judge it as thou find'st it I am not the City Advocate to plead their Rights rather their Champion to defend them from wrong I take not upon mee to argue their Cause but to answer Arguments already made against them Vnder that Notion consider mee compare mee and censure mee only shut not thy Eyes against any cleare light that shall appeare in mee since to bee wilfully ignorant ought to bee reckoned among sins of knowledge Farewell Bellamius Enervatus OR An Answer to a Plea for the Commonalty of LONDON And first to the Proem THe discontent that breeds in some kinde of spirits because they cannot doe what they would makes them next to doe they cannot tell what The occasion of this Mr. Bellamies speech first spoken since published to throw up all enclosures of Order in the City of London by shuffling the Cards and taking away all notes of distinction between the Head and Members thereof did not principally arise from any just claime that hee could make to the Priviledges which he pleades for but as himself confesseth hee was put upon this motion because hee had been crost by the Lord Major and Aldermen a little before in a former motion Hee tels you that upon the 16th of January last he made a motion that a certain obstruction in the Court of Common-Counsell might be removed which was caused by the Lord Majors using his Priviledge of taking up the Sword and so dissolving the Court for the present when hee saw good without their consents The redresse whereof hee tels you he prest with much earnestnesse and Prometheus-like stole fire from heaven to quicken this creature of his own making for he us'd the Arguments of the Lords and Commons in Parliament made to the King for the continuance of their sitting as long as they saw good in Parliament to the Lord Major for the continuance of his sitting as long as they saw good in Common-Counsell But this not taking such offect as hee hoped for was yet the Spur that prickt him forward upon another designe that since hee could not court them out of their Priviledges hee would labour to force them And * Read his own Proem at the latter end thereupon it was that he indevoured 1. By the Charters of the City 2. By Records witnessing their power in the practise of them 3. By Equity and Reason to extend the Commoners Rights a little further and since it could not bee yeelded that the Lord Major in Common-Counsell must sit still as long as they list they will now both make him sit when they list and which is worse Act what they list Throughout which passage give mee leave to make these Observations First what Equity there was in his first motion upon the sixteenth of January Secondly What were the Arguments that hee backt it with Thirdly What reason there was that upon the deniall of that first motion hee should now fall upon this For his first motion upon the sixteenth of Janary it first argues a great deale of weaknesse in the Lord Major that he doth not know when to sit still and when to rise for the Cities good unlesse Mr. Bellamy tell him Secondly it much asperseth the Lord Majors integrity that hee would not of himself sit as long to do the City or Kingdom service as Mr. Bellamy would have him Thirdly it wrests the Sword it self out of the Lord Majors hand it being given him to dispose according to Law in his own best judgement which notwithstanding must now during the time that a Common-Counsell will sit though it bee all day and all night and never so much occasion to use it in the City bee surrendred as it were into the hands of Mr. Bellamy till hee please that the Lord Major shall take it up againe As touching the Arguments brought by Mr. Bellamy to back this motion there are two things in them considerable 1. whos 's they are 2. what they are First Whose they are hee tels you they are the same which the Lords and Commons used to his Majesty for the continuance of this present Parliament all that is his in them is the Application to fit those Arguments which were made by them for the Kingdom to serve his turn for the City For Answer to which if I dare trust my memory I shall acquaint you with an old story of a certain Recorder of your own City who had a Malefactor indicted and convicted of murder before him the Malefactor was called Skillman the Recorder being somewhat facetious hearing such a name thus quibbled upon it Thy name saith hee to the Prisoner is Skillman take away S and it is Killman take away K and it is Illman thou hast an ill name which may half hang thee and an ill cause which will quite hang thee This sudden flash being favourably smiled upon by the Court a certain Magistrate of the Countrey took speciall notice of put it up in his Table-book and the next time hee sate upon the Bench made this use of it There was a malefactor brought before him and convicted for stealing a horse his name was Johnson Hee presently asks him his name the other answers his name was Johnson Johnson saith hee take away S and it is Killman take away K and it is Illman thou hast an ill name which may half hang thee and an ill cause which will quite hang thee If this were but a Fable the Morall is good I will make no other Application of it to Mr. Bellamy but thus to let him know that all Arguments will