he to take away from his People all fear and apprehension that he intended to change the Ancient Government called speedily a Parliament anâ— in it consented to a Declaration of thâ— Kingdoms Right in that point without the clearing of which all our other Laws had been useless and the Government it self too of which the Parliament is at the least as Essential a part as the Prince so that there passed a Law in that Parliament that one should be held every year and oftner if need be which like another Magna Charta was confirmed by a new Act made in the time of Edward the Third that glorious Prince nor were there any Sycophants in those days who durst pretend Loyalty by using Arguments to prove that it was against the Royal Prerogative for the Parliament to entrench upon the Kings Right of calling and Dissolving of Parliaments as if there were a Prerogative in the Crown to chuse whether ever a Parliament should assemble or no I would desire no more if I were a Prince to make me Grand Seignior Soon after this last Act the King by reason of his Wars with France and Scotland and other great Affairs was forced sometimes to end his Parliaments abruptly and leave business undone and this not out of Court-tricks which were then unknown which produced another Act not long after by which it was provided That no Parliament should be dismist till all the Petitions were answered That is in the Language of those times till all the Bills which were then styled Petitions were finished Doct. Pray Sir give me a little account of this last Act you speak of for I have heard in Discourse from many Lawyers that they believe there is no such Eng. Gen. Truly Sir I shall confess to you that I do not find this Law in any of our Printed Statute Books but that which first gave me the knowledg of it was what was said about three years ago in the House of Commons by a worthy and Learned Gentleman who undertook to produce the Record in the Reign of Richard the Second and since I have questioned many Learned Counsellors about it who tell me there is such a one and one of them who is counted a Prerogative-Lawyer said it was so but that Act was made in Factious times Besides I think it will be granted that for some time after and particularly in the Reigns of Henry the 4th Henry the 5th and Henry the 6th it was usual for a Proclamation to be made in Westminster-Hall before the end of every Session that all those that had any matter to present to the Parliament should bring it in before such a day for otherwise the Parliament at that day should determine But if there were nothing at all of this nor any Record extant concerning it yet I must believe that it is so by the Fundamental Law of this Government which must be lame and imperfect without it for it is all one to have no Parliaments at all but when the Prince pleases and to allow a power in him to dismiss them when he will that is when they refuse to do what he will so that if there be no Statute it is certainly because our wise Ancestors thought there needed none but that by the very Essence and Constitution of the Government it is provided for and this we may call if you had rather have it so the common-Common-Law which is of as much value if not more than any Statute and of which all our good Acts of Parliament and Magna Charta it self is but Declaratory so that your Objection is sufficiently aswered in this That though the King is intrusted with the formal part of summoning and pronouncing the Dissolution of Parliaments which is done by his Writ yet the Laws which oblige him as well as us have determin'd how and when he shall do it which is enough to shew that the Kings share in the Soveraignty that is in the Parliament is cut out to him by the Law and not left at his disposal Now I come to the Kings part in the Intervals of Parliament Noble Ven. Sir before you do so pray tell us what other Prerogatives the King enjoys in the Government for otherwise I who am a Venetian may be apt to think that our Doge who is call'd our Prince may have as much Power as yours Eng. Gent. I am in a fine condition amongst you with my Politicks the Doctor tells me I have made the King Absolute and now you tell me I have made him a Doge of Venice But when your Prince has Power to dispose of the Publick Revenue to name all Officers Ecclesiastical and Civil that are of trust and profit in the Kingdom and to dispose absolutely of the whole Militia by Sea and Land then we will allow him to be like ours who has all these Powers Doct. Well you puzzle me extreamly for when you had asserted the King's Power to the heighth in Calling and Dissolving Parliaments you gave me such satisfaction and shewed me wherein the Law had provided that this vast Prerogative could not hurt the People that I was fully satisfied and had not a word to say Now you come about again and place in the Crown such a Power which in my Judgment is inconsistent with our Liberty Eng. Gent. Sir I suppose you mean chiefly the Power of the Militia which was I must confess doubtful before a late Statute declar'd it to be in the King For our Government hath made no other disposal of the Militia than what was natural viz. That the Peers in their several Counties or Jurisdictions had the Power of calling together their Vassals either armed for the Wars or onely so as to cause the Law to be executed by serving Writs and in case of resistance giving possession which Lords amongst their own Tenants did then perform the two several Offices of Lord-Lieutenant and Sheriff which latter was but the Earls Deputy as by his Title of Vice-Comes do's appear But this latter being of daily necessity and Justice it self that is the Lives Liberties and Estates of all the People in that County depending upon it when the greatness of the Peers decay'd of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter the Electing of Sheriff was referred to the County-Court where it continued till it was placed where it now is by a Statute For the other part of the Militia which is the Arming the People for War it was de facto exercised by Commission from the King to a Lord-Lieutenant as an image of the Natural Lord and other Deputies and it was tacitely consented to though it were never setled by Statute as I said before till His Majesties happy Restauration But to answer you I shall say That whatever Powers are in the Crown whether by Statute or by old Prescription they are and must be understood to be intrusted in the Prince for the preservation of the Government and for the safety and interest of the
mas os eligimos nuestro Rey conque nos guardeys nuestros Fueros y Privilegios y si no no. That is We who are as good as you and more Powerful do chuse you our King upon condition that you preserve our Rights and Priviledges and if not not Notwithstanding all this Philip the Second being both King of Castile and Arragon picked a quarrel with the latter by demanding his Secretary Antonio Perez who fled from the King's displeasure thither being his own Country and they refusing to deliver him it being expresly contrary to a Law of Arragon that a Subject of that Kingdom should be against his will carried to be tryed elsewhere the King took that occasion to Invade them with the Forces of his Kingdom of Castile who had ever been Rivals and Enemies to the Aragoneses and they to defend themselves under their Justicia who did his part faithfully and couragiously but the Castilians being old Soldiers and those of Arragon but County-Troops the former prevailed and so this Kingdom in getting that of Castile by a Marriage but an Age before lost its own Liberty and Government for it is since made a Province and Governed by a Vice-Roy from Madrid although they keep up the formality of their Cortes still Doct. No man living that knew the hatred and hostility that ever was between the English and Scots could have imagined in the years 1639 and 1640 when our King was with great Armies of English upon the Frontiers of Scotland ready to Invade that Kingdom that this Nation would not have assisted to have brought them under but it proved otherwise Eng. Gent. It may be they feared That when Scotland was reduced to slavery and the Province pacified and Forces kept up there That such Forces and greater might have been imployed here to reduce us into the same condition an apprehension which at this time sticks with many of the common People and helps to fill up the measure of our Fears and Distractions But the visible reason why the English were not at that time very forward to oppress their Neighbours was the consideration That they were to be Invaded for refusing to receive from hence certain Innovations in matters of Religion and the worship of God which had not long before been introduced here and therefore the People of this Kingdom were unwilling to perpetuate a Mungrel Church here by imposing it upon them But I do exceedingly admire when I read our History to see how zealous and eager our Nobility and People here were anciently to assert the right of our Crown to the Kingdom of France whereas it is visible that if we had kept France for we Conquered it intirely and fully to this day we must have run the fate of Arragon and been in time ruined and opprest by our own Valour and good Fortune a thing that was foreseen by the Macedonians when their King Alexander had subdued all Persia and the East who weighing how probable it was that their Prince having the possession of such great and flourishing Kingdoms should change his Domicilium Imperii and inhabit in the Centre of his Dominions and from thence Govern Macedon by which means the Grecians who by their Vertue and Valour had Conquered and subdued the Barbarians should in time even as an effect of their Victories be opprest and tyrannized over by them and this precautious foresight in the Greeks as was fully believed in that Age hastened the fatal Catastrophe of that great Prince Doct. Well I hope