Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	kingdom_n	treaty_n	2,512	5	9.3701	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92926	A letter from an ejected Member of the House of Commons, to Sir Jo: Evelyn: shewing, the constitution of that councell, and the influence it hath had on the present times, with a judgement of future events.	Skutt, George.; Evelyn, John, Sir, 1591-1664.	1648 (1648)	Wing S26; Thomason E463_18; ESTC R203469	15,283	28

vanquished foes with savage ferity and over your Confederates with falshood fraud and treachery For you may call to mind if you please your signall ingratitude to the Scots to whom you owe first the very Being and after that the Wel-being nor onely of the Parliament but of your selves your Wifes and Children who in all humane reason had inevitably fallen under the power of the King's justice had you not been rescued from it by the assistance of your Brethren of Scotland when you had with most pitiful moans and Messages called upon them for it Then your ingratitude to the City of London who was your Judas to carry the purse for you without carrying the Parallel any further unlesse I should say that ye may perhaps in one thing be like our Saviour Christ too that as he was crucified so ye may be all hanged These acts of high persecution of your Enemies and shamelesse ingratitude and falshood to your Friends renders you equally hatefull to both And if that of Claudian be true neque enim libertas tutior ulla est Quam domino servire bono then are we become the greatest Slaves in the world because we serve the worst Masters whose arts have not been very admirable neither since it did not require any great reach to carry on designes with that rule of making great Engagements and Promises and of never keeping any But I le be brief with you and tell you That there was a time when the name of Parliament was used to intimidate Kings and Princes and the Great men of the earth so now the time is comming and is at the very dore when the Name of a KING a Name in which there is power saies Salomon shall by the revolution of Divine justice intimidate all the lofty Titles of Members Chair-men Committee-men and whatsoever other Offices and Dignities are thereunto belonging I know very well the religious refuge you make to your famous Mother Shipton from whose Oracles you think your selves ordain'd to depose not only the King but the Throne it self in the succession of the Royall Line because she hath said there shall be no more Kings and Queens of England which is a truth the Devil hath told you enigmatically to make you more sure his own For I am ready to believe as well as you that there will be no more Kings nor Queens of England and yet I doe believe too this Monarchy was never at that height it is now about to arrive to by the blessing of God on the present undertakings of men For the union of the 2 Crowns of England and Scotland so prudently fore-laid by Hen 7. in the Marriage of His Daughter Margaret to James 4. King of Scotland had no sooner received the wisht-for successe in the Person of our late Soveraigne King James But both Kingdomes entred into a Treaty of rendring the Peace and union between them inviolable And the wisdome of the Commissioners of the Kingdome of Scotland then employed to the Parliament of England for establishing that union considering that to advance the same it would be profitable to remove all memorials of the disunion and separation endeavoured also that the common name of Great Britaine might be reciprocally taken up by both Nations Which though it produced no other effect at that time then a Proclamation from K. James as I remember yet that shewed a true understanding that wise Nation had in improving the union to the utmost both in name and interest And to this day the same hath been prosecuted in the transactions between the Parliaments of both Kingdoms and was intimated by the Lord Lowden in a Speech at a Conference of both Houses and will no doubt have its just and reasonable effect upon the setling of that Peace both Kingdomes are now fighting for against a generation of Vipers would eat out the Bowels of their Native Country with a malicious and obstinate endlesse Warre to maintain the variable revolutions of their fancies humours and passions which they call their Conscience and support the necessity of their fortunes which they call the Liberty and Property of all the Subjects of England I say that you and I shall in a short time live to see this Riddle of your Prophetesse made good against all the malice and power of your wicked sense and actions and these two Nations united into one common name of Great Britaine And His Majesties residence being drawn into the middle part of this hopefull Empire which the world will then grow jealous of may perhaps give a further issue to your reverend Sibylls Prophecies that Yorke shall be Where His Majesty and His Posterity no more using the stile of Kings and Queens of England shall be saluted Kings and Queens of Great Britaine to the worlds end which God grant Is it not time then Sir for you to look about you and in stead of wishing me the Honour of being a Member wish your self the happinesse of being none Give me seriously in one breath the just account of those vast sums you would willingly give to have lived these last fix years at my little private Tusculanum reaping the joyes of innocent and peacefull houres free from the disorder and affranation of Tumults prejudice of Factions and injuries of Warre And tell me freely or rather tell your own heart what course of life you would not rather undertake were you to begin again then the unprosperous profession of a Souldier For beside the envy and rage of men the spo●les rapes famines slaughter of the innocent wastings and burnings and other miseries laid on the labouring man by you have been so great that were not the merc●es of God infinite it were in vain for any of you to hope for any portion of them seeing the cruelties by