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 Eng. Gent. Gentlemen then I shall delay you no longer The Evil Counsellors the Pensioner-Parliament the Thorow-pac'd Iudges the Flattering Divines the Buisie and Designing Papists the French Counsels are not the Causes of our Misfortunes they are but the Effects as our present Distractions are of one Primary Cause which is the Breach and Ruin of our Government which having been decaying for near two hundred years is in our Age brought so near to Expiration that it lyes agonizing and can no longer perform the Functions of a Political Life nor carry on the work of Ordering and Preserving Mankind So that the Shifts that our Courtiers have within some years used are but so many Tricks or Conclusions which they are trying to hold Life and Soul together a while longer and have played Handy-Dandy with Parliaments and especially with the House of Commons the only part which is now left entire of the old Constitution by Adjourning and Proroguing and Dissolving them contrary to the true meaning of the Law as well in the Reign of our late King as during his Majestics that now is Whereas indeed our Counsellors perceiving the decay of the Foundation as they must if they can see but one Inch into the Politicks ought to have Addrest themselves to the King to call a Parliament the true Physician and to lay open the Distemper there and so have endeavour'd a Cure before it had been too late as I fear it now is I mean the piecing and patching up the Old Government It is true as the Divine Machiavil says That Diseases in Government are like a Marasmus in the Body Natural which is very hard to be discovered whilst it is Curable and after it comes to be easie to discern difficult if not impossible to be Remedy'd yet it is to be supposed that the Counsellors are or ought to be skilful Physicians and to foresee the Seeds of State-Distempers time enough to prevent the Death of the Patient else they ought in Conscience to excuse themselves from that sublime Employment and betake themselves to Callings more suitable to their Capacities So that although for this Reason the Ministers of State here are inexcusable and deserve all the Fury which must one time or other be let loose against them except they shall suddenly fly from the wrath to come by finding out in time and advising the true means of setting themselves to rights yet neither Prince nor People are in the mean time to be blamed for not being able to Conduct things better No more than the Waggoner is to answer for his ill guiding or the Oxon for their ill drawing the Waggon when it is with Age and ill usage broken and the Wheels unserviceable Or the Pilot and Marriners for not weathring out a Storm when the Ship hath sprung a planck And as in the body of Man sometimeâ— the Head and all the Members are in good Order nay the Vital Parts are sound and entire yet if there be a Considerable Putrifaction in the humors much more if the Blood which the Scripture calls the life be Impure and Corrupted the Patient ceases not to be in great Danger and oftentimes dies without some skillful Physician And in the mean time the Head and all the parts suffer and are unquiet full as much as if they were all immediately affected So it is in every respect with the Body Politick or Commonwealth when their Foundations are moulder'd And although in both these Cases the Patients cannot though the Distemper be in their own Bodies know what they ail but are forced to send for some Artist to tell them yet they cease not to be extreamly uneasie and impatient and lay hold oftentimes upon unsuitable Remedies and impute their Malady to wrong and ridiculous Causes As some people do here who think that the growth of Popery is our only Evil and that if we were secure against that our Peace and Settlement were obtain'd and that our Disease needed no other Cure But of this more when we come to the Cure Noble Ven. Against this Discourse certainly we have nothing to reply but must grant that when any Government is decay'd it must be mended or all will Ruine But now we must Request you to declare to us how the Government of England is decay'd and how it comes to be so For I am one of those Unskilful Persons that cannot discern a State Marasmus when the danger is so far off Eng. Gent. Then no man living can for your Government is this day the only School in the World that breeds such Physicians and you are esteemed one of the ablest amongst them And it would be
own Lands and though they serve him for it yet that does not alter the Case for if you set poor men to work and pay them for it are you a Tyrant or rather are not you a good Common-wealths-man by helping those to live who have no other way of doing it but by their labour But the King of France knowing that his People have and ought to have Property and that he has no right to their Possessions yet takes what he pleases from them without their consent and contrary to Law So that when he sets them on work he pays them what he pleases and that he levies out of their own Estates I do not affirm that there is no Government in the World but where Rule is founded in Property but I say there is no natural fixed Government but where it is so and when it is otherwise the People are perpetually complaining and the King in perpetual anxiety always in fear of his Subjects and seeking new ways to secure himself God having been so merciful to mankind that he has made nothing safe for Princes but what is Just and Honest Noble Ven. But you were saying just now that this present Constitution in France will fall when the props fail we in Italy who live in perpetual fear of the greatness of that Kingdom would be glad to hear something of the decaying of those props What are they I beseech you Eng. Gent. The first is the greatness of the present King whose heriock Actions and Wisdom has extinguished envy in all his Neighbour-Princes and kindled fear and brought him to be above all possibility of control at home not only because his Subjects fear his Courage but because they have his Virtue in admiration and amidst all their miseries cannot chuse but have something of rejoycing to see how high he hath mounted the Empire and Honour of their Nation The next prop is the change of their ancient Constitution in the time of Charles the Seventh by Consent for about that time the Country being so wasted by the Invasion and Excursions of the English The States then assembled Petitioned the King that he would give them leave to go home and dispose of Affairs himself and Order the Government for the future as he thought fit Upon this his Successor Lewis the Eleventh being a crafty Prince took an occasion to call the States no more but to supply them with an Assemble des notables which were certain men of his own nomination like Barbones Parliament here but that they were of better quality These in succeeding reigns being the best men of the Kingdom grew Troublesome and Intractable so that for some years the Edicts have been verified that is in our Language Bills have been passed in the Grand Chamber of the Parliament at Paris commonly called the Chambre d' audience who lately and since the Imprisonment of President Brouselles and others during this King's Minority have never refused or scrupled any Edicts whatsoever Now whenever this great King dies and the States of the Kingdom are restored these two great props of Arbitrary Power are taken away Besides these two the Constitution of the Government of France itself is somwhat better fitted than ours to permit extraordinary Power in the Prince for the whole People there possessing Lands are Gentlemen that is infinitely the greater part which was the reason why in their Asembly of Estates the Deputies of the Provinces which we call here Knights of the Shire were chosen by and out of the Gentry and sate with the Peers in the same Chamber as representing the Gentry onely called petite noblesse Whereas our Knights here whatever their blood is are chosen by Commoners and are Commoners our Laws and Government taking no notice of any Nobility but the persons of the Peers whose Sons are likewise Commoners even their eldest whilest their Father lives Now Gentry are ever more tractable by a Prince than a wealthy and numerous Commonalty out of which our Gentry at least those we call so are raised from time to time For whenever either a Merchant Lawyer Tradesman Grasier Farmer or any other gets such an Estate as that he or his Son can live upon his Lands without exercising of any other Calling he becomes a Gentleman I do not say but that we have men very Nobly descended amongst these but they have no preheminence or distinction by the Laws or Government Besides this the Gentry in France are very needy and very numerous the reason of which is That the Elder Brother in most parts of that Kingdom hath no more share in the division of the Paternal Estate than the Cadets or Younger Brothers excepting the Principal House with the Orchards and Gardens about it which they call Vol de Chappon as who should say As far as a Capon can fly at once This House gives him the Title his Father had who was called Seignior or Baron or Count of that place which if he sells he parts with his Baronship and for ought I know becomes in time roturier or ignoble This practice divides the Lands into so many small parcels that the Possessors of them being Noble and having little to maintain their Nobility are fain to seek their Fortune which they can find no where so well as at the Court and so become the King's Servants and Souldiers for they are generally Couragious Bold and of a good Meen None of these can ever advance themselves but by their desert which makes them hazard themselves very desperately by which means great numbers of them are kill'd and the rest come in time to be great Officers and live splendidly upon the King's Purse who is likewise very liberal to them and according to their respective merits gives them often in the beginning of a Campagne a considerable sum to furnish out their Equipage These are a great Prop to the Regal Power it being their Interest to support it lest their gain should cease and they be reduced to be poor Provinciaux that is Country-Gentlemen again whereas if they had such Estates as our Country-Gentry have they would desire to be at home at their ease whilest these having ten times as much from the King as their own Estate can yield them which supply must fail if the King's Revenue were reduced are perpetually engaged to make good all exorbitances Doct. This is a kind of Governing by Property too and it puts me in mind of a Gentleman of good Estate in our Country who took a Tenants Son of his to be his Servant whose Father not long after dying left him a Living of about ten pound a year the young Man's Friends came to him and asked him why he would serve now he had an Estate of his own able to maintain him his Answer was That his own Lands would yield him but a third part of what his Service was worth to him in all besides that he lived a pleasant Life wore good Clothes kept good Company and had the
