Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	house_n	sir_n	william_n	3,051	5	7.6129	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96413	The rights of the people concerning impositions, stated in a learned argument; with a remonstrance presented to the Kings most excellent Majesty, by the Honorable House of Commons, in the Parliament, An. Dom. 1610. Annoq; Regis Jac. 7. / By a late eminent judge of this nation.	Whitelocke, James, Sir, 1570-1632.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1659 (1659)	Wing W1995C; Thomason E1647_3; Thomason E2143_3	49,868	133

THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE Concerning IMPOSITIONS Stated in a learned ARGUMENT WITH A Remonstrance presented to the Kings most excellent Majesty by the Honorable House of Commons in the Parliament An. Dom. 1610. Annoque Regis Jac. 7. By a late eminent Judge of this Nation LONDON Printed for William Leak at the Crown in Fleetstreet betwixt the two Temple-Gates 1658. TO THE Courteous READER THis excellent Treatise of the no less worthy Author happily falling into my hands I instantly thought it my duty to make that publick which had given so much useful satisfaction to many learned and judicious in private remembring that antient Adage Bonum quò communius eò praestantius I hope it is needless to commend either the Reverend Author deceased the Treatise its use or stile since the Authority by which it is published is a sufficient argument of their known worth If thou kindly accept of his good meaning whose onely aim in the publishing hereof was the Common good it will be an encouragement to him and others to present to thy view what may hereafter fall into his hands worthy thy further perusal Thine J. B. 20. Maii. 1641. AT a Committee appointed by the Honourable House of Commons for examination of Books and of the licencing and suppressing of them c. It is Ordered That this Treatise be published in Print Sir Edward Deering Kt. and Baronet ☞ There is lately come forth An exact Abridgment of the Records in the Tower of London from the reign of King Edward the Second unto Richard the Third of all the Parliaments holden in each Kings reign and the several Acts in every Parliament together with the Names and Titles of all the Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons summoned to every of the said Parliaments Collected by Sir Robert Cotton Knight and Baronet And are to be sold by William Leak at the Crown in Fleetstreet betwixt the two Temple gates A Remonstrance delivered to His Majesty in writing after the inhibition given by Him to the Commons House of Parliament aswell by word of mouth as by Letters not to proceed in the examining his Right to Impose without assent of Parliament To the Kings most excellent Majesty Most gracious Sovereign WHereas we your Majesties most humble Subjects the Commons assembled in Parliament have received first by message and since by speech from your Majesty a command of restraint from debating in Parliament your Majesties right of Imposing upon your Subjects goods exported or imported out of or into this Realm yet allowing us to examine the grievance of these Impositions in regard of quantity time and other circumstances of disproportion thereto incident We your said humble Subjects nothing doubting but that your Majesty had no intent by that command to infringe the antient and fundamental right of the Liberty of Parliament in point of exact discussing of all matters concerning them and their possessions goods and rights whatsoever which yet we cannot but conceive to be done in effect by this command do with all humble duty make this Remonstrance unto your Majesty First We hold it an antient general and undoubted right of Parliament to debate freely all matters which do properly concern the Subject and his right or estate which freedom of debate being once fore-closed the essence of the liberty of Parliament is withthal dissolved And whereas in this case the Subjects right on the one side and your Majesties Prerogatives on the other cannot possibly be severed in debate of either We alledge that your Majesties Prerogatives of that kinde concerning directly the Subjects right and interest are daily handled and discussed in all Courts at Westminster and have been ever freely debated upon all fit occasions both in this and all other former Parliaments without restraint which being forbidden it is impossible for the Subject either to know or to maintain his Right and Propriety to his own Lands and Goods though never so just and manifest It may further please your most excellent Majesty to understand that we have no minde to impugn but a defire to inform our selves of your Highness Prerogative in that point which if ever is now most necessary to be known and though it were to no other purpose yet to satisfie the generality of your Majesties Subjects who finding themselves much grieved by these new Impositions do languish in much sorrow and discomfort These Reasons Dread Sovereign being the proper Reasons of Parliament do plead for the upholding of this our antient Right and