Right of judging concerning a whole Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Mer. Well Sir we are now come to our modern despotical Power What say you to Mahomet and Cingis Can. Trav. Prethee Cousin let 's not trouble our selves with those Turks and Tartars they are yet â—ar enough off and not like to trouble us nor does their Government much concern us we have Laws of our own sufficient which
Fourth of Edward the Third and the words of it are these It is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year once and more often if need be Now Sir you must observe that this Act was made whilst the King was but Nineteen years of age and both himself and Kingdom under the care of Twelve Governours His Mother Queen Isabel and Roger Mortimer very powerful the Governours of the Pupil King divided amongst themselves and many other pressing affairs of the Nation oblig'd most people to propose that expedient of frequent Parliaments as the most probable means to secure the peace and prosperity of the Kingdom at least until the King should come of riper years and thereby many differences be reconciled After this in the Thirty sixth year of his Reign he called a Parliament and wanting money as generally he did the Parliament would grant nothing until an Act passed for maintenance of former Articles and Statutes there expressed And that for redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by Statute These are the two Statutes intended by our Author when he tells us that the Statute of Edward the first was confirmed by that glorious Prince Edward the third Whereas in truth they were both made by the same King and both in a great measure revoked in his own time Having declared after the making this last Act that he yielded to it only to serve his own turn This Sir is the matter of Fact upon which our Author builds his great pretensions to the old constitutions of Annual Parliaments The first Act was made whilst the King was very young the second when he wanted money and had Twenty six shillings and eight pence granted him upon every sack of wool transported for three years And both first and second Acts were broken by several intermissions before he died Besides we must make this remark that a Parliament seldom met without giving the King some money which might encourage those Kings to assemble them oftner than lately they have done But the truth is Annual Parliaments were lookt upon as so great a grievance to the Nation that we find that about the Tenth year of Richard the Second his Successor it was thought a great Prerogative in the King that he might call a Parliament once a year And both Houses appointed the Duke of Glocester and Thomas Arundell Bishop of Ely to acquaint the King that by an old Statute the King once a year might lawfully summon his Court of Parliament for reformation of corruptions and enormities within the Realm And if we consider with our selves we shall find that if yearly Parliaments were imposed upon us they would become grievances equally insupportable as to have no Parliaments at all For if the Knights Citizens and Burgesses be chosen out of the Countrey Gentlemen and Merchants inhabiting those Countries where they are elected as sure they ought to be what inconvenience if not ruin must it bring upon their affairs when they shall be forced to run every year a hundred or two hundred Miles from their particular domestick affairs to serve in a formal Parliament in which it may be the greatest business will be to make business for the next Indeed for idle persons who live about Town and have nothing to do but to scrible knavish politicks to the disturbance of honest men such a constitution might do well enough if they could get to be chosen members But we find from experience and History that in those days when Ambition and Faction were not so much in vogue as at present men were so far from making parties to get into the Parliament that many Commoners and Lords too have petitioned and been excused their attendance The King 's Queen's and Prince's Servants have stood upon their priviledge of exemption So James Barner was discharged by the King's command Quia erat de retinentia Regis 7. R. 2 and the Lord de Vessey in Edward the Fourths time obtained Licence not to serve in Parliament during his life Rex concessit Henrico Bromflet Dom. de Vessey quod ipse durante vita sit exoneratus de veniendo ad Parl. Besides the very Writ of Summons shews that in the original institution and design of Parliaments a frequent meeting could not be necessary For they were only to treat concilium impendere de magnis arduis negotiis Now God help us if every year should produce such magna ardua negotia such difficult and weighty affairs that the King with his Judges and â—rivy Council could not determine them without assembling his great Council the Parliament I confess in our Authors Chimerical model I am perswaded our circumstances would be bad enough but I thank God we are not gotten there yet Thus you see Sir that this grievance in not having annual Parliaments is become no grievance at all Mer. I begin Cousin to lose all manner of respect for this mistaken Mountebank For I perceive notwithstanding his great words and pretences all is but wind emptinâ—ss and cheat Having therefore fully satisfieâ— me concerning our liberties properties and Parliaments pray forget not to say somewhat of our Religion