charge of the Wards or others concerned therein be unnecessarily as they have been inrolled at length or otherwise with the Auditors of that Court when as the same was recorded before by other Officers of that Court to which the Auditors may have a free access and at any time take extracts out of them 13. That a severe Act of Parliament be made against such as shall misuse or wast any Wards Estate Lands Woods and Timber committed or granted to them or any personal Estate which belongeth unto them or shall not give the Wards fit education or shall disparage them in their Marriages or marry them without any competent Portion or shall not within a moneth after the death of such Ward or coming to his or her age of one and twenty years make a true accompt and payment unto the said Ward or his or her Heirs or Executors of all that shall be by them due and payable to him or them by reason of the said Wardship upon pain to pay to the use of the said Ward his or her Heirs Executors or Administrators besides the said moneys due and payable to the use of the said Ward double costs and damages expended or sustained therein That all Lands hereafter escheated and forfeited to his Majesty in cases where there shall be no restoration to the next in discent or remainder be inseparable and as a Sacrum patrimonium annexed to the Crown never to be aliened leased or charged with any Rent-charge or Annuity further then for life or one and twenty years That all Corporations of Trade may besides Fines and Amerciaments to be imposed and taken to their own use have also power to impose Fines and Amerciaments to the use of his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors and have no power to release or discharge any Penalties and Issues forfeited to the King And that the Town Clerks of Cities and Towns Corporate and Clerks of every Corporation or Company of Trade shall be bound by Oath and Recognizance to the King to certifie and estreat into the Exchequer all Fines Issues and Amerciaments forfeited and lost at two usuall Terms in every year that is to say Easter and Michaelmas That the By-lawes of every Corporation and Company of Trade and every City and Town Corporate which ought to be perused and approved by the Lord Chancellor of England and Lord Chief Justices of either Benches or Justices of Assize or any three of them and are not to be contrary to the Lawes may be according to the Statute of 19 Hen. 7. cap. 7. perused and allowed by them That upon every bloodshed or breach of the peace as by the Civil Law in forreign parts and heretofore was anciently used in England by the Common Law thereof a reasonable mulct or penalty be imposed to be gathered by the Magistrates as the Drossaerts do in many places in Holland and be answered to the King though the parties do agree or release and discharge one another That all Misericordia's which are now the only Vestigia's left of that antient Custome and Prerogative in Cases of Nonsuits and Pleas of Non est factums not verified may be put into certain reasonable penal sums duly collected and answered to the King his Heirs and Successors which besides an annual and casual profit to his Majesty will quiet and lessen contentions and bring a great ease to the people That in cases of Manslaughter there be before any pardon granted a reasonable satisfaction made according as it was heretofore practised in our Lawes of England both before and since the Conquest made to the wives and children of the Deceased or if none to the next of kindred unless the parties concerned shall otherwise agree their recompence or satisfaction and an Estimatio capitis or value of the party offending also paid to the King That upon convictions of Adulteries Fornication as was antiently used there be paid to the King a penalty proportionable to the offence and that in all Tryals for Manslaughter Murder or other crimes that hard and unreasonable custom now and heretofore used in England that witnesses may not be brought heard or examined against the King be abolished and that all good and lawfull testimonies which may tend to the discovery of the fact may be as in other Cases and Tryals heard and received That there be in every Circuit as antiently a Clerk besides the Clerk of the Assize appointed to enter in a Roll the Fines imposed by the Justices and to make Estreats thereof duly into the Exchequer That in all Actions of Trespass or any other Action to be brought in the Court of the Kings Bench at Westminster or by Quo minus in the Office of Pleas in the Court of the Kings Exchequer at Westminster or in the Court of the Marshalsea or Court of the Virge of the Kings Palace at Westminster whereupon any declaration shall be in debt there be upon the first Process or Writ such Fines paid to the King and in such manner as have been antiently and are now paid to the King upon actions of debt retornable in the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster And that upon every such first Writ the Plaintiffs Attorney doe in order thereunto indorse the just sum in debt which he intendeth to declare upon That every Merchant or Trader that shippeth any goods to be exported or unlades any imported shall under his hand attested or if need be upon his oath deliver unto his Majesties Farmers or Customers a true note or Cocquet of all such goods exported and imported and the true contents and value thereof And that whosoever shall wittingly or knowingly deceive his Majesty his Heirs or Successors therein shall for the first offence forfeit five times the value and for the second ten times the value and for the third to be disfranchised and never more permitted to trade And that every conviction of any such offence shall if pleaded be a bar to them in any Action to be brought commenced and prosecuted by them That once in every three years Commissions be issued to carefull and worthy men in every County and City uninterressed to enquire of all charitable uses and the imployments and abuses thereof and if need be to put a better order therein for the future and that the Arrears be also collected and paid the one moity to his Majesty and the other to be imployed to the charitable uses That Commissions be likewise issued now more then formerly necessary by the dissolution of Monasteries and Religious Houses and the great disuse of Hospitalities and Almes deeds to enquire and certifie the number of Poor requiring almes in every Parish in every County and City that all vagabond and wandring Beggars be returned to the several Parishes where they were born and where it cannot may be reduced to some Parishes in every County or City less troubled then others with poor and more able to maintain
had forfeited unto him can by an unheard and not easily to be believed ingratitude after his Act of Oblivion and Free-pardon neither deserved nor purchased and preferments bestowed upon them fall into such an oblivion as nature abhorres and humanity must needs blush at and not offer any thing in a benevolence ordered by Act of Parliament instead of a Tax or Subsidie And very many of those which did give any thing some loyal and right-hearted excepted having obtained of the King to give away the principallest Flower of his Crown by releasing of his Tenures in Capite and by Knights service and promised him Tenures in Corde in part of satisfaction would not be pleased to find the way afterwards to give him so much as the twentith part of their yearly vain and unnecessary expences towards the relieving of the publick and his private necessities For the better information therefore of all such who are unwilling to part with a Fancy that the Revenues of our Kings of England are immense or largely sufficient for their occasions and to dispose them to the duty which the Laws of God and Men have commandded and directed and evidence the reason and necessity which the King now hath to demand a supplement of his Revenue and for his good people of England not to deny it him and that the decayes and ruins thereof have not been occasioned only by an heretofore ill-management of the Finances but by time and an age of many ages multiplicity of expences indulgences to the people and necessity of affirs and government which exhausting the radicall heat and moysture have so spent the spirits of the body politick as they have brought it to that feinting languishing and weak condition it is now in It will not be inconvenient from the mountains and hills of time to look down into the valleys of the ages past and take a short view for a longer would better become the designe of a Volume then what is here briefly to be represented of the Revenues of our Kings of England before and since the Conquest CHAP. I. Revenues of the Kings of England IN the Prospect whereof it will be more then a conjecture