Liberty Howbeit seeing it hath pleased your Majesty to insist upon that Judgment in the Exchequer as being direction sufficient for us without further examination Upon great desire of leaving your Majesty unsatisfied in no one point of one of our intents and proceedings We profess touching that Judgement that we neither do nor will take upon us to reverse it but our desire is to know the Reasons whereupon the same was grounded and the rather for that a general conceit is had That the Reasons of that Judgement may be extended much further even to the utter ruine of the antient liberty of this Kingdom and of your Subjects Right of propriety to their Goods and Lands Then for the Judgment it self being the first and last that ever was given in that kind for ought appearing unto us and being onely in one Case and against one man it can binde in law no other but that person and is also reversible by Writ of error granted heretofore by Act of Parliament and neither he nor any other Subject is debarred by it from trying his Right in the same or like case in any of your Majesties Courts of Record at Westminster Lastly We nothing doubt but our intended proceeding in a full examination of the right nature and measure of these new Impositions if this restraint had not come between should have been so orderly and so moderately carried and imployed to the manifold necessities of these times and given your Majesty so true a view of the state and right of your Subjects that it would have been much to your Majestres content and satisfaction which we most desire and removed all causes of fears and jealousies from the loyal hearts of your Subjects which is as it ought to be our careful endeavour Whereas contrariwise in that other way directed by your Majesty we cannot safely proceed without concluding for ever the right of the Subject which without due examination thereof we may not do We therefore your loyal and dutiful Commons not swerving from the approved steps of our Ancestors most humbly and instantly beseech your gracious Majesty that without offence to the same we may according to the undoubted Right and Liberty of Parliament proceed in our intended course of a full examination of these Impositions That so we may chearfully pass on to your Majesties business from which this stop hath by diversion so long with-held us And we your Majesties most humble faithful and loyal Subjects

so raised of them which sheweth that he claimed them not as due for then he needed not give recompence for them In the one and twentieth yeere of E. Rot. Parl 21. E. 3. n. 16. 3. a petition was exhibited in Parliament that Levies be not made by Commission so they be in this case nor other things laid upon the people unless they be granted in Parliament The Kings answer is If any such impositions were made it was by great necessity and with assent of the Prelates Barons and some of the Commons present yet he will not that such Impositions not duly made be drawne in consequence Here the King acknowledgeth an Imposition not to be duly made though with the consent of the Higher House and some of the Commons because it was not in full Parliament much rather he would have thought so if it had been by the King alone King E. 4. that was a rough and warlike Prince and was more beholding to his sword in the recovery of his right to the Crowne then to the affection of the people at a Parliament held the seventh yeere of his reigne made a Speech to the Commons Sir John Say being then Speaker in which Speech is contained very notable matter and very pertinent to our purpose and because the Record is not in print I will set downe the Kings Speech verbatim as it is entred upon the Parliament roll Rot. parl 7. E. 4. The Record begins Memorandum quod die veneris 3. die Parl. and then I will make a paraphrase upon it Iohn Say and ye Sirs come to this my Court of Parliament for the Commons of this my Realme The cause why I have cald and summoned this my present Parliament is that I purpose to live upon mine own and not to charge my subjects but in great and urgent causes concerning more the VVeale of themselves and also the defence of them and of this my Realme rather than mine owne pleasure as heretofore by Commons of this Land hath beene done and borne unto my progenitors in time of need wherein I trust that yee Sirs and all the Commons of this my Land will be as tender and kinde unto me in such cases as heretofore any Commons have been to any of my progenitours And for the good will kindness and true hearts that yee have borne continued and shewed to me at all times heretofore I thanke you as heartily as I can also I trust yee will continue in time coming for which by the grace of God I shall be to you as good and gracious a King and reigne as righteously upon you as ever did any of my progenitors upon Commons of this my Realme in dayes past and shall also in time of need apply my person for the VVeale and defence of you and of this my Realme not sparing my body nor life for any jeopardy that might happen to the same Out of this we may observe first the Kings