swallow up the Subjects right or the Subjects right the Kings just prerogative No dissolution ought to be of rule convayed by the consent of societyes into such and such hands but by the same power by which it had it's constitution This J grant being rightly understood but because the sense may be easily mistaken J shall enlarge my selfe upon it It is most agreeable to reason that the same power should by equall right abrogate as it did at first constitute For it is not possible any body should lay a necessary obligation upon it selfe to doe thus when it had liberty to doe otherwise except in relation to some other person to whom I may part with that right I had without possibility of recalling it And this either by actuall donation so when I have given away my money J cannot challenge it as due on my repentance or by promise which is an earnest of my performance In these cases J cannot use my liberty because it would be to the injury of another according to that rule grounded on great equity Nemo potest mutare consilium suum in alterius injuriam L nemo D. de reg jur In a popular state there is but one simple power and therefore the people upon consent may establish an Aristocracy or Monarchy when they please But in the other two where the authority is placed in the hands of a few or of one there are two parties in the contract and therefore even the whole people have not any power of dissolving this government unlesse this one or those few will voluntarily resigne up their power into those hands from which they received it and that such resignation be not to the injury of a third party It were strange if the people in subjecting it selfe to command should aime at any thing but it's own good in the first and last place No question rule and subjection divided paternall powers finding it necessary to yeeld to one Regall and instead of many to submit to one common father did spring from reason directing man-kind to its greatest convenience Therefore the people ayming chiefly at their own good yet perceiving this was not to be attained except they had a common protector to administer justice equally amongst them they found it necessary in a higher degree to provide for his good in recompense of their security and out of their particular estates to grant to him honourable demaines to whose care and justice they owed the peaceable possession of all So the good of either is mutually involved and that the people may be happy they must first provide for the happinesse of their ruler What followes I shall think unworthy any answer He breaks out into a most scandalous and false invective against the late government That the subject groaned under some grievances cannot be denied and we owe to the goodnesse of his Majestie that we are free even from the feare of them for the future J speak sincerely what I think though the wit of malice should set before us the most exact table of all our sufferings let it not impose upon us what we never felt and compare us to any other nation of the Christian world we in our worst times were least unhappy Because we have no reason to be in love with any evils I shall not endeavour to excuse them by comparison with our present miseries Though neither be desirable yet we are too sensible which we have justest reason to complain of I hope under this word protect the King intends not onely to shield us from all kinde of evill but to promote us also to all kinde of Politicall happinesse according to his utmost de voyre I never before did apprehend in the word Protect this large notion we may expect all happinesse from His goodnesse we cannot challenge it from His duty How should we conceave that the Prince is obliged by oath to take care for his people in such a degree as the most affectionate mother never yet took for her dearest children If it were so then all his Majesties Royall ancestors who did not provide for their people in such a high degree of happinesse as he by the advise of this present Parliament hath done were perjured as having all taken the oath to Protect Every particular subject hath a just title and may challenge an interest in whatsoever is meant by the word Protection Is the King therefore bound to promote every particular person to all kinds of politicall happinesse to advance all to honours offices power command Though all single persons ought to look upon the late Bills passed by the King as matters of Grace with all thankfulnesse and humility yet the King himselfe looking upon the whole state ought to acknowledge that he cannot merit of it c. all hath proceeded but from his meere duty It was believed heretofore the greatest happinesse of a Prince that he was able his greatest glory to be willing to oblige his people But now he is made not capable of doing any courtesie When he hath done all that he can he hath discharged the duty of a trusty servant I am confident never any age was guilty of the like irreverence and disrespect to Princes as is shewne in this book If all single persons ought to look upon the late bills passed by the King as matters of Grace then they truly are so for no obligation can lay upon a man to believe things otherwise then they are This ground destroyes the power of beneficence in a Prince and the duty of gratitude in Subjects We should think it very hard if we who are but subjects should be dealt with by the same rule All owe a duty to their King to their country yet upon extraordinary services we beleive we deserve well of both The example of the House of Commons will better instruct him who have severall times presented their thanks and humble acknowledgment of his Majesties gracious favours and have likewise received thanks from most Counties in the Kingdome for procuring those bills so beneficiall to the subject and yet surely the trust reposed in them by those that chose them and the end for which they met did no lesse oblige them in point of duty to doe whatsoever might conduce to the generall good of the Kingdome The King ought not to account that a profit or strength to him which is a losse and wasting to the people nor ought he to think that perisht to him which is gained to the people By the same argument the people may share all that he hath and he is bound to believe he has lost nothing If King and people have severall rights what law is there which binds the King suo jure cedere and enables the people to preserve their rights nay to challenge his And if they have not but the interests of King and people be either altogether one and the same or so inseparably united as they cannot be severed then it