Trav. Sir I shall not presume to meddle with the Doctrinal part of any Religion that being none of my Province Nor shall I say much concerning the Ceremonial part or discipline of our own that is to say the Church of England It is sufficient to mind you that both the Doctrine and Discipline in Church Government have been established and confirm'd by several Acts of Parliament and Statutes Which Parliaments being the most Soveraign power that our Author himself pretends to set up amongst us we ought all to acquiesce in and be concluded by what they have done until an equal authority shall repeal those Acts or otherwise determine concerning us Mer. There is no objection can be made against this answer But Sir since the difference in our Religion seems manifestly to occasion most of our troubles why may not the King by his own authority dispence with the penal part of these Laws or grant a toleration especially to Protestant Dissenters or encourage an Act of Parliament for uniting them into the Church of England or else why might not the same Church release some part of the rigour of the Discipline and Ceremony since 't is agreed on all hands that the observance or non-observance of them are not points necessary or absolutely conducing to Salvation Trav. Cousin I shall answer you all these questions as plain as I can And first I shall never believe that true and unfeigned Religion especially amongst men where the Doctrine agrees is ever the real cause of any troubles disturbance or disobedience to lawful authority such as is that which produces an Act of Parliament even in our Authors sence being so contrary to the Doctrine and Principles of Christian Religion that I may confidently affirm where
Institution of a Senate composed of twenty eight of his own chiefest Friends The Kingdom he deliver'd to his Nephew assoon as he came of Age. Mer. What kind of Government do you call that Trav. Monarchy without doubt It is true their Senate had given to them a greater Right of Power than ours have who enjoy only a Right of Counsel and Consent or a subordinate Power for the Dispensation of Justice and the People had Liberty to choose their Senators But the Right of making Peace and War vvith several other Prerogatives together vvith the Right of Succession continued alvvays in the Prince Mer. I have heard much talk of the Ephori Were not they created on purpose to abate the Authority of their Kings Trav. Sir they were not created until about an Hundred and thirty years after the death of Lycurgus And then if we may believe their Kings Agis and Cleomenes whom our Author hath mention'd their Authority was only to do justice whilst their Kings were absent in the Wars and were properly the Kings Ministers they usurped indeed afterwards a Soveraign Authority and dar'd to depose the Kings themselves for which Usurpation Cleomenes who divided again the Land among the People slew them publickly as enemies to the ancient Government and present prosperity and peace of Sparta Mer. Pray Cousin what new Laws did Lycurgus institute with his new Government Trav. Many Sir but sure not much to our purpose or fit for our imitation for at first they had none Non habentibus Spartanis leges instituit c. Their Prince's will being as I have already observ'd the only rule But Lycurgus considering I imagin the greatness of the Spartan name fram'd Laws most proper for the encouraging War and educating the People from their infancy in a military kind of Discipline Amongst other Laws he totally forbad the use of Gold and Silver Auri argentique usum velut omnium scelerum materiam sustulit he forbad traffick but encourag'd idleness and stealing He commended parsimony and hardship and order'd that all the People of Sparta should always eat together that none should eat at his own house except upon great occasion That the young Women should dance and exercise publickly without any manner of covering upon them and many such too long to repeat at present Judge then how ridiculous and unpracticable and unnecessary these Laws would appear in our age and in our climate and circumstances To conclude let me refer you to two sufficient Authors concerning the Spartan Laws The first is Aristotle in his 7. Pol. cap. 14. who tells us that the cheif admirers of the Spartan Commonwealth have plac'd its sole excellency in having Laws adapted most Particularly for War and Victory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The other is Euripides in his Andromache His Words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si vis Martia Vobis lacones absit et ferri decus Spectatur ultra quid sit eximium nihil What can ye boast ye Spartans if ye cease To fight like Dogs and live like Men in Peace Add to all this single Consideration That Lacedemonia was but as a small Province in Comparison of the Kingdom of Great Britany and Sparta no more than a Corporation Town And when you have done this let their Law or Form of Government be what it will I dare undertake to make it appear that they are so far from being made an Example for our Imitation that our own Government as distemper'd as our Author would have it even at this time while we are discoursing is a more excellent Form and the Laws more just and reasonable and conducing more to the Safety and Perpetuity of the Government and Peace and happy Subsistence of the People than either Sparta or Athens ever enjoyed or any