this consideration will fore arm our Parliaments That they will not easily suffer their eyes to be dazled any more with the false glory of Conquering France Noble Ven. You need no great cautions against Conquering France at this present and I believe your Parliaments need as little admonition against giving of Money towards new Wars or Alliances that fine wheedle having lately lost them enough already therefore pray let us suffer our Friend to go on Eng. Gent. I have no more to say of Foreign Monarchies but only to tell you That Poland is both Governed and Possessed by some very great Persons or Potentates called Palatines and under them by a very numerous Gentry for the King is not onely Elective but so limited that he has little or no Power but to Command their Armies in time of War which makes them often chuse Foreigners of great Fame for Military Exploits and as for the Commonalty or Country-men they are absolutely Slaves or Villains This Government is extreamly confused by reason of the numerousness of the Gentry who do not always meet by way of representation as in other Kingdoms but sometimes for the choice of their King and upon other great occasions collectively in the Field as the Tribes did at Rome which would make things much more turbulent if all this body of Gentry did not wholly depend for their Estates upon the favour of the Palatines their Lords which makes them much more tractable I have done with our Neighbours beyond Sea and should not without your command have made so long a digression in this place which should indeed have been treated of before we come to speak of England but that you were pleased to divert me from it before However being placed near the Portraicture of our own Country it serves better as contraria juxta se posita to illustrate it but I will not make this Deviation longer by Apologizing for it and shall therefore desire you to take notice That as in England by degrees Property came to shift from the few to the many so the Government is grown heavier and more uneasie both to Prince and People the complaints more in Parliament the Laws more numerous and much more tedious and prolix to meet with the tricks and malice of men which works in a loose Government for there was no need to make Acts verbose when the great Persons could presently force the Execution of them for the Law of Edward the First for frequent Parliaments had no more words than A Parliament shall be holden every year whereas our Act for a Triennial Parliament in the time of King Charles the First contained several sheets of paper to provide against a failer in the Execution of that Law which if the Power had remained in the Lords would have been needless for some of them in case of intermission of Assembling the Parliament would have made their Complaint and Address to the King and have immediately removed the obstruction which in those days had been the natural and easie way but now that many of the Lords like the Bishops which the Popes make at Rome in partibus infidelium are meerly grown Titular and purchased for nothing but to get their Wives place it cannot be wondred at if the King slight their Addresses and the Court-Parasites deride their Honourable undertakings for the safety of their Country Now the Commons succeeding as was said in the Property of the Peers and Church whose Lands
there were an Army Landed in this Island yet that we must begin there before we are fit to repulse them or defend our selves And the fear and sense of this People universally is that if we should have any War either for our own Concerns or for those of our Allies whilst Matters remain as they do at home it would certainly come to this pass that either being beaten we should subject this Kingdom to an Invasion at a time when we are in a very ill condition to repell it or else if we were Victorious that our Courtiers and Counsellors in fragrante or as the French cry d'emble would employ that Mettle and good Fortune to try some such Conclusions at home as we have been discoursing of And therefore if any War should be undertaken without Parliament you should see the People rejoyce as much at any disaster our Forces should receive as they did when the Scots seized the four Northern Counties in 1639. Or before that when we were beaten at the Isle of Rhee or when we had any Loss in the last War with Holland And this Joy is not so unnatural as it may seem to those who do not consider the Cause of it which is the breach of our old Government and the necessity our Governors are under to make some new experiments And the fear we are in that any Prosperity may make them able to try them either with Effect or at least with Impunity Which Consideration made a Court-Droll say lately to His Majesty who seemed to wonder why his subjects hated the French so much Sir it is because you love them and espouse their Interest And if you would discover this Truth clearly you may please to make War with the King of France and then you shall see that this People will not only love them take their parts and wish them Success but will exceedingly rejoyce when they are Victorious in sinking your Ships or defeating your Forces And this is sufficient to answer your Proposal for Alliances abroad and for a War with France Besides this to wind all up in a Word it is not to be imagined that so good and wise a Prince as we have at this time should ever be induced when he comes to understand perfectly his own Condition to let his own Interest granting his Power to be so which is very false contest with the Safety and Preservation of his People for which only it was given him or that he will be any way tenacious of such Prerogatives as now by a natural Revolution of Political Circumstances are so far from continuing useful to his Governing the People that they are the only Remora and Obstacle of all Government Settlement and Order For His Majesty must needs know that all Forms of regulating Mankind under Laws were ordained by God and Man for the Happiness and Security of the Governed and not for the Interest and Greatness of those who rule unless where there is Melior Natura in the Case So God Governs Man for his own Glory only and Men Reign over Beasts for their own Use and Service and where an Absolute Prince rules over his own Servants whom he feeds and pays as we have said or the Master of a great and numerous Family Governs his Houshold they are both bound by the Law of God and Nature and by their own Interest to do them Justice and not Insaevire or Tyranize over them more than the necessity of preserving their Empire and Authority requires Doct. But Sir considering the difficulty which will be found in the King and possibly in the Parliament too to come up to so great an alteration at the first and the danger that may happen by our remaining long in this unsetled Condition which does hourly expose us to innumerable hazards both at home and from abroad why may we not begin and lay the Foundation now by removing all His Majesty's present Council by Parliament which is no new thing but hath been often practised in many Kings Reigns Eng. Gent. First the Council that is the Privy Council which you mean is no part of our Government as we may have occasion to shew hereafter nor is the King obliged by any Fundamental Law or by any Act of Parliament to hearken to their Advice or so much as to ask it and if you should make one on purpose besides that it would not be so effectual as what we may propose it would be full as hard to go down either with King or Parliament But besides all this you would see some of these Counsellours so nominated by Parliament perhaps prove honest and then they would be forced to withdraw as some lately did because they found I suppose that till the Administration be alter'd it is impossible that their Councils can be imbraced or any thing be acted by them which may tend to the good of their Country those who have not so great a sence of Honour and Integrity will be presently corrupted by their own Interest whilst the Prince is left in possession of all those baits and means to answer such Mens ectpectations It being most certain that if you have a musty Vessel and by consequence dislike the Beer which comes out of it and draw it out causing the Barrel to be immediately fill'd with good and sound Liquor it is certain by experience that both your new Drink and all that ever you shall put into the Cask till it be taken in pieces and the Pipes shaved and new model'd will be full as musty and unsavoury as the first which you found fault with Noble Ven. Now Sir I think we are at an end of our Questions and I for my part am convinced that as the King cannot better himself any way by falling out with his people at this time so that his goodness and wisdom is such that he will rather chuse to imitate the most glorious and generous of his predecessors as Edward the First and Edward the Third than those who were of less worth and more unfortunate as Edward the Second and Richard the Second And therefore we are now ready to hear what you would think fit to ask of so excellent a Prince Eng. Gent. I never undertook to be so presumptuous there is a Parliament to sit speedily and certainly they are the fittest every way to search into such matters and to anticipate their wisdom would be unreasonable and might give them just offence But because all this tittle tattle may not go for nothing I shall presume to give you my thoughts how the Cure must be wrought without descending to particulars The Cause Immediate as we have said of our Disease is the inexecution of our Laws and it is most true that when that is alter'd for the better and that all our Laws are duly executed we are in health for as we can never have the entire benefit of them till our Government is upon a right Basis so whenever we enjoy this happiness to