wants by subsidies and assent to the abrogation of old lawes and enacting new as necessity shall require In the summons of Edw. 1. claus 7. m. 3. dors we see the first end of Parliaments expressed for he inserts in the writ that whatsoever affaire is of publique concernement ought to receive publique approbation Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet or tractari I have not the convenience of examining this record and therefore cannot be able to satisfie my selfe in circumstances which perhaps might afford some light to the cleerer understanding of this rule For the present therefore I will allow it to be certaine law though he would not be willing I should have the same liberty and argue the legality of a thing from a Princes bare affirmation and see what advantage he can make of it It seems to me to be deduced from an evident principle of reason and to flow hence it is against equity that the act of one should prejudice another without his consent There is much caution required to the managing this rule For if it be understood in its full latitude without all limitation it will dissolve the bonds of Government by reducing us to that primitive state wherein every one had absolute right to dispole of his owne as he pleased Therefore we must take into consideration that multitudes finding a necessity of Government did restraine this native right by positive Constitutions so that in the best governed States the greater part of men were presumed by a fiction of law to handle and approve such things as they never heard of The ground of which fiction is very reasonable for the people though they are not advised with may well be said to consent to what their rulers doe because they have entrusted them with their safety which without this power convaied into such or such hands could not be so effectually provided for Thus in absolute Monarchies what Princes doe is legally the act of all thus in our Kingdom two hundred thousand debate and approve things by the suffrages of two who many times vote quite contrary to their desires who have entrusted them and yet the people shall be said in law to affirme what really and in truth they doe deny The result of all is this those things which the law doth require shall be transacted only by Parliament the people doe handle approve of by their Knights or Burgesses in those things which the Law hath entrusted the King with many of which concerne the good of the whole what he does is their act Hence it may appear the Kings Writ by which he calls the Houses together to consult de quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis is no waies opposite to this supposed Law understood with due limitations The desire of the Commons in the Raigne of Edw. 3. seems to mee fully to justify the same which was that they might not advise in things de queux ils n'ont pas cognizance The matters in debate were of no small concernment being no lesse then the setling intestine commotions guarding the marches of Scotland and the Seas But the answer is herein they renounce not their right of consent they only excuse themselves in point of counsell referring it rather to the King and his Councell Here then we have the judgement of the House of Commons that in affaires of some nature and those too very much concerning the safety of the whole Kingdome there may be fitter Counsellors then they are I had conceived n' avoir pas cognizance had not signified to be ignorant or not to understand things so thoroughly since cognisance uses to be taken in a Law-notion and to signifie a right of handling matters judicially or power and jurisdiction as cognisance of Plea We meet with a very observable passage and which will give us great light in this buisines it is to be seen in a diary MS. of the Parliament held 1. Hen. 4. Et le lundy ensuivant S. lendemayn des almes les communes priont qu'eux ne soyiant pas entrez en les rolles de Parlement come parties as juggementez quex sount donez acest Parlement mes la ou ils sount in rei veritate partie et prive a cella quar lez juggementz appartient solement au Roy fosque la ou ascun juggement est renduz sur vn estatute feat par le comune prositz de Royalme Le quel fuist grante In English thus And the munday following scil the morrow after all Soules-day the Commons prayed that they might not be entred upon the Roles of the Parliament as parties to any judgements given this Parliament save only where in rei veritate they are part and privy thereto For that the judgements appertaine only to the King except where any judgement is given vpon a Statute made for the common profit of the Kingdome The which was granted How this shall derogate from Parliaments either in point of consent or counsell I doe not know for at last they did give both and the King would not be satisfied without them and the passage evinces no more but this that that King was very wise and warlike and had a very wise Counsell of Warr so that in those particulars the Commons thought them most fit to be consulted as perhaps the more knowing men The conclusion which more naturally followes is this when the King requires and will not otherwise be satisfied they may advise in matters not properly of their cognisance The conclusion by which he thinkes he hath gained so much may without any inconvenience be assented to These words ad tract andum or dinandum saciendum doe fully prove that the people in those dayes were sâ—mmoned ad consensum as well as ad consilium Be it so in those things which belong to their cognisance The formes which are used in passing a bill confesse so much les Communes ont assentés and les Seignevrs out assenás I have not yee done with his rule Quod omnes tangit ah omnibus approbari debet It is true the most popular state could never punctually observe it For some of the poorer some of the younger sort and women generally by reason of their sex are excluded yet all those having lives to loose are concerned in the publique safety But with what equity can he then thinke a considerable party of this Kingdome can be denyed the benefit of that which he conceives a most reasonable law I meane the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of common men because they are more immediately the servants of God His next endeavour is to shew that Parliaments have been much lessened and injuried of late by some passages in his Majesties answers But he can never make it appeare that any part of their truly ancient power is denyed to them The Kings words are what the extent of their Commission and Trust is nothing can better teach them then the writ whereby they
are met We called them and without that call they could not have come together to be our Counsellors not Commanders for however they frequently confound them the offices are severall The writ runs super dictis negotijs tractaturi vestrumque consilium impensuri so that the cleare meaning is their advise is not Law except the Royall assent establish it into an act 'T is alleadged he calls them Counsellors not in all things but in quibusdam arduis c. and the case of Wentworth is cited who being a member of the House of Commons was committed by Q. Eliz. but for proposing they might advise the Queen in a matter Shee thought they had nothing to doe to meddle with He answers a meere example though of Q. Elizabeth is no law It is true a bare example shewes only what was not what ought to be but when grounded on authority and no way excepted against by those who have alwayes been earnest defenders of their Priviledges it may be reckoned amongst sound Presidents what he adds that some of Her actions were retracted is a confirmation of this for this being out of the number it seems it was accompted legall Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis Yet neither did the King so quote this president as to build a right upon it He alleadges the King denyes the Assembly of the Lords and Commons when he withdrawes himselfe to be rightly named a Parliament or to have any power of any court and consequently to be any thing but a meere convention of so many private men This is falsly imposed on His Majesty His Answers and Messages speak the contrary which are directed to both Houses of Parliament Besides He hath passed some bills since his withdrawing All that He affirms is that the sole power of making or repealing lawes and altering any thing established is not in them but if He