the grand Objection of this case the validity of which I am necessitated though with reluctancy in my self to consider because if this Objection prove impregnable the Councel of stopping the Exchequer may seem to be built upon a good or at leastwise an exccusable foundation and so in all that I have hitherto said I shall seem to have trifled with and eluded my Reader And herein because I pretend not to any Arcanums of State I shall handle this point by way of Admittance and shall suppose that the fears and jealousies which at the time of shutting the Exchequer did possess this State were just and such as might well fall upon constant and deliberating mindes The Objection then will run thus Ob. Ob. That our Neighbour Princes and States were making vast preparations for War that the Heavens about us were black and Cloudy and where the storm might fall no man could Divine That Necessitas est Lex temporis Quae non habet Legem That necessity and self preservation superintend all Lawes That it is more eligible to lop off one member from the Body Politique or at least wise to let an Arm or perhaps a finger thereof blood then that the whole should be endangered c. Sol. Sol. The Objection I must confess is important and weighty and will deserve a substantial Answer In order thereunto I must in the first place mind my Reader that I have as I suppose by irrafregable Argument proved the property of the Subject in this case violated I will then add that it is a Fundamental Law of this Realm that the Subjects propriety is not violable no not in cases of National Danger without his own free and voluntary consent and that First by the consent of his own individual person or Secondly by that of his Representatives in Parliament to whom â—e hath delegateâ— his consent To prove this I could produce infinite Records of Parliament and other Courts but for brevities sake shall content my self with some few doing herein like one that chooseth 5 or â— full eares of Wheat out of a select sheaf who must necessarily leave behind him as good as he takes The first Record therefore that I shall insist upon will be that memorable one of 14. Ed. 2. in a Writt of Error upon a judgement given in Durham in Trespass by Heyburne against Keylow for entring his house breaking his Chest and taking away 70 l. in money upon a special verdict the case was this The Scots had entred the Bishoprick with a formidable Army making great burnings and spoil Mich. 14. Fd. 2. B R. Rot. 60. the Commonalty of Durham whereof the Plaintiff was one apprehensive of the common danger consulted together and at length agreed to send their agents to compound with the Scots for money to depart and were all sworn the Plaintiff being one to perform such composition and also what Ordinance should be made in that behalt thereupon they compounded with the Scots for 1600 Marks but because this Money was to be paid without the least delay they all consented that Keylow the Defendant and others should go into every mans house to search for ready Money to make up the said summe and that it should be repayd by the same Commonalty and thereupon the Defendant entred the Plaintiffs house and took the said 70 l which was paid toward that Fine The Jury were demanded whether the Plaintiff was present and consented to the taking of the Money they said no. Whereupon the Plaintiff had Judgement to recover the 70 l. upon this Judgement the Defendant brings his Writt of Error in the Kings Bench and assigns errour in point of Law and there the Judgement was reverst because Heyburn whose Money it was had agreed to this Ordinance and was sworn to perform it and Keylow had done nothing but by the express consent of Heyburn and therefore was no Trespassor and that Heyburn had no other remedy for his Money but against the Commonalty of Durham By which it appeareth that if the owner of the money had not particularly concented such Ordinance could not have bound him and yet this was in a case of imminent danger and for publique defence The next is a Record of the Parliament of 20 Ri. 2. some little time before this Session Rot. Parl. 2. Fi. 2. pars 1. â— the French had actually invaded this Realm they had burnt Portsmouth Dertmouth Plymouth Rye and Hastings they had possest themselves of the Isle of Wight beseiged Winchelsy and at length entring the Thames with their victorious Fleet came up to Graves end and burnt most part of that Town and which was yet worse in the North the Scots had burnt Roxborough and were ready to over run all the North of England the Realme being thus beset both by Sea and Land with the united puissance of two mighty Kingdomes and like a Candle burning at both ends the publique Treasure also exhaust a great Councel was forthwith call'd of the Prelacy Baronage and other great men and Sages or Judges of the Nation to consult about these difficulties they came at length to a final resolution the which Scroop then Lord Chancellour