you perm tied and committed have also been infinite Your Votes for a Personall Treaty can give us small assurance of your affections to Peace since you seem to be necessitated to them by the importunate desires of the people whom it was necessary to suspend by giving them a crust or something to baite upon while your selves acted all the while artificially and cunningly to render your own Councells ineffectuall for to that purpose tended the neglect of your own Votes after they were made your clogging them with preparatory Bills your receiving Petitions praying you to proceed in your own way your discountenancing others desiring a Treaty not to say taking occasion from thence perhaps to murder and destroy the Petitioners themselves your limiting the place of Treaty to an Island which is it self but a larger Prison your attending the businesse with men of war which invades the freedome of it So that what you were ashamed to deny in words you professe not to like in actions and so long as Treaties and reconciliations are made up of the same ingredients as the late Warre Feares and Jealousies 't is not like that any other fruit should be expected no more then

A LETTER FROM AN EJECTED MEMBER OF THE HOUSE of COMMONS TO Sir JO EVELYN SHEWING The Constitution of that Councell and the Influence it hath had on the present Times with a judgement of future Events Printed in the yeare 1648. A LETTER TO Sir JOHN EVELYN from an ejected MEMBER of the Commons House Sir I Am sorry I am not in a capacity of returning one civility for another being bound up by the unfortunate aspect of my Nativity to receive benefits rather then to give Only I can say I have committed your obligations to a faithfull memory and a gratefull heart who will at all times discharge their Offices I am sure in paying you all just and due respects But for your last discourse wherein you endeavoured to have me accept the proceedings of the House of Commons for my Ejection and acknowledge the right of my successors place I desire to be excused till I am convinced by the Reason of Arguments and not fortune of the Times I must confesse I doe not envie him his cushion nor the State Dignity Degree of Membership which if I mistake not begins to want something both of the intrinsique and extrinsique value And if my Arithmetick be good the Houses had no sooner disordered their whole Number but they have ever since beene busied in Fractions But I need not read Lectures to the wise you remember as well as I and are a witnesse to all the truth I know or can speak How the things of this present age were begun with most exorbitant Opinion and Pride carryed on with proportionable Injustice and Oppression and are like to end with equall Shame and Folly to the first Attempters With what an aire of popularity was every man lifted up at the very first meeting Flattering himself in the honour of being a publique Champion for the almost captiv'd liberty and interest of England and of being a Member of that Parliament which the People who measure all things not by what is fit and just but by what themselves desire already had in adoration So that these men that could not govern themselves by their particular vertue no sooner came to live in the hot aire of vulgar acclamations but they grew half mad An absolute Calenture had seized on the head of the Body politique which made them believe they could do no businesse but by precipices The Speaker was so giddy with his vertiginous Office that after a whole day spent in hearing and doing publique Affaires he could seldome give account you know of what was said or done Which I suppose proceeded from the various qualifications and tempers of the Members whereof some were wise men but seemed not so being superseded with acute prejudices and passions Some seemed so and were not seeking Fame rather then deserving it Others neither were nor seemed so and yet had publique Faculty to use their incorrigible confidence of troubling the House when they pleased And though no man came to the Parliament but whom the Writ supposed both wise and valiant yet that was to be understood favourably for it appeared at last that passions and feares had taken away the reputation of both 'T is certain that these humours quite overthrew the State Rule and Order of a wise Councell Doe you not remember how the Mornings were used to be passed away in long-winded declamations brought thither elaborately compos'd and read out of a hat perhaps or behind a friend And for the second Scene How about Noone for so the match was made came some Petition from a County City Corporation Mystery or Occupation and made humble desires to have the same things done which the Speech-makers had all the morning been debating of Which also did not a little set forth the speculative prospect and high wisdome of the said Members in publique Affaires And it may be after all this the same Members receive Letters of their own procuring from their Country City or Burrough to give the thankes of their Trustees to them and to acknowledge their unwearied paines for the publique service So that by this time the Gentlemen swelling with opinion above the bounds of all shame or fear sent all their Orations to be Printed whence came forth at any one time eight Speeches of Sir John Wray and soon after nine Speeches more of Sir John Wray all penn'd without wit and understanding and they must needs be so for the Knight had none and where there is nothing to be had the King loses his right spoken without intelligible pronunciation and accent and heard without attention and yet sent abroad to busie the people with popular theames and feed them with expectations of great effects Whereas the wiser sort of men thought it a great dishonour to Parliaments that these and other Speeches should ever have been discovered to the world to give Strangers other Nations occasion to think what opinion they were to have of the great Assembly of Wise men in England You must needs agree with me that this