other part of Greece or Government in the World except that Monarchy which God himself was pleas'd to institute and which above any other ours does most particularly imitate And this I hope is a sufficient Answer to whatsoever our Author hath offer'd concerning Greece Mer. Dear Cousin You have more than perform'd your Promise and that my Pleasure as well as Profit may be compleat pray let us proceed with our Author Trav. Assoon as you please Mer. What say you then to the first Day Trav. Very little save only that I never knew a Day worse spent in my Life nothing being more nauseous than to read the impertinent Complements of three Fools extolling one anothers great Parts and Learning when if we may believe the Publisher who comes in like Sapientum octavus the eighth wise Man the whole Triumvirate or if you will Quatrumvirate are included in the politick individuum of the English Gentleman Mer. Really I was almost deceiv'd at first and did begin to fancy that I knew the Physician Trav. It was without doubt his Design to deceive all Men. Mer. To what Purpose Trav. That he might make the credulous Reader believe that there were more learned Men of his Opinion besides himself But truly I think that neither the State of Venice nor Colledge of Physicians are much oblig'd to him for picking out two of their Societies to make up so ridiculous a Comedy Mer. Is that way of writing Ancient or Modern Trav. Dialogue was oftentimes very properly used among the Ancients but they seldom introduc'd more than two if the Subject of their Discourse were grave and serious Mer. Why then hath our Author made choice of three Trav. I suppose the noble Venetian wanted Learning enough to comprehend so profound a Discourse and the Physician we must imagine had not anatomiz'd or studied the Body Politick so throughly as he had done the Body Natural and so could not see so far into a Milstone as a Venetian Statesman can who as our Nobleman tells us will sometimes discover a State Marasmus breaking out two hundred Years after the passing an indigested Law and this without the help of any Telescope both therefore possessing separately these eminent Qualifications became joyntly an Auditory worthy of Sir Politick Wouldbee's Doctrine Besides you know the number Three is most perfect But had I been advis'd withall I could have shewn our Author this Number of Three so ingeniously and politically plac'd that our Medicopolitico-Venetian Publisher might have born a better part than he does in his Book without either altering the Number or spoiling the Figure But to be serious I must confess Cousin that I have sometimes heard two or three Fools cogâ—â—onaring one another as our Author calls it and it hath been pleasant enough But that one Coglione should presume to coglionare three Kingdoms impose upon His Majesty despise the Wisdom of the Lords and Commons His Majesty's Privy Council and Learned Judges of the Land and last of all to give the Fool to all our Worthy Ancestors who have liv'd within the Compass of four hundred years according to his Account
we must believe that there ever hath been such and ever will whilst Men have different Judgments that is to say if we mean those as in all Charity we ought to do who following their Opinions give sometimes Counsel which in truth may be prejudicial rather than advantageous for us witness our Author himself whom supposing to be as in great Charity we may an honest Man hath yet given Counsel even undesir'd and unauthoriz'd more pernicious to our Government and Happiness than the worst of our evil Counsellors could ever have invented As to the Pensioner Parliament I must confess till of late days I never knew it was a Crime for a Parliament Man to hold an Imployment from the King nor a fault in the King to endeavour to â—oâ—â—en the Rancor of a virulent Member any more than in an indulgent Father to hire by fair Words and Promises a froward and perverse natur'd Child to live peaceably and decently in the Family amongst the rest of his Brethren since the Design both of the Pater Patrioe and Pater Familias is no other than to procure to himself and Family a quiet and happy Life For the Judges and Divines if their great Worth and Learning and most exemplary Lives did not speak plainly and loud enough in their Behalf they would not want better Pens than minâ— to defend their Cause But I think their Sphere is much above the noise much more the danger of this barking Mongrel When â—e nam'd the busie and designing Papist I was in great hopes that he would have added the Presbyterians too and then we might have come betimes to the Cause of our Misfortunes But since he has thought fit to leave them out I shall also let them alone till occasion requires For his French Councels I know them no more than himself does and in my Opinion had our Author had any Wit in his Anger he might have forborn in this place to have revil'd the Divines and Judges of our Land the King's Council and Parliament it self that is to say all that we hold under the King sacred and religious amongst us especially since he tells us immediately that these are not the Causes of our Misfortunes the finding which out is I think one main Design of his Politick Search Mer. Very well Sir The next thing is We have plaid handy dandy with Parliaments and especially the House of Commons the only Part which is now left entire of the old Constitution by