delivered to all the Lords in the ensuing Parliament which as the Roll above quoted saith was thus That unce the last Parliament the said Councel met and considering the great danger the Kingdome was in and how money might be raised for the Common Defence which could not wait the delay of a Parliament and how the Kings Coffers had not sufficient in them they all concluded that money could not be had for such defence without laying a charge upon the Commonalty and that such charge could not be imposed without a Parliament and the Lords thereupon supplyed the present necessity with their own money and advised a Parliament for farther supply and Repayment of themselves which was accordingly done I think no man will pretend that our late danger to say no more was greater than this and yet because there was no other course in those times thought lawful for the raising Treasure upon the Subjects Goods then by their own ascent in Parliament only that course was then thought fittest to be practised which was such as ought to be obeyed The next Record is the Statute of 31. Hen. 8. cap. 8. some years before this King had dissolved the lesser Old booke of Statutes 31. He. 8. cap. 8. and in the year of this Statute the greater Monasteries which being a new precedent made a great noise and the event thereof was apprehended with terrour and amazement all over the Christian world this administred secret seeds of discontent to many of the people which after broke out into open Rebellions as our Chronicles declare in several parts of the Kingdome this King though standing as much upon his praerogative as any of his Predecessors to provide against the like suddain eruptions of this Torrent which would not stay for Parliaments procures a Statute
the said Collector or Receiver in respect of his charge over to the party And so it is clearly affirmed by all the Judges of both Benches Plowden 186. a. Lord Darcyes case And therefore if the King grant a summ of money to I. S. to be received out of his Customs of London I say that by the delivery of the Talley Liberate and assets in the hands of the Customer the Customer is become a Debtor to I. S. and he may bring his Action of Debt upon this matter against the Customer Coke's 4 Institutes 116. F. N. B 121. F. 21. H. 6. Fitzh Debt 43.27 H. 6.9 Fitzh Bar. 314. Brook Talley d'Exchequer 1.37 H. 6.15 Brooke ibid. 3. Nay in such case if the Receiver dye the Action will lye against his Executor And therefore where the King had granted a Fee by Patent to the Clercke of the Parliament to be received out of the profits of the Hanapar and the Clercke of the Hanapar dyed yet adjudged that debt would well lye against his Executor because so much of the Kings money was altered in property in the hands of the Testator and yet here was no contract privity in word suit or Execution of Law between the King and Testa or or Executor 2. Hen. 7.8 b. c. Fitzh Bar. 124. Ploxden 36. b. and 186. a. So if the King assign Talleys upon the Dismes granted him by Parliament to his Creditors and they shew them to the Collectors of the Dismes the King is hereby discharged and the Collecto s are charg'd and the King cannot pardon the Collectors or the Clergy which granted the Dismes 1. Hen. 7.8 a. Brook Charter de pardon 37. Nay so careful is the Law of the Subjects property in such case that if after a like grant of the Disms the King should dye yet the Collectors are chargeable to the King 's Grantee and not to his Successor 1. Hen. 7.8 a. per omnes Justitiaries Brooke Quinzime 7. Fitzh Quinzime 2. Brook Talley d' Exchequer 5. Ob. Now if any man shall say to me Sir you have abundantly prov'd the stopping of the Exchequer to be an invasion of Property as to the Collector and Customer and the like by the Common Law but nothing at all as to the Banker or his Creditor which was the position you undertook to maintain To this Objection I give this plain Answer That the stop of the Exchequer to the Collectors Customers c. is by inevitable consequence a stop to the Bankers and their Crediors and so likewise their property violated because by this Obstruction the Collector c. is disabled to satisfy the Banker and the Banker his Creditor and that Creditor his Creditor and so in an infinite rotation throughout the Kingdom just as a wrongful disinheritance of the Grandfather is an injury to the Father and Son and so to all their Line in succession to the worlds end Or because this is the Hinge of the case as to the Common Law and I would make it plain I will suppose twenty Mills to be built upon one River each of them in sequence one below the other a person comes and damms up this River or diverts the current thereof into a new Channel I do say that by this diversion or Obstruction of the Stream the 20th Mill is injured as well as the first because if there were no Impediment that water which comes to the first Mill would at the long run arrive to the twentieth In so