in And in three Years they shall be all new and no Person to come into that Council or any other of the four till he have kept out of any of them full three Years being as long as he was in And this I learnt from your Quarantia's at Venice and the Use is excellent for being in such a Circulation and sure to have their intervals of Power they will neither grow so insolent as to brave their King nor will the Prince have any occasion to corrupt them although he had the means to do it which in this new Model he cannot have These Men in their several Councils should have no other instructions but to dispose of all things and act in their several Charges for the Interest and Glory of England and shall be Answerable to Parliament from time to time for any malicious or advised Misdemeanor only that Council which manages the Publick Revenue shall besides a very copious and Honourable Revenue which shall be left to His Majesty's disposal for his own Entertainment as belongs to the Splendor and Majesty of the Government have Instructions to serve His Majesty if he pleases to command them and not otherwise in the regulating and ordering his Oeconomy and Houshold and if they shall see it necessary for extraordinary Occasions of treating Foreign Princes and Ambassadors or Presenting them and the like Ostentation of Greatness to consent with His Majesty moderately to charge the Revenue to that end I verily believe that this Expedient is much more effectual than either the Justitia of Aragon was or the Ephores of Sparta Who being to check the King almost in every thing without having any share in his Councils or understanding them could not chuse but make a sullen posture of Affairs whereas these both seem and really are the King's Ministers only obliged by Parliament to act faithfully and honestly to which even without that all other Councellors are bound by Oath As for the other Council now called the Privy Council the King may still please to continue to nominate them at his pleasure so they act nothing in any of the Matters properly within the Jurisdiction of these four Councils but meddle with the Affairs of Merchants Plantations Charters and other Matters to which the Regal Power extendeth And provided that His Majesty call none of the Persons employed in these other four Councils during their being so nor that this Council do any way intermeddle with any Affairs Criminal or Civil which are to be decided by Law and do belong to the Jurisdictions of other Courts or Magistrates they being no established Judicatory or Congregation which either our Government or Laws do take notice of as was said before but Persons congregated by the King as his Friends and faithful Subjects to give him their Opinion in the Execution of his Regal Office As for Example the King does exercise at this time a Negative Voice as to Bills presented to him by the Parliament which he claims by Right no Man ever said that the Privy Council had a Negative Voice yet former Kings did not only ask their Advice as to the passing or not passing of such Bills but often decided the Matter by their Votes which although it be a high Presumption in them when they venture to give him Council contrary to what is given him by his greatest Council yet never any of them have been questioned for it being looked upon as private Men who speak according to the best of their Cunning and such as have no publick Capacity at all But if this be not so and that this Council have some Foundation in Law and some publick Capacity I wish in this new Settlement it may be made otherwise and that His Majesty please to take their Counsel in private but summon no Persons to appear before them much less give them Authority to send for in Custody or Imprison any Subject which may as well be done by the Judges and Magistrates who if Secrecy be required may as well be Sworn to Secrecy as these Gentlemen and I believe can keep Counsel as well and give it too Noble Ven. But would you have none to manage State-Affairs none Imprisoned for secret Conspiracies and kept till they can be fully discovered you have made an Act here lately about Imprisonments that every Person shall have his Habeas Corpus I think you call it so that no Man for what occasion soever can lie in Prison above a Night but the Cause must be revealed though there be great cause for the concealing it Eng. Gent. This Act you mention and a great many more which we have to the same purpose that is against Illegal Imprisonments shews that for a long time the Power over Men's Persons has been exercised under His Majesty by such as were very likely rather to employ it ill than well that is would rather Imprison ten Men for Honourable Actions such as standing for the People's Rights in Parliament refusing to pay Illegal Taxes and the like than one for projecting and inventing Illegal Monopolies or any other kind of oppressing the People This made first Magna Charta then the Petition of Right and divers other Acts besides this last take that Power quite away and make the Law and the Judges the only Disposers of the Liberties of our Persons And it may be when the Parliament shall see the Fruit of this Alteration we are now discoursing of and that State-Affairs are in better hands they may think fit to provide that a Return or Warrant of Imprisonment from one of these Four Councils which I suppose will have a Power of Commitment given them as to Persons appearing Delinquents before them wherein it shall be expressed That if the Publick is like to suffer or be defrauded if the Matter be immediately divulged I say in this Case the Parliament may please to make it Lawful for the Judge to delay the Bailing of him for some small time because it is not to be judged that these Councellours so chosen and so instructed and to continue so small a time will use this Power ill especially being accountable for any abusing of it to the next Parliament And I suppose the Parliament amongst other Provisions in this behalf will require that there shall be a Register kept of all the Votes of these several Councils with the names as well of those who consented as of such who dissented And as to the former part of your Question whether I would have none to manage State Affairs I think there are very few State Affairs that do not concern either Peace and War and Treaties abroad the management of the Arms Militia and posse Comitatus at home the management of all the Publick Moneys and the Election of all Officers whatsoever the other parts of State Affairs which are Making and Repealing of Laws punishing high Crimes against the State with Levying and Proportioning all manner of Impositions upon the People this is reserved
to take the pains of instructing my Curiosity in Italian Eng. Gent. I shall obey you in this and all things else upon this condition that both you and the Doctor will vouchsafe to interrogate me and by that means give me the Method of serving you in this And then that you will both please to interrupt and contradict me when you think I say any think amiss oâ— that either of you are of a different Opinion and to give me a good occasion of explaining my self and possibly of being convinced by you which I shall easily confess for I hate nothing more than to hear disputes amongst Gentlemen and men offence wherein the Speakers seem like Sophisters in a Colledge to dispute rather for Victory than to discover and find out the Truth Doct. Well all this I believe will be granted you so that we have nothing to do now but to adjourn and name a time when to meet again Which I being this Gentlemans Physician will take upon me to appoint and it shall be to morrow morning about nine of the Clock after he has slept well as I hope he will by means of a Cordial I intend to send him immediately In the mean time not to weary him too much we will take our leaves of him for this Night Noble Ven. I shall expect your return with great impatience and if your Cordial be not very potent I believe the desire of seeing you will make me wake much sooner than the hour you appoint And I am very confident that my mind aswell as my body will be sufficiently improved by such Visits It begins to be darkish Boy light your Torch and wait on these Gentlemen down Both. Sir we wish you all good rest and health Noble Ven. And I with a thousand thanks the like to you The SECOND DAY Doct. WEll Sir how is it Have you rested well to Night I fear we come too early Noble Ven. Dear Doctor I find my self very well thanks to your Care and Skill and have been up above these two hours in expectation of the favour you and this Gentleman promist me Doct. Well then pray let us leave off Compliments and Repartees of which we had a great deal too much yesterday and fall to our business and be pleas'd to interrogate this Gentleman what you think fit Noble Ven. Then Sir my first request to you is That you will vouchsafe to acquaint me for what Reasons this Nation which hath over been esteemed and very justly one of the most considerable People of the World and made the best Figure both in Peace Treaties War and Trade is now of so small regard and signifies so little abroad Pardon the freedom I take for I assure you it is not out of disrespect much less of contempt that I speak it For since I arrived in England I find it one of the most flourishing Kingdoms in Europe full of splendid Nobility and Gentry the comliest persons alive Valiant Courteous Knowing and Bountiful and as well stored with Commoners Honest Industrious fitted for Business Merchandise Arts or Arms as their several Educations lead them Those who apply themselves to study prodigious for Learning and succeeding to admiration in the perfection of all Sciences All this makes the Riddle impossible to be solved but by some skillful Sphynx such as you are whose pains I will yet so far spare as to acknowledge that I do in that little time I have spent here perceive that the immediate cause of all this is the Dis-union of the People and the Governours the