adjourning proroguing and dissolving them contrary to the true meaning of the Law Trav. That 's enough I have only to remark his two Parenthesises In the first he tells us That the House of Commons is the only part that is now left entire of the old Constitution Pray Cousin Have you heard what is become of the House of Peers or Do you know how it comes to be less entire than ever it was I am perswaded you cannot tell me Mer. I imagine his Meaning may be that their Estates are not so great as formerly they have been or that the House of Commons depended more upon them formerly than now they do Trav. For the first it is false there being as great Estates now in the House of Lords as generally ever there were And for the dependance of the Commons upon the Lords that is to say wearing their blew Coats making up their Lords-train waiting upon them to the House of Lords and making a Laâ—e for them to enter and such like as he tells us pag. 135. Let him endeavour to reduce the House of Commons to this old Constitution if he can and he will soon see how far the Commoners will think themselves oblig'd to him for it If not why does he talk of an old Constitution But Sir with his good leave and the Commoners too I take the House of Commons to be the latest Addition to that Assembly which altogether we call a Parliament I do not remember to have heard any News of a House of Commons as it is now understood untill several Years after the Norman Conquest that is untill the end of the Reign of Henry the Third at soonest But though some contend for the eighteenth of Henry the First But the House of Lords hath subsisted and been a Court of Judicature even before the Roman Conquest 1700 Years ago Witness amongst many other Passages the Dispute between King Cassibelaunus and Androgeus Duke of the Trinovantes Whose Son or Nephew having slain the Son of the King Cassibelaunus commanded the Duke to surrender him in order to his Tryal that he might suffer such Punishment as the Noblemen or Lords of the Kingdom should judge most â—it Commotus Rex Androgeo mandavit â—t nepoleâ— suum sibi redderet paratum â—alem sententiam subire qualem Proceres regni judicarent So we read of Vortegern the British King Vortegernus excitatus perstrepentium vocibus super statu publico in medium consulit Sententias Magnatum So of the Malm. l. 1. Saxon Ethelwulphus Cum concilio Episcoporum ac Principum concilium salubre ac remedium uniforme f. 22. affirmavi c. So Edmundus Rex Anglorum â—â—m concilio consensu Optimatum meorum c. Besides many hundred of such Instances proving the Existence of a Court of Lords from the Conquest of Will the First untill the end of Hen. the Third are to be found in Eadmerus and other good Authors But it being none of my business to defend in this place the Prerogatives of the House oâ— Lords I shall not offer any thing further concerning them But since our Author troubles himself so much about the old Constitution of the House of Commons and detracting from the House of Lords calls the Lower House the only entire part of the old Parliaments I shall beg leave to mind you what was the Cause and Design of their first Institution as I find it in the best Histories of those Ages and by that you will easily perceive their Antiquity as also which was the eldest Constitution William the Conquerour P. 57. 154. 211. called by Eadmerus and others William the Great having master'd the Power and the Fortune of the English Nation what he retain'd not in Providence as the Demesnes of the Crown or reserv'd not in Piety for the Maintenance of the Church the rest of his Kingdom he divided amongst such of his principal Lords as sailed hither with him in the Barque of his Adventures giving to some whole Countries to others considerable parts of it so as in the County of Norfolk for instance there were not above threescore Chief Lords or Owners and half of them not very considerable as appears by Doomsday And as the Estate so the Council of the Kingdom was entrusted into few Hands none being employed in the publick Councils but only these great Lords and Peers who were Conciliarii nati born to that priviledge and came thither without Leave and without Summons And although at first this
did not expect and hesitating much without giving any satisfactory account of what was demanded he was cast into chains and punish'd according to the hainousness of the offence Mer. And may all the Manlii amongst us be alike confounded Next Sir I cannot approve of the liberty men take of publishing their private sentiments which are generally grounded upon nothing but conjecture and Enthusiastical follies Trav. Certainly nothing would conduce more to our quiet than that the liberty of the press should be restrain'd But since it is not our business to look into those liberties which we enjoy so much as into those which we want let us leave the consideration of these and many other such things to our prudent Governours I shall only note this one thing by the way that since the Act of Habeas Corpus I think I may confidently affirm that even at this time when there is so much danger of a pretended slavery the Subjects of England enjoy a greater liberty than was known to any of our Ancestors before us Pray therefore proceed to the second consideration which is our properties Mer. That is wholly unnecessary for all the world knows that whatsoever we possess is so secured by the