not serve at all turns nor is it any Plea for him that hee hath brought the Arguments of the Lords and Commons unlesse hee can make them as fit for himself as they made them for themselves and therefore we will look no further whose Arguments they are but wee will come in the next place to see what they are And here hee tels you the particulars which hee insisted upon were these three 1. the raising of Monies for the Kingdomes Cities occasions 2. The Repayment of those monies so raised by the Parliament Common-Counsell 3. The redresse of the grievances of the City Kingdome These three hee tels you the Common-Counsell cannot effect as they should doe without the power of continuing together till such time as these be throughly considered upon All which wee easily grant but would faine know how these Arguments back his Motion hee brings us Arguments to prove why the Common-Counsell should sit till the necessary businesse of the City bee effected and therefore makes a motion that they may sit as long as they themselves list whereby they doe not urge for a power to sit while the necessary businesse of the City is effected but while such trouble-Courts as himself shall please to tire out the Lord Major and Aldermen with as impertinent speeches as hee hath done here with one of almost an houre long to no purpose at all unlesse it bee to make divisions
Dare you deny that there wants either so much wisdome in the Lord Major and Aldermen that they know not when the Court is full of necessary businesse and so requires their stay or when the Court is burdened with Impertinent long-winded senselesse Arguments and is therefore fit to bee dissolved or adjourned Or will you tye the Lord Major and Aldermen though never so weary by reason of their great age and perhaps other bodily infirmities not to rise from Common-Counsell till you will give him leave unlesse you will doe this your Arguments may indeed make good that it is fit the Lord Major should see necessary businesse effected for the Cities good in convenient time but can never prove that hee must therefore sit as long as you would have him I come now to the last Observation which in the third place I must speak unto and that is this What reason Mr. Bellamy had that because this his first unreasonable motion took no effect hee should thereupon indevour to presse a second of farre worse consequence then the former Which was as I conceive just none at all that because my Lord Major denyed him this motion hee must therefore in the next presse for more Me thinks Mr. Bellamy it had been enough for you to have said My Lord Major was to blame that would not hearken to so wise a man and a motion so like himselfe nor throw the City Charters at your feet to bee mended he was an obstinate perverse untoward man to maintain his and the City Priviledges when Mr. Bellamy had mov'd to have them given away But for you upon the deny all of your first motion presently to fall upon a second farre more desperate it savours nothing in mine eye but a thirst of revenge that because my Lord Major would not give you his Sword to keep by you as long as you pleased you would therefore take it from him and cut out his tongue with it by denying him and his Brethren those negative voyces which is indeed their Right and the Cities Glory and because hee would not make your will Law you would finde out a Law to take away his will and force the head onely to act at the discretion of the members as appears by your claime to an absolute power which the Commoners themselves you say are invested with of making City Laws and choosing City Officers whether the Lord Major and Aldermen will or no if you bee more per poll then they the which you undertake in your Plea for the Commonalty of London fully to maintain and which I am now undertaking as fully as I can to Answer A FVLL ANSVVER TO THE Plea for the Commonalty of LONDON THis snarling Pamphlet Cerberus-like barks with three heads Hee tels you p. 2. that hee will for methods sake deliver what in this hee hath to speak under three heads and they are these First That this City by those favours and bounties which wee and our Predecessors have received from sundry royall Kings of England is now invested with many excellent immunities franchises and priviledges Secondly Who are the proper recipients of those favours or to whom the power of using and maintaining those favours and Priviledges granted to us by our royall Kings of England is committed Thirdly The Reasons or Arguments wherefore those persons unto whom this power is committed should carefully and conscionably maintain and use those priviledges with which they are intrusted In the first of these hee spends much time and words and hath hard travell in Records to prove what no body denies and is at last delivered of nothing but winde He speaks no more but what wee know and acknowledge and thankfully I hope imbrace as wee ought to do And truely I should not spend any time to examine this foundation there is so little in it that hee can build any thing upon onely I remember what is taught mee by the wisest of Kings * Prov. 26.5 for which cause I shall trace him step by step to shew what unjustly hee doth and what justly I may