that those of the Saxon race before the Norman Invasion had in their Heptarchy except Wales and the barren and mountainous part of our Britain to which the distressed Reliques of that Nation had for shelter and safety retired the most part of the Lands and Revenues of the British Kings that Egbert King of the West Saxons and Alured and after them Edgar sole Monarch of Albion and the Saxon Dominions and his Successors having possessed themselves of all the other Kings Estates could not probably be without very large Demeasnes and Revenues and that not only they but all the succeeding Saxon Kings have made the support of themselves Regality Government and Affaires in and by the constant and certain Revenues and profits of their Lands in Demeasne and Service which as a Sacrum Patrimonium and concomitant of the Crown may by the ancient Charters of many of our Kings before the Conquest the grant of the Manor of Malling in the County of Sussex by Egbert King of the West Saxons in An. Dom. 838. distinction of Crown Lands and Terra Regis a great part of which were no other then what was since and is now called Antient Demeasne mentioned and recorded in Doomesday book that Liber censualis and grand Register or Survey of the Lands of the Kingdome precedented by the Book or Roll of Winchester made by King Alfred or Alured a resumption of some of the Crown Lands in the reigns of King Stephen Henry the Second and Henry the Third and several of their Successors the Articles enquired of in the succeeding Eyres a Judgment in 6 Edw. 1. against the Abbot of Feversham for some of the Crown lands which were aliened by King Stephen And the opinion of Bracton a Judg in the later end of the reign of King Henry the Third lib. 2. de legibus consuetudinibus regni Angliae that Est res quasisacra res fiscalis quae dari non potest nec vendi nec ad alium transferri a principe vel a rege regnante quae faciunt ipsam coronam communem utilitatem respiciunt may be understood to be unalienable And by the casuall and uncertain profits revenues of the Crown Jure superioritatis which to such as shall acquaint themselves with the Saxon Lawes Customes and Antiquities will appear to be Escheats and Forfeitures Mines Royall Herriots Reliefs upon the deaths of Tenants in Capite and by Knights Service which in those more gratefull times amounted to very much the benefit of Tolls and Customes Manbote Bloodâ—ite with many other Wita's and Wera's Capitis estimationes mulcts penalties and fruits of the Kingly Prerogative which then and with Wardships Liveries Profits of Annum diem vastum Fines Assart lands and Fines for Incroachments Purprestures and divers other things in many Kings reigns after the Conquest were used to be exactly and carefully collected by the Comites or Earles and Governours of the Shires or Provinces who had the third penny then accounted so much as to become an honourable allowance for their collecting it and the Praepositi Shire Reeves and other Officers of the Crown and in the Courts of Justice as well great as small and the Iters and Circuits of the Justices and that when the sinnes and miseries of our Saxon Ancestors had enriched William the Conqueror and entitled him to the Directum Dominium of all and the utile Dominium of the greatest part of the lands and possessions of England and he had given away much of it to his great Commanders Friends Allies Souldiers many of whom were not without their own patrimonies and great possessions in Normandie and other transmarine parts and glutted them with the spoils and inheritance of the English and had to those large Territories and Demeasnes which he reserved to himself and the Terra Regis and antient Demeasnes of King Edward the Confessor which he united to the Crown a further increase by the no small Estates and Inheritances of some of his after unquiet great Nobility as Edwin Earl of York Ralph Earl of Suffolk William Fitz-Osberne Earl of Hereford Edric surnamed the Forrester Howard le Exul Waltheof Earl of Northumberland and divers other of the English and Normans That which most concerned him and his successors in the reigns of William Rufus and Henry the First the former of whom had his Estate augmented by the temporalties and vacancies of Bishopricks Abbies and Priories and the later by the Attainders and great Estates and Inheritance of Robert Mowbray Earle of Northumberland Robert de Belesme Earle of Arundell and Shrowsbury William Earle of Mortaigne and Cornwall both of them having much in demeasnes and a great deal more in service for Aydes in warre holden of them their Coloni or Glebae adscriptitii socage Tenants which did
the Clergy and three entire Subsidies and three Fifteenths and tenths and three hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Subsidies unpaid to Queen Elizabeth Anno 7. an Ayd to make his Son Prince Henry a Knight Anno 18. two Subsidies of the Laity and three of the Crergy Anno 21. three Subsidies and three fifteens of the Temporalty and some Subsidies of the Clergy Primo Car. primi three entire Subsides by the Spiritualty 3. Car. five entire Subsidies granted by the Spiritualty and as many by the Temporalty great sums of money raised by Ship-money and by an Act of Parliament for Poll-money pawning all his Jewels and the benefit for some years of Coynage of two hundred thousand pounds of Spanish Bullion and returning the value in English Commodities All which being great supplies and easements to the charges and burdens of our severall and successive Kings and Princes and were not without some charge in the collection would have been much greater if the people of England keeping close to a long custome of not only getting all that they can from their Kings and Common Parents but returning as little as they could of their Aydes or Thanks unto them would have permitted them to arrive to a just or true valuation or any more then a small part of what they should be content to rate one another at having by an Act of Parliament in 6. Ed. 3. obtained of the King that from henceforth all Aydes should be taxed after the old manner and not otherwise the Subsidies being most commonly rated but at two shillings eight pence in the pound for goods and four shillings in the pound for lands with consideration of debts and other diminishing circumstances and put in the Ballance and compared with that which was given to the people by the Confirmations of divers Kings and Queens of Letters Patents and Lands given therein Coronation Pardons the General Pardons of 21 Jac. those in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and of some of our later Kings and Princes for in the Reigns of many of the former they were not so frequent general or usuall The Act of Parliament of 21 Jacobi Regis for debarring the Kings Title to concealed Lands after sixty years possession where nothing within that time had been answered or paid to the Crown or was in super and the last all-surpassing Act of Indemnity and General Pardon granted by King Charles the second would be farre surmounted by those and many other beneficiall Acts of Parliament granted in every King and Princes reign of liberties and benefits to the people And were not enough or sufficient to repair the decayes of the Regal Revenues or keep them from a consumption occasioned by their vast charges of our Kings as well in times of warre as peace to keep their people in safety peace and plenty nor to cure the Revenue of a Hecticque Fever of almost 500 years continuance though some of our Kings and Princes took some parts of Trade into their own hands to supply their necessities as the Wool by King Ed. 1. Tinne by Ed. 3. that and corn by Hen. 6. and Beer transported by Queen Elizabeth and notwithstanding the care and provision of divers Parliaments to have the Crown Lands not alien'd or wasted and the care of the Laws of England that the grants of the King shall be void where he is deceived or not truly informed The Ordinance in the 21 of Richard the second that whatsoever should come to the King by Judgment Escheat Wardship or any otherwayes should not be given away That of primo King H. 4. ca. 6. that in a Petition to the King for Lands Offices or any Gift the value thereof shall be mentioned and of that also which they have had of the Kings gift or of other his Pregenitors or Predecessors before and in case it be not their Grants shall be void and repealed the Ordinance of 21 R. 2. that the Procurer of any gift should be punished continued untill 7 H. 4. untill the King should be out of debt under penalty of forfeiting the double value for moving or procuring any such suit The Statute of 4 of H. 4. cap. 4. that the King grant no Lands or other Commodities but to such as shall deserve them and if any make demand without desert he shall be punished by the