Laws of the Land that the King himself doth not pretend in prejudice of those Laws which indeed are his own Laws to touch the least Chattel that belongs to us nor can any Tax be impos'd but such as shall be granted by Act of Parliament which is the very Government that our Author so much approves And in a word Plato himself has clear'd this point telling us p. 127 That the people by the fundamental Laws that is by the constitution of the Government of England have entire freedom in their lives properties and their persons neither of which can in the least suffer but according to the Laws And to prevent any oppression that might happen in the execution of these good Laws which are our Birthright all Trials must be by twelve men of our equals and in the next page lest the King 's Soveraign authority might be urg'd as a stop to the execution of those Laws he tells us That neither the King nor any by authority from him hath any the least power or jurisdiction over any English man but what the Law gives him And if any person shall be so wicked as to do any injustice to the life liberty or estate of any Englishman by any private command of the Prince the person aggriev'd or his next of kin if he be Assassinated shall have the same remedy against the offender as he ought to have had by the good Laws of the Land if there had been no such command given Now dear Cousin in the name of sense and reason where can be the fault and distemper of our Government as it relates to the ease and priviledge of the Subject if this be the constitution of it as at least our Author himself affirms Trav. Faith Sir I could never find it out nor any man else that ever I could meet withal And what is still stranger our great Platonick Physician hath not vouchsafed to give us any one particular instance in what part our disease lyes notwithstanding he alarms us with dismal news of being dead men and that without such a strange turn of Government as his pregnant Noddle hath found out we are ruin'd for ever 'T is true he tells us that the property being in the hand of the Commoners the Government must necessarily be there also and for which the Commoners are tugging and contending very justly and very honourably which makes every Parliament seem a present state of war Mer. But Sir if it be true that we enjoy all those benefits and blessings before mentioned that the Government it self secures these properties inviolably to us which we know to be most certain without the testimony of Plato or any man else what then does this tugging concern us or what relation has it to our happiness which is already as great as we can wish it to be Must the enjoyment of our properties put us into a state of war Must our health become our disease and our fatness only make us kick against our masters what can this contention for Government signifie more than ambition and what could their success produce less than Tyranny should the House of Commons become our masters what could they bestow upon us more than we already enjoy except danger and trouble And what can our present Government take from us except the fears of those fatal consequences which such a popular innovation would induce Let then the property be where it will and if we possess it securely we are the happier for it Trav. Your reasons are too plain and strong to be resisted I shall quit therefore this point and inform you how our Author seems in many places to insinuate that the want of frequent and annual Parliaments is the cause of our distemper and that calling a Parliament every year might prove a pretty cure according to a certain Act in the time of Edward the first and that then instead of hopping upon one leg we might go limping on upon three Mer. Faith Cousin you are now gotten out of my reach and you must answer this your self I can only proceed according to my former rule which is that if we be as happy as we can be a Parliament cannot make us more Trav. That answer is I think sufficient to satisfie any reasonable man However we will speak somewhat more particularly concerning this matter as we find it recorded in History Our Author informs us in p. 110. That by our Constitution the Government was undeniably to be divided between the King and his Subjects which by the way is undeniably and notoriously false for according to our ancent Constitution as well under the Saxon as our Norman Kings the Government or the right of Power was originally and solely in our Kings And that divers of the great men speaking with that excellent Prince King Edward the first about it called a Parliament and consented to a Declaration of the Kingdoms right in that point So there passed a Law in that Parliament that one should be held every year and oftner if need be The same he confirms in p. 159. and in other places Now Sir if after these fine Speeches by those great men whom undoubtedly our Author could have named to this excellent Prince it should happen at last that there was no such Act during the Reign of Edward the first what would you think of our Author Merch. In troth Sir it would not alter my opinion for I already believe him to be an impudent magisterial Impostor Trav. I fear indeed he will prove so for except he hath found in his politick search some loose paper that never yet came into our Statute books we must conclude that he is grossly mistaken For the first Act that is extant of that kind was in the