plain a case I need not make any Application or indeed use any farther Argument as to the Common law-part of this discourse I shall therefore cite but one other case and that a far stronger one then ours and then discharge my self of this Section The Case is Mich. 1. Hen. 7. Fol. 3. b. and abridg'd by Fitzherbert Barr. 122. Touts les Justices fueront al White Fryers pur lour Fees c. saith the Book All the Judges were assembled at White Fryars to consult about the payment of their Salleries which were behind And their Case was this By a Statute made 18. Hen 6. it is Enacted that the Customers shall pay the Judges their Salleries out of the first Moneys arising out of the Customes of London And then Richard the third grants License to certain Merchants to carry Wools and to retain the Customs thereof in their own hands which was as it were a little diminutive stopping of the Exchequer as to the Iudges in this Case And the question was whether the Customers shall be chargeable to the Judges for those reteinments of the Merchants and after mature debate Resolved by them all That the Customers were chargeable even for those recemments though they never came to their hands and in the end of that case it is said that the Judges design'd each of them to bring his Action against the Customers which they perceiving they forthwith agreed with the Judges to pay them their galleries Now any man that shall well consider this case will find the Reason thereof to be because though the King had granted the Priveledge of reteining the Customes to these Merchants yet in contemplation of Law the Customers did still actually receive those Customes and so were chargeable to the Judges like the case I put before of Hen. 7.8 a. where the King remitred the Dismes to the Collector or Clergy and the rather in this case because this private License of the Kings shall not prevail over an act of Parhament which had secured unto them their Salaries out of the Customes which leads me to the next position which I have proposed to assert which is SECT 3. That by this Councel of stopping Payments in the Exchequer the Subjects Property is invaded against Statute-Law OUr Books tell us and not without Reason That the Parliament Est un Court de tresgrand honor justice Plowden 398. b Earle of Leicesters case de que nul doyt imaginer chose dishonourable is a Court of thrice great Honour and Justice of which no man may presume to think a dishonourable thing And we cannot but suppose saith the Lord Chance lour Fortescue that Statute Laws carry with them no mean force as well as Wisdome Dum non unius aut centum folum consultorum prudentia sed plusquam trecentorum electorum Fortescue de laudebus legum Angliae ca. 8. c. When they are the results not of the prudence of one or two or three hundred only of the Select men of the Kingdome but of a far greater number In this Orbe the King like the Sun shines in the Exaltation of Majesty and grandeur invironed by the illustrious members of both Houses and from the conjunction of this great and lesser lights propitious and refreshing influences are derived to the whole Kingdome Hobart 256. Duncombs case 21 Hen. 7. a per Vavasor The Acts of this Court are the highest securities this Nation can give and such securityes that do in themselves comprehend the
universal consent of all mankind in this Realme as well future as present I shall not here insist upon the Grand Charter or upon any other Bulworks of propriety of that nature though possibly pertinent enough to my purpose but shall rather choose at present to apply my self to a Statute Law of much fresher date and memory and design'd for the Relief of this very particular case And that is the Statute of 190 of his now Majesty Chap. 12. which I shall recite so far as it concerns my purpose verbatim Whereas it hath been found by experience upon the late Act for Twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds made at Oxford and other Acts of Parliament since that time that the power of Assigning of Orders in the Exchequer upon those Acts without Revocation hath been of great use and advantage to the persons concerned in them and to the Trade of this Kingdome and given great Credit to His Majesties Exchequer Be it Enacted and it is hereby Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled That every person or persons Native or Forreigner Bodies Politique or Corporate to whom any Moneys shall be due in your Majesties Exchequer and shall have any Order Registred in the Office of the Auditor of the Receipt for the payment thereof out of any branch of your Majesties Revenue That such person or persons Native or Forreigner Bodies Politique or Corporate their Successors Executors Administrators or Assigns respectively by Endorsement of their Order may Assign and transfer their Right Title Interest and Benefic of such Order or any part thereof to any other which being notified in the Office of the Auditor of