in the Property of the Peers and Church whose Lands five parts of six have been alienated and mostly is come into the same hands with those of the King and Peers have inherited likewise according to the course of nature their Power But being kept from it by the established Government which not being changed by any lawfull Acts of State remains still in being formally whereas virtually it is abolished so that for want of outward Orders and Provisions the people are kept from the Exercise of that Power which is faln to them by the Law of Nature and those who cannot by that Law pretend to the share they had do yet enjoy it by vertue of that Right which is now ceased as having been but the natural Effect of a Cause that is no longer in being and you know sublata causa tâ—llitur I cannot say that the greater part of the people do know this their condition but they find very plainly that they want something which they ought to have and this makes them lay often the blame of their unsetledness upon wrong causes but however are altogether unquiet and restless in the Intervals of Parliament and when the King pleases to assemble one spend all their time in Complaints of the Inexecution of the Law of the multiplication of an Infinity of Grievances of Mis-spending the Publick Monies of the danger our Religion is in by practices to undermine it and the State by endeavours to bring in Arbitrary Power and in questioning great Officers of State as the Causers and Promoters of all these Abuses in so much that every Parliament seems a perfect State of War wherein the Commons are tugging and contending for their Right very justly and very honourably yet without coming to a Point So that the Court sends them packing and governs still worse and worse in the Vacancies being necessitated thereunto by their despair of doing any good in Parliament and therefore are forced to use horrid shifts to subsist without it and to keep it off without ever considering that if these Counsellers understood their Trade they might bring the Prince and People to such an Agreement in Parliament as might repair the broken and shipwrack'd Government of England and in this secure the Peace Quiet and Prosperity of the People the Greatness and Happiness of the King and be themselves not only out of present danger which no other course can exempt them from but be Renowned to all Posterity Noble Ven. I beseech you Sir how comes it to pass that neither the King nor any of his Counsellors could ever come to find out the truth of what you discourse for I am fully convinced it is as you say Eng. Gent. I cannot resolve you that but this is certain they have never endeavoured a Cure though possibly they might know the Disease as fearing that though the Effects of a Remedy would be as was said very advantagious both to King and People and to themselves yet possibly such a Reformation might not consist with the Merchandize they make of the Princes Favour nor with such Bribes Gratuities and Fees as they usually take for the dispatch of all Matters before them And therefore our Counsellors have been so far from suggesting any such thing to their Master that they have opposed and quashed all Attempts of that kind as they did the worthy Proposals made by certain Members of that Parliament in the beginning of King Iames's Reign which is yet called the Undertaking Parliament These Gentlemen considering what we have been discoursing of viz. That our old Government is at an end had framed certain Heads which if they had been proposed by that Parliament to the King and by him consented to would in their Opinion have healed the Breach and that if the King would perform his part that House of Commons would undertake for the Obedience of the People They did believe that if this should have been moved in Parliament before the King was acquainted with it it would prove Abortive and therefore sent three of their number to his Majesty Sir Iames a Croft Grandfather or Father to the present Bishop of Hereford Thomas Harley who was Ancestor to the Honourable Family of that Name is Herefordshire and Sir Henry Nevill who had been Ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to the French King These were to open the matter at large to the King and to procure his leave that it might be proposed in Parliament which after a very long Audience and Debate that wise Prince consented to with a promise of Secresie in the mean time which they humbly begged of His Majesty However this took Vent and the Earl of Northampton of the House of Howard who ruled the Rost in that time having knowledg of it engaged Sir R. Weston afterwards Lord Treasurer and Earl of Portland to impeach these Undertakers in Parliament before they could move their matters which he did the very same day accompanying his Charge which was endeavouring to alter the established Government of England with so eloquent an Invective that if one of them had not risen and made the House acquainted with the whole Series of the Affair they must have been in danger of being impeached by the Commons but however it broke their designe which was all that Northampton and Weston desired and prevented Posterity from knowing any of the Particulars of this Reformation for nothing being moved nothing could remain upon the Journal So that you see our Predecessors were not ignorant altogether of our condition though the Troubles which have befallen this poor Kingdom since have made it much more apparent for since the Determination of that Parliament there has not been one called either in that King's Reign or his Son 's or since that hath not been dissolved abruptly whilst the main businesses and those of most concern to the publick were depending and undecided And although there hath happened in this Interim a bloody War which in the Close of it changed the whole Order and Foundation of the Polity of England and that it hath pleased God to restore it again by his Majesty's happy Return so that the old Government is alive again yet it is very visible that its deadly Wound is not healed but that we are to this day tugging with the same difficulties managing the same Debates in Parliament and giving the same disgusts to the Court and hopes to the Country which our Ancestors did before the Year 1640. whilst the King hath been forced to apply the same Remedy of Dissolution to his two first Parliaments that his Father used to his four first and King Iames to his three last contrary to his own visible Interest and that of his people and this for want of having Counsellors about him of Abilities and Integrity enough to discover to him the Disease of his Government and the Remedy which I hope when we meet to Morrow Morning you will come prepared to enquire into for the Doctor says he will
admired if not adored by the people and considering too that all the power they leave him will serve but to enable him to defend us the better from Popery and Arbitrary power for which latter Monarchy was first Instituted Thus we may exercise during a Parliament or two love-tricks between the Prince and his people and imitate the hony-moon that continued for about two years after his Majesties Restauration till the ill management of affairs and the new grevances that shall arise which will be sure never to fail till our true cure be effected notwithstanding the care of the new King and his Councellors shall awaken the discontents of the people and then they will curse the time in which they made this election of a Prince and the great men for not hindring them Then men will be reckoning up the discontents of the Peers sometime after they had made a rash choice of H. the 7th in the field who had then no title when they saw how he made use of the power they gave him to lessen their greatness and to fortifie himself upon their ruins when it comes to this and that the Governing party comes to be but a little faction the people who never know the true cause of their distemper will be looking out abroad who has the Lawful title if the next Heir be not in the meantime with an Army of English and Strangers in the field here as is most likely and look upon the Prince of Orange or the next of kin as their future Saviour in case the Duke be dead in the mean time and so the cause of all their distrust taken away thus most men not only discontented persons but the people in general lookt upon his Majesty that now is as their future deliverer during our late distractions when his condition was so weak that he had scarce wherewithall to subsist and his enemies powerful at home and victorious abroad which will not be I fear our case I Prophesy then because you will have me use this word that