pick out of these priviledges Hee tels you for proofe of his first head Hee hath a large and pleasant field to walk in I grant it is a large and pleasant field enough if men could think it so that walk in it but it appears it is not large enough for him which makes him at this time throw up Inclosures and by intrenching upon the Rights of the Lord Major and Aldermen strive to make it larger but I shall desire him to remember Cursed is hee that removeth his Neighbours Land-mark And now hee complements out these Priviledges both with the Princes that have conferred them and the City that injoyes them not knowing saith hee whether more to magnifie the favour of the one or the happinesse of the other But here hee tels you * Men do not doe in a large field as they do in a curious garden having so large a field to walk in hee must doe men use to doe in a curious garden pluck here a flower and there an herbe which is an old cast simile threed bare in his great grand-Fathers dayes and when hee hath done the best hee can hee must leave many behinde him for want of time and skill which I confesse I much wonder at that want of time and skill should make him leave his gathering of flowers who in so bad a time and with so little skill hath notwithstanding ventured to binde up such a bundle of weeds as hee hath in this fardell And these flowers hee saith hee must leave behinde him for some more able hand to gather them I scarce beleeve hee thinks there is an abler hand in England then his own though hee would have you bear him witnesse here of a great deale of modesty that hee doth confesse it Hee tels you hee can no way east his eye but hee beholds many witnesses of the great Priviledges of this City as first that they may sit in the capacity of a Common-Counsell which is a great Priviledge I confesse but not big enough for him unlesse hee and his Brethren the Commoners alone may sit in the capacity of an absolute Court not at all regarding the presence of a Lord Major and Aldermen or at best placing them but for Cyphers there Hee acknowledgeth also the Sword that Emblem of Authority which is carryed before the Lord Major is another Argument to prove the power of the Lord Major and therein the power of the City but I must make bold here to put him in minde that if the power of the City subsist in the power of the Lord Major then to take away the power of a Negative voyce in Common-Counsell as also the power of taking up the Sword when hee shall see time from the Lord Major is even to take away the power of the City which by his own confession is placed in the head thereof the Lord Major Hee shews you next what
London hath anciently been commended for and summes it all up in Sir Edward Cooks words who cals it the Chamber of the King the Heart of the Common-wealth the Epitome of the Kingdome All this wee grant and blesse God for onely wee desire that this place which hee cals the heart of the Common-wealth may never bee sick at the heart of those diseases and distempers which such members thereof as himself strive to breed and to cherish in it But now hee comes to prove his Proofes to wit that they enjoy these their Priviledges de Jure as given and bestowed on them not usurped by them and those priviledges hee tels you are these two First To have the power to choose their own chiefe Governour and subordinate Officers among themselves Secondly To have also the power to make such Laws which are or shall bee for their own welfare and best accommodation For proofe of the first of these which is the Cities power in choosing their own chiefe Governour and subordinate Officers among themselves hee produceth many Charters granted in the time of Richard the first King John Edward the second and Henry the eighth as you may see in his book at large I must confesse it is a fine and easie thing to prove what no body denies onely let mee observe thus much from his proofes if the City can prove they have a power by Charter to choose their own chiefe Governour the Lord Major as I do not deny but they may yet ought they by that Charter and are bound when they doe choose to choose a Lord Major indeed and not a Sword-bearer in stead of a Lord Major I say they ought to choose themselves a Lord Major and therefore to grant him the power of a Lord Major to dispose of the Sword that is given him according to his best ability and understanding for the good of the City but not to choose him to bee no more then the City Sword-bearer to lay down his Sword in Common-Counsell when they list and not to take it up againe till they will give him leave as Mr. Bellamy would have it to bee although they should injoyn him to sit all day or all night hee being never so old weak and unable to sit or never so much tyred with impertinences and such frothy speeches as this is or though hee hath never so much necessary occasion to use the same Sword at the same time either in the Court of Aldermen the seat of Justice or else-where for the necessary good and safety of the City The next Priviledge of the City that hee goes about to prove is that they have also the power to make such Laws as shall bee for their own welfare and best accommodation And this hee proves by the Charter of Edward