Discontentment of the Gentry and Turbulency of the Commonalty although without all Violence or Tumult which is Miraculous So that what I now request of you is That you will please to deduce particularly to me the Causes of this Division that when they are laid open I may proceed if you think fit to permit it from the Disease when known to enquire out the Remedies Eng. Gent. Before I come to make you any Answer I must thank you for the Worthy and Honourable Character you give of our Nation and shall add to it That I do verily believe that there are not a more Loyal and Faithful People to their Prince in the whole world than ours are nor that fear more to fall into that State of Confusion in which we were twenty years since and that not only this Parliament which consists of the most Eminent Men of the Kingdom both for Estates and Parts but all the Inhabitants of this Isle in general even those so many of them as have their understandings yet entire which were of the anti-Anti-royal Party in our late Troubles have all of them the greatest horrour imaginable to think of doing any thing that may bring this poor Country into those Dangers and Uncertainties which then did threaten our Ruin and the rather for this Consideration that neither the Wisdom of some who were engaged in those Affairs which I must aver to have been very great nor the success of their Contest which ended in an absolute Victory could prevail so as to give this Kingdom any advantage nay not so much as any settlement in Satisfaction and Requital of all the Blood it had lost Mony it had spent and Hazzard it had run A clear Argument why we must totally exclude a Civil War from being any of the Remedies when we come to that point I must add further That as we have as loyal subjects as are any where to be found so we have as gracious and good a Prince I never having yet heard that he did or attempted to do any the least Act of Arbitrary Power in any publick Concern nor did ever take or endeavour to take from any particular person the benefit of the Law And for his only Brother although accidentally he cannot be denyed to be a great motive of the Peoples unquietness all men must acknowledge him to be a most Glorious and Honourable Prince one who has exposed his life several times for the Safety and Glory of this Nation one who pays justly and punctually his Debts and manages his own Fortune discreetly and yet keeps the best Court and Equipage of any Subject in Christendom is Courteous and Affable to all and in fine has nothing in his whole Conduct to be excepted against much less dreaded excepting that he is believed to be of a Religion contrary to the Honour of God and the Safety and interest of this People which gives them just Apprehensions of their Future Condition But of this matter we shall have occasion to Speculate hereafter in the mean time since we have such a Prince and such Subjects we must needs want the ordinary cause of Distrust and Division and therefore must seek higher to find out the Original of this turbulent posture we are in Doct. Truly you had need seek higher or lower to satisfie us for hitherto you have but enforced the Gentleman's Question and made us more admire what the Solution will be
and Mr. Attwood of grays-Inne being Gentlemen whom I do mention honoris causa and really they deserve to be honor'd that they will spare some time from the Mechanical part of their Callings which is to assist Clients with Counsel and to plead their Causes and which I acknowledg likewise to be honourable to study the true Interest of their Country and to show how ancient the Rights of the People in England are and that in a time when neither Profit nor Countenance can be hop'd for from so ingenious an undertaking But I beg pardon for the deviation Of the three branches of Soveraign Power which Politicians mention which are Enacting Laws Levying of Taxes and making War and Peace the two first of them are indisputably in the Parliament and when I say Parliament I ever intend with the King The last has been usually exercis'd by the Prince if he can do it with his own Money yet because even in that Case it may be ruinous to the Kingdom by exposing it to an Invasion many have affirmed that such a Power cannot be by the true and ancient free Government of England supposed to be Intrusted in the hands of one man And therefore we see in divers Kings Reigns the Parliament has been Consulted and their advice taken in those matters that have either concerned War or Leagues And that if it has been omitted Addresses have been made to the king by Parliaments either to make war or peace according to what they thought profitable to the publick So that I will not determine whether that power which draws such consequences after it be by the genuine sence of our Laws in the Prince or no although I know of no Statute or written Record which makes it otherwise That which is undoubtedly the Kings Right or prerogative is to Call and Dissolve Parliaments to preside in them to approve of all Acts made by them and to put in Execution as Supream or Soveraign Magistrate in the Intervals of Parliaments and during their Sitting all Laws made by them as also the Common Law for which Cause he has the nomination of all Inferiour Officers and Ministers under him excepting such as by Law or Charter are eligible otherwise and the Power of the Sword to force Obedience to the Judgements given both in Criminal and Civil Causes Doct. Sir You have made us a very absolute Prince what have we left us if the King have all this Power what do our Liberties or Rights signifie whenever he pleases Eng. Gent. This Objection Doctor makes good what I said before that your skill did not terminate in the body natural but extend to the Politick for a more pertinent Interrogatory could never have been made by Plato or Aristotle In answer to which you may please to understand That when these Constitutions were first made our Ancestors were a plain-hearted well-meaning People without Court-reserves or tricks who having made choice of this sort of Government and having Power enough in their hands to make it take place did not foresee or imagine that any thoughts of Invading their Rights could enter into the Princes Head nor do I read that it ever did till the Norman Line came to Reign which coming in by Treaty it was obvious there was no Conquest made upon any but Harold in whose stead William the First came and would claim no more after his Victory than what Harold enjoy'd excepting that he might confiscate as he did those great men who took part with the wrong Title and French-men were put into their Estates which though it made in this Kingdom a mixture between Normans and Saxons yet produced no Change or Innovation in the Government the Norman Peers being as tenacious of their Liberties and as active in the recovery of them to the full as the Saxon Families were Soon after the death of William and possibly in his time there began some Invasions upon the Rights of the Kingdom which begat Grievances and afterwards Complaints and Discontents which grew to that height that the Peers were fain to use their Power that is Arm their Vassals to defend the Government whilest the Princes of that Age first King John and then Henry the Third got Force together The Barons call'd in Lewis the Dauphin whilst the King would have given away the Kingdom to the Sarazens as he did to the Pope and armed their own Creatures so that a bloody War ensued for almost forty years off and on as may be read in our History The success was that the Barons or Peers obtained in the close two Charters or Laws for the ascertaining their Rights by which neither their Lives Liberties or Estates could ever be in danger any more from any Arbitrary Power in the Prince and so the good Government of England which was before this time like the Law of Nature onely written in the hearts of Men came to be exprest in Parchment and remain a Record in Writing though these Charters gave us no more than what was our own before After these Charters were made there could not chuse but happen some encroachment upon them but so long as the Peers kept their greatness there was no breaches but what were immediately made up in Parliament which when-ever they assembled did in the first place confirm the Charters and made very often Interpretations upon them for the benefit of the People witness the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo and many others But to come nearer the giving the Doctor an answer you may please to understand that not long after the framing of these forementioned Charters there did arise a Grievance not foreseen or provided for by them and it was such an one that had beaten down the Government at once if it had not been Redressed in an Orderly way This was the Intermission of Parâ—iaments which could not be called but â—y the Prince and he not doing of it â—hey ceast to be Assembled for some years if this had not been speedily reâ—edied the Barons must have put on â—heir Armour again for who can Imaâ—ine that such brisk Assertors of their â—ights could have acquiesced in an Omission that ruin'd the Foundation of the Government which consisting of King Lords and Commons and having at that time Marched near Five hundred years upon three Leggs must then have gone on hopping upon one which could it have gone forward as was impossible whilest Property continued where it was yet would have rid but a little way Nor can it be wonder'd at that our great Men made no provision against this Grievance in their Charters because it was impossible for them to imagine that their Prince who had so good a share in this Government should go about to destroy it and to take that burden upon himself which by our Constitution was undeniably to be divided between him and his Subjects And therefore divers of the great Men of those times speaking with that excellent Prince King Edward the First about it