Protestation to live of his owne and not to charge his subjects by which I gather he did acknowledge a certain and distinct property of that which way his subjects from that which was his own which excludeth the right to impose at his will for if that be admitted the subjects property is proprietas precaria not certaine how much of his is his owne for that is his which the King will leave him for there is no limit or restraint of the quantity the right being admitted but onely the Kings will The second thing I observe is this that in charging of his subjects he would confine himselfe between these two bounds the one it should bee in great and urgent causes concerning more the Weale of them and the defence of them and his Realme than his owne pleasure wherein he condemneth those occasions that grew upon excesse of private expence by over great bounty or otherwise and admitteth onely such as grow by reason of warres or other such like publique causes concerning the whole State the other bound or limit is that those burdens should be secundum morem majorum as heretofore had been done and borne by the Commons to his ancestours in time of need The third thing I observe is that he acknowledged these burdens did proceed out of their good will and kindness and not out of his right and prerogative out of these words that he trusted they would bee as tender and kinde to him in such cases as heretofore any Commons had been to his Progenitors And lastly wee may note the recompence promised by the King to his subjects for their good wills and kindness his goodness and grace his just and righteous government the jeopardy of his body and life for their Weale and defence Did this King assume to himselfe a right to lay burdens on his subjects at his own will without their assents that offered to buy them at his need with the price of his blood the most sacred relique in the kingdome My fourth observation is that in all petitions exhibited by the Commons in Parliament against Impositions the very knot of their griefe and the principal cause of their complaint hath been expressed in those petitions that the impositions have been without assent of Parliament by which is necessarily inferred that their griefe was in point of right not of burden In 11. Rot. parl 21. E. 3. nu 11. E. 3. nu 11 the complaint of the Imposition of two shillings upon a sacke of Wooll two shillings upon a Tonne of Wine six pence upon aver de pois the cause of grievance expressed because it was done Sans assent de Commons 25 E. R. Pari. 25 E. 3. n. 22. 3. n. 22. In a petition the Commons complaine that an imposition upon Wools was set by the consent of the merchants they pray that Commissions bee not made upon such singular grants if they be not in full Parliament and if any such grants be made they may he held as void 17 E 3. R. Parl. 17. E. 3. n. 28 n. 28. The Commons in their petition informe the King it is against reason they should be charged with impositions set on by assent of Merchants and not in Parliament My fifth observation is that whensoever any petition was exhibited against impositions there was never any respect had of the quantity but they were ever intirely abated as well where they were small as where they were great no request ever made to make them less when they were great nor excuse made of their ease when they were exceeding small which sheweth that it was not the point of burden or excesse was respected in their complaint but the point of meere right 25 E. 3. nu 22. R. Parl. 25. E. 3. nu 22. Fourty shilling set an imposition upon a sacke of Wooll upon complaint all taken off and no suit to be eased of part because it was too great 36. E. 3. nu 26. ibid. 38. E. 3 n. 26 21. E. 3. n. 11. Three

shillings and four pence upon a sacke of VVool all taken off and no excuse made for the smalness for 21 E. 3. nu 11 two shillings a sacke two shillings tonnage and six pence poundage 50 E. 3. nu 163. R. Parl. 50. E. 3. nu 163. A great complaint was made in Parliament by the Commons that an imposition of a penny was set upon wools for Tonage over and above the ancient due which was but a penny and so the subject was charged with two pence Also that a penny was exacted for Mesonage which was but an halfe penny which Impositions the Record doth express did amount to an hundred pounds a yeere This petty imposition was as much stood upon in point of right as the other great one of fourty shillings and was taken off upon complaint in Parliament without either justification or excuse for the smalness of it My sixth observation is that those which have advised the setting on of impositions without assent of Parliament have been accused in Parliament forgiving that advice as of a great offence in the State and have suffered sharpe censure and great disgrace by it Neither doe I finde that the quality of the person hath extenuated the blame as 50. E. 3 William L. Latimer Chamberlaine to the King and one of his private Councell was accused by the Commons in Parliament of divers deceits and extortions and misdeeds and among other things that he had procured to be