if Nobles or people make any such unfortunate choice as this during the distractions we may be in upon his Majesties death we shall not only miss our cure or have it deferred till another Government make it but remain in the confusion we now suffer under and besides that shall be sure to feel first or last the calamity of a Civil and Foreign War and in the mean time to be in perpetual fear of it and suffer all the burden and charge which is necessary to provide for it besides all the other ill consequences of a standing Army To conclude I assure you in the Faith of a Christian that I have made this discourse solely and singly out of zeal and affection to the Interest of my Countrey and not at all with the least intention to favour or promote the Cause or Interest of the D. of York or to disparage the Duke of Monmouth from whom I never received the least unkindness nor ever had the honour to be in his Company and to whom I shall ever pay respect suitable to his high Birth and Merit Noble Ven. Well Sir your Reasoning in this point has extreamly satisfied me and the Doctor I suppose was so before as he averred therefore pray let us go on where we left Eng. Gent. I cannot take so much upon me as to be Dictator in the Method of our Cure since either of you is a thousand times better qualified for such an Office and therefore shall henceforth desire to be an Auditor Doct. Pray Sir let us not spend time in Compliments but be pleased to proceed in this business and we doubt not but as you have hitherto wonderfully delighted us so you will gratifie us in concluding it Eng. Gent. I see I must obey you but pray help me and tell me in the first place whether you do not both believe that as the causa causarum of all our Distractions is as has been proved the breach of our Government so that the immediate Causes are two First The great distrust on both sides between the King and his People and Parliament the first fearing that his Power will be so lessened by degrees that at length it will not be able to keep the Crown upon his head And the latter seeing all things in disorder and that the Laws are not executed which is the second of the two Causes fear the King intends to change the Government and be Arbitrary Noble Ven. I am a Stranger but though I never reflected so much upon the Original Cause as I have done since I heard you discourse of it yet I ever thought that those two were the Causes of the Unquietness of this Kingdom I mean the Jealousie between the King and his People and the Inexecution of the great Laws of Calling Parliaments Annually and letting them sit to dispatch their Affairs I understand this in the time of His Majesties Grand-Father and Father more than in His own Reign Eng. Gent. Then whoever can absolutely lay these two Causes asleep for ever will arrive to a perfect Cure which I conceive no way of doing but that the King have a great deal more Power or a great deal less And you know that what goes out of the King must go into the People and so vice versa Insomuch that the People must have a great deal more Power or a great deal less Now it is no question but either of these two would rather increase their Power than diminish it so that if this cannot be made up by the Wisdom of this Age we may see in the next that both the King will endeavour to be altogether without a Parliament and the Parliament to be without a King Doct. I begin to smell that you would be nibbling at the pretence which some had before his Majesties Restauration of a Commonwealth or Democracy Eng. Gent. No I abhor the thoughts of wishing much less endeavouring any such thing during these Circumstances we are now in That is under Oaths of Obedience to a Lawful King And truly if any Themistocles should make to me such a Proposal I should give the same Judgment concerning it that Aristides did in such a Case The Story is short After the War between the Greeks and the Persians was ended and Xerxes driven out of Greece the whole Fleet of the Grecian Confederates except that of Athens which was gone home lay in a great Arsenal such as were then in use upon the Coast of Attica during their abode there Themistocles harrangues one day the People of Athens as was then the Custome and tells them that he had a design in his head which would be of Infinite profit and advantage to the Commonwealth But that it could not be executed without the Order and Authority of them and that it did likewise require secresie and if it were declared there in the Market place where Strangers as well as Citizens might be present it could
publisht by Mr. Petit of the Temple 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 â—â—ing 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 〈…〉 gat Grievances and afterwards 〈…〉 plants 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 Iohn 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 Parliaments which could not be called but by the Prince and he not doing of it they ceast to be Assembled for some years if this had not been speedily remedied the Barons must have put on their Armour again for who can Imagine that such brisk Assertors of their Rights 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 he to take away from his People all fear and apprehension that he intended to change the Ancient Government called speedily a Parliament and in it consented to a Declaration of the Kingdoms Right in that point without the clearing of which all our other Laws had been useless and the Government itself 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 4 th Henry the 5 th and Henry the 6 th 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-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 itself 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 eâ—â—cuted 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 itself 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
five or six Thousand pounds a year as it is probable you have and keep forty Servants and at length by your neglect and the industry and thrift of your Domesticks you sell one Thousand to your Steward another to your Clerk of the Kitchen another to your Bayliff till all were gone can you believe that these Servants when they had so good Estates of their own and you nothing left to give them would continue to live with you and to do their service as before It is just so with a whole Kingdom In our Ancestors times most of the Members of our House of Commons thought it an honour to retain to some great Lord and to wear his blew Coat And when they had made up their Lord's Train and waited upon him from his own House to the Lords House and made a Lane for him to enter and departed to sit themselves in the Lower House of Parliament as it was then and very justly called can you think that any thing could pass in such a Parliament that was not ordered by the Lords Besides these Lords were the King 's great Council in the Intervals of Parliaments and were called to advise of Peace and War and the latter was seldom made without the consent of the major part if it were not they would not send their Tenants which was all the Militia of England besides the King's tenth part Can it be believed that in those days the Commons should dislike any thing the Lords did in the Intervals or that they would have disputed their Right to receive Appeals from Courts of Equity if they had pretended to it in those days or to mend Money-bills And what is the reason but because the Lords themselves at that time represented all their Tenants that is all the People in some sort and although the House of Commons did Assemble to present their Grievances yet all great Affairs of high Importance concerning the Government was Transacted by the Lords and the War which was made to preserve it was called the Barons Wars not the War of both Houses for although in antienter times the word Baron were taken in a larger sense and comprehended the Francklins or Freemen yet who reads any History of that War shall not find that any mention is made of the concurrence of any assembly of such men but that Simon Monford Earl of Leicester and others of the great ones did by their Power and Interest manage that contest Now if this Property which is gone out of the Peerage into the Commons had passed into the King's hands as it did in Egypt in the time of Ioseph as was before said the Prince had had a very easie and peaceable reign over his own Vassals and might either have refused justly to have Assembled the Parliament any more or if he had pleased to do it might have for ever managed it as he thought fit But our Princes have wanted a Ioseph that is a wise Councellor and instead of saving their Revenue which was very great and their expences small and buying in those Purchases which the vast expences and luxury of the Lords made ready for them they have alienated their own Inheritance so that now the Crown-Lands that is the publick Patrimony is come to make up the interest of the Commons whilest the King must have a precarious Revenue out of the Peoples Purses and be beholding to the Parliament for his Bread in time of Peace whereas the Kings their Predecessors never asked Aid of his Subjects but in time of War and Invasion and this alone though there were no other decay in the Government is enough to make the King depend upon his People which is no very good condition for a Monarchy Noble Ven. But how comes it to pass that other Neighbouring Countries are in so settled a State in respect of England does their Property remain the same it was or is it come into the hands of the Prince You know you were pleased to admit that we should ask you en passant something of other Countries Eng. Gent. Sir I thank you for it and shall endeavour to satisfie you I shall say nothing of the small Princes of Germany who keep in a great measure their ancient bounds both of Government and Property and if their