People and when either the Militia which is given him for the execution and support of the Law shall be imploy'd by him to subvert it as in the case of Ship-Money it was or the Treasure shall be mis-apply'd and made the Revenue of Courtiers and Sycophants as in the time of Edward the Second or worthless or wicked People shall be put into the greatest places as in the reign of Richard the Second In this case though the Prince here cannot be questionable for it as the Kings were in Sparta and your Doges I believe would be yet it is a great violation of the trust reposed in him by the Government and a making that Power which is given him by Law unlawful in the Execution And the frequent examples of Justice inflicted in Parliament upon the King's Ministers for abusing the Royal Power shews plainly that such authority is not left in his hands to use as he pleases Nay there have befallen sad troubles and dangers to some of these Princes themselves who have abused their Power to the prejudice of the Subjects which although they are no way justifiable yet may serve for an Instruction to Princes and an example not to hearken to ruinous Councils for men when they are enraged do not always consider Justice of Religion passion being as natural to man as reason and vertue which was the Opinion of divine Machiavil To answer you then I say That though we do allow such Powers in the King yet since they are given him for edification and not destruction and cannot be abused without great danger to his Ministers and even to himself we may hope that they can never be abused but in a broken Government And if ours be so as we shall see anon the fault of the ill execution of our Laws is not to be imputed either to the Prince or his Ministers excepting that the latter may be as we said before justly punishable for not advising the Prince to consent to them ending the frame of which we shall talk more hereafter but in the mean time I will come to the Kings other Prerogatives as having all Royal Mines the being serv'd first before other Creditors where mony is due to him and to have a speedier and easier way than his Subjects to recover his debts and his Rents c. But to say all in one word when there arises any doubt whether any thing be the king's Prerogative or no this is the way of deciding it viz. To consider whether it be for the good and protection of the people that the King have such a Power For the definition of Prerogative is a considerable part of the Common Law by which Power is put into the Prince for the preservation of his People And if it be not for the good of his Subjects it is not Prerogative not Law for our Prince has no Authority of his own but what was first intrusted in him by the Government of which he is Head nor is it to be imagined that they would give him more Power than what was necessary to Govern them For example the power of pardoning Criminals condemned is of such use to the Lives and Estates of the People that without it many would be exposed to die unjustly As lately a poor Gentleman who by means of the Harangue of a Strepitous Lawyer was found guilty of Murder for a Man he never kil'd or if he had the fact had been but Man-slaughter and he had been inevitably murdered himself if his Majesty had not been graciously pleased to extend his Royal Mercy to him As he did likewise vouchsafe to do to a Gentleman convicted for speaking words he never utter'd or if he had spoken them they were but foolishly not malitiously spoken On the other side if a Controversie should arise as it did in the beginning of the last Parliament between the House of Commons and the Prerogative-Lawyers about the choice of their Speaker these latter having interested his Majesty in the Contest and made him by consequence disoblige in limine a very Loyal and a very Worthy Parliament and for what for a Question which if you will decide it the right way will be none for setting aside the Presidents and the History when the Crown first pretended to any share in the Choice of a Speaker which Argument was very well handled by some of the Learned Patriots then I would have leave to ask what man can shew and what reason can be alledged why the protection and welfare of the People should require that a Prerogative should be in the Prince to chuse the Mouth of the House of Commons when there is no particular person in his whole Dominion that would not think it against his interest if the Government had given the King Power to nominate his Bayliff his Attorney or his Referree in any Arbitration Certainly there can be no advantage either to the Soveraign or his Subjects that the person whose Office it is to put their deliberations into fitting words and express all their requests to his Majesty should not be entirely in their own Election and appointment which there is the more reason for too because the Speakers for many years past have received Instructions from the Court and have broken the Priviledges of the House by revealing their Debates Adjourning them without a Vote and committed many other Misdemeanours by which they have begotten an ill understanding between the King and his House of Commons to the infinite prejudice both of his Majesties Affairs and his People Since I have given this rule to Judge Prerogative by I shall say no more of it for as to what concerns the King's Office in the Intervals of Parliament it is wholly Ministerial and is barely to put in Execution the Common Law and the Statutes made by the Soveraign Power that is by Himself and the Parliament without varying one tittle or suspending abrogating or neglecting the Execution of any Act whatsoever and to this he is Solemnly Sworn at his Coronation And all his Power in this behalf is in him by Common Law which is Reason it self written as well in the hearts of rational Men as in the Lawyers Books Noble Ven. Sir I have heard much talk of the Kings Negative Voice in Parliaments which in my Opinion is as much as a Power to frustrate when he pleases all the endeavours and labours of his People and to prevent any good that might accrue to the Kingdom by having the right to meet in Parliament for certainly if we in Venice had placed any such Prerogative in our Duke or in any of our Magistracies we could not call our selves a free People Eng. Gent. Sir I can answer you as I did before that if our Kings have such a Power it ought to be used according to the true and genuine intent of the Government that is for the Preservation and Interest of the people and not for the disappointing the Counsels of a Parliament towards reforming
Coach Noble Ven. I shall think it very long till the morning come But before you go pray give me leave to ask you something of your Civil War here I do not mean the History of it although the World abroad is very much in the dark as to all your Transactons of that time for want of a good one but the grounds or pretences of it and how you fell into a War against your King Eng. Gent. As for our History it will not be forgotten one of those who was in Employment from the Year 40. to 60. hath written the History of those 20 Years a Person of good Learning and Elocution and though he be now dead yet his Executors are very unwilling to publish it so soon and to rub a Sore that is not yet healed But the Story is writ with great Truth and Impartiality although the Author were engaged both in Councils and Arms for the Parliaments side But for the rest of your Demand you may please to understand that our Parliament never did as they pretended make War against the King for he by Law can do no Wrong and therefore cannot be quarrelled with The War they declared was undertaken to rescue the King's Person out of those Mens hands who led him from his Parliament and made use of his Name to levy a War against them Noble Ven. But does your Government permit that in case of a disagreement between the King and his Parliament either of them may raise Arms against the other Eng. Gent. It is impossible that any Government can go further than to provide for its own Safety and Preservation whilst it is in being and therefore it can never direct what shall be done when it self is at an end there being this difference between our Bodies Natural and Politick that the first can make a Testament to dispose of things after his death but not the other This is certain that where-ever any two Co-ordinate Powers do differ and there be no Power on Earth to reconcile them otherwise nor any Umpire they will de facto fall together by the Ears What can be done in this Case de jure look into your own Country-man Machiavell and into Grotius who in his Book De jure Belli ac Pacis treated of such matters long before our Wars As for the ancient Politicians they must needs be silent in the Point as having no mixt Governments amongst them and as for me I will not rest my self in so slippery a Place There are great disputes about it in the Parliaments Declarations before the War and something considerable in the King's Answers to them which I shall specifie immediately when I have satisfied you how our War begun which was in this manner The Long Parliament having procured from the King his Royal Assent for their Sitting till they were dissolved by Act and having paid and sent out the Scottish Army and disbanded our own went on in their Debates for the settling and mending our Government the King being displeased with them for it and with himself for putting it out of his Power to dissolve them now the business which they pretended for their Perpetuation was quite finished takes an unfortunate Resolution to accuse five principal Men of the Commons House and one of the Peers of High-Treason which he prosecuted in a new unheard-of way by coming with armed Men into the Commons House of Parliament to demand their Members but nothing being done by reason of the absence of the five and Tumults of discontented Citizens flocking to White-Hall