the Receipt aforesaid and an Entry and Memorial thereof also made in the Book of Registry aforesaid for such Orders which the Officers shall on request accordingly make shall Entitle such Assignee his Executors Administrators and Assigns or Successort respectively to the benefit thereof and payment thereon Now it will be plain to any man that shall consider this Statute that the Parliament doth therein admit an unquestionable duty of the Mony to the Lenders in the Exchequer for so are the words Every person to whom any mony shal be due in your Majesties Exchequer c. and the makers of this Act could never mean that nothing should be transferd to the Assignee For indeed all the Powers of the Universe can never make me Donor of that which never appertained to me nor I never had in me to give And therefore this money must first of necessity vest in my self in point of property Nit dat quod non habet before I can transfer it to another person so then if this Law secure this money to my Assignee a multo fortiori to my self Now that this Statute secures this money to my Assignee I shall prove by three unanswerable reasons as I suppose all drawn out of the Bowels of this very Law it self First the Inducements of this Statute appear in the preamble thereof to be Advantage to the persons concern'd To the Trade of the Kingdome and also great credit to the Exchequer Therefore the makers of this Law could never design a transferring of the husk or shell only that is of the Order or Paper but even of the fruit it self I mean the money in specie for that is it which carryes the Advantage the Trade and the credit with it and not the Order or writings as many of us find by wofull Experience Secondly there is no man doubts but that the moneys lent upon the Oxford Act of 17. Car. 2. cap. 1. for 1250000 l. And upon the Pole-mony Bill 18. Car. 2. cap. 1. And upon the Act of 19. Car. 2. cap. 8. for 1256000 l. were unquestionably secured to the Assignees of the Lenders by those several Acts why then I say that all moneys since that time Lent into the Exchequer charg'd upon any branch of the King's Revenue are equally secur'd to them by this Act and that not only first because this Act in the preamble thereof refers expresly to those other Acts But Secondly then which I think nothing can be plainer because the moneys secured by this Act to the Assignees are secured with almost all the same numerical identical words with which the moneys lent upon the three other Acts are secured And this will be obvious to any person that shall curiously compare all these Acts together to the which for brevity sake I am inforc't to refer my Reader Lastly this Act declares in express terms that the Assignees of such Orders for money due in the Exchequer their Executors Administrators and Assignes in infinitum shall be Entituled To the Benefit of such Orders and Payment thereon which words being so plain that he that runs may read and wrote as it were with a Beame of the Sun I think there can be no place left for farther cavil or subterfuge in this matter I had almost forgot to observe that this Law the King being therein concerned is a general Act of Parliament Cooks 4th Rep. 77. a. Hollands Case Plowd Lord Barkley's case ibid. Wimbishes case of the which not only the Judges but even every individual Subject of this Kingdome ought to take knowledge of course for as the inferiour Members saith the Book cannot estrange themselves from the actions and passions of the head no more can any Subject be a stranger to the concernments of his Sovereign This I would add to those Answers I gave before to the Objection that this affair was private and that few persons were concernd in the present Case of the Bankers and their Creditors now I proceed SECT 4. That this Counsel of stopping up the Exchequer is expresly contrary to His Majesties gracious promises and Declarations Printed and publish't by His own especial Command MY design all along in this discourse being to discover the pestilence and mischief of this Councel in relation as well to his Majesty as his people I cannot with better advantage discharge my self of the Province I have undertaken in this Section and manifest how unhandsomly his Majesty hath been treated by this Adviser then by considering a while the sanctimony of promises among Princes Nothing then I say is more sacred or tremendous among Princes then their publik Faiths and Declarations This the Emperour Tiberius understood well when he said Caeteris mortalibus in eo stant concilia quod sibi conducere putant Tacit. Ann. lib. 4. principum vero c. Inferiour persons may order their Councels as they best sort with their advantages but the condition of Potentates is different whose actions are principally to be directed to Fame and Glory Cambden and Baker vita Elizab Regina And for this reason Q. Elizabeth in her private Letters to K James was used to admonish him that a Prince must be such a lover