upon mature deliberation shal preferr the present government to the proposed change then their order is not to have the force of law and oblige the Kingdom The King is said to assert that because the law hath trusted him with a prerogative to discontinue Parliaments therefore if He do discontinue Parliaments to the danger or prejudice of the Kingdome this is no breach of that trust because in formality of law the people may not assemble in Parliament but by His writ This is grosse forgery if it appeare to him necessary or expedient for the Kingdom He acknowledges He is obliged by that trust reposed in him to issue out his writs And to this end He gratiously signed the bill for a trienniall Parliament which like Physick well timed may preserve the body of this state in health and strength by not sufferring ill humors to grow to any head Another assertion of the Kings he saies is if the Parliament make any transition in other matters then what he pleases to propose they are lyable to imprisonment at his pleasure All this he collects from the citation of Wentworths case The sence of his inference is this because they cannot justify the medling with things which belong not to their cognisance therefore they may be punisht if they medle with those that do We may observe an affected mistake in this author of which he makes frequent use and this animadversion though once laid down may often be applyed Whatsoever the Houses do he calls that the Act of the people Whereas the truth is they represent them only to some purposes and ends So that if they exceed their commission and vote things not belonging to their cognisance the People by no meanes is engaged in it as having no legall way of expressing themselves in such cases His Majesty clearly to prove that the trust committed to both Houses cannot bind Him to assent to what ever they propose seem it of never so dangerous consequence to the Kingdom nor absolve Him in point of conscience if His reason tell Him His people will extreamly suffer vnder the grant argues thus It is impossible that the same trust should be irrevocably committed to Us and Our heires for ever and the same trust and a power above that trust for such is the power they pretend be committed to others did not the people that sent them look upon them as a body but temporary and dissoluble at Our pleasure and can it be beleived that they intended them for Our Guardians and comptrollers in the managing of that trust which God and the law hath granted to Us and Our posterity for ever Strange it is that affection should so blinde the understanding and worke mens beliefe not according to reason but desire I must needs think the let lies only in his will else he could never satisfy himselfe with such weak answers It is true faith he two supreames cannot be in the same sence and respect If he had not hoped to hide himselfe in generalls he would have descended to particulars and told us in what sence what respect and what matters the King was supream in what the two Houses But an application would have discovered the truth even to weak understandings Nothing is more knowne or assented to then this that the King is singulis major and yet universis minor I have already evidenced the contrary yet I will speak something to it here By universis he must mean the representative all which therefore he concludes to be above and have greater power then the King that is such a power as He is bound to obey So it seems the King hath taken the oath of allegiance as well as we and we may call Him our fellow subject Yet the oath of Supremacy he tells us is no waies endangered The sense of his reason is because he is a better man then any one of us take us single He tels us He is better then any one He does not tell us He is better then two if the Kings supreamacy be no more but this it is no more then possibly He might have and probably had before He was King It is not the Prince singulis major nay may not any Lord in the Land challenge the same supreamacy over all the Knights any Knight over all esquiers to be singulis major though universis minor But perhaps some othes limitation may be found out the meaning shortly shall be that he is above the Pope in these his dominions not but that He is under His subjects to take of these and all other corrupt glosses I shall refer him to cap. 12. vices 4o. Hen 8. In the preface of which statute the Kings supreamacy not over single persōs but the body Politique is clearly delivered The words are these Where by divers sundry old authentick histories chronicles it is manifestly declared expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world governed by one Supream head and King having the dignity and Royall estate of the Imperiall Crown of the same unto whom a Body
which pretends to take care of their safety His way of arguing is very plausible and seemeth to carry more strength because it worketh upon our understanding by our affection The summe is this in case of apparent and imminent danger the Peoples safety is not to be neglected they ought not to be exposed as a Prey to the enemy who if he take them unprovided will destroy them all therefore most fit they should be put into a posture of defence now none so fit Iudges of this apparent and imminent danger as the two Houses wherefore they to order this Militia So that it must be in their power to command Men raise Horses seize on all the Ammunition send for what supplies of mony they think necessary for repelling these dangers else they are not sufficiently enabled for that great work the peoples preservation Here we are falne back again into what we so much complained of Arbitrary power nor is the thing taken away but placed in another body all that we have gained is only this we shall not be beaten by the same hand Was not this the very case of Ship-mony upon supposall of a necessity and the Kingdom being in danger very fit to secure it and the people this cannot be done without money the danger will not allow the delay of asking the Subjects consent and going the ordinary way of Law therefore an extraordinary course them becomes legall and very reasonable it is the Subject should be content to part with some rather then loose all now who fitter to judge of this necessity then the King as being most fully informed by His advantage of intelligence from His Embassadors Agents c. of the designes of forraigne Princes and States To wind our selves out of this Labyrinth we will goe on those grounds on which they argued against Ship-mony for as the Argument runnes parallell so will the answer This therefore was laid downe as a sure ground of reason that it was better for the Kingdom though it were in reall danger in arenâ consilium capere to shift for it selfe as well as it was able by a suddain defence then that the Law should provide such a remedy which would be so easily so frequently abused upon every pretence of danger to prevent such an evill which could extreamly seldome or almost never happen for an Army and Navy could not be so secretly provided but that we must have some intelligence of it So in the case of the Militia it is much better that by being continued in the old legall way it should hazard it selfe to such a possible danger then that Law should provide such a remedy for what probably will never happen as being abused upon pretences may every three years put the Kingdom in combustion To repell danger any way but by Law is the greatest danger of all Let the world judge whether the