Princes now and then exceed their part yet it is in time of Troubles and War and things return into their right Chanel of Assembling the several States which are yet in being every where But Germany lying so exposed to the Invasion of the Turks on the one side and of the French on the other and having ever had enough to do to defend their several Liberties against the encroachments of the House of Austria in which the Imperial dignity is become in some sort Hereditary if there had been something of extraordinary power exercised of late years I can say Inter arma silent leges but besides their own particular States they have the Diet of the Empire which never fails to mediate and compose things if there be any great oppresson used by Princes to their subjects or from one Prince or State to another I shall therefore confine myself to the three great Kingdoms France Spain and Poland for as to Denmark and Sweden the first hath lately chang'd its Government and not only made the Monarchy Hereditary which was before Elective but has pull'd down the Nobility and given their Power to the Prince which how it will succeed time will shew Sweden remains in point of Constitution and Property exactly as it did anciently and is a well-Governed Kingdom The first of the other three is France of which I have spoken before and shall onely add That though it be very true that there is Property in France and yet the Government is Despotical at this present yet it is one of those violent States which the Grecians called Tyrannies For if a Lawfull Prince that is one who being so by Law and sworn to rule according to it breaks his Oaths and his Bonds and reigns Arbitrarily he becomes a Tyrant and an Usurper as to so much as he assumes more than the Constitution hath given him and such a Government being as I said violent and not natural but contrary to the Interest of the people first cannot be lasting when the adventitious props which support it fail and whilst it does endure must be very uneasie both to Prince and People the first being necessitated to use continual oppression and the latter to suffer it Doct. You are pleased to talk of the oppression of the People under the King of France and for that reason call it a violent Government when if I remember you did once to day extol the Monarchy of the Turks for well-founded and natural Are not the people in that Empire as much oppressed as in France Eng. Gent. By no means unless you will call it oppression for the grand Seignior to feed all his People out of the Product of his
those Laws is the onely means and hope of their preservation whenever he shall undertake any thing for the increase of his own Power and the depressing his Parliaments Noble Ven. What you say is very undeniable but then the Remedy is very easie and obvious as well as very just and honourable which is the taking away those cruel Laws and if that were done they would be one People with you and would have no necessity and by consequence no desire to engreaten the King against the Interest and Liberty of their own Country Eng. Gent. You speak very well and one of the Reasons amongst many which I have to desire a composure of all our troubles by a setled Government is that I may see these People who are very considerable most of them for Estates Birth and Breeding live quietly under our good Laws and increase our Trade and Wealth with their expences here at home whereas now the severity of our Laws against them makes them spend their Revenues abroad and inrich other Nations with the Stock of England but as long as the State here is so unsetled as it is our Parliaments will never consent to countenance a Party who by the least Favour and Indulgence may make themselves able to bring in their own Religion to be National and so ruine our Polity and Liberties Noble Ven. I wonder why you should think that possible Eng. Gent. First Sir for the Reason we First gave which is the craziness of our Polity there being nothing more certain than that both in the Natural and also the Politick Body any sinister accident that intervenes during a very Diseased habit may bring a dangerous alteration to the Patient An Insurrection in a decayed Government a thing otherwise very inconsiderable has proved very fatal as I knew a slight flesh-wound bring a lusty Man to his Grave in our Wars for that he being extreamly infected with the French Disease could never procure the Orifice to close so although the designs both at home and abroad for altering our Religion would be very little formidable to a well-founded Government yet in such an one as we have now it will require all our care to obviate such Machinations Another Reason is the little Zeal that is left amongst the ordinary Protestants which Zeal uses to be a great Instrument of preserving the Religion establish'd as it did here in Queen Elizabeths time I will add the little Credit the Church of England hath amongst the People most men being almost as angry with that Popery which is left amongst us in Surplices Copes Altars Cringings Bishops Ecclesiastical Courts and the whole Hierarchy besides an Infinite number of Useless Idle Superstitious Ceremonies and the Ignorance and Vitiousness of the Clergy in general as they are with those Dogma's that are abolished So that there is no hopes that Popery can be kept out but by a company of poor People called Fanaticks who are driven into Corners as the First Christians were and who only in truth Conserve the Purity of Christian Religion as it was planted by Christ and his Apostles and is contained in Scripture And this makes almost all sober men believe that the National Clergy besides all other good qualities have this too that they cannot hope to make their Hierarchy subsist long against the Scriptures the hatred of mankind and the Interest of this People but by Introducing the Roman Religion and getting a Foreign Head and Supporter which shall from time to time brave and hector the King and Paliament in their favour and behalf which yet would be of little advantage to them if we had as firm and wise a Government as you have at Venice Another Reason and the greatest why the Romish Religion ought to be very warily provided against at this time is That the Lawful and Undoubted Heir to the Crown if his Majesty should die without Legitimate Issue is more than suspected to Imbrace that Faith which if it should please God to call the King before there be any Remedy applied to our Distracted State would give a great opportunity by the Power he would have in Intervals of Parliament either to Introduce immediately that profession with the help of our Clergy and other English and Foreign Aids or else to make so fair a way for it that a little time would perfect the work â—nd this is the more formidable for that â—a very Zealous and Bigot 〈…〉 and therefore may be supposed to act any thing to that end although it should manifestly appear to be contrary to his own Interest and Quiet so apt are those who give up their Faith and the Conduct of their Lives to Priests who to get to themselves Empire promise them the highest Seats in Heaven if they will sacrifice their Lives Fortunes and Hopes for the Exaltation of their Holy Mother and preventing the Damnation of an innumerable company of Souls which are not yet born to be led away with such Erroneous and wild Fancies Whereas Philip the Second of Spain the House of Guise in France and other great Statesmen have always made their own greatness their first Aim and used their Zeal as an Instrument of that And instead of being cozen'd by Priests have cheated them and made them endeavour to Preach them up to the Empire of the World So I have done with the Growth of Popery and must conclude that if that should be stopt in such manner that there could not be one Papist left in England and yet our Polity left in the same disorder that now afflicts it we should not be one Scruple the better for it nor the more at quiet the Growth and Danger of Popery not being the Cause of our present Distemper but the Effect of it But as a good and setled Government would not be at all the nearer for the destruction of Popery so Popery and all the Dangers and Inconveniences of it would not only be further off but would wholly vanish at the sight of such a Reformation And so we begin at the wrong end when we begin with Religion before we heal our Breaches I will borrow one Similitude more with our Doctor 's favour from his Profession I knew once a man given over by the Physitians of an incurable Cachexia which they said proceeded from the ill Quality of the whole Mass of Blood from great Adustion and from an ill habit of the whole Body The Patient had very often painful Fits of the Chollick which they said proceeded from the sharpness of the humour which caused the Disease and amongst the rest had one Fit which tormented him to that degree that it was not expected he could out-live it yet the Doctors delivered him from it in a small time Notwithstanding soon after the man died of his first Distemper Whereas if their Art had arrived to have cured that which was the Cause of the other the Chollick had vanished of it self and the Patient recovered I need make no