of Truth that more credit may be given to his bare Word than to anothers Oath And we know that the man after God's own heart and a King too writes He that promiseth to his Neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hindrance Psal 15.5 I do never without Admiration think of that great saying of Charles the 5th Emperour when he was prest to break his word with Luther for his safe return from Wormes Fides rerum promissarum quoth he etsi toto mundo exulet tamen apud imperatorem eam consistere oportet Xenocarus vita Caroli 5. Though the faith of promises should be banisht out of the world yet it ought alway to find Sanctuary in an Emperours breast And to this virtue even Campanella the Jesuite doth vigorously advise Phil. the 2d of Spain Spanish Monarchy c. 27. for nothing saith he doth more effectually oblige the Subject to the Prince then fidelity of promises By this means continues he Alexander Farnese Duke of Parma contain'd the Netherland in Obedience to Spain Cicero 1 Offic whereas the Duke of Alva by the contrary course lost them And this will not seem strange to a man that shall consider that sides as Tully saith est justicia fundamentum Faith is the Foundation upon which Justice is built Boterus de politia Lib. 2. c. 9. Justitia vero nulla esse potest saith Boterus nisi conventionum fuerit promissorum certa fides ac necessaria solutio rerum creditarum But there can be no Justice without performance of promises and fair satisfaction of Debts And this most of all in the case of Princes De Repu Lib. 1. cap. 8. Fortescue c. 37. for as Bodine affirms Cum summus Princeps mutuae fidei inter privatos ac Legum omnium ulicr vindex est quanto magis datam a se fidem ac promissa servare tenetur For when a Prince is himself to avenge the violations of Faith and Lawes among his Subjects how much more then ought he himself to observe his own Faith and Promises And in this very point he voucheth there a judgement of the Parliament of Paris against Charles the 9th of France and a little after adds Itaque in judiciis cum Fides principis agitur c. Therefore saith he when the Faith of a Prince happens to be debated in Judicature we are rather to consult the benefit of the Subject and in such case to treat the Prince more severely And this indeed is no more then what the municipal Lawes of this Kingdome warrant which say Cooks 11. Rep. Magdalen Colledge case that the Grants of the King are to be Expounded liberally and withal imaginable favour to the Subject for the Honour and Dignity of the King as also that the King 's Teste meipso is Recordum Suparlativum a Record of the highest puissance and grandeur I have the more largely here dilated upon this Subject that I might with a greater clearness disclose the Poyson of this Advice it being so apparently contrary to his Majesties most gracious Promises and Declarations Printed and promulgated by his own immediate Order and particularly that of the 18th of June 1667 of the which several Copies then Printed were preserv'd by my self and others as the highest Muniments and Securities for our Monies in the Bankers hands This is stiled His Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects to preserve inviolably the Securities by him given for moneys See this Declaration in the end of this Treatise and the due course of payments thereon in the Receipt of the Exchequer In this Declaration about the middle these very numerical woâ—ds following are inserted And that we will not upon any occasion whatsoever permit or suffer any Alteration Anticipation or Interruption to be made of our said Subjects that is of the Bankers Securities but that they shall from time to time receive the moneys so secured unto them upon several branches of the Royâ—l Revenue and other late Acts of Parliament saith the preamble in the same course and method as they were charged and ought to be satisfied Immediatly after follow these remarkable words which Resolution we shall likewise hold firm and sacred in all Future Assignments and Securities to be by Vs granted upon any Other advance of money by any of our Subjects note this is general upon any Futute Occasion for Our service And we cannot doubt upon the Publishing this Our Royal Word and Declaration of Our Sincere Intention but that all reasonable persons will rest satisfied c. Now I would fain know what more adaequate or preventive words could have been devised by the Wit or Providence of men and Angels to have stifled so great a calamity in the Birth Neither will it be an Observation perhaps altogether immaterial and impertinent that in the very next Session of Parliament viz. in the October immediately following the Statute of the 19th of his now Majesty cap. 12. which I have before recited was made as it were in Buttress and support of this Royal Edict and Declaration These things standing thus as I have represented them however the King's Honour and Justice like a Rock of Diamonds