Councell and not obtain his suit In 11 Hen. 4 That Petitions for any such Grants delivered to the King be examined by his Privy Councell lest the Kings wants should light upon the Commons and in 2 H. 6. That all the profits by Wards Marriages Reliefs Escheats and Forfeitures should be expended in helping to defray the charges of the Kings Houshold an account of the Kings Revenue in 1. Hen. 6. in England Ireland Wales and Aquitaine and of his charges and expences delivered into Parliament by Ralph Lord Cromwell Lord Treasurer of England and the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester and divers of the Lords of the Kings Councell appointed to consider thereof the Acts of Parliament in 18 and 43 Eliz. That the Queen should be answered for the overplus of the value of Lands granted by her Letters Patents after the rate of threescore years purchase The abating in several Kings Reigns the expences of Houshold and of their Retinue Favourites Gifts and Rewards and lessening of charges in Warre by Tenures in Capite and Knight Service Aydes to make their eldest Sonnes Knights and for the marriage of their eldest Daughters Profit of Annum diem vastum Aides and Assistances by Grand and Petit Serjeanties Aurum Reginae or something presented to the Queen in former Kings Reigns upon Grants of Lands or Estate Licences to Trade with prohibited Merchandize raising their Customes and sometimes farming out their Ships Fines upon licences of Alienation or Pardons Espargne of the Royall Revenue by the Marriages of the Heirs of the Nobility and Gentry of great Estates and transplanting and inoculating of great and Noble Families and Estates into one another not only for their good and advancement but the peace and welfare of the Kingdome and the checque which King James gave to suits and importunities at Court after that he had given away too much of his English Crown Lands to his craving Countreymen of Scotland publickly declaring what kind of Suits or Requests might be demanded of him and what he would not grant his orders to have once in every quarter of a year Certificates or Accounts of moneys issued for his Houshold Wardrobe Jewel-house Chamber Navie and Stables and his care and advice with his Privie Councel for supplies of his Revenues and regulating his expences for that the Exitus was every year by affairs troubles and cares of State disturbances and accidents often happening a great deal more then the Introitus the disbursements farre exceeding the incomes the ordinary receipts coming farre short of the ordinary disbursements and the extraordinaries very much out-going the ordinaries CHAP. III. Ruine and Decay
the memory of man upon a meer supposition that there might possibly have been a loyal or good grant or commencement for them every little Manor of those multitudes of Manors and Franchises which the Commons in a Parliament of King Edward the third complained off and proportions of Lands in England many of which are called Manors by supposed Titles or reputation only as so many little Seigniories Jurisdictions or Royalities as they are improperly called have Courts Leet and Baron and free warren some of whom enjoy the honor and profit of the King in trying and executing Felons and many using all manner of inferiour justice upon the Tenants correction of the Affize of Bread and Beer have Tolles Fairs Markets Fishings Waives Estraies Felons goods and of persons outlawed and waived Issues Fines and Amerciaments Wrecks of Sea Deodands Mortuaries Treasure Trove and punishment of breach of the peace c. granted or claimed as belonged to them The not having a Clerk for the King besides the Clerks of the Assizes to keep a Roll of all Fines Amerciaments and Profits due to the King in the Iters or Circuits to estreat and certifie them into the Exchequer as was usual in the Reigns of Henry the third Edward the first and the elder Kings and many of the Justices of peace not duly certifying their Recognizances The letting the Greenwax to Farm with defalcations of such as the King shall grant away which breeds no smal neglect in the payment or gathering of it the not duly making or sending the originall Roll of the Chancery into the Exchequer the posting off many of the Kings Farms and debts de anno in annum by some of the former Clerks of the Pipe not holding the Sheriff to a strict opposal nor inforcing them to pay the monies levied of the Kings before their discharge or departure out of the Court not drawing of debts down into the Cedule Pipae being a more forcible process the heretofore Stewards and Bayliffs of Manors belonging to the Crown not justly accompting in the Exchequer as they ought the not awarding as there shall be occasion Commissions to worthy Gentlemen of every County to enquire of the Kings debts not levied and of the Sheriffs and other his Officers false Accomps ordained by the Statutes of 3 E. 1. c. 19. and 6 H. 4. cap. 3. neglect of the former Clerks of the Estreats and many other abuses crept into evil customes by some Officers or Clerks of that Court and in anno 1641. discovered and published by Mr. Vernon the superfluous number and charge of many Stewards Bayliffs and other Officers imployed which besides the many deceits used by some of them to the King and exaction upon the people did as was informed in their annuall Fees paid and allowed by the King yearly exceed three thousand pounds more then what they accompted for the selling or granting away and dismembring many Hundreds Wapentakes and liberties from the Crown and bodies of the Counties which the Statutes of 2 and 14 Ed. 3. doe prohibit to be aliened The falshood of such as did formerly make kind and easie particulars to such as were to buy or have any of the Kings Lands given them knavery and abuse of Under Sheriffs carelesnes and covetousness of the High Sheriffs in appointing them and not looking better to the performance of their own oathes as well as theirs The not duly accompting for prizes taken at sea and other maritime profits the heretofore sleepiness or slugishness of Justices of Peace in all or most Counties and Cities who being intrusted by the Law to take care of the observation of some scores of Statutes and Acts of Parliament would though their eyes and ears might almost every day perswade them to a greater care of their oathes and the good of their Country too often suffer grosse and numberless offences to increase and multiply and neither punish molest or trouble them or so much as give any information of them and too many of the Clerks of the peace Clerks of the Market and others not duly recording or certifying their Estreates The customes which in all civilized Nations and even amongst the Heathen are de jure Gentium to be paid to Kings and Princes and by the Laws of England and Parliament assent are due to the King who is the Soveraign of the Sea keeps the keyes of his Ports gives safe conduct to forrein Merchants to come hither and by his power friendship and treaties with his Allies neighbour and other Princes obtains the like with many priviledges for his own Merchants to goe and trade thither prevents with no small charges by his Ambassadours kept in their Dominions all injuries procures them right and justice and in case of deniall forceth it are now so daily cosened and put up into other Pockets as notwithstanding all the care taken in the farming or collecting of them though the people upon the retaile are sure to pay them to the full the King as it is believed doth not receive above a third part thereof by reason of the treachery and connivance of the former Searchers or Waiters and the Merchants defraying as they can sometimes confess the pompous charge of their City and Country Houses Wives and Coaches with their purloined Customes and that the cosenning of the King in his Excise yeilds them many times more then their Merchandise and their Apprentices now not taken under three or four hundred pounds a peice can live more like Gentlemen then Servants and purchase all kind of vanities vice and pride with what they likewise filch and take from him and when the Customes are let to farm though the Farmers take them as they are capable of such kind of losses can abuse their consciences and perswade themselves that they do no wrong to the King who is to have onely his Farm or Rent And that howsoever the more they cozen him the better they may be enabled to trade and the more they trade the more may be his Customes The not improving of their Lands other Revenues by raising of their Rents and rates according to the rise of money and provisions which the Subjects have exceedingly and to their great advantage done in their own Estates and Revenues and ten to one more then what was formerly The heretofore demising and letting to farm very many of the Kings Manors and Lands at the old and small Rents for three lives 21. 31. or 40. years in Reversion bespeaking a continuall wasting and weakening of his Revenues before hand Discoveries of information of deceipts or wrong done to his Revenues seldome made and then not without an allowance or gratification craved of three parts in four or a great share to begiven to the discoverers or prosecutors Many mens pretending service to the King but doing all they can to enrich themselves and deceive and lessen him and having by indulgence or cunning escapes from punishment made vice