Substance and satisfying themselves with this Appearance to do their ordinary Work of giving Money and be gone and leave the Business of the Kingdom as they found it For it was proposed that whatsoever Security we were to receive should be both Conditional and Reversionable That is First We should not be put into Possession of this new Charter be it what it will till after the death of His Majesty who now is whereas such a Provision is desirable and indeed necessary for us for this only reason that when that unfortunate hour comes we might not be in that Confusion unprovided of a Calm Setled and Orderly as well as a Legal Way to keep out Popery Whereas otherwise if we be to take Possession in that Minute it must either miscarry or be gotten by a War if it be true that Possession be Nine Points of the Law in other Cases it is in this the whole Ten and I should be very unwilling in such a Distraction to have no Sanctuary to fly to but a piece of Parchment kept in the Pells and to have this too as well as other Advantages in the Power and Possession of him in whose prejudice it was made this had been almost as good an Expedient to keep out Popery as the Bill which was thrown out that Parliament which provided that in the Reign of a King that should be a Papist the Bishops should chuse one another upon Vacancies Those Counsellors who put my Lord Chancellor upon this Proposal were either very slender Politicians themselves or else thought the Parliament so If Magna Charta and The Petition of Right had not been to take place till after the Decease of those Princes who confirmed them neither had the Barons shed their Blood to so good purpose nor the Members of the Parliament in Tertio Caroli deserved so Glorious an Imprisonment after it was ended The other Condition in this renowned Proposal is That all Provision and Security which is given us to preserve our Religion shall cease immediately whenever the Prince shall take a certain Oath to be penned for that purpose and I leave it to all thinking men to determine what that will avail us when we shall have a King of that Profession over us who shall not have so much Zeal for his Religion as he who is now the next successor hath but shall possibly prefer his Ambition and his desire to get out of Wardship before the Scruples of his Confessor and yet may afterwards by getting Absolution for and Dispensation from such Oaths and Compliance employ the Power he gets himself and the Security he deprives us of to introduce violently what Worship and Faith he pleases This Gracious Offer had the fatality to disguist one of the best Parliaments that ever Sate and the most Loyal so that laying it aside they fell upon the Succession the only thing they had then left and were soon after Dissolved leaving the Kingdom in a more distracted Condition than they found it and this can no way be composed but by mending the Polity so that whoever is King cannot be he never so inclined to it introduce Popery or destroy whatever Religion shall be established as you see in the Example of the Dutchy of Hanover whose Prince some fourteen Years since was perverted to the Roman Church went to Rome to abjure Heresie as they call the truth return'd home where he lived and Governed as he did before without the least Animosity of his Subjects for his Change or any endeavour of his to Introduce any in his Government or People and dying this last Spring left the Peaceable and undisturbed Rule of his Subjects to the next Successor his Brother the Bishop of Osnaburg who is a Protestant and this because the Polity of that Dukedom has been conserved entire for many years and is upon a right Basis and if our Case were so we should not onely be out of danger to have our Religion altered as I said before whoever is King but should in other things be in a happy and flourishing condition But I have made a long and tedious digression to answer your demands Now 't is time you assist me to find the Natural Cure of all our Mischiefs Doct. Stay Sir I confess my self to be wonderfully Edified with your discourse hitherto but you have said nothing yet of the Duke of Monmouth Eng. Gent. I do not think you desire it though you were pleased to mention such a thing for I suppose you cannot think it possible that this Parliament which is now speedily to meet by his Majesties Gracious Proclamation can ever suffer such a thing to be so much as Debated amongst them Doct. Sir you have no reason to take that for granted when you see what Books are Printed what great and Honourable Persons frequent him in private and countenance him in publick what shoals of the middle sort of people have in his Progress this Summer met him before he came into any great Town and what Acclamations and Bon-fires have been made in places where he lodged Eng. Gent. These things I must confess shew how great a Distemper the People are in and the great reason we have to pray God of his Mercy to put an end to it by a happy Agreement in Parliament But certainly this proceeds only from the hatred they have to the next Successour and his Religion and from the compassion they have to the Duke of Monmouth who as they suppose hath suffered banishment and dis-favour at Court at his Instance and not from any hopes of expectations that the Parliament will countenance any pretence that can be made in his behalf to the Succession Doct. It may be when we have discoursed of it I shall be of your mind as indeed I am enclined already But yet nothing in War is more dangerous than to contemn an Enemy so in this Argumentation that we use to secure our Liberties we must leave nothing unanswered that may stand in the way of that especially the Duke of Monmouth's Claim which is pretended to confirm and fortifie them for say some Men if you set him up he will presently pass all Bills that shall concern the Safety and Interest of the People And so we shall be at rest for ever Eng. Gent. Well I see I must be more tedious than I intended First then the reasoning of these men you speak of does in my apprehension suppose a thing I cannot mention without horrour which is That this Person should be admitted immediately to the Possession of the Crown to do all these fine Matters for otherwise if he must stay till the Death of our Soveraign who now Reigns which I hope and pray will be many years possibly these delicate Bills may never pass nor he find hereafter the People in so good a humour to admit him to the Reversion which if it could be obtain'd as I think it impossible Politically yet the Possession must be kept by a standing Army
You ask me a very fine question Doctor If I say I would have the people stir in that case then the King and his Laws take hold of me and if I should answer that I would have them be quiet the people would tear me in pieces for a Iesuit or at least believe that I had no sense of the Riligion Laws and Liberty of my Countrey De facto I do suppose that if the people do continue long in this heat which now possesseth them and remain in such a passion at the time of the Kings death without setling matters they may probably fall into tumults and Civil War which makes it infinitely to be desired and prayed for by all good English men that during the quiet and peace we injoy by the blessing of his Majesties life and happy Reign we might likewise be so wise and fortunate as to provide for the safety and prosperity of the next generation Doct. But if you would not have the people in such a case take the Duke of Monmouth for their Head what would you have them do Eng. Gent. Doctor you ask me very fine questions do not you know that Machivel the best and most honest of all the modern Polititians has suffered sufficiently by means of Priests and other ignorant persons who do not understand his Writings and therefore impute to him the teaching Subjects how they should Rebel and conspire against their Princes which if he were in any kind guilty of he would deserve all the reproaches that have been cast upon him and ten times more and so should I if I ventured to obey you in this I am very confident that if any man should come to you to implore your skill in helping him to a drug that might quickly and with the least fear of being suspected dispatch an enemy of his or some other by whose death he was to be a gainer or some young Lass that had gotten a Surruptitious great Belly should come to you to teach her how to destroy the fruit I say in this case you would scarce have had patience to hear these persons out much less would you have been so wicked to have in the least assisted them in their designs no more than Solon Lycurgus Periander or any other of the Sages could have been brought to have given their advice to any persons who should have begged it to enable them to ruine and undermine the government of their own Commonwealths Doct. Sir this Reprehension would be very justly given me if I had intended by this question to induce you to counsel me or any other how to rebel my meaning was to desire you who have heretofore been very fortunate in prophesying concerning the events of our changes here to exercise your faculty a little at this time and tell us what is like to be the end of these destractions we are under in case we shall not be so happy as to put a period to them by mending our Government and securing our Religion and Liberty in a regular way Eng. Gent. Doctor I will keep the reputation of Prophecy which I have gained with you and not hazard it with any new predictions for fear they should miscarry yet I care not if I gratifie your curiosity a little in the point about which you first began to Interrogate me by presaging to you that in case we should have troubles and combustions here after his Majesties decease which God avert we must expect a very unsuccesful end of them if we should be so rash and unadvised as to make the great Person we have been lately speaking of our head and that nothing can be more dangerous and pernitious to us than such a choice I have not in this discourse the least intention to except against much less to disparage the personal worth of the Duke of Monmouth which the world knows to be very great but do believe that he hath Courage and Conduct proportionable to any imployment that can be conferred upon him whether it be to manage Arms or Counsels but my opinion is that no person in his circumstance can be a proper head in this case for the people having been already put on upon his scent of the title to the Crown will be very hardly called off and so will force the wiser men who may design better things to consent