pronouncing Sr Iohn Hotham's act Treason be not contrary to the clearest beams of humane reason and the strongest inclinations of nature for every private man may defend himselfe by force if assaulted though by the force of a Magistrate or his own father and though he be not without all confidence by flight He is strongly resolved upon the conclusion that will bring it in upon such premises Sr John Hotham his asseizing on the Kings Towne and Ammunition was it seemes in his own defence who assaulted him did His Majesty drive him into Hull what can he think of the Gunpowder-traitors was their resistance a just defence then certainly every Rebellion is a just warre Indeed what is that thing which we call obedience if a man may refuse to submit to Law in his own defence Here whole Nations being exposed to enmity and hazard being utterly uncapable of flight must yeeld their throats and submit to assassinates if their King will not allow them defence There is great difference betwixt a Subjects defending himselfe and offending his King His fears are over-witty if they will not permit him to think himselfe safe except he get into one of the Kings sorts for his better security See if we are not left as a prey to the same bloody hands as have done such diabolicall exploits in Ireland c. if we may not take up armes for our own safety or if it be possible for us to take up armes without some Votes or Ordinances to regulate the Militia Subjects upon in vasion would not have wanted Commission to take up armes till then they are safe enough by the benefit of the Law which could not possibly have better provided for their safety then by denying them a power to take armes as often as ambitious choletick men for their own ends shall perswaâ—e them they are it danger For by this meanes being easily deceived whilest they endeavoured to avoyd false they would run themselves headlong into true perills The King saies the Parliament denies c. to whether now in this uncertainty is the Subject bound to adhere It is possible circumstances may afford us some light for our direction We may consider whether the Houses doe not barely say and whether His Majesty doth not descend so farre as to give reasons for what He does and to shew the Kingdom the ground of His actions by particular citation of the Lawes which justify them We ought to agree whether swerving from Law be to be judged by the action or by the authors that is if the King should have done whatever they did and the Houses what ever He did whether all would not then have been legall because done by them The King doth not desire to captivate any mans understanding to His authority but is willing to make all the world the judge of His actions neither is a blind obedience a part of any mans duty to the Houses The best way to discerne a right will be to consult the rule which is Law and not measure the legality of an act by the doer Some things are matters of fact here we may be guided by sense and judge as we see As whether the King has seized on any thing wherein the Subject hath a property or whether the Subject hath not seized upon something wherein the King hath a property whether the King hath raised warre against the Parliament that is whether His Guard was an Army and whether Hull is now London We had a maxime and it was grounded upon nature and never till this Parliament withstood that a community can have no private ends to mislead it and make it injurious to it selfe True in a state where the collective body assembles and the reason of it is evident for though every man aime at his greatest particular interest yet except it be agreeable to the interest of the major part it will never passe into an Act and if it be advantageous for the most it is to be esteemed publique Now what service this can doe the two Houses I cannot see because they are a representative body If
to recall it when it appears disadvantageous I owe that I have been safe thus long to the benefit of this covenant therefore am bound in justice to share the inconveniences If reason will not satisfie perhaps Christianity may Qui resistunt potestati Rom. 13. ipsi sibi damnationem acquirunt To resist the magistrate damnable The powers here spoken of were heathen yet Christ commanded his to be subject even to them That answer with which too many are deceived cannot excuse disobedience and Rebellion This precept obliges private men but not magistrates Since inferiour magistrates being opposed to the supreame power are but as private men and in this respect the reason of obedience is common to both Neither is this a hard law if duly considered If we suffer justly we have no reason to complain if undeservedly we are punished but not hurt The magistrate is Dei minister nobis in bonum because God will abundantly reward us for our patient suffering in obedience to his command But this is against nature He must mean nature guided by right reason and doth that dictate that rather then part with a temporall life we ought to forfeit an eternall It is objected that a temporary power ought not to be greater then that which is lasting and vnalterable He does not frame the Kings argument aright which concludes on this ground that it is not probable the lawes should place a power greater then his in such a body and yet leave it to his disposall when to call that body together when to dissolve it that is to determine when and how long he would be over-ruled when be King again His Majesty presses it farther which he dissembles This trust being irrevocably committed to Him and His heires for ever it cannot be conceived how it should sleep during the sitting of the Houses But if this were so the Romans had done unpolitiquely in creating Dictators when any great extremity assailed them and yet we know it was very prosperous to them sometimes to change the form of government Hence we may conclude it good policy in imminent danger to trust to a Monarchy not an Aristocracy and much lesse to a democracy The Romans successe cannot be imputed meerely to their change but to this that they altered their form from worse to better as to their present ends but that will not justifie his desire of innovation from better to worse It is further objected He sayes if we allow the Lords and Commons to be more then counsellors we make them Comptrollers and this is not suitable to Royalty He answers we say here that to consent is more then to counsell and yet not alwayes so much as to command and comptroll True not alwayes but then it is when their consent shall impose a necessity upon the King of doing the like He hath not laid down his Majesties words faithfully The point He stands on is that their advise is not His law neither is He bound to captivate His reason or submit His conscience to their Votes Yes it must be so because in inferiour Courts the Judges are so counsellors for the King as that the King may not countermand their judgements and yet it were a harsh thing to say that they are therefore Guardians and Comptrollers of the King therefore it holds in Parliaments a fortiori The reason why the King cannot countermand their judgement is because they sustain His person and His consent is by law involv'd in what by law they do and there would be no end if He should undoe what He hath done Authoritas rei judicatae vim legis habet there can be no appeal from himselfe to himselfe He therefore makes the Judges take an oath they will deny to no man common right by His letters because He is not to passe sentence