all wast Lands Commons belonging to the Kings Queens and Princes revenues in England and Wales allotting equall and reasonable proportions for satisfaction of Commoners and by disafforrestation of some Forrests and Chases remote from London or the Kings ordinary Residences the imbanking and taking in of all Lands infra fluxum refluxum Maris high and low watermarks derelicted and forsaken by the Sea or brought thither by Alluvion and added to the firme Land and together with the Lands and Revenues now belonging to the Crown of England never to be aliend rent-charged or leased more then for 21 years or three lives which besides the addition of revenues and profit to the King will very much adde to the livelyhood and industry of many of the people who will be maintained thereby better the Lands and increase subsidies when there shall be occasion And causing the like to be done by a generall inclosure of all that now lies wast and in common in particular and private mens Revenues in England and Wales amounting to some millions of Acres will produce the like benefits to the owners and Commoners who in a gratefull acknowledgement thereof may out of their severall allotments as freewill-offerings to their King pay yearly three pence per Acre to him and his Heirs and Successors That Banks or Mount Piete's be erected in several places of England and Wales as at London York Durham Golchester Norwich Ludlow Denbigh where mony may be lent and Pawns or Securities taken not exceeding the Interest of twelve per cent for a year or proportionably for greater or lesser times and that Commissioners in the manner of a Corporation or otherwise may in every of those places be from time to time appointed by his Majesty his Heires and Successors to order and supervise the management thereof for which his Majesty his Heires and Successors may out of the increase and profit of the said Interest receive and take forty shillings per cent no one particular person being permitted to imploy or put into the said Bank at interest above the sum of five hundred pounds and that no private or particular person putting their monies into the said Bank shall have and receive above the sum of the current or usual Interest in the Kingdom or any other gift or reward whatsoever whereby the intollerable oppression of publick and private Brokers those Baptizati Judaei and Pawn-takers which like Wolves gnaw and devour the poor as sheep when as driven to them by their necessities they are inforced to come to them for succour and give after the rate of fifty or sixty per cent which the hate of Jews to Christians never arrived to and a Christian and Protestant Kingdome ought not to countenance That by sumptuary Lawes concerning Apparrel to be worn by all degrees and orders of people the excess thereof may be regulated and abated with great penalties to the infringers thereof which Athens Sparta and Rome being heathen Common-wealths and England heretofore by sundry good Laws and Statutes unhappily repealed in anno 21 Jac. Spain by Pragmatico's and France by a late Reiglement have found to be an universall good and the Common-wealth of Venice held it to be necessary Nè civium patrimonia nimia intemperantia abliguriantur to keep their Citizens from wasting and spending their Estates being Laws now more then ever wanting in England when as that which wil quickly undo private or particular Families which by their universality do make a Kingdome is so frequent and every where almost to be found in a daily practise and pursuit of pride and that cheating one another to maintain it is the most of the peoples cares and consciences every house almost as to the excess of their vanities and expences beyond their Estates hath a Mark Anthony and Cleopatra in it and too many men and women though not so good or well able to bear it as King William Rufus doe think their clothes not costly enough many of the Nobility and Gentry have wasted and spent themselves almost quite out of themselves and left themselves little more then their Titles and Pedigrees The Citizens doe all they can to our-doe them infolly the Farmers Yeomanry and Countrymen all they can to overtake them and the Servants to come as near as they can to their Masters Ladies or Mistresses And they that first spend themselves to nothing or very near it are like to quit the race to those that come after and they which come last to the brink of ruining their fortunes which will be probably the common and lower ranks of the people are likely to learn by those that ruined themselves before them to stay where they left be Masters of the others Estates And that such as shall wear any habits or kinds of Apparrel forbidden be rated in all publick Assessments according to the estate and quality of such persons as are allowed to wear the like that whosoever shall not be of the degree and quality to keep a Coach or live in the Country not farre distant from the Parish Church and keepeth one shall forfeit and pay 5. l. for every year in which he shall so keep it that the Justices of Peace in every Country be the Collectors of all the penalties concerning Apparel Habits and keeping of Coaches and to have a â—ourth part of the forfeitures upon the receipt conviction or recovery thereof that the Masters and Mistresses of Servants trangressing that Act shall out of the wages due to such Servants pay and answer every of the penalties forfeited by the Servants not exceeding their said wages and stop and detain the same and for their care therein have and receive to their own use one third part in four to be divided of the said penalties and that the residue of all the said penalties ordained and forfeited by the said Act shall be collected and answered to the use of the King and his Heirs and Successors Whereby that grand improvement of all Sins and Wickedness which hath now overspread the Kingdome that consumption of Estates and destruction of good Manners And that high unparralleld and inordinate excess of Apparel and pride which being the canker of all honesty and virtue ruined Rome the Conqueror and Mistress of all the World and as Histories have told us never failed to undo many other Kingdoms permitting or allowing it which our Ancestors and former inhabitants of England would have abhorred and blushed at may be restrained and those sinfull necessities and plenty of all manner of knaveries dishonesties Cheatings and villanies to maintayne it depressed and extinguished which the book of God danger of Sinne Hell and Damnation and all that can be said and done by the Bishopps Ministers Preachers and men of holy Church without the assistance of such sumptuary Lawes can never as experience hath sufficiently told us be able to beat downe extirpate or lessen Which the pretended loss of the Kings Customes by Silkes
them that the Church-wardens or Governours of every Parish as is usually done in Holland where by their excellent orders and care of their Poor very few are to be seen either wandring or miserable may upon poverty happening to any Family or the death of a Father or Mother of children goe or send to their houses as the Commissioners de aflictis at Amsterdam usually do lift up the broken hearted and enquire what are their necessities or what there is to maintain them and accordingly make provision for them by relieving the aged sick or impotent providing work for such as are able and putting out of children at fitting ages to be Apprentices or to service or some other imployments wherein we may well hope for those good effects which the like courses in France by the erecting of the Hospitals de dieu or other Hospitals in or about Paris have lately assured that the encrease and decrease of the poor in every Parish and the Collections and Assessments for them and Legacies and charitable uses given to the poor be yearly certified to the Clerk of the Peace of every City County at the Quarter Sessions to be holden after Michaelmas to be by him entred into fair Books with Calenders and Tables fitted thereunto publickly read before the Justices at the next Quarter Sessions after to the end that the Justices there assembled may duly consider thereof and make such further orders and Provisions as