set upon Wooll Wooll-fells and other Merchandizes new Impositions to wit upon a sack of Wool eleven shillings which the L. Latimer fought to excuse because he had the consent and good liking of the Merchants first But judgment was given against him that he should be committed to prison be fined and ransomed at the Kings will and be put from being of the Council and this procuring of Impositions to be set on without assent of Parliament is expresly set down in the entry of the judgment for one of the causes of his censure Richard Lyons a Farmer of the Customs in London the same year was accused in Parliament for the same offence Rot. Par. 50. E. 3. n. 17 18 19 20. he pleaded he did it by the Kings command and had answered the money to the Kings Chamber Yet was condemned and adjudged in Parliament to be committed to Prison and all his Lands and Goods were feifed into the Kings hand and at the last the hate against these authors of Impositions grew so that 50. E. 3. in the same Parliament a petition was exhibited in Parliament to make this a capital offence The Record is very short and therefore I will set it down verbatim Item prie le dit Common que scit ordaine per Statute en cest present Parliament de touts ceux queux cy en avant mittont ou font pur lour singuler profit novels Impositions per lour authoritie demesn accrocheants al eux eny ul power de riens que soit establi en Parliament sans assent de Parliament que ils eyent judgement de vie member de forisfacture To this rough Petition the King gave a milde and temperate Answer Courre la Common ley come estoit al avant use My seventh Observation is the cessation between 50. E. 3. after this censure in Parliament and 4. Mariae almost two hundred years during which time no King did attempt to impose without assent of Parliament And yet we finde in the Parliament Rolls that there was not one of those Kings that reigned in that time but had Impositions granted him upon fit occasion by Act of Parliament upon all Goods and Merchandizes and at divers times during their reigns sometimes more sometimes less upon the Ton and pound but ever for a time certain and indefinite so the use of them was not given over but the power of Imposing was so clearly and undoubtedly held to be in the Parliament as no King went about to practice the contrary But to this cessation that was of great weight and credit in our evidence a colour was given by the other side to avert the inserence made upon it against the Kings right that is that during that time there was so great a Revenue grew to the Crown by double Custom paid for all Merchandizes both in England and at Callis by reason of an Act of Parliament made 8. H. 4. which was that no goods should be carried out of the Realm but to Callis and by reason that the Merchants paid Custom both there and here for the same goods that in the seven and twentieth year of Henry the sixth the Custom of Callis was 68000. pounds the year a great sum if you consider the weight of money then what price it bare and by reason hereof Princes not delighting to charge their murmuring Subjects but when need is being so amply supplied otherwise did not put that Prerogative in practice To this I Answer That if that were true that was urged it might be some probable colour of the forbearance of imposing but I finde it quite contrary and that by Record For there was no such restraint of all Commodities not to be transported to any place but Gallis but onely Woolls Woolfells Leather Tinn and Lead that were staple Wares which by the Statute 37 E. 3. were to be transported thither and not to any other place and the staple continued at that place for the most part from that time untill long after 27. H. 6. but there was no double Custom paid both here and there by the same owner but the yearly profits of the Customs of Callais at those times were so far short of that which hath been alledged in 27. H. 6. that it appeareth in an Act of Parliament 27. H. 6. cap. 2 printed in the book at large 27. H. 6. cap. 2. That the Commons do complain That whereas in the time of E. 3. the Custom of Callais was 68000 pounds per annum at that time which was 27. H. 6. by reason of the ill usage of Merchants it was fallen to be but 12000 pounds the year so then there was great cause in that respect to have set on Impositions by reason of that great abatement of Customs and yet it was not then offered to be done without assent of Parliament But if you look a little further into the extreme necessities of those times you shall finde there never was greater cause to have strained Prerogatives for it appeareth in an Act of Parliament 28. H. 6. that it was then declared in Parliament by the Chancellor and Treasurer who demanded relief of the people for the King both for payment of his debts and for his yearly livelioood that the King was then indebted 372000. pounds which now by the weight of money amounteth to above 1100000. pounds and that his ordinary expences were more then his yearly revenue by 19000. pounds yearly so if ever there was cause to put a King to his shifts it was then yet