the third in the fifteenth year of his Reigne where indeed hee draws a knife to cut his own throat for I doe not know how hee could have pickt out any Charter which doth invest the Lord Major and Aldermen with a negative voyce and put the power of making Laws into their hands more then this Charter of Edward the third I will relate the Charter it self in Mr. Bellamies own words it runs thus Wee have granted further for us and our Heires and by this our present Charter confirmed to the Major and Aldermen of the City aforesaid That if any Customes in the said City hither to obtained and used bee in any part difficult or defective or any thing in the same newly happening where before there was no remedy ordained and have need of amending the same Major and Aldermen and their Successed with the assent of the Commonalty of the same City may adde 〈◊〉 ordaine a remedy meet faithfull and consonant to Reason for the common prâ—sâ— of the Citizens of the same City as oft and at such time as to them shall bee thought expedient Wee will consider in this Charter but two things First to whom the Charter itselfe is confirmed Secondly how the power of this Charter must bee used First to whom it is confirmed it speaks plainly that it is granted to the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City without so much as naming any interest that the Commons have in the grant of it Whence I conclude that the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London were thought fit by the same King that granted this Charter to bee intrusted with the absolute power of the Charter to use it for the Cities Good even as Counsell is given to the Head to use for the benefit of the whole body Secondly Wee are to observe how the power of this Charter which is the power of making Laws must bee used Read the words of the Charter and they tell you thus The Lord Major Aldermen and their Successors have a power thereby given them to make or mend what Laws they see necessary with the assent of the Commoners From whence it will necessarily follow that the Active power of making Laws nay of proposing Laws otherwise then by way of Counsell rests wholly in the hands of the Lord Major and Aldermen and no more power is left in the Commoners but to assent or to dissent from those Laws that shall seem good to bee made by the Lord Major and Aldermen and by their assent to ratifie or by their dissent to hinder them So that now where lies the Negative voyce If the Commoners in regard of the greatnesse of their number shall out-vote the Lord Major and Aldermen which at all times they easily may and thereupon undertake to make or mend a Law then is the very Charter it self absolutely and apparently broken For it doth not say wee have granted to the Commons that by the consent of the greater part of the Common-Councell nor yet by the consent of the Lord Major and Aldermen much lesse without their consent that they to wit the Commoners shall have power to make or mend a Law But it faith wee have granted to the Lord Major and Aldermen to make the Law by consent of the Commoners So that it must needs follow that the Lord Major and Aldermen must either use their power to the making of a Law or else let the Commons consent what they will though they have a power to consent they have no power by consenting to make a Law And I would faine know whether that Law can bee said truely to bee made by the Lord Major Aldermen and their Successors which is onely carryed by the Plurality of the voyces of the Commoners and thereupon made though contrary to the consent of the Lord Major and Aldermen as Mr. Bellamy would have them to bee and I would fain know whether the proper meaning of this Charter must not needs bee thus that the Lord Major and Aldermen who being chosen by the City are intrusted with the care and charge of the welfare of the same shall have therefore power to make or mend Laws for the Cities good onely
the Commons and how will you answer it by saying the fault is not ours for wee gave up the City Government into the hands of the Commons let them look to it wee gave them an absolute power of making Common-councels to sit as long as they pleased and of making what Laws they pleased by plurality of their own voyces without us or our consent Doe you think such an answer will serve your turn No my Lord it will bee replyed you were by your Charters invested in this Power You not the Commons were made the City Governours The Commission will not bee answered thus that Mr. Bellamy laid a claim to your Priviledges and therefore you let them goe but it will fall heavy upon you because you therefore let them goe and your punishment will bee just when you from whom good Government is expected give up all government out of your hands into the hands of the Commons at the motion of Mr. Bellamy Thus my Lord You see good reason why you should fit fast in the power which the mercy of God the favour of sundry Kings and your own Charters have seated you in and use not onely some but all your Priviledges so you doe not use more then all fince if ever enquiry bee made and a hole bee sought in the Cities coat it will bee no excuse for you that you at the request of Mr. Bellamy gave over your