and Westminster the King took that occasion to absent himself from his Parliament Which induced the Commons House to send Commissioners to Hampton-Court to attend his Majesty with a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom and an humble Request to return to his Parliament for the Redressing those Grievances which were specified in that Remonstrance But the King otherwise Counselled goes to Windsor and thence Northwards till he arrived at York where he summons in the Militia that is the Trained-Bands of the County and besides all the Gentry of which there was a numerous Appearance The King addressed himself to the latter with Complaints against a prevailing Party in Parliament which intended to take the Crown from his Head that he was come to them his loving Subjects for Protection and in short desired them to assist him with Moneys to defend himself by Arms. Some of these Gentlemen petitioned His Majesty to return to his Parliament the rest went about the Debate of the King's Demands who in the mean time went to Hull to secure the Magazine there but was denied Entrance by a Gentleman whom the House had sent down to prevent the seizing it who was immediately declared a Traytor and the King fell to raising of Forces which coming to the Knowledge of the House they made this Vote That the King seduced by Evil Counsel intended to levy War against his Parliament and People to destroy the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of England and to introduce an Arbitrary Government c. This was the first time they named the King and the last For in all their other Papers and in their Declaration to Arm for their Defence which did accompany this Vote they name nothing but Malignant Counsellors The Kings Answer to these Votes and this Declaration is that which I mentioned wherein His Majesty denies any intention of invading the Government with high Imprecations upon himself and Posterity if it were otherwise and owns that they have Right to maintain their Laws and Government This is to be seen in the Paper it self now extant and this Gracious Prince never pretended as some Divines have done for him that his Power came from God and that his Subjects could not dispute it nor ought he to give any Account of his Actions though he should enslave us all to any but him So that our War did not begin upon a point of Right but upon a matter of Fact for without going to Lawyers or Casuists to be resolved those of the People who believed that the King did intend to destroy our Liberties joyned with the Parliament and those who were of opinion that the prevailing party in Parliament did intend to destroy the King or dethrone him assisted vigorously His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes And the Question you were pleased to ask never came for both parties pretended and believed they were in the right and that they did fight for and defend the Government But I have wearied you out Noble Ven. No sure Sir but I am infinitely obliged to you for the great care you have taken and still have used to instruct me and beg the continuance of it for to morrow morning Eng. Gent. I shall be sure to wait upon you at nine a Clock but I shall beseech both of you to bethink your selves what to offer for I shall come with a design to learn not to teach nor will I presume in such a
to say much of the Succession of the Crown which is my next Province but this I have said already That it is needless to make any Provision against a Popish Successor if you rectifie your Government and if you do not all the Care and Circumspection you can use in that Particular will be useless and of none effect and will but at last if it do not go off easily and the next Heir succeed peaceably as is most likely especially if the King live till the People's Zeal and Mettle is over end probably in a Civil War about Title and then the Person deprived may come in with his Sword in his Hand and bring in upon the Point of it both the Popish Religion and Arbitrary Power Which though I believe he will not be able to maintain long for the Reasons before alledged yet that may make this Generation miserable and unhappy It will certainly be agreed by all lovers of their Country that Popery must be kept from returning and being National in this Kingdom as well for what concerns the Honour and Service of God as the Welfare and Liberty of the People and I conceive there are two ways by which the Parliament may endeavour to secure us against that danger the first by ordering such a change in the Administration of our Government that whoever is Prince can never violate the Laws and then we may be very safe against Popery our present Laws being effectual enough to keep it out and no new ones being like to be made in Parliament that may introduce it and this remedy will be at the same time advantagious to us against the Tyranny and Incroachments of a Protestant Successor so that we may call it an infallible Remedy both against Popery and Arbitrary power The second way is by making a Law to disable any Papist by name or otherwise from Inheriting the Crown and this is certainly fallible that is may possibly not take place as I shall shew immediately and besides it is not improbable that an Heir to this Kingdom in future times may dissemble his Religion till he be seated in the Throne or possibly be perverted to the Roman Faith after he is possest of it when it may be too late to limit his Prerogative in Parliament and to oppose him without that will I fear be Judged Treason Doct. But Sir would you have the Parliament do nothing as things stand to provide at least as much as in them lies that whoever succeeds be a good Protestant Eng. Gent. Yes I think it best in the first place to offer to his Majesty the true Remedy if they find him averse to that then to pursue the other which concerns the Succession because the People who are their Principals and give them their Power do expect something extraordinary from them at this time and the most of them believe this last the only present means to save them from Popery which they judge and very justly will bring in with it a change of Government But then I suppose they may be encouraged to propose in the first place the true Cure not only because that is infallible as has been proved but likewise because His Majesty in probability will sooner consent to any reasonable Demand towards the Reforming of the Government and to the securing us that way than to concur to the depriving his onely Brother of the Crown And possibly this latter as I said before may be the only way the Parliament can hope will prove effectual For if you please to look but an Age back into our Story you will find that Henry the Eighth did procure an Act of Parliament which gave him power to dispose of the Crown by his last Will and Testament and that he did accordingly make his said Will and by it devise the Succession to his Son Edward the Sixth in the first place and to the Heirs of his Body and for want of such to his Daughter Mary and to the Heirs of her Body and for want of which Heirs to his Daughter Elizabeth our once Soveraign of Immortal and Blessed Memory and the Heirs of her Body and for want of all such Issue to the right Heirs of his Younger Sister who was before he made this Will married to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and had Issue by him By this Testament he disinherited his elder Sister who was married in Scotland and by that means did as much as in him lay exclude His Majesty who now by God's Mercy Reigns over us as also his Father and Grandfather And to make the Case stronger there passed an Act long after in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth That it should be Treason during that Queen's Life and a Premunire afterwards to assert that the Imperial Crown of England could not be disposed of by Act of Parliament yet after the Decease of that Queen there was no considerable Opposition made to the peaceable Reception and Recognition of King James of happy Memory And those who did make a little stir about the other Title as the Lord Cobham Sir Walter Rawleigh and a few others were apprehended condemn'd according to Law And notwithstanding that since in the Reign of K. Charles the First there was a bloody Civil War in which Men's Minds were exasperated at a high rate yet in all the Course of it the Original Want of Title was never objected against His late Majesty I do not urge this to aver that the Parliament with the King's Consent cannot do lawfully this or any other great Matter which would be an incurring the Penalty of that Law and a Solecism in the Politicks But to shew that when the Passions of men are quieted and the Reasons other than they were it happens oftentimes that those Acts which concern the Succession fall to the Ground of themselves and that even without the Sword which in this Case was never adoperated And that therefore this Remedy in our Case may be likely never to take place if it please God the King live till this Nation be under other kind of Circumstances Doct. Sir you say very well but it seems to me that the last Parliament was in some kind of Fault if this be true that you say for I remember that my Lord Chancellor did once duringtheir Sitting in His Majesty's Name offer them to secure their Religion and Liberties any way they could advise of so they would let alone meddling with the Succession and invited them to make any Proposals they thought necessary to that end Eng. Gent. Hinc ille lachrimae If this had been all we might have been happy at this time but this Gracious Offer was In limine accompanied with such Conditions that made the Parliament conjecture that it was only to perplex and divide them and did look upon it as an Invention of some new Romanza Counsellors and those too possibly influenced by the French to make them embrace the Shaddow for the Substance and satisfying themselves with