in private but in publique and in a Judiciall way That it is his owne act appears from this that He delegates his power to them and this is a known rule Quod Rex facit per officiarios per se facere videtur The truth is Kings have a right and heretofore they made use of it to sit in judicature personally Camden tells us that Bancus Regius ita dictus erat â—rit 112. quòd Rex ipse in eo praesidere solebat Sir Tho Smith too in his description of England Subsellia Regia vulgo Bancus Regius ex eo sortita sunt appellationem l. 2. c. 14. quia ibi ipsi Angliae Regessedere consueverunt This Court was called the Kings Bench because the King sate as judge in it in His proper person It removed with the King as is to be seen 9. Hen. 3. cap. 11. by which the Court of common Pleas is fixed Common pleas shall not follow our court but shall be holden in some certain place Moreover the Judges swear they will not assent to any thing which may turne the King in damage or disherison by any manner way or colour 18. Edw 3. when he can make these things agree to the two Houses he shall conclude from the Iudges sentence to their votes But since it will clearly appeare that they are not the mouth of the King the Lords sitting in a personall capacity and the House of Commons as representing the body of the Kingdom though not that to all intents and purposes the inference must by no means be granted I shall adde this to make the answer more clear and to avoid mistake in matters of Law there lyes an appeal to them a writ of errour being brought as to the highest Court not so in matters of state Because whilst they passe sentence according to known lawes the state is no way indangered thereby but if they challenge to themselves a liberty of passing sentence according to reason of state they may when they please overthrow our lawes The Counties which intrusted them looke upon them as Judges not Politicians But we ought not to conceive that they well either Councell or consent to any thing but what is publiquely advantagious When the King conceives they do not otherwise He will most willingly follow their advise This fallacy though extreamly weak hath influenced on all his book He takes the two Houses in such a Notion as not failing of their duty but doing every thing as they ought and supposeth the King to be wanting to that trust which is committed to him By such Councell and consent we cannot imagine the King limited or lessened Such a Consent in which his is necessarily involv'd renders his Power not so properly lesse as none at all it doth not limit but take it away Pray put the Case a thousand pounds is left to Titius and Sempronius to be bestowed upon joynt consent Sempronius being just and reasonable grants to Titius the right of a Negative so that without he will concurre he confesses he can doe nothing The King doth not pretend to have power of repealing old or constituting new Lawes without them Titius
in the fidelity of others If it could have been averred as it could not for the contrary was true that this would have bred disturbance and have been the occasion of greater danger Truly then he shall get the better if he can impose upon our sense and make the Kingdom beleeve contrary to what they see and suffer under What hath been the cause of these unhappy distractions but as the taking the Kings Towne from him by force and the illegall alteration of the Militia upon pretence of apparent danger Though for a time they were afraid where no feare was quis illis sic timere permisit yet after they have had so long a time to recover their understandings and to consider with themselves if the danger were apparent it might in so many months be made evident and they might know whence to expect the blow I dare now appeale to the weakest part of men their distrusts and aske them if they can now believe there was any just ground for jealousies It is not improbable since they have raised a house without a foundation it may fall upon the heads of the master builders Where the people by publique authority will seek any inconvenience to themselves and the King is not so much interessed in it as themselves 't is more inconvenience and injustice to deny then to grant it More injustice to deny then grant therefore it seemes that injustice too Into what streights must a King be brought by the mindes of the people If they seek any inconvenience injustice to deny it O unheard of Maxims out of these new Politiques that a King should be bound by Law to destroy his people and kill them out of duty that he doth not preserve their rights except he doe them wrong This affabile odium hath often had but never deserved thanks Can a man imagine those people of whom Juvenall speaks Evertêre domos totas optantibus ipsis Dii faciles if they had understood their own prayers would have accused the Gods for denying them Charior est Regipopulus quà m sibi How great are His deserts towards His People that will not suffer them to be miserable though they intreat him though they provoke him to it and can content himselfe with the conscience of merit whilst his honour suffers under the envy of wrong doing Indeed this is the end of all government for the people finding they were not fit to govern themselves resolved to be ruled by those that were wiser and so committed their safety to the trust of others Now this were to reduce themselves to that first state which their sufferings made them weary of to place a Governour over them and to governe that Governour What blame is it then in Princes when they will pretend reluctance of conscience and reason No man justifies pretended conscience no man can condemne reall But what grounds can malice have to cast this aspersion of pretence of conscience and reason If we looke either on that unhappy misunderstanding of the people who would not be undeceaved by pretences his actions must appeare unto them as cleare as the day or on his owne necessities his owne extreame wants it cannot be For certainly he that hath granted so much in this Parliament and that in a short time as put all his Royall Ancestors Acts of grace together they fall much short of his would not have denyed any thing which was reasonable not any thing since his wants required supplyes from them but what should put him into farre worse condition then that of Poverty After a long and generall discourse of the originall of government the various formes and severall distempers whil'st policy was yet imperfect he returnes to the present matter The vertue of Representation hath been denyed to the Commons and a severance has been made betwixt the parties chosen and the parties choosing and so that great priviledge of all priviledges that unmoveable Basis of all honour and power whereby the House of Commons claimes the entire right of all the Gentry and commonalty of England has been attempted to be shaken and disturbed The sense of it is a trust is committed to them and they are to be guided according to conscience in the performance of it Let it be so but is not this cleerly the Kings case who is entrusted certainly as highly as they So that they will find the ready way to endanger their own rights is to entrench upon the Kings Yet there may be a mistake in the imputation of severance and denyall of representation to the Commons For put the case if a few men of a County present a Petition to the House against established lawes and the setled Discipline of the Church this is received and thanks returned if after another Petition modestly