that he be Proclaimed King immediately except there be some other head who by his Power Wisdom and Authority may restrain the forwardness of the multitude and obviate the acts of some men whose interest and hopes may prompt them to foment the humours of the people Now the consequences of hurrying a man to the Throne so tumultuously without the least deliberation are very dismal and do not only not cure the politick distempers of our Countrey which we have talked so much of but do infinitely augment it and add to the desease our State labours under already which is a Consumption a very violent Feaver too I mean War at home and from abroad which must necessarily follow in a few years nor is it possible to go back when once we have made that step for our new King will call a Parliament which being summoned by his will neither will nor can question his Title or Government otherwise than by making Addresses and by presenting Bills to him as they do to his now Majesty Nob. Ven. It seems to me that there needs nothing more than that for if he consent to all Laws as shall be presented to him you may reform your Government sufficiently or else it is your own fault Eng. Gent. We have shewed already and shall do more hereafter that no Laws can be executed till our government be mended and if you mean we should make such as should mend that besides that it would be a better method to capitulate that before you make choice of your Prince as wise people have done in all ages and the Cardinals do at Rome in the Conclave before they choose their Pope I say besides this it is not to be taken for granted that any Bills that tend to make considerable alterations in the administration and such we have need of as you will see anon would either in that case be offered or consented to both Prince and People being so ready to cry out upon Forty-one and to be frighted with the name of a Common-wealth even now when we think Popery is at the door which some people then will think farther off and so not care to make so great alterations to keep it out besides the great Men and favourites of the new Prince will think it hard that their King should be so bounded and limited both in power and Revenue that he shall have no means to exercise his liberality towards them and so may use their interest and eloquence in both Houses to dissuade them from pressing so hard upon a Prince who is a true zealous Protestant and has alwaies headed that party and who is justly
redressed and new modelled And therefore though there were an Army Landed in this Island yet that we must begin there before we are sit 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
Impositions upon the People this is reserved 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 broils 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
when their Affairs went ill elsewhere and the other by provoking the Spaniard and the Pope But I have done now and shal pass to say something of the Modern Policies Noble Ven. Before you come to that Sir pray satisfie me in a Point which I should have moved before but that I was unwilling to interrupt your rational Discourse How came you to take it for granted that Moses Theseus and Romulus were Founders of Popular Governments As for Moses we have his Story written by an Insalliable Pen Theseus was ever called King of Athens though he liv'd so long since that what is written of him is justly esteem'd fabulous but Romulus certainly was a King and that Government continued a Monarchy though Elective under seven Princes Eng. Gent. I will be very short in my Answer and say nothing of Theseus for the reason you are pleased to alledge But for Moses you may read in Holy Writ that when by God's Command he had brought the Israelites out of Egypt he did at first manage them by accquainting the People with the Estate of their Government which People were called together with the sound of a Trumpet and are termed in Scripture the Congregation of the Lord this Government he thought might serve their turn in their passage and that it would be time enough to make them a better when they were in possession of the Land of Canaan Especially having made them Judges and Magistrates at the instance of his Father-in-law which are called in Authors Praefecti Iethroniani but finding that this Provision was not sufficient complained to God of the difficulty he had to make that State of Affairs hold together God was pleased to order him to let seventy Elders be appointed for a Senate but yet the Congregation of the Lord continued still and acted And by the severall soundings of the Trumpets either the Senate or popular Assembly were called together or both so that this Government was the same with all other Democracies consisting of a Principal Magistrate a Senate and a People Assembled together not by Represention but in a body Now for Romulus it is very plain that he was no more then the first Officer of the Commonwealth whatever he was called and that he was chosen as your Doge is for Life and when the last of those seven Kings usurpt the place that is did reign injussu Populi and excercise the Government Tyrannically the People drove him out as all People in the World that have Property will do in the like Case except some extraordinary qualifications in the Prince preserve him for one Age and afterwards appointed in his room two Magistrates and made them Annual which two had the same Command as well in their Armies as in their Cities and did not make the least alteration besides excepting that they chose an Officer that was to perform the Kings Function in certain Sacrifices which Numa appointed to be performed by the King left the People should think their Religion were changed This Officer was called Rex Sacrificulus If you are satisfied I will go on to the consideration of our Modern States Noble Ven. I am fully answered and besides am clearly of Opinion that no Government whether mixt Monarchy or Commonwealth can subsist without a Senate as well from the turbulent State of the Israelites under Moses till the Sanhedrin was instituted as from a certain Kingdom of the Vandals in Africa where after their Conquest of the Natives they appointed a Government consisting of a Prince and a Popular Assembly which latter within half a year beat the Kings brains out he having no bulwark of Nobility or Senate to defend him from them But I will divert you no longer Eng. Gent. Sir you are very right and we should have spoken something of that before if it had been the business of this Meeting to Discourse of the particular Models of Government but intending only to say so much of the Ancient Policy as to shew what Government in General is and upon what Basis it stands I think I have done it sufficiently to make way for the understanding of our own at least when I have said something of the Policies which are now extant and that with your favour I will do I shall need say little now of those Commonwealths which however they came by their Liberty either by Arms or Purchase are now much-what under the same kind of Policy as the Ancients were In Germany the Free Towns and many Princes make up the Body of a Commonwealth called the Empire of which the Emperour is Head this General Union hath its Diets or Parliaments where they are all represented and where all things concerning the Safety and Interest of Germany in General or that belong to Peace and War are Transacted these Diets never intermeddle with the particular Concerns or Policies of those Princes or States that make it up leaving to them their particular Soveraignties The several Imperial Cities or Commonwealths are divided into two kinds Lubeck's Law and Collen's Law which being the same exactly with the ancient Democracies and Optimacies I will say no more of them The Government of Swizerland and the Seven Provinces of the Low-Countries were made up in haste to Unite them against Persecution and Oppression and to help to defend themselves the better which they both have done very gallantly and successfully They seem to have taken their Pattern from the Grecians who when their Greatness began to decline and the several Tyrants who succeeded Alexander began to press hard upon them were forced to League themselves yet in severall Confederacies as that of the Etolians that of the Achaians c. for their mutual defence The Swisses consist of Thirteen Soveraignties some Cities which are most Aristocraticall and some Provinces which have but a Village for their head Township These are all Democracies and are Govern'd all by the Owners of Land who Assemble as our Free-Holders do at the County-Court These have their General Diets as in Germany The Government of the United Provinces has for its Foundation the Union of Vtrecht made in the beginning of their standing upon their Guard against the Cruelty and Oppression of the Spaniard and patcht up in haste and seeming to be compos'd only for necessity as a state of War has made Modern Statesmen Conjecture that it will not be very practicable in time of Peace and Security At their General Diet which is called the States General do intervene the Deputies of the Seven Provinces in what number their Principals please but all of them have but one Vote which are by consequence Seven and every one of the Seven hath a Negative so that nothing can pass without the Concurrence of the whole Seven Every one of these Provinces have a Counsel or Assembly of their own called the States Provincial who send and Instruct their Deputies to the States-General and perform other Offices belonging to the Peace and Quiet of the Province