shall be fitting and requisite And that when the English Captives at Algier shall be released and no more likely to be in that condition the one pound per cent granted by Act of Parliament for that purpose or the like allowance and proportion for seven years to be allowed out of the Custome-house may be imployed to relieve and make a stock for the Poor of England And in regard that such as sue at Law in forma pauperis notwithstanding all the cares which have been hitherto taken by the Courts of Justice in assigning them Counsel and Attornies and ordering that no Fees should be taken they doe for want of money and those cares and diligences which are only purchased and procured by mony many times but tire themselves to no purpose and after many years expence of time and labour in trudging to and fro with their foul and tatered Bundles and Papers wither away die in the hopes of that which for want of a due assistance and vigorous prosecution they could never bring to pass That an Utter-Barrister or Councellor at Law be once in every three years appointed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being and to continue for that time and no longer in the high Courts of Chancery and the Courts of Kings Bench Exchequer and Dutchy of Lancaster and a Sergeant at Law in the Court of Common-pleas to be for the like time nominated and appointed by the Lord chief Justice of the Court of Common-pleas for the time being to be of councell assistant for all rights and duties of men and women suing in forma pauperis and as Counsel to assist and help the poor of the respective places in the prosecution and recovery of all Legacies and charitable uses given to them or penalties given or ordained by any Statute to be had or levied for their use or any Parish collections and assessements withheld from them for which they shall take no Fees but in a reasonable manner upon the recovery thereof or end of the said Suits And for their better encouragement may in all the Courts of Justice of this kingdom according to their said several nominations and appointments as well Superior as Inferior have a prae audience in those other causes next to the Councel learned of the Kings and Queens of England and the Prince or Heir apparent That in every County and City there be a publick Work-house to imploy the Poor in the manufacture of Woollen or Linnen cloth making fishing Nets or other Manufacture and that for their better encouragement they may as they doe in Holland after a competent number of hours in every day imployed in the work of the Publick be allowed two hours in a day to work for their own advantage notwithstanding that their lodgings diet and fitting apparrel be defrayed out of the Publick and that the Governours thereof may for their encouragement have the benefit and liberty of Exportation and Importation of any the said commodities without any Custome to be paid for the same upon the Certificate of the next Justice of Peace of such County or City upon the oath of every such Governour that the said quantities to be exported were made or wrought at the said publick Workhouse and upon the oath of such Governour that the commodities imported are to be imployed and used only in the said publick Workhouse And that the kindred of Poor living in any part of England and Wales not taking almes or overburdned with poverty may be sought out and enforced to a reasonable contribution according to their abilities towards the maintenance or providing for such Poor and decayed as within the eighth degree are of their own blood and lynage and where it may be put them into such a way of living as may exempt them from the fate of common servants or people taking almes or from being placed in common Workhouses that by such means and provisions to be made for the Poor which our Acts of Parliament and the careless and many times purloyning Collectors and Overseers of the Poor in severall Parishes have not yet performed And that all Nobility Gentlemen and others excepting such whose constant and necessary attendance upon the persons of the King Queen or Prince shall not permit the same having an Estate of Lands of Inheritance of the yearly value of one hundred pounds per annum or more above reprises and their houses of residence in any Parish of England or Wales not keeping their Christmas in the said house or Parish shall at every of the said Feasts pay unto the Poor of the said parish the sum of forty shillings or proportionably according to that rate of his or their Lands lying or being in the said Parish besides their other payments to the Poor collected and assessed in the said Parish That so the multitude of Beggars in England may no more be a Byword amongst other Nations that there may be no complaining in our streets nor such dismall and sad spectacles as the leprous blind lame and aged people and young children crying out for bread and ready to starve for want of food or clothing nor so many counterfeits or tricks to make an ill use of charities to uphold their lazy and ugly condition of life That the Clerks of the Peace and Assizes and every Justice of Peace shall take their oathes not to release or discharge or respite any Fines Issues Recognizances and Amerciaments forfeited due to the King
a fancied Authority of Parliament not onely confirm unto him that Revenue in Land setled upon him with the Casual profits belonging to the Crown of England but intreat him to accept of ten hundred thousand pounds per annum yearly Revenue to be raised upon the people without a Land Tax for the maintenance of the Army and Navy with such other supplies as should be needful to be raised from time to time by consent of Parliament and three hundred thousand pounds per annum in like manner to be raised for his support of the Government Need not repine or think that or a greater Revenue to be too much for the highest born Prince in Christendom and the Heir of a Succession of Kings for more then one thousand years last past who could suffer their Regal Power and Authority so to be bound with the Cords of love to their people and the rules of right reason as the Sun in all his Travails hath never yet beheld a people enjoying better or so good Laws and Liberties and less Taxed or burdened with their Princes occasions And when as there is not any City or Town Corporate in England but have received and enjoyed their Charters and Liberties from the King or his Progenitors not any of the Nobility or Gentry but have had their honors priviledges and dignities and all or some of their Lands and Estates from them nor any kinred or family in England which either by him or some of his famous Progenitors or the many Josephs and Mordecai's in every age advanced by them have not mediately or immediately been preferred and advanced and had all that they have or enjoy by their bounty and munificence or had much kindness or Royal favors shewed unto them and like the lesser Trees or Shrubs in the Forest have comfortably grown up and been protected and shadowed by Druinas Royal Oak for which in the care of their own good and safty which are involved in his they are as their forefathers were more then ordinarily obliged by those eternal Bonds of gratitude which time or adversity should never be able to break or obliterate to contribute all they can to his wellfare and this our once most famous Monarchy That so our Hercules may not want his Club to defend Himself and his people that the cry of Debts and people wanting their mony being the worst of Anguishes to a virtuous and generous mind may no longer afflict him that the looking upon a small Revenue may not dishearten him to take the accompts of it and that a greater may now our Janus Temple is shut put him in mind to do as Augustus Caesar did when all the world was at quiet keep an Exact account of his Revenues and Expences That he who hath builded up our wasts and raised up the former desolations may be at rest from his sorrows and all the people in his Dominions break forth into singing praises to the Most High which hath made him an Instrument to do wonderful things and like the Dove sent out of Noahs Ark to bring us the Olive Branch which the Deep and the rage of many waters had covered FINIS §. 1. §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. §. 8. §. 9. §. 10. §. 11. §. 12. §. 13. §. 14. § 15. §. 16. §. 17. §. 18. §. 19. §. 20. §. 21. §. 22. §. 23. §. 25. §. 26. § 27. § 28. §. 1. §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. Brewers Merchants Wine-Coopers and Vintners Bakers §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. §. 8. §. 9. §. 10. § 11. §. 12. §. 13. §. 14. § 15. §. 16. §. 17. §. 18. §. 19. §. 20. §. 21. §. 22. §. 23. §. 24. §. 25. §. 26. §. 27. §. 28. §. 29. § 30. § 31. §. 32. §. 33. §. 34. §. 35. §. 36. §. 37. §. 38.
of twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee twelve pence of every man and woman that could dispend twenty shillings per annum above reprises by their Lands and so proportionably according to their land revenues twelve pence of every one whose goods were valued at twenty pounds and proportionably to what it exceeded gran-to King Henry the fourth seven hundred thousand pounds found in King Richard the second 's Treasury two fifteenths of the Commons in the sixth year of his reign a tenth and a half of the Clergy and of the Commons two fifteenths in the ninth a Subsidie by the Laity and half a mark a piece of the Stipendary Priests and Friars in the tenth a Subsidie to be levied through the Realm and in anno 11. a fifteenth a resumption of many Grants and Annuities regulation of his Houshold and banishment of the Gascoigners and Welsh impoverishing him and the Kingdom by Petitions and Suits Great summes of money given to King Henry the fifth by the Clergy a Subsidie by the Clergy and Laity a double Disme and a fifteenth by the Laity and in the 9th year of his reign two tenths of the Clergy and a fifteenth of the Laity and another fifteenth in the same year his Crown Royall and Jewels pawned and a resumption of divers Lands and Annuities granted to unworthy persons To King Henry the sixth in anno primo of his reign a Subsidie of five Nobles upon every sack of wool transported for three years forty three shillings of every sack of wool carried out by Merchant strangers a Subsidie of twelve pence in the pound of all merchandize imported or exported 3. shillings upon every Tonne of wine for three years granted by Parliament in 〈◊〉 3. a Subsidie of three shillings upon every Ton of 〈◊〉 and of all other Merchandize twelve pence per pound except woolfell and cloth or every Benefice of ten marks per annum ten of that parish to pay six shillings and eight pence of every Benefice of ten pounds per annum ten parishioners to pay thirty shillings and four pence and so rateably for every Benefice And of the Inhabitants of Cities and Boroughs every man worth twenty shillings above his Housholdstuff and his own and wives Apparrel four pence and upwards after that rate or proportion in anno 8. a Disme and fifteenth of the Laity Great summes of money raised by King Edward the fourth by penal Lawes and Benevolences resumption in the seventh year of his reign of all manner of gifts which he had given from the first day of his reign A Subsidie in anno 8. of two fifteens and a half and in anno 13. a Subsidie Some Taxes laid upon the people by King Richard the third and a resumption of all Lands and Estate granted to Elizabeth Grey Queen of England A Subside to Henry the seventh in an 2. of his reign at a tenth of every mans goods towards the setting forth an Army into Britain anno 4. two fifteens of the Laity and two Dismes of the Clergy Poll-money of every Duke ten marks every Earle five pounds every Baron four pounds every Knight four marks of every one worth forty shillings twelve pence of every one that took wages twelve pence of every man above fifteen years old four pence anno 6. great Benevolences anno 11. a Subsidie towards his warres in Scotland anno 〈◊〉 Benevolences and great Fines upon penal Lawes 〈◊〉 â—â—ghteen hundred thousand pounds left in his Treasury say the Historians but as the Loâ—d Treasurer Cecil Earle of Salisbury informed King James four Millions and a halfe Divers Subsidies granted to King Henry the eighth in anno 6. of his reign and in anno 14. another Subsidie upon goods a years value for one year of all the Clergies spiritual livings a great summe of the Laity in the Parliameat following anno 25. a Subsidie of four pence per pound in goods from twenty shillings to five pound from five pounds to ten pounds eight pence from ten pounds to twenty pounds sixteen pence from twenty pounds and upwards two shillings of all strangers double of all Strangers not Inhabitants four pence a head of every one that had Lands Fees or Annuities eight pence the pound from twenty shillings to five pounds and so doubled according as they did for goods by several proportions and of the Clergy three shillings in the pound great sums of money and treasure by the confiscation of Cardinal Wolsey Anno 26. tenths and first-fruits of the Clergy formerly paid to the Popes granted unto him An. 36. a Benevolence An. 37. a Subsidie of six shillings per pound of the Clergy two shillings eight pence of the goods of the Laity and four shilligs per pound of Lands tenths of all Abby and Religious Lands reserved upon his Grants two hundred thousand pounds paid by the Clergy of the Provinces of York and Canterbury to be excused from a Praemunire and the vast and inestimable treasure in Money Plate Shrines Jewels Copes and rich moveables upon the spoil of the Abbies and Religious Houses An Ayde given by Parliament to King Edward the sixth in the 2d year of his reign of twelve pence per pound of the goods of his naturall Subjects two shillings per pound of Strangers for three years of every Ewe kept in several pastures three pence of every Weather two pence of every Sheep kept in the Commons three half pence and eight pence per pound of every woollen Cloth made for sale throughout England anno 6. Commissions given out for sale of Church goods an 7. one Subsidie and two fifteens granted by Parliament and the gain for some years made by the Coynage of Bullion sent from Sweden and returned in Merchandise One Subsidie of the Laity given to Queen Mary in anno 2. of her reign eight pence in the pound from five pounds to ten pounds from ten pounds to twenty pounds sixteen pence per pound and of all strangers double To Queen Elizabeth in anno primo a Subsidie and two fifteens of the Clergy and a tenth of the Temporalty Anno 5. a Subsidie of the Clergy and two fifteens of the Temporalty Anno 8. a Subsidie of the Clergy and a subsidie fifteenth and tenth of the Temporalty Anno 13. a Subsidie of the Clergy one subsidie two fifteenths and a tenth of the Temporalty anno 18. a subsidie of the Clergy two fifteenths and tenths of the Temporalty Anno 23. the like Annis 27. 29. the like Anno 31. two subsidies of the Clergy and three subsidies and six fifteens of the Temporalty Anno 39. three subsidies of the Clergy and Temporalty and six fifteens of the Temporalty An. 43. four subsidies of the Clergy and four subsidies and eight fifteens of the Temporalty the pawning of many of her Jewels and mortgaging divers of her Lands A Subsidie of Poundage and Tonnage Wools Woolfels and Leather anno primo Jac. two parts of Recusants Lands convicted in anno 3. four Subsidies in the pound by
of the Revenues BY reason of the great charges and expences which the Kings of England were at through their severall Generations to protect and defend themselves and their people though some of them as in all other conditions and sorts of men were sound to be less provident then others and more easie to the flatteries of Courtiers or the necessities or importunities of Favourites or Followers as King Edward the second and King Richard the second sixty thousand Knights Fees or maintenance for them given away by William the Conquerour of which the Religious Houses then or in the near succeeding times came to be possessed of 28115. the yearly value of which number of Knights Fees if now they should be estimated but at ten thousand and valued but at the rate of twenty pounds per annum as they seemed to be at the making of the Statute of 1 Ed. 2. would be worth two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least of the improvement Sir Edward Coke reckoning eight hundred and others six hundred and eighty acres to a Knights Fee and others at the least allowing a large proportion would make three millions per annum sterling two hundred and eighty Manors given to Godfry Bishop of Constance which he left to his Nephew Moubray the Isle of Wight Earldome of Devon and Honour of Plimpton given by Henry the first to Richard de Ripariis or Rivers Earldome of Gloucester to Robert Fitz Henry great possessions given away by King Stephen to purchase love and fidelity the great Estates in Land which Maud the Empress was inforced to grant and her Son King Henry the second afterwards to confirme to divers of the great men and Nobility as the Earldom of Oxford to Awbrey de vere Earldome of Arundel to William de Albeney Earldome of Hereford to Miles of Gloucester and of Essex to Jeofrey Magnauile to forsake the usurping King Stephen and the great charge which those twenty years warres expended the wars of King H. 2. in France and with his own Sons there and at home and of seven and forty thousand three hundred thirty three pounds six shillings eight pence expended and given towards the warres of the Holy land great somes of gold and silver sent to the Pope charges of the voyage or expedition which King Richard the first made in person into Asia and the Holy Land and his ransome the Earldomes of Mortaigne Cornwall Dorses Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with all their great possessions being a great part