and discreetly expressing their desires and withall due respects to the House as to instance in that most excellent Petition of Kent be presented attested by men much more eminent then the former whether we respect number Gentry meanes or reputation and this in favour of present government which they have found happy by long experience and therefore have no reason to be so desirous of a change of which they are not able to judge so well without tryall this by no meanes is to be called a severance or denyall of representation though I confesse the Kingdome apt to mistake may easily be deceived and learn to miscall it because the Gentlemen were imprisoned who presented it Most of our late distempers and obstructions in Parliaments have proceeded from this that the people upon causelesse defamation and unproved accusations have been so prone to withdraw themselves from their representatives and yet there can be nothing under Heaven next to renouncing God which can be more perfidious and more pernitious in the people then this Here we may see the strength of passion above reason Certainly we never took the oath of Supremacy nor of Allegiance unto them Hence it will evidently follow that Treason against a Burgesse is higher then that against the King This he grants as unquestionable that the legislative power of this Kingdome is partly in the King and partly in the Kingdome so that neither the King can make a generall binding Ordinance or Law without the Parliament or the Parliament without the King This one truth if constantly stood to would have prevented our miseryes and if yet embraced might restore the Kingdome to happinesse But alas it is soon recalled as bolding only in ordinary cases but if the safety of the people be concerned if it may prove dangerous or inconvenient to them then an extraordinary course may justly be taken This is it which hath so miserably rent this Kingdome and caused these sad divisions First the people are made beleeve they are in danger and then a prevention of those dangers is promised This must needs be very gratefull to them so out of that naturall love they bear to themselves they favour that side
Respublica let the brand of Treason stick upon it No provisions are allowed but what are legall least the Remedy should prove the greatest disease Nay if the Parliament would have used this forcible meanes unlesse petitioning would not have prevailed It is no just excuse to take away a mans money and say he did first desire him to deliver it Or if their grounds of jealousy were meerly vaine It is against all equity to doe wrong because there is a possibility of suffering it no man can have a full security and therefore we must arme our selves against uncertain feares not by injuries but a wary innocence Or if the jealousy of a whole Kingdom can be counted vaine Too large an expression much the greater part of the Kingdom apprehend no just grounds of jealousies Though the mindes of many were a long time unsetled being daily disturbed by suggestitons of plots at home and invasions from abroad yet if we duly weigh the businesse such fears ought not to be valued If forty severall men reporte the same thing yet if upon examination thirty nine of them say they had it from the other man this in Law makes but one witnesse so the fears of many thousands if grounded upon informations and those informations come from very few who can no way evidence the probability of such reports they ought not to be regarded they will vanish into nothing Or if they claime any such right of judging of dangers and preventing them without the King's consent as ordinary and perpetuall As often as they have a mind to make use of such a right 't is easy for them to call the case extraordinary and pretend a publike danger For my part I know not how they can ever be confuted if not now For certainly apparent dangers did never lesse appeare It would more abundantly have satisfied me if I had been frighted with secret plots and conceald designes The King might have prevented the same repulse by sending a messenger before hand That is if He had not come to get in He had not been shut out if He would have stayed away he would not have denyed Him entrance Or by coming without any such considerable forces Let His forces be great he was not to give Law to his Prince but neither is it likely he would have admitted Him then for you confesse a little above He offered to enter Hull with twenty horse only unarmed The Scots in England took New-castle but by private authority yet there were other qualifications in that act sufficient to purge it of Treason The King and Parliament deserved so much respect from you as not to have instanced so frequently in their Act you might well let that passe in silence which they have buried in an Act of oblivion He flourishes at large upon the example of Richard the second he means Edw. 2. misled by Spencer It doth not follow because one King hearkned to evill counsell therefore all must be denied the liberty to hearken to good Spencer's party was but of inconsiderable fortunes He will get no advantage by putting mens estates into the Scales and ballancing their reputations At length yet there is some little hopes he may prove a convert since he doth almost promise to suspend his judgement till he may have full satisfaction from His Majesties Narration which in due time will more fully informe him An Aristocracy in Parliament cannot be erected withoutsome means and what this means shall be is yet to us altogether inscrutable Certainly he is quicker sighted then not to perceive what is so obvious Deny the King a negative and the thing is done The power of Parliaments is but derivative and depending upon publique consent and how publique consent should be gained for the erection of a new unlawfull odious Tyranny amongst us is not discernable It is not thought this was the intent of those that entrusted them but it may be the abuse of power if the Kings authority be once swallowed up in theirs For though their power depend upon a publique consent in the election yet not so after they are met together The necessities of the time made His Majesty grant that this Parliament should not be dissolved without their consent but they may now challenge it as their right if the King be bound to confirme what they vote necessary or expedient But it cannot be and his reason is the Kingdom would not obey them In truth a very probable thing I beleeve they would not be able to goe through in that new way But yet they must needs have a great party considering their severall relations and the advantage they have in advancing the interests whether religious or civill of some which may be able to doe them service and this would create division in the Kingdom His Majesty expresses His just indignation that they He imputes it not to the Houses though this Author still involve them but to the contrivers penners of the Declaration should dare to tell their King they may without want of modesty or duty depose him He returnes answer this cannot be collected from those words That if they should make the highest presidents of other Parliaments their patterne there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty and duty because it may justly be denied that free Parliaments did ever truly consent to the dethroning of any King of England What was there affirmed of Parliaments had none of his present restriction of Free in it If the â— of Hen. 4. Were indeed not Free why were Statutes