Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
kingdom_n force_n great_a king_n 4,787 5 3.6392 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A57319 The right of the citizens of London to elect sheriffs in their common-hall, proved, from the custom of our ancestors, from their charters, history, antient acts of Parliament, judgments and resolutions of many learned judges 1700 (1700) Wing R1505; ESTC R1437 9,090 4

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

to repeal the Charters of the City Magna Charta and all other Acts of Parliament for the Confirming Granting and Restoring the Liberties and Privileges of the Citizens in which they have an Inheritance For as the Lords and Commons in Writs of Summons to Parliament are call'd the Common-Council of the Kingdom and are to advise in Matters of Weight and Difficulty so is the Common-Hall the extraordinary Common-Council of all the Citizens of London These two Laws therefore cannot be Acts of Common-Council they must be Acts of Common-Hall or Hall-Court which to this Purpose are a Common-Council or a Council of the Commons and call themselves in this Act a Common-Council in the other the Commonalty who were in Council assembled as the Representatives of the Commons to make By-Laws for them and call themselves sometimes the Common-Council of the City as they properly are in this Matter sometimes the Commonalty as the Representatives of the People in Parliament are called and do call themselves in all Acts of Parliament the Commons who are but the Representatives of the Commons and are also called in the Antient Oaths of Coronation established by Parliament the Vulgi or Common People tho but their Representatives The Use and Custom of chusing Sheriffs makes this beyond Contradiction for at this very Day the Masters and Wardens of the Mysteries in the City in their Halls clothed as aforesaid go to the Elections of Mayors and Sheriffs to the Guildhall and there do elect not as Men of the Common-Council but as a Hall-mote or Hall-court and those of the Common-Hall that are not of the Common-Council meet together as a Hall-mote or Hall-court not as a Common-Council For the Peace and Quiet of the City it were to be wish'd that those Acts of Common-Council as they are said to be had never been printed they have given just cause to Men to believe That there are those that against Law and Reason against Practice and Custom would take from the Citizens the Election of Mayors and Sheriffs by their Representatives in Common-Hall They have laid a Foundation nay they have been scaffolding many Years by their Acts and Devices and have had the confidence to disturb and make void Elections by the Common-Hall and have taken away the Rights and Liberties of the Common-Hall on purpose to take Fines and then to compel the Common-Hall to new Elections a thing not known to our Ancestors This is not only levying Money at other Times and in other manner than by Act of Parliament as was done by the late K. James and is numbred among the Grievances of the Statute of 1 K. Will. and Q. Mary but is raising Money without any colour of Law and yet vindicated in the vilest manner for Men are publickly forbid to speak of or mention this Grievance because the King is beyond-Sea when in truth a greater Service cannot be to the King than to prevent these Extravagancies which are against his Coronation-Oath by which he has promis'd to govern according to the Statutes in Parliament agreed on and the Laws and Customs of England The late K. James as it is declared in the first of K. Will. and Q. Mary by Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to subvert the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom Laws for free Elections As that of Westminster 1st is endeavoured to be subverted by the Common-Council The Words of the Statute are For that Elections ought to be free The King commands upon great Forfeiture That no great Man nor other by Force Malice or Menaces shall disturb free Elections And my Lord Cook in his Exposition of that Statute tells us there were two Mischiefs before the making this Statute 1. Elections were not duly made 2. Elections were not freely made And both these were against the antient Maxim of the Law Fiant Electiones rite libere sine interruptione aliqua For before this Act in the irregular Reign of H. 3. the Electors had neither their free nor their due Elections for sometimes by Force sometimes by Menaces and sometimes by Malice the Electors were framed and wrought to make election of Men unworthy or not eligible so as their Election was neither due nor free This Act briefly rehearseth the old Rule of the Common Law that Elections ought to be free wherein both the said Points are included 1. It must be a due Election and 2. It must be a free Election This Statute doth enact That no Man upon grievous Forfeiture shall disturb any to make free Elections and is excellently penned in two respects First For that generally it extendeth to all Elections that is to say to every Dignity Office or Place elective be it Ecclesiastical or Temporal of what Kind or Quality soever Secondly The Act is penned in the Name of the King viz. The King commandeth And therefore the King bindeth himself not to disturb any Electors to make free Election as in the like Case upon a Statute made in the Reign of the said King The Act saying Rex perpendens c. the same bound the King Now that Electors might make free and due Elections without displeasure or fear thereof by this Act of Parliament as a sure Defence the King commandeth the same upon grievous Forfeiture And this Act extends to all Elections as well by those that at the making this Act had Power to make them as by those whose Power was raised or created since this Act. The Disturbers of free Elections he says are to be punished with grievous Fines and Imprisonment Yet how notoriously was this most excellent Law violated by the very Government of the City of London at the last Election of Sheriffs What ill and dangerous Example was given to the whole Nation by the Magistrates of the City of London at that Election What open and publick Encouragement to affront and contemn his Majesty's Laws made to prevent Disorders and Tumults What popular Confusion might have hapned from those whose Rights and Liberties were invaded against Law and Justice by the Sheriffs denying the Question that was desired to be put Whether to adhere or proceed to a new Election when humbly intreated And this was done at a time when his Majesty was out of the Realm and in Arms against a Tyrant and the Common Enemy of Law and Liberty The Common Hall are a Court of great Authority they have a Jurisdiction by Custom and have a Prescription and Custom to disfranchise and restore in their Common-Hall or Hall-Court James Baggs Case Cook 11 Vol. if the Party disfranchised have committed a Crime that deserves that Punishment if not the King may command them to restore him But no such Writ can be directed to the Common Council or Mayor and Aldermen for they cannot take away nor restore Mens Liberties and Franchises 't is against Magna Charta Every Citizen has a Freehold in the Lands Liberties and Franchises of his Corporation and a Disfranchisement by them is a Disseisin and