of the Crown Revenues given to his brother John and a great part of the remainder sold The troubles of King John with his boisterous Barons the Stanneries Castles and Honor of Barkhamstead and County of Cornwall granted by King Hen. 3. to his Brother Richard his great warres and turmoils in the Barons warres which drove him to such wants and perplexities as he and his Queen as Matthew Paris tells us were somtimes enforced to seek their daily and necessary sustenance from Monasteries charge of endeavoring at a great rate and price though unsuccesfully to make his Son Edmond King of Sicily and furnishing his Son Edward afterwards King E. 1. with an Army to Jerusalem that of King Ed. 1. in his wars against the Scots and subduing that Kingdom the raising and advancing the unhappy Favorites Gaveston and the two Spencers Father and Son by King Edward the Second and his troubles great expences of Edward the Third in his Conquering of France the Dukedom of Cornwal and Earldoms of Chester and Flint setled upon the Black Prince his Son and the eldest Sons and Heirs of the Kings of England successively preferring of Lionel Duke of Clarence and his many other Sons restoring of Don Pedro to the Kingdom of Castile by the aid of the Black Prince the Earldom of Salisbury Isle of Man Castle and Barony of Denbigh given to Mountacute and one Thousand Marks Lands per annum besides to him and his Heirs for taking Roger Mortimer Prisoner at Nottingham Castle one thousand pounds per annum with the Town and Castle of Cambridge to William Marquess of Juliers and the Heirs of his body Honor of Wallingford and Earldome of Cornwall escheated given to John of Eltham his Brother the penalties and fines of Labourers Artificers and Servants in anno 36. of his reign given to the Commons for three years to be distributed amongst them the maintaining and humoring of severall Factions of the great Nobility by King Richard the second his voyage into Ireland and after misfortunes raising of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset and John Holland his half-Brother to be Earl of Kent and Duke of Exeter dissentions and troubles in the Reign of King Henry the fourth preferring another of the Beauforts to be Earl of Dorset and his establishment as well as he could in his own usurpations Chirk and Chirk Lands in Wales given by King Henry the fifth to Edmond Beaufort second Son of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset the charge of his Conquest of France the seeking to preserve and keep it by Henry the sixth long and bloody Factions and Warres of York and Lancaster Kendal and other great possessions given to John de Foix a Frenchman in marriage with Margaret the Sister to William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk the Earldome of Shrowsbury to the high deserving Talbot the Isles of Guarnsay and Jersey and the Castle of Bristol to Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick the charge of King Edward the fourth in his getting the Crown the Earldome of Pembroke given by him to William Lord Herbert the making of friends and parties by King R. 3. pacifying of Interests by King Hen. 7. his gifts and grants to Stanley Earl of Derby and the dying the white Rose into the Red or uniting of them the voyages and warres of King H. 8. in France preferring of Charles Brandon to be Duke of Suffolk Seymour to be Earl of Hertford Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex Thomas Manors Earl of Rutland Sir Thomas Bolein to be Viscount Rochford and Earl of Wiltshire his contest with the Pope and other great Princes large and great quantities of Religious and Ecclesiasticall Lands given away to divers of his Nobility many of whom had been the former Donors thereof and to divers of the Gentry to corroborate what he had done bring them into a better liking of that action and to be the more unwilling to leave those Lands which he had given them a remission of all debts without schedule or limitation in anno 21. of his Reign endowing six Bishopricks and Cathedrall Churches Pensions for life to many which were turned out of their Cloisters a perpetuall maintenance to the Professors of the Greek and Hebrew Tongues Civill Law Divinity and Physick in both the Universities and to twelve poor Knights at Windsor the warres of King Edward the sixth in Scotland creating of John Dudley Earl of Warwick Duke of
Northumberland Seymour Duke of Somerset Russell Earl of Bedford St. John Earl of Wiltshire Rich Willoughby Paget Sheffeild Barons his giving away great quantities of Ecclesiasticall and Chantry Lands Viscount Mountague Lord Howard of Effingham Lord North advanced by Queen Mary the Subsidie of four shillings in the pound for Lands and two shillings for Goods granted to King Edward the sixth in the last year of his Reign remitted by her and nine thousand two hundred pounds land per annum of the Crown given away paying at the same time twelve pound per cent Interest for twenty thousand pounds borrowed of the City of London and the greater charges and Expences of Queen Elizabeth in protecting the Neatherlands and United Provinces which cost her five hundred thirty four thousand pounds and four hundred thousand pounds in succouring King H. 4. of France besides what was disbursed for other Protestant Allies guarding the Back-door of Scotland relieving guarding the young King who was afterwards her Successor endeavouring to reduce Ireland to its former obedience which in a few years cost her as the Lord Treasurer Cecill Earl of Salisbury in the Reign of King James informed the Parliament nineteen hundred twenty and four thousand pounds and defending her self from the Assaults and machinations of the Pope King of Spain and other Catholick Princes advancing and enriching Cecil L. Burghley Sackvile L. Buckhurst Charles Blount Lord Mountjoy Knowles Wotton Sidney Carew Petre Compton Cheney Norris and Stanhop to be Barons and creating of the Earls of Essex Leicester Lincoln and Warwick Remission of a Subsidie granted to Q. Mary Farming of her Customs to Smyth but for thirteen thousand pounds per annum afterwards to forty two thousand pounds and raising them after that only to no more then fifty thousand pounds per annum five hundred thousand pounds spent by King James in a totall subduing of Ireland three hundred and fifty thousand pounds paid for Queen Elizabeth's debts to the City of London for which some of the Crown Lands were mortgaged and for debts to the Army Admiralty and Wardrobe and discharging the reckoning of brass money in Ireland with the same sums in silver his vast expences by Treaties and Ambassadours amounting in the seventh year of his Reign unto five hundred thousand pounds to keep us in our envied peace and plenty four hundred thousand pounds disbursed in relieving the Dutch besides what was spent in satisfying the greedy cravings of the Scottish Nation preferring and raising of the Duke of Richmond Ramsey Earl of Holderness Earls of Carlisle Kelley Morton and Dunbarre Howard Earl of Northampton Carr Earl of Somerset Herbert Earl of Montgomery Villers Duke of Buckingham Cranfeild Earl of Middlesex Cecill Earl of Salisbury Howard Earl of Suffolke Mountague Earl of Manchester Ley Earl of Marleborough and Digby Earl of Bristol All which and many more which might be here enumerated did not only as was usuall in the Reigns of our former Kings by necessary bounties encouraging of virtue and valour rewarding of merits and high deservings of Ministers of State and great Atchievements of men of warre through a successiion of ages accidents occasions and reasons of State draw and derive their honours from those fountains of Honour but large Revenues and Lands many times likewise to support and maintain their Dignities and sometimes upon the Petitions of the Commons in Parliament as to conferre upon John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Dukedome of Acquitaine in the reign of King Edward the third to make John Holland the Kings half-Brother Earl of Huntington in the reign of King Richard the second and to preferre and advance the Lords John and Humphrey Sons of King Henry the fourth and sometimes great Pensions and Annuities were given for life untill Lands could be provided to support them in reward of virtue and their services done or to be done for the good of the Nation and to continue them and their posterities as props and pillars of the Royall Throne in a gratefull acknowledgment of the favours received from it And besides those former rewards and Ennoblishments puts it at this day for Creation money paid to the Dukes Marquesses and Earls to no less a charge then one thousand pounds per annum by which the people were in all ages no loosers when the Honour strength and defence of the Kingdome was maintained and increased by them and themselves kept in peace and plenty the manner of living in ancient and better times being with little money and small rents great services by the thankfull and ready duty and affections of Tenants to their Benefactors and mesne Lords not only made them great in power but enabled them to