remains still impenetrable neither is his Sacred Majesty in this case any more to be accused of the breaches of fidelity then the chast Lucretia was guilty of incontinence when wearied out and forc't by the Adulterer St. Austin Duo fuerunt saith the holy Father at unus commisit Adulterium Two they were and yet but one of them committed Adultery When Judge Thorp was condemned to death in Parliament for Bribery The reason of that judgement is given Quia saith the Record predictus Willielmus Thorpe sacramentum domini Regis quod erga populum suum haebuit custodiendum RoÌ„t Parl. 24. Ed. 3. part 3. Memb. 2. in Dorso Et Fot Parl. 25 Ed 3. Pars 10. memb 17. maliciose false rebelliter freÌ„git c. Because the said William Thorp had broken the Kings Oath it doth not say his own Oath but the Kings Oath that solemne and grand obligation which is the security of the whole Kingdome and the knot of the Diadem so that as the Kings Oath may be broken by others his own unspotted honour and justice unviolated so likewise may his Royal Faith and gracious promises as in our case SECT 5. The grand Objection of necessity and National Danger supposing also our Fears to be at that time just considered at large and Answered That the Subjects property is not violable in this State but by his own consent in cases of far greater National danger then this was proved by sundry Records and otherwise the Rapines of Edw. the 1st and 3d. upon the Subjects Moneys in Churches c. considred and answered What courses the Law hath provided for the preservation of the Kingdome where the danger is instant and cannot stay for a Parliament I am now at length arrived to
this Prince would be negligent in paying his own that was so just in satisfying his Fathers Debts as we find by our Records so that upon the whole matter Pot. 4. Ed. 1. Memb. 19. intut notwithstanding this Objection I think we may concurr well enough with Sir William Herle Ch. Justice of the Common Pleas who in 5. of Edw. 3. saith of this Ed. 1 Pasch 5. Ed 3 casus 5. in whose time he lived Que fuit pluis sage Roy que unques fuit That he was one of the wisest Kings that ever was in the World For Ed. 3. his Rapines likewise produc't very benificial Lawes to the Subject as will be manifest to any man that shall peruse the Statutes of that time Fot Alminiae 12. Ed. 3 Mem. 22 in Dorso De excusando Râ—ge populam versut They were actions which he never justified but excused alway with singular Resentments As appears by his Letter extant upon Record to John Stratford then Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the which he recounts the Tallages and Exactions with which he had burdened his people which be faith he could not mention without inexpressible grief of mind and there excuseth himself upon the inevitable necessity of his warrs and desires the Arch-bishop to satisfy the people and to stir them up to pray for him hoping ere long he should make them compensation and give them comfort Ob. There remains yet one Objection with which I am infore't to encounter se defendendo because I perceive it ready to assail me And that is that the Parliament is a great Body I speak it with all due reverence and moves slowly and therefore if the Law allow not some other course as this of stopping the Exchequer or the like in raising money in case of suddain Danger the Kingdome may be lost before the Parliament can supply Sol. To this I answer That all Warrs are either Offensive or Defensive If it be Offensive it cannot be suddain for it is the King 's own Act and the result of mature deliberation and so their may be time enough to call a Parliament if it stand with his Sacred Majestie 's good will and pleasure If it be a Defensive War by Forreign invasion which I shall to avoid Cavil agree may be suddain though a great Statesman tells us Comines fol. 79. that these Clouds are commonly visible afar off before the Tempest fall I say if by Forreign Invasion then first the impulse of self-preservation an indelible Character wrote on every man's mind by the very band of Nature will dispose all Mankind to expose their Lives and Estates which otherwise they must inevitably lose And this seems to be the case of this Kingdome in the Year 88. â—ambden viâ—â— Eliza. for there was then no Parliament sitting but many of the Worthies of that time some of whose names are transmitted to Posterity at their own private charges brought in men and Ships to the Common Defence But Secondly if we are to suppose that men must be drag'd and haled to their own preservation I say then the Law hath provided that in case of Forreign invasion every Subject within the Land high or low whether he hold of the King or not may be compel'd at his own charge to serve the King in person To prove this I can vouch Authorities from Common Law Statutes and Records which for brevity I will not quote at large but least any man should doubt hereof will only point where they may be found Common Law see 7. H. 4. Brook Tenures 44. 