have the full benefit of those Constitutions which were made by our Ancestors for our safe and orderly living our Government is upon a right Basis therefore we must enquire into the Cause why our Laws are not executed when you have found and taken away that Cause all is well The Cause can be no other than this That the King is told and does believe that most of these great Charters or Rights of the people of which we now chiefly treat are against his Majesties Interest though this be very false as has been said yet we will not dispute it at this time but take it for granted so that the King having the Supreme execution of the Laws in his hand cannot be reasonably supposed to be willing to execute them whenever he can chuse whether he will do it or no it being natural for every man not to do any thing against his own Interest when he can help it now when you have thought well what it should be that gives the King a Liberty to chuse whether any part of the Law shall be currant or no you will find that it is the great Power the King enjoys in the Government when the Parliament hath discovered this they will no doubt demand of his Majesty an abatement of his Royal Prerogative in those matters only which concern our enjoyment of our All that is our Lives Liberties and Estates and leave his Royal Power entire and untoucht in all the other branches of it when this is done we shall be as if some great Heroe had performed the adventure of dissolving the Inchantment we have been under so many years And all our Statutes from the highest to the lowest from Magna Charta to that for burying in Woollen will be current and we shall neither fear the bringing in Popery nor Arbitrary Power in the Intervals of Parliament neither will there be any Dissentions in them all Causes of Factions between the Country and Court-party being entirely abolisht so that the People shall have no reason to distrust their Prince nor he them Doct. You make us a fine Golden Age but after all this will you not be pleased to shew us a small prospect of this Canaan or Country of rest will you not vouchsafe to particularize a little what Powers there are in the King which you would have discontinued would you have such Prerogatives abolished or placed elsewhere Eng. Gent. There can be no Government if they be abolished But I will not be like a Man who refuses to sing amongst his Friends at their entreaty because he has an ill Voice I will rather suffer my self to be laught at by you in delivering my small Judgment in this Matter but still with this protestation that I do believe that an Infinity of Men better qualifi'd than my self for such sublime Matters and much more the House of Commons who represent the Wisdom as well as the Power of this Kingdom may find out a far better way than my poor parts and Capacity can suggest The powers then which now being in the Crown do hinder the execution of our Laws and prevent by consequence our happiness and settlement are four The absolute power of making War and peace Treaties and Alliances with all Nations in the World by which means by Ignorant Councellours or Wicked Ministers many of our former Kings have made Confederations and Wars very contrary and destructive to the Interest of England and by the unfortunate management of them have often put the Kingdom in great hazard of Invasion Besides that as long as there is a distinction made between the Court-party and that of the Country there will ever be a Jealousie in the people that those wicked Councellours who may think they can be safe no other way will make Alliances with powerful Princes in which there may be a secret Article by which those Princes shall stipulate to assist them with Forces upon a short warning to curb the Parliament and possibly to change the Government And this apprehension in the People will be the less unreasonable because Oliver Cromwel the great Pattern of some of our Courtiers is notoriously known to have Inserted an Article in his Treaty with Cardinal Mazzarin during this King of France's Minority That he should be assisted with ten thousand Men from France upon occasion to preserve and defend him in his Usurped Government against His Majesty that now is or the People of England or in fine his own Army whose revolt he often feared The Second great Prerogative the King enjoys is the sole Disposal and Ordering of the Militia by Sea and Land Raising Forces Garisoning and Fortifying places Setting out Ships of War so far as he can do all this without putting Taxations upon the People and this not only in the Intervals of Parliament but even during their Session so that they cannot raise the Train-bands of the Country or City to Guard themselves or secure the Peace of the Kingdom The third point is That it is in His Majesties Power to Nominate and Appoint as he pleases and for what time he thinks fit all the Officers of the Kingdom that are of Trust or profit both Civil Military and Ecclesiastical as they will be called except where there is Jus Patronatus These two last Powers may furnish a Prince who will hearken to ill designing Councellours with the means either of Invading the Government by Force or by his Judges and other Creatures undermining it by Fraud Especially by enjoying the Fourth Advantage which is the Laying out and Imploying as he pleases all the Publick Revenues of the Crown or Kingdom and that without having any regard except he thinks fit to the necessity of the Navy or any other thing that concerns the Safety of the Publick So that all these Four great Powers as things now stand may be adoperated at any time as well to destroy and ruine the good Order and Government of the State as to preserve and support it as they ought to do Nob. Ven. But if you divest the King of these Powers will you have the Parliament sit always to Govern these Matters Eng. Gent. Sir I would not divest the King of them much less would I have the Parliament assume them or perpetuate their Sitting They are a Body more fitted to make Laws and punish the Breakers of them than to execute them I would have them therefore petition His Majesty by way of Bill that he will please to exercise these four great Magnalia of Government with the Consent of four several Councils to be appointed for that end and not otherwise that is with the Consent of the Major part of them if any of them dissent In all which Councils His Majesty or who he pleases to appoint shall preside the Councils to be named in Parliament first all the number and every Year afterwards a third part So each Year a third part shall go out and a Recruit of an equal number come
to the Parliament it self and the Execution of all Laws to the Judges and Magistrates And I can think of no other Affairs of State than these Doct. Do you intend that the Council for chusing Officers shall Elect them of the King's Houshold that is his Menial Servants Eng. Gent. No that were unreasonable except any of them have any Jurisdiction in the Kingdom or any place or preheminence in Parliament annexed to such Office but in these things which concern the powers and Jurisdictions of these several Councils wherein la guardia della laberta as Machiavil calls it is now to be placed I shall not persume to say any thing but assure your self if ever it come to that it will be very well digested in Parliament they being very good at contriving such Matters and making them practicable as well as at performing all other Matters that concern the Interest and greatness of the Kingdom Doct. I have thought that the Ephores of Sparta were an admirable Magistracy not only for the Interest of the People but likewise for the preservation of the authority of the Kings and of their lives too for Plutarch observes that the Cities of Mesene and Argos had the same Government with Lacedemon and yet for want of erecting such an Authority as was in the Ephores they were not only perpetually in brolls amongst themselves and for that reason ever beaten by their Enemies whereas the Spartans were always victorious but even their Kings were the most miserable of Men being often call'd in question Judicially and so lost their Lives and many of them murdered by Insurrections of the People And at last in both these Cities the Kings were driven out their Families extirpated the Territory new divided and the Government turn'd into a Democracy And I ever thought that this expedient you propose for I have heard you discourse of it often before now would prove a more safe and a more noble reformation than the Institution of the Ephores was and that a Prince who is a lover of his Country who is Gracious Wise and Just such a one as it has pleased God to send us at this time shall be ten times more absolute when this Regulation is made than ever he was or could be before and that whatsoever he proposes in any of these Councils will be received as a Law nay as an Oracle And on the other side ill and weak Princes shall have no possibility of corrupting Men or doing either themselves or their People any kind of harm or mischief But have you done now Eng. Gent. No Sir when this Provision is made for the Execution of the Laws which I think very effectual not to say Infallible although it is not to be doubted but that there will be from time to time many excellent Laws Enacted yet two I would have passed immediately the one concerning the whole Regulation of the Elections to Parliament which we need very much and no doubt but it will be well done that part of it which is necessary to go hand in hand with our Settlement and which indeed must be part of it is that a Parliament be Elected every year at a certain day and that without any Writ or Summons the People Meeting of course at the time appointed in the usual place as they do in Parishes at the Church-House to chuse Officers and that the Sheriffs be there ready to preside and to certifie the Election And that the Parliament so Chosen shall Meet at the