Government and for the safety and interest of the 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 be fallen fact troubles and dangers to some of thâ—se 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 itself 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 ourselves 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 Grievances and making provision for the future execution of the Lawes and whenever it is applyed to frustrate those ends it is a violation of Right and infringement of the King's Coronation-Oath in which there is this Clause That he shall Confirmare consuetudines which in the Latine of those times is leges quas vulgus elegerit I know some Criticks who are rather Grammarians than Lawyers have made a distinction between elegerim and elegero and will have it That the King Swears to such Laws as the people shall have chosen and not to those they shall chuse But in my Opinion if that Clause had been intended onely to oblige the King to execute the Laws made already it might have been better exprest by servare consuetudines than by confirmare consuetudines besides that he is by another clause in the same Oath sworn to execute all the Laws But I shall leave this Controversie undecided those who have a desire to see more of it may look into those quarrelling Declarations pro and con about this matter which preceded our unhappy Civil Wars This is certain that there are not to be found any Statutes that have passed without being presented to his Majesty or to some commissioned by him but whether such Addresses were intended for Respect and Honour to His Majesty as the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Mayor of London are brought to him I leave to the Learned to Discourse onely thus much we may affirm That there never were yet any Parliamentary Requests which did highly concern the Publick presented to any King and by him refused but such denials did produce very dismal effects as may be seen in our Histories ancient and late it being certain that both the Barons Wars and our last dismal Combustions proceeded from no other cause than the denial of the Princes then reigning to consent to the desires of the States of the Kingdom and such hath been the wisdom and goodness of our present gracious Prince that in twenty years and somewhat more for which time we have enjoy'd him since his happy Restauration he hath not exercis'd his Negative Voice towards more than one publick Bill and that too was to have continued in force if it had passed into an Act but for six Weeks being for raising the Militia for so long time and as for the private Bills which are matters of meer grace it is unreasonable his Majesty should be refused that Right that every Englishman enjoys which is not to be obliged to dispence his favours but where he pleases But for this point of the Negative Vote it is possible that when we come to Discourse of the Cure of our Political Distemper some of you will propose the clearing and explanation of this matter and of all others which may concern the King's Power and the Peoples Rights Noble Ven. But pray Sir have not the House of Peers a Negative Voice in all Bills how come they not to be obliged to use it for the Publick Good Eng. Gent So they are no doubt and the Commons too but there is a vast difference between a deliberative Vote which the Peers have with their Negative and that in the Crown to blast all without deliberating The Peers are Co-ordinate with the Commons in presenting and hammering of Laws and may send Bills down to them as well as receive any from them excepting in matters wherein the People are to be Taxed and in this our Government imitates the best and most perfect Commonwealths that ever were where the Senate assisted in the making of Laws and by their wisdom and dexterity polisht fil'd and made ready things for the more populous Assemblies and sometimes by their gravity and moderation reduced the People to a Calmer State and by their authority and credit stem'd the Tide and made the Waters quiet giving the People time to come to themselves And therefore if we had no such Peerage now upon the old Constitution yet we should be necessitated to make an artificial Peerage or Senate in stead of it which may assure our present Lords that though their Dependences and Power are gone yet that we cannot be without them and that they have no need to fear an annihilation by our Reformation as they suffered in the late mad times But I shall speak a word of the peoples Rights and then shew how this brave and excellent Government of England came to decay The People by the Fundamental Laws that is by the Constitution of the Government of England have entire freedome in their Lives Properties and their Persons nether of which can in the least suffer but according to the Laws already made or to be made hereafter in Parliament and duly publisht and to prevent any oppression that might happen in the execution of these good Laws which are our Birth-right all Tryals must be by twelve Men of our equals and of our Neighbourhood These in all Civil Causes judge absolutely and decide the matter of Fact upon which the matter of Law depends but if where matter of Law is in question these twelve Men shall refuse to find a special Verdict at the direction of the Court the Judge cannot Controul it but their Verdict must be Recorded But of these matters as also of Demurrers Writs of Errour and Arrests of Judgment c. I have discours'd to this Gentleman who is a Stranger before now neither do's the understanding of the Execution of our Municipal Laws at all belong to this discourse Onely it is to be noted that these Juries or twelve Men in all Trials or Causes which are Criminal have absolute Power both as to matter of Law and Fact except the Party by Demurrer confess the matter of Fact and take it out of their hands And the first question the Officer asks the Foreman when they all come in to deliver their Verdict is this Is he Guilty in manner or form as he is Indicted or not Guilty which shews plainly that they are to Examine and Judge as well whether and how far the Fact committed is Criminal as whether the person charged hath committed that Fact But though by the Corruption of these times the infallible consequences of a broken frame of Government this Office of the Juries and Right of Englishmen have been of late question'd yet it hath been strongly and effectually vindicated by a learned Author of late to whom I refer you for more of this matter I shall say no more of the Rights of the People but this one thing That neither the King nor any by Authority from him hath any the least Power or Jurisdiction over any Englishman but what the Law gives them and that although all Commissions and Writs go out in the King's name yet his Majesty hath no right to Issue out any Writ with advice of his Council or otherwise excepting what come out of his Courts nor to alter
of desiring more Prayers and Addressing himself to our Senate to Mediate with the Pope that a week might be set apart for a Jubilee and Fasting three days all over the Christian World to storm Heaven with Masses Prayers Fasting and Almes to prosper his Designs he began to open the Matter That the Cause of all the Wickedness and Sin and by Consequence of all the Miseries and Affliction which is in the World arising from the enmity which is between God and the Devil by which means God was often cross'd in his Intentions of good to Mankind here and hereafter the Devil by his temptations making us uncapable of the Mercy and Favour of our Creator therefore he had a Design with the helps before mentioned to mediate with Almighty God That he would pardon the Devil and receive him into his Favour again after so long a time of Banishment and Imprisonment and not to take all his power from him but to leave him so much as might do good to Man and not hurt which he doubted not but he would imploy that way after such reconciliation was made which his Faith would not let him question You may judge what the numerous Auditory thought of this I can only tell you that he had a different fort of Company at his return from what he had when he came for the Men left him to the Boys who with great Hoops instead of Acclamations brought him to the Gondola which conveyed him to the Redentor where he lodged And I never had the curiosity to enquire what became of him after Doct. I thank you heartily for this Intermess I see you have learnt something in England for I assure you we have been these twenty Years turning this and all serious Discourses into Ridicule but yet your Similitude is very pat for in every Parliament that has been in England these sixty Years we have had notable Contests between the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman Eng. Gent. Well Sir we have had a Michael here in our Age who has driven out Lucifer and restored the true Deity to his Power but where Omnipotency is wanting which differs the Frier's Case and mine the Devil of Civil War and Confusion may get up again if he be not laid by prudence and Vertue and better Conjurers than any we have yet at Court Noble Ven. Well Gentlemen I hope you have pardoned me for my Farce But to be a little more serious pray tell me how you will induce the King to give up so much of his Right as may serve your turn Would you have the Parliament make War with him again Eng. Gent. There cannot nor ought to be any Change but by his Majesty's free Consent for besides that a War is to be abhorred by all Men that love their Country any Contest of that kind in this case viz. to take away the least part of the Kings Right could be justified by no man living I say besides that a Civil War has miscarried in our days which was founded at least pretendedly upon Defence of the People's own Rights In which although they had as clear a Victory in the end as ever any Contest upon Earth had yet could they never reap the least advantage in the World by it but went from one Tyranny to another from Barebones Parliament to Cromwell's Reign from that to a Committee of Safety leaving those Grave Men who managed Affairs at the beginning amazed to see new Men and new Principles Governing