cited out of it The authors of those quotations must be presumed to accompt it so The King is offended at their franck expressions disguised under the charge of a malignant party The sense of his answer is this they have no other way to cleere themselves for there being faults somewhere not to lay them upon others were to take them upon themselves His Majesty hath proposed a very good way which will fully satisfy the world in their innocency and that is not alwaies to accuse but sometimes to prove The King demands justice for tumults and high indignities offered and complaines of a prohibition sent from the House of Commons into Southwarke to hinder the processe against a Riot according to Law His answer is equall justice could not be obtained against the Court-Cavaleeres His Majesty never protected them from legall tryall it was free for them to have proved what they could against them The Kingsaies it being granted by them that their priviledges doe not extend to Treason Felony or breach of the Peace so as to exempt the Members from all manner of tryall yet if they be so priviledged in the method of their tryall that the cause must first be brough before them and their consent asked before you can proceed then their Priviledges extend as farre in these as in the most unquestioned cases because no priviledge exempts them from all manner of tryall the House being acquainted and
committed so many outrages and such high injustice that Theramenes one of their own body one of the thirty professed his publique dislike of those proceedings Then was he accused as a Traitor to them and though it was a priviledge of the three thousand that none of them should suffer death by the sentence of the thirty but according to accustomed processe and tryall yet Critias wip't his name out of that number and so reduced him to their tryall Theramenes pleads for himselfe they ought to look upon his as a common case their names might as easily be blotted out he advises them to be very wary in making such a president which might ruine them and their posterity The issue was this Particular men being over-awed by their fears thought it their wisest way to hold their peace since if they should speak in his behalfe there was little hopes to redeeme him but great probability to ruine themselves So they chose rather to expose themselves to those future inconveniences which possibly might not come upon them then hazard a present danger By this advantage the Tyrants prevailed and condemned him to dye The things taken from the King at Hull were Armes which are of more danger then other kind of chattels By the same Law all that part of the Kingdom which is not confided in may be disarmed nay why may not their mony be taken too upon probable feare they may buy armes with it The Subject is in a miserable condition that is lyable to be undone as often as they please to be fearfull It is so farre from excusing it aggravates the fact to take away the Kings Armes that is the meanes whereby he may seize what ever else belongs unto His Majesty The Law of this Kingdom hath only intrusted the Prince with Armes so that the Subject ought not to be arraied trained and mustered but by His Commission But some determination must be supream and therefore either the Kings power and trust must be guided by the discretion of the Parliament or else the Parliament and all other Courts must be overruled by the Kings meer discretion No necessity of either For in cases of this nature which he confesses to be extraordinary if the King and Parliament dissent things must be at a stand and the Subject must be obedient to the ordinary Law The case of Ireland as it is laid down by His Majesty is unanswerable and therefore he is forced to extreme shifts being unable to say any thing materiall and yet unwilling to hold his peace England and Ireland are one and the same Dominion there is as true and intimate an union betwixt them as betwixt England and Wales If this were so Irish Barons would be English Peeres and English Peeres would have a right to vote in Irish Parliaments Besides all lawes here enacted would stand in full force in Ireland as they doe in the Kings dominion of Wales Though the major part should vote a thing yet if it be disliked here they would want authority to over-rule the thing so voted For the reason why the minor part in all suffrages subscribes to the major is that blood may not be shed for in probability the major part will prevaile This is a good reason for such a contract that the minor part should subscribe but after such agreement in States justice laies an obligation on them so to doe upon his grounds if the lesser part in Parliament though never so few can make it appeare the greater part of the Kingdom are of their opinion the major part ought to subscribe to the minor Nay if at any time the major part of Ireland joyning with the minor part of England make a major of the whole then the major part in our Parliament must sit downe He takes no notice of the other case suppose the malignant party should be a major part of both Houses which His Majesty shewes how very probably it might have been and were there a new election it is not impossible the Counties should send up the greater part of such men as he calls malignant would he think the King bound to consent to all such alterations as they should propose Some scattering reasons are laid down concerning the Militia which are but repetitions of what I have formerly answered A Faction is said to have prevailed upon a major part by cunning force absence or accident He argues thus against it if by cunning we must suppose the King's party in Parliament has lost all their Law policy and subtilty The reason why they are over-borne may be this not because they have lesse Law but more Honesty which will not permit them to maintain a good cause by ill meanes We all know in how great stead those piae fraudes holy falshoods and religious untruths stood the Church of Rome though there were such who laid down better reasons for the contrary opinions yet truth prevailed slowly and with a few only because the minds of most were craftily prepossest with prejudice against it begotten and nourished by fained stories The dispute proceeded upon very unequall termes for the Roman party gave themselves the liberty of taking all advantages whereas their adversaries were forced to betray a good cause out of meer ingenuity they had none of their side who could lye We ought to examine whether this policy work not at least in the beginning till a discovery of their falshoods is made and the people is undeceived the same effects in a civill State whether there are not such things as fraudes pretended to be reipublicae salutares which have so strong an influence on the understandings of many that they can submit to the votes of some who have insinuated themselves into their affections against the cleer reasons of others whom they have been taught causelesly to suspect How easy is it to deceive by giving in false informations of dangers from abroad If some more scrupulous then to be abused and led away by light reports inquire after the hand that they may judge of the probability of the intelligence according to the faith and credit of the relator they must be satisfied with this the informer desires his name should be concealed Pour l'eviterâ—le tiltre d'espion It cannot be by force because they have no army visible A thing is said in Law to be done by force not only when men actually suffer if they make use of their liberty and refuse to satisfy the passion and humor of some but then also when they have just grounds of feare for this works on the mind as strongly as the other on the body And therefore Seneca tells us stating this point of freedom vim majorem metum excipio quibus adhibitis electio perit and Cicero nec quicquam aequitati tam infestum est quà m convocati homines armati It remaines then we examine whether the names of many gentlemen were not openly read in tumults whether they were not posted with directions to