time appointed and Sit and Adjuorn as their business is more or less urgent But still setting yet a time for their coming together again but if there shall be a necessity by reason of Invasion or some other Cause for their Assembling sooner then the King to Call the Councellors of these Four Councels all together and with the consent of the major part of them intimate their Meeting sooner but when the day day comes for the Annual Meeting of Another Parliament they must be understood to be Dissolved in Law without any other Ceremony and the new one to take their place Doct. I would have this considered too and provided for That no Election should be made of any person who had not the majority of the Electors present to Vote for him so the Writ orders it and so Reason dictates for else how can he be said to represent the County if not a fifth part have consented to his choice as happens sometimes and may do oftener for where seven or eight stand for one vacant place as I have know in our last Long Parliament where the Votes being set in Columns he who has had most Votes has not exceeded four hundred of above two thousand who were present Noble Ven. This is a strange way I thought you had put every Man by himself as we do in our Government and as I understood they do in the House of Commons when there is any nomination and then if he has not the major part he is rejected Eng. Gent. This is very Material and indeed Essential but I make no doubt but if this Project should come in play in Parliament this and all other particulars which would be both needless and tedious to discourse of here will be well and effectually provided for The next Act I would have passed should be concerning the House of Peers that as I take it for granted that there will be a Clause in the Bill concerning Elections that no new Boroughs shall be enabled to send Members to Parliament except they shall be capacitated thereunto by an Act so it being of the same necessity as to the Liberty of Parliament that the Peers who do and must enjoy both a Negative and Deliberative Voice in all Parliamentary Transactions except what concern Levying of Money Originally be exempted from depending absolutely upon the Prince and that therefore it be declared by Act for the future that no Peer shall be made but by Act of Parliament and then that it be Hereditary in his Male Line Noble Ven. I am not yet fully satisfied how you can order your Matters concerning this House of Peers nor do I see how the Contests between the House of Commons and them can be so laid asleep but that they will arise again Besides the House of Commons must necessarily be extreamly concerned to find the House of Peers which consists of private persons though very great and honourable ones in an Instant dash all that they have been so long hammering for the good of all the People of England whom they represent were it not better now you are upon so great alterations to make an Annual Elective Senate or at least one wherein the Members should be but for Life and not Hereditary Eng. Gent. By no means Sir the less change the better and in this Case the Metaphysical Maxime is more true than in any viz. Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate for great alterations fright Men and puzzle them
and there is no need of it at all in this Case I have told you before that there is a necessity of a Senate and how short this Government would be without it and how confused in the mean time the Roman Senate was Hereditary amongst the Patricii except the Censor left any of them out of the Roll during his Magistracy for some very great and scandalous offence and in that case too there was an Appeal to the People as in all other Causes witness the Case of Lucius Quintius and many others To shew that there can be no need of such a change here as you speak of you may please to consider that all differences between the several parts of any Government come upon the account of Interest now when this Settlement is made the House of Peers and the House of Commons can have no Interest to dissent For as to all things of private Interest that is the Rights of Peers both during the sitting of Parliaments and in the Intervals is left to their own House to judge of as it is to the House of Commons to judge of their own Priviledges And as for the contest of the Peers Jurisdiction as to Appeals from Courts of Equity Belides that I would have that setled in the Act which should pass concerning the Lords House I believe it will never happen more when the Government is upon a right Foundation it having been hitherto fomented by two different Parties the Court-party sometimes blowing up that difference to break the Session lest some good Bills for the People should pass or that the King by rejecting them might discontent his People to avoid which Dilemma there needed no more but to procure some person to prosecute his Appeal before the Lords some honest Patriots afterwards possibly might use the same policy which they learnt from the Courtiers to quash some Bill very destructive in which they were out-voted in the Commons House otherwise it is so far from the Interest of the Commons to hinder Appeals from Courts of Equity that there is none amongst them but know we are almost destroyed for want of it And when they have considered well and that some such Reformation as this shall take place they will find that it can never be placed in a more honourable and unbyas'd Judicatory than this And I could wish that even in the Intermission of Parliamentary Sessions the whole Peerage of England as many of them as can conveniently be in Town may sit in their Judicial Capacities and hear Appeals in Equity as well as Judge upon Writs of Errour Now as to your other Objection which is indeed of great weight that the House of Commons must needs take it ill that the Lords should frustrate their endeavours for the Peoples good by their Negative If you consider one thing the force of this Objection will vanish which is That when this new Constitution shall be admitted the Lords cannot have any Interest or temptation to differ with the Commons in any thing wherein the Publick good is concerned but are obliged by all the ties in the World to run the same course and fortune with the Commons their Interest being exactly the same so that if there be any dissenting upon Bills between the two Houses when each of them shall think their own Expedient conduces most to the advantage of the Publick this difference will ever be decided by right reason at Conferences And the Lords may as well convince the Commons as be convinced by them and these contests are and ever will be of admirable use and benefit to the Commonwealth the reason why it is otherwise now and that the House of Peers is made use of to hinder many Bills from passing that are supposed to be for the ease of the People is that the great Counsellors and Officers which sit in that House do suggest whether true or false that it is against his Majesties Will and Interest that such an Act should pass whereupon it has found Obstruction but hereafter if our expedient take place it cannot be so first because our King himself cannot have any designs going as was proved before which shall make it his advantage to hinder any good intended his people whose prosperity then will be his own And then because in a short time the Peers being made by Act of Parliament will consist of the best Men of England both for Parts and Estates and those who are already made if any of them have small Estates the King if he had the Interest would not have the means to corrupt them the Publick Moneys and the great Offices being to be dispensed in another manner than formerly so their Lordships will have no Motive in the World to steer their Votes and Councils but their own Honour and Conscience and the preservation and prosperity of their Country So that it would be both needless and unjust to pretend any change of this kind Besides this alteration in the administration of our Government being proposed to be done by the unanimous consent of King Lords and Commons and not otherwise it would be very preposterous to believe that the Peers would depose themselves of their Hereditary Rights and betake themselves to the hopes of being Elected it is true they have lost the Power they had over the Commons but that has not been taken from them by any Law no more than it was given them by any but is fallen by the course of Nature as has been shewn at large But though they cannot lead the Commons by their Tenures as formerly yet there is no reason or colour that they should lose their Co-ordination which I am sure they have by Law and by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government and which is so far from being prejudicial to a lasting Settlement as was said that it infinitely contributes to it and prevents the Confusion which would destroy it If I should have proposed any thing in this Discourse which should have Intrenched upon the King 's Hereditary Right or that should have hindred the Majesty and Greatness of these Kingdoms from being represented by his Royal Person I should have made your Story of the Capuchine Fryar very Applicable to me Noble Ven. I see you have not forgiven me that Novel yet but pray give me leave to ask you one Question Why do you make the Election of Great Officers to be by a small secret Council that had been more proper for a Numerous Assembly as it is in most Commonwealths Eng. Gent. It is so in Democracies and was so in Sparta and is done by your Great Council in Venice but we are not making such a kind of Government but rectifying an ancient Monarchy and giving the Prince some help in the Administration of that great Branch of his Regality besides it is sufficient that our Parliament chuses these Councils that is always understood the Lords and Commons with the Kings Consent besides it is possible that if such