priviledges into the hands of the Commons it being your duty to use them and to use them fully your selfe to whose charge they are committed Mr. Bellamies second Argument is drawn from the obligation of a sacred Oath Where you finde him Common-placing about the distinctions antiquity authority and binding power of an Oath To which I leave him and come to make mine own observations out of what hee here saith And first let mee ask whether Mr. Bellamy himselfe have not in some sense or degree violated this sacred Oath by publishing without the consent of the Common-councell whereof hee is a member so desperate a clamor against the very ancient customes of the City as this to the disturbance of its peace Secondly Let mee tell your Lordship that you and your Brethren the Aldermen are tyed also by another Oath to maintaine the Priviledges not onely of the City in generall but your own Priviledges in particular and till it bee proved that a Negative voyce in Common-councell doth not belong to the Lord Major and Aldermen nor taking up the Sword in Common-councell and departing when hee sees good doth not belong to the Lord Major which I would bee loath to fast till either of them bee proved I must put you in minde of your last Oath that as you tender that you keep them still in your hands and maintain them Thirdly I must tell you that you violate the very Oath of a Free-man if you doe not so I shall give you that Oath as Mr. Bellamy layes it down It is this The Franchises and Customes of this City you shall maintain Now it is apparent that the Lord Major and Aldermens Negative voyce in making Laws their absolute power in choosing some City-Officers and the Lord Majors power to take up the Sword in Common-councell at his discretion and goe away These are all Customes of the City and have been so time out of minde and therefore I must put every Free-man of the City in minde to take heed lest thus indevouring to overthrow the City Charters and Customes as Mr. Bellamy doth hee violate his Oath which runs thus The Franchises and Customes of this City you shall maintaine Thus you see Mr. Bellamy hath now gone through all that hee proposed to himselfe and I have traced him Hee hopes he hath fully proved every particular and I hope I have fully disproved him in every particular And now as St. Paul said to Philemon in the behalf of Onesimus hee also speakes to you telling you Though hee might injoyne you to that which is convenient yet for Loves sake bee rather intreats you You are beholding to him if hee doe there intreat you where hee might injoyn you But by what Law might hee injoyn you by none that I know of unlesse it bee Club-law for all other Law is for you and I am something afraid lest his injunction should bee of that nature For you may remember hee tels you in his Epistle That bee deales like a forward and unexperiented Souldier who more hardy then wary loving his Countries Liberty adventures to begin the Onset to provoke and stirre up more grave and skilfull Commanders to follow on in hope of victory which simile though I may not construe in the worst sense and though I will charitably beleeve it means no more then to encourage others by like claime and more earnestnesse rather to word you out of your Priviledges then Sword you out yet I cannot assure you that the multitude will all take it in that sense Nor can I bee perswaded that when Mr. Bellamy hath raised but the tongues of a City in clamor that it will bee then in his power to hold their hands especially when hee gives them this encouragement that it is in their power to injoyn you But I hope God will preserve your Lordship and your Brethren in more safety and indue this City with more wisedome and peace and therefore I leave the matter of injoyning to see what it is that hee intreats for And that is For Love and Peace sake to joyn with them by your consent and assistance to settle all their Rights and Priviledges upon their own basis I confesse this is but a reasonable motion and so just that I am confident your Lordship together with your Brethren will not deny only you may please first to see it proved that they are not so already And this hee argues will much make for the Cities safety and for the service of the King and Parliament But I must answer the City will neither bee in a good condition themselves nor any way serviceable to the State by being all head but by being a well-composed body of Head and members And here hee saith hee could weep out his owne eyes and let out his own bowels if thereby hee could but penetrate into the breast of your Lordship and those worthy Aldermen your Brethren in this nick of time it seems hee is upon the spur and cannot stay to save a sinking City if not a dying Kingdome I Answer hee shall not need to doe any of this if hee will bee quiet Let him but hold his Tongue and it shall bee all ready done for him the City shall bee preserved from sinking from a Body into a monster by beeing all head and the dying kingdome will bee in a farre easier way to bee preserved when every member of the City in his proper sphere and not in another mans Office shall contribute helpe and influence into it And now hee puts you in minde what is the Enemies maxime