slavery Besides what can he propose to himselfe The people will give more then can be forced from them so he looses by it and then how much doth he hazard against lesse then nothing He hath least reason to break the lawes willfully because he injoyes most by them and experience having shew'd the benefit of observing them and the ill of the contrary He cannot but doubt the People would fail of their duty if he doe in performance of trust and cast of the bond of obedience if he doe that of Protection These things duly weighed render that malice inexcuseable which hath long time exercised the people with most unreasonable feares of lands and liberty and Religion being in danger and this notwithstanding the King 's many sacred Protestations to the contrary before God and all the world and the whole course of his proceedings which evidently tend to the securing all Now I think it doth fully appeare that the doctrine of that Remonstrance laid down by His Majesty by way of recapitulation in seven positions is most justly offensive being such as doth threaten ruine to both Church and State not permitting us either to obey the King or serve God as we ought 1. That the Parliament has an absolute indisputable power of declaring Law so that all the right of King and People depends upon their pleasure This power must rest in them or in the King or in some inferior Court or else all suits must be endlesse and it can no where rest more safely then in Parliament The two Houses are not the Parliament The subject of such power is the intire body which consists of three estates Some things are cleare and evident in Law and want no declarer if otherwise all the Subjects right would lye in the brest of the Iudge If the two Houses should Vote younger Brothers ought to inherite by the Law of England could this destroy the right of the first born 2. That Parliaments are bound to no Presidents Statutes are not binding to them why then should Presidents yet there is no obligation stronger then the Justice and Honour of a Parliament This is an excellent ground to justifie their innocence against all the world For if they can make it appeare they are not bound to keepe any law no man can accuse them for the breach of any What obligation can justice lay on them who by astrange vertue of representation are not capable of doing wrong It will become justice because they did it when he hath declared what Honour is I shall be able to judge of that bond it may perchance not stand with their honour not to be able to prove men guilty after they have once accused and imprisoned them Statutes stand in full force to the two Houses as being not voyd till repealed by a joynt consent of all the Estates 3. That they are Parliaments and may judge of publique necessity without the King and dispose of any thing They may not desert the King but being deserted by the King when the Kingdome is in distresse they may judge of that distresse and relieve it and are to be accompted by the vertue of Representation as the whole body of the State To dissent after he hath granted what ever can in reason be desired is not to desert the Houses Upon pretence of distresse to take illegall courses is as if they should perswade us we are not in health and therefore they must breake our heads to forward our recovery They represent the people to some purposes not the King to any and therefore are but a part of the State 4. That no member of Parliament ought to be troubled for Treason c. without leave This is intended of suspicion only and when leave may seasonably be bad and when competent accusers appeare not in the impeachment If by suspicions be meant only a bare not considing in this in justice cannot be sufficient ground But upon Articles drawn and proofes in readinesse which it is not fit to produce while the accused partyes are at liberty they may be medled with for designes of this nature may brook no delay because it might prove dangerous to the King's safety or at least afford them liberty to escape If the Houses being adjourned were not able to give consent or upon too much confidence should not be willing hath not the Law provided in such a case for triall of Treason 5. That the soveraigne power resides in both Houses of Parliament the King having no negative voyce This power is not claimed as ordinary nor to any purpose but to save the Kingdom from ruine and in case where the King is so seduced as that be proferres dangerous men and prosequutes his loyall Subjects Not as ordinary that is they will only be King's as long as they please and when they are weary of Reigning the Kingdome shall be out of danger and then it shall be his turne to command againe To save it from ruine the Law hath better provided for the Peoples safety by prohibiting all illegall executions of power grounded upon what specious pretences soever And in case where the King is seduced that is when he is not so wise as he should be because he does not think as they doe and refuses to satisfy the humors and interests of some And prefers this seems to be the true cause of all preferments doe not goe the right way dangerous men i. e. such as desire he should govern according to the known Lawes of the Land And prosequutes his loyall Subjects i. e. is driven from London to Yorke where He long time patiently expected the undeceiving of His People 6. That leavying Forces against the personall commands of the King though accompanyed with his presence is not leavying warre against the King but warr against his Authority though not Person is warre against the King If this were not so the Parliament seeing a seduced King ruining himselfe and the Kingdom could not save both but must stand and look on It is against common sense to fancy a King ruining Himselfe and Kingdom He can neither be willing nor able Upon a mad supposall mad consequences will follow 7. That according to some Parliaments they may depose Kings 'T is denyed that any King was deposed by a free Parliament fairely elected This is most certain but takes not off those words upon which this Proposition is grounded These might well have been omitted as being more fully handled in the book But least he should complaine any thing was past over I chose by a short review to be his remembrancer The Propositions collected out of His Majesties Declarations are but the brief of his Observations to all which I have already spoken To conclude if the people hearken to reason they must needs think His Majesty will be more ready to prevent all reall danger then any Subject whatsoever because He is sure to beare the greatest share in the losse It alwaies was the master Policy amongst the wisest Legislators to grant to them the greatest power of government to whom the preservation of the present state would be most beneficiall because their private interests were the same with the publique from which if they swarv'd by error or misinformation their own disadvantage did soon appeare FINIS