imitate their Princes as much as they could in great hospitalities deeds of charity and almes building and endowing of Churches Abbies Priories and Religious Houses and giving large Inheritances to their Servants Friends and Followers pro homagio servitio and other dependances Common of Estovers and of great quantities of Lands to severall Cities Towns and Villages and in such a plentifull manner distributed and gave their Lands as if the Lands in Capite by Knight Service Coppyhold Lands Commons which our King's Nobility and Gentry bestowed heretofore upon the inferiour sort of people and what they dedicated to God by giving to Churches Religious Houses Colleges Churches and Chappels should be surveyed and measured they would amount to no less then two parts in four of the Lands of the Kingdome The quondam lethargie sleepiness and unactivity of many of the Officers of the Exchequer who should be as the Argus eyes to guard the Royall Revenue the indulgence heretofore or neglect of some of her Officers and their not remembring that they were to be the Kings and his Treasurers Remembrancers respiting or nichiling of his debts upon feigned Petitions which can tell how to deceive the most carefull Barons or Judges of that Court when their Soveraign suffered in the mean time very great damage for want of the money the not duly estreating of all Fines and Amerciaments corrupt compounding for such as were estreated by under Officers at easie rates granting to the City of London their Fines and Amerciaments want of looking after as they doe in other Nations the execution of those multitudes of penall Lawes which otherwise will be to little purpose and assisting the collection of the Kings legall profits arising thereby the heretofore carelesness or corruption of some of our former Kings Officers who for fees of favour enlarged their Charters and Grants to bodies politique Cities Towns and Corporations and to as many private persons as would petition for them and decked them with the flowers of the Kings Crown which were not to be parted with so easily So as what by Grants or Prescription which in many cases is but the incroachment or filchings of liberties and priviledges concealed or not well looked after covered and drawn into a property by a time beyond
in his houshold expences as formerly now that his Pourveyance is taken away looseth two hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annum by the loss of his Tenures and Pourveyance is at eighty thousand pounds per annum charge for the maintenance of the Garrison of Dunkirk above five hundred thousand pounds per annum for the Navy and Land forces hath to procure a publick quiet paid many hundred thousand pounds of the Arrears of the Navy and Army employed against himself and left in Arrears by his Enemies must be ten times a giver if he should grant every ones Petition to one that he shall be a gainer or receiver discontents himself to content others and forgetting that old rule and practice of the world sibi proximus is enforced to provide for others and not for himself and in the midst of his own necessities is to be the rewarder of virtue and still as well as he can the raging waves of the multitude is the Asylum or refuge of all that are distressed and bears or lessens their burdens out of his own Revenues And when Neighbour Princes are not usually without ambitions and taking all opportunities to enlarge their power and Dominions by the weaknesse of others or to weaken and oppress any of their Neighbours and make advantages of their troubles and necessities doe seldome want pretences of titles or revenging Injuries done to them or their people by Kings or their people and can lay aside their sworn Leagues and Confederacies as soon as their Interest or Designs shall invite them thereunto when the French King hath by computation an ordinary yearly Revenue of above twenty millions of Crowns which makes above five millions sterling per annum besides his extraordinaries which by Taxes and Tallages in the late warres being now by a habit and custome grown something easie and familiar to them may be raised to vast yearly sums of money and more then treble the ordinary when the King of Spain aboundeth in his Revenues in his Dominions in Christendom besides his extraordinary Aids Assesments and vast treasures and supplies from the West Indies which is a ready or rich pawn or credit for borrowing of monies upon all extraordinary emergencies occasions or necessities of State affairs The City of Venice with her Territories hath above a million sterling per annum in her yearly Income besides extraordinaries and a treasure of money enough to pay six Kings ransomes with Jewels and Plate unvaluable And the Dutch have one million and two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum yearly ordinary Revenue out of Amsterdam besides what they have yearly out of all other Cities Towns and Places by their huge Excises and Assessments upon all the seven United Provinces And the King of England who was wont to be Arbiter totius Europae hold and keep the Ballance of Christendom even and if he do not it cannot be either safe or well for his own Kingdomes and People and their Trade and Commerce must pine and wither away languish and groan under so great expences and necessities whilest he is to preserve himself and people in peace plenty and safety and hath so little to doe it withall when at home all men do seem to love and serve him very many doe ask and get what they can from him and too many deceive him And as that prudent and great Statesman Cecil Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer of England observed to the Parliament in the Reign of King James it is a certain rule that all Princes are poor and unsafe who are not rich and so potent as to defend themselves upon any sodain offence and invasion or help their Allies and Neighbours Hath a small Revenue to govern an unruly People one part of them ready to runne mad with mistaken opinions in Religion and too many of the residue overgrown with vice and luxury a burden of burdens laid upon him the burdens of his people and the burdens of his Ancestors by their bounties expence and necessities and are by so much greater or heavier then theirs as his Revenues are consideratis considerandis a great deal lesser CHAP. I. The Remedies WHich a small or ordinary repair will not help but requires new and more sollid and lasting foundations endeavoured seriously and attempted by King James about the seventh year of his Reign by the advice of his Parliament and Privy Council but not then or any time since brought to perfection And may in a legall and well pleasing way to the people without the unwelcome raising of the Tenths of the Abbie and religions Lands to the present yearly value which may be of dangerous consequence and the Tenths and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy of England who have been over much pared already or a Resumption of the Crown Lands which unless it be of such wherein the King or his Father have been grossely deceived and the first money paid for the purchase upon an account of the mesne profits and interest satisfied will hugely disturb the Interest and House-gods of too many of the Nobility Gentry and rich men of the Kingdome and without any new or forreign devices or Talliages to raise monies and Fricasser or tear in pieces the already too much impaired estates of a Tax-bearing tired people which that Monarch of virtues and blessed Martyr King Charles the first did so abhorre as he caused Mr. Selden Mr. Oliver St. John to be imprisoned in the Tower of London a bill to be exhibted in Star-chamber against them and the Earl of Clare and others for having only in their custody and divulging a Manuscript or writing of certain Italian projects proposed to him by Sir Robert Dudley a Titulado Duke in Tuscanie and with out the gawling grating and most commonly unsuccesfull way of Projects which if set up will be thrown down again by the after Complaints and discontents of the people or hunting and vexing them with informations or calling their Lands and Estates in question to the ruine of them and their Families upon defective Titles or by Monopolies or a trebling abuses by pretending to reform them or Essayes of new wayes of profit framed or found out by such as designe more to themselves then for the good either of King or People and either know not or cannot or will not foresee the many evills and sad consequences which may as effects from causes fatally and unavoidably follow such or the like attempts which the necessities of Kings or want of competent revenues may either put them or their servants and followers upon Be as is humbly conceived prevented by severall Acts of Parliament to be made upon the propositions following which will not only encrease the Kings Revenues but encourage and make the People very willing and well contented therewith when as what they shall for the present loose thereby shall at the same time by enacting of some good Laws for them be abundantly repenced By a generall inclosure of