England And this induced them to Co-operate to bring things back just where they were before the War Therefore this Remedy will be either none or worse than the Disease It not being now as it was in the Barons time when the Lord who led out his Men could bring them back again when he pleased and Rule them in the mean time being his Vassals But now there is no Man of so much Credit but that one who behaves himself bravely in the War shall out-vye him and possibly be able to do what he pleases with the Army and the Government And in this corrupt Age it is ten to one he will rather do Hurt than Good with the Power he acquires But because you ask me how we would perswade the King to this I answer by the Parliament's humbly Remonstrating to His Majesty that it is his own Interest Preservation Quiet and true Greatness to put an end to the Distractions of his Subjects and that it cannot be done any other way and to desire him to enter into debate with some Men Authorized by them to see if there can be any other means than what they shall offer to compose things if they find there may then to embrace it otherwise to insist upon their own Proposals and if in the end they cannot obtain those Requests which they think the only essential means to preserve their Country then to beg their Dismission that they may not stay and be partakers in the Ruin of it Now my Reasons why the King will please to grant this after the thorough discussing of it are two First Because all great Princes have ever made up Matters with their Subjects upon such Contests without coming to Extremities The two greatest and most Valiant of our Princes were Edward the First and his Grandchild Edward the Third these had very great Demands made them by Parliaments and granted them all as you may see upon the Statute-Book Edward the Second and Richard the Second on the contrary refused all things till they were brought to Extremity There is a Memorable Example in the Greek Story of Theopompus King of Sparta whose Subjects finding the Government in disorder for want of some Persons that might be a Check upon the great Power of the King proposed to him the Creation of the Ephores Officers who made that City so great and Famous afterwards The King finding by their Reasons which were unanswerable as I think ours now are that the whole Government of Sparta was near its Ruin without such a Cure and considering that he had more to lose in that Disorder than others freely granted their desires for which being derided by his Wife who asked him what a kind of Monarchy he would leave to his Son answered a very good one because it will be a very lasting one Which brings on my Second Reason for which I believe the King will grant these things because he cannot any way mend himself nor his Condition if he do not Noble Ven. You have very fully convinced me of two things First That we have no reason to expect or believe that the Parliament will ever increase the Kings Power And then that the King cannot by any way found himself a New and more absolute Monarchy except he can alter the Condition of Property which I think we may take for granted to be impossible But yet I know not why we may not suppose that although he cannot establish to all Posterity such an
Empire he may notwithstanding change the Government at the present and calling Parliaments no more administer it by force as it is done in France for some good time Eng. Gent. In France it has been a long Work and although that Tyranny was begun as has been said by Petition from the States themselves not to be assembled any more yet the Kings since in time of great Distraction have thoughr fit to convocate them again as they did in the Civil Wars thrice Once at Orleans and twice at Blois I would not repeat what I have so tediously discoursed of concerning France already but only to intreat you to remember that our Nation has no such poor and numerous Gentry which draw better Revenues from the King's Purse than they can from their own Estates all our country people consisting of Rich Nobility and Gentry of Wealthy Yeomen and of Poor Younger Brothers who have little or nothing and can never raise their Companies if they should get Commissions without their Elder Brothers Assistance amongst his Tenants or else with the free consent and desire of the People which in this case would hardly be afforded them But we will suppose there be idle People enough to make an Army and that the King has Money enough to Arm and Raise them And I will grant too to avoid tediousness although I do not think it possible that the people will at the first for fear receive them into their Houses and Quarter them against Law nay pay the Money which shall be by illegal Edicts imposed upon the Subjects to pay them Yet is it possible an Army can continue any time to enslave their own Country Can they resist the Prayers or the Curses of their Fathers Brothers Wives Mothers Sisters and of all Persons wherever they frequent Upon this Account all the Greek Tyrants were of very short Continuance who being in chief Magistracy and Credit in their Commonwealths by means of Soldiers and Satellites usurped the Soveraignty But did ever any of them excepting Dionysius leave it to his Son Who was driven out within less than a year after his Fathers death Many Armies of the Natives have destroyed Tyrannies So the Decemvirate was ruined at Rome the Tarquins expelled before that Our own Country has been a Stage even in our time where this Tragedy has been sufficiently acted for the Army after the War was done fearing the Monarchy should be restored again held Councils got Agitators and though there were often very severe Executions upon the Ring-leaders did at length by their perseverance necessitate their Officers to joyn with them having many good Head-pieces of the Party to advise them and so broke all Treaties And the Parliament too adhering to a small Party of them who consented to lay aside Kingly Government and afterwards drove them away too fearing they would continue to Govern in Oligarchy I am far from approving this way they used in which they broke all Laws Divine and Humane Political and Moral But I urge it only to shew how easily an Army of Natives is to be deluded with the Name of Liberty and brought to pull down any thing which their Ring-leaders tell them tends to enslaving their Country 'T is true this Army was afterwards cheated by their General who without their Knowledge much less Consent one Morning suddenly made himself Tyrant of his Country It as true that their Reputation not their Arms supported him in that State for some time but it is certain that they did very often and to the last refuse to be instrumental to levy Moneys though for their own pay and so he against his Will was fain to call from time to time Parliamentary Conventions And it is most certain that he did in the Sickness of which he died often complain that his Army would not go a step farther with him and de facto some Months after his death they did dethrone his Son and restore the Remainder of the old Parliament upon promise made to them in secret by the Demogogues of that Assembly that a Commonwealth should be speedily framed and setled Noble Ven. Sir I am satisfied that an Army raised here on a sudden and which never saw an Enemy could not be brought to act such high things for the Ruin of their own Government nor possibly would be any way able to resist the Fury and Insurrection of the people But what say you of a Forreign Army raised by your King abroad and brought over whose Officers and Soldiers shall have no Acquaintance or Relations amongst the people here Eng. Gent. All Forces of that kind must be either Auxiliaries or Mercenaries Auxiliaries are such as are sent by some Neighbour Prince or State with their own Colours and paid by themselves though possibly the Prince who demands them may furnish the Money These usually return home again when the occasion for which they were demanded is over But whether they do or not if they be not mixed and over-ballanced with Forces which depend upon the Prince who calls them but that the whole Weight and power lies in them they will certainly first or last seize that Country for their own Soveraign And as for Mercenaries they must be raised 't is true with the Money of the Prince who needs them but by the Authority and Credit of some Great Persons who are to Lead and Command them And these in all Occasions have made their own Commander Prince as F. Sforza at Milan drove out by this trick the Visconti ancient Dukes of that State and the Mamalukes in Egypt made themselves a Military Commonwealth So that the way of an Army here would either be no Remedy at all or one very much worse than the Disease to the Prince himself Noble Ven. Well Sir I begin to be of Opinion that any thing the King can grant the Parliament especially such a Parliament as this is which consists of Men of very great Estates and so can have no interest to desire Troubles will not be so inconvenient to him as to endeavour to break the Government by force But why may he not for this time by soothing them and offering them great Alliances abroad for the Interest of England and ballancing Matters in Europe more eaven than they have been and in fine by offering them a War with the French to which Nation they have so great a hatred lay them asleep and get good store of Money and stave off this severe Cure you speak of at least for some time longer Eng. Gent. There has been something of this done too lately and there is a Gentleman lies in the Tower who is to answer for it But you may please to understand that there is scarce any amongst the middle sort of People much less within the Walls of the House of Commons who do not perfectly know that we can have no Alliance with any Nation in the World that will signifie any thing to them or to our selves till our Government be