73. Fitch Protection 100. Coke 7. Re. 7. b. Calvins case 2 Rolls Title Imposition 165. c. 1 Inst 69. b. in fine For Statute Laws see among many others 1. Ed. 3. cap. 5.11 H. 7. cap. 1.11 H. 7. cap. 18. c. For Records among many others that I have seen I will crave leave to vouch two The First is 14. Johannis Regis Math. Paris 223. Matth. Westm 92. where upon an imminent French invasion King John issues our Writts in which he summons all his Subjects high and low to repair forthwith to Dover Ad defendendum caput nostrum saith the Record capita suae quod nullue remaneat qui Arma portare possit sub nomine * Base Cowardise or Turwail so the glossaries Culvertagij perpetuae servitutis c. The other is upon a French invasion too design'd against this Kingdome in 26. Ed. 3. the which being a Record so apposite to my purpose I shall recite somewhat more at large Rot. Franciae Anno 26. Ed. 3. Memb. 5. Rex dilecto consanguineo fideli suo Henrico Duci Lancastriae salutem Quia Adversarij nostri Franciae nos Regnum nostrum Angliae invadere machinantes ad nos Dominium nostrum totam nationem Anglicanam pro viribus destruend Nos considerantes omnes Incolas dicti Regni cujuscunque conditionis extiterint cum versetur commune periculum teneri de jure pro patriâ pugnare eam contrae hostiles aggressus defensare vobis mandamus quod omnes homines defensabiles tam milites Armigeros quam alios quoscunque de dictoÌ„ ducatu cujuscunque status seu conditionis fuerint arraiari quemlibet eorum iuxta statum faculates suas Equitaturis Armit competentib us muniri c. I shall conclude this Section with a case of very recent Memory and of singular Notoriety throughout the whole Kingdome I mean that of the Conflagration of our Ships by the Dutch not many years past in the River of Chatham There prevail'd at that time an universal jealoufy among the people that upon this occasion some suddain stop might be put upon the Exchequer and thereupon the Bankers were exercised with restless solicitations for the speedy payment of their Debts The King for the sedation of these Fears and apprehensions See the Declaration at the end of this Treatise is advised and not without infinite prudence to issue forthwith his Declaration to preserve inviolable the course of payments in the Exchequer which was accordingly done Now 〈◊〉 see what were the grounds of this Declaration Why truly they are exprest there to be First Least the Credit of the Bankers who had been so useful to the King might be weakned Secondly Least the King's Securities might be undervalued Lastly Least in consequence the publick Safety might be endangered Now all that I shall say is this That of what valew in reason of State it may be I know not but to men of vulgar Negotiation it seems a Riddle and matter inextricable that these considerations which at that time appeard to have been of so politique and valuable Regard within the space of two or three years upon a like occasion should be thought by this Advisor clearly Obsolete and altogether void of Prudence And the Credits of the Exchequer Royal securities and the publique safety so little by him consulted Idem manens idem
instigated by evil Councel squeeses the people with Taxes towards the surport of this War The people hereupon began to Mutiny Invita Antonii insomuch that as Plutarch Reports the wisest men of that time took it for granted that if Antony in this conjuncture had approacht nearer with his Army the Romans would have assuredly revolted and delivered up Caesar into the hands of his Enemy But as he saith the imprudent delaies of Antony gave time to the people of concocting their discontents and of the sedation of their Passions neither is it to be neglected that this Illustrious person after the defeat of Antony and his own access to the Empire took such warning by this hazzardous mistake that ever after he abandoned all Councels of this Nature And unto that degree that in the last twenty years of his Reign he laid out upon the Publique Benefits and Emoluments of the Common-wealth as Seutonius writes little less then Quater decies Millies * See for this valuation Budaens de Asse Hackwel's Apology and Savil's notes on Tacitus History Lib. 1 c. 6. sestcrtium vita Octavii cap. Ultimo That is Eleven Millions Eighty thousand five hundred thirty three pounds six shillings eight pence Sterling Befides his two paternal patrimonies and other his Inheritances Others report thirty five Millions of Gold besides the two aforesaid patrimonies Obj. Many other examples of like naturel could produce out of History and Policy which yet for brevity sake I forbear to do and hasten to answer an objection viz. That as certain Authors affirm some Princes have by great Vsuries Decoyed vast summes of their Subjects Moneys into their Exchequers and forborn afterwards to repay them Life of Augustus bound up with Plutarche Lives on purpose to oblige their people to a stricter Obedience and fidelity to the Crown And this Artifice as Bodine Reports was recommended as a subtle project to the French Kings and accordingly practised by them Sol. I shall answer this Objection in the very words of the same Bodine De repub lib. 6. cap. 2. in an other place Hee quidem tolerabilia viderentur saith he Si quod Regibus nostris persuasum erat Civitates obsequie fide majore acceptis mutuo pecuniis devincire potuissent sed nullis temporibus graviores in Gallia tumultus aut plures Civitatum defectiones extiterunt These Councels had been tollerable saith he if as these State-Mountebanks would perswade our Kings the people by this deteiner of their Money would have been conteind in better Obedience but alass there were never more dangerous Tumults in France or more frequent Revolts of Cities known then in those very times Essayes All States have tollerated Vsuries in one kind or Rate or other And it is impossible saith the Lord Bacon to conceive the inconveniencies that will ensue not only to Merchants but all other persons if the borrowing of Moneys should be cramp'd and discouraged Therefore consideration for Moneys lent bath been entertaind as the Scripture saith of the Judaical Divorces for the Hardness of mens hearts And the Endeavours of abolishing thereof have proved sometimes inconvenient and dangerous to the States where it hath been attempted Annalium l. 6. To prove which I shall produce but one Example reported by Cornelius Tacitus who tells us that in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar Magna vis accusatorum in eos irrupit qui pecunias saenore auctitabant c. That a great Rabble of Informers rose up against those persons which took excessive Vsury and thereupon every man calling in his Debts on a suddain ensued a great want and scarcity of money and an universal discontent and the aspect of affairs seem d not very propitious which being perceived by that prudent Emperoâ—r he forthwith caus'd an hundred Million of * l. 〈…〉 s d. 791466 13.4 sterling Sesterces of his own to be put into the Bank to be lent to all men that had occasion for three years without interest and thereupon all things-became calm and sedate again Lastly though the Exchoquer here be again opened as in good time I hope it will yet the persons therein concern'd will notwithstanding sustain infinite damage in point of irreparable loss of those opportunityes of advantagious Bargains Marriages and sundry other particulars which in this interval save been offered unto them SECT 7. That this Councel is contrary to the Common Reason of Mankind and in some respects against the Rules of humanity That it is pernicious to the credit of his Majesties Exchequer The case between Phillip the Second of Spain and the Banker of Genoa truly stated and demonstrated to be essentially different from our case Campanella's Advice to King Phillip to make speedy payment of that Debt IT is a Rule that hath prevail'd among all Nations as well Barbarous as Civil That Quod Omnes tangit ab omnibus debet supportari And again Qui sentit commodum sentire debet onus Where the utility and peril is common there the charge and contribution ought to be common also But I doubt if this Councel happen to be weighed in this Ballance it will prove light for as it is plain that the Defence of the Kingdome was an utility to the whole so it is as evident that the charge thereof was fastned upon a Part. What is this but as if the States of Holland should impose the expense of defending their Countrey from the Sea upon a parcel of their people Or if we may compare great things with small as if the Banks and Walls of the great Level of the Fenns should be maintained by a small number of the Proprietors And yet this seems to be the present case and how far this proceeding is contrary to the common Reason of Mankind I leave to the world to judge But this is not all neither For this charge is not laid only upon a Part but in great measure upon the most impotent and necessitous part of the Kingdome and upon many of those glorious Worthies which maugre all the Temptations and menaces of wicked men preserved their Virgin Loyalty chast and undeslowred I have observed that some persons in Parliaments have used it as a motive to supply our Kings with Money because say they that which you give is but like a vapour exhaled by the Sun which gathereth into a cloud and in short time distils again upon the Earth in gentle dews and fructifying showres But this Advice what was it but to draw up the Tears of Orphans and Widdowes the milk of helpless Babes the sweat of the Labourers brow and the heart blood of several poor Loyallists among others to fertilitate the Lands of many persons which not to say worse wallow in all Afluence and Riches Amos 3.12 compar'd with 2 Sam. 12.2 Or if I may use a Scripture Metaphor to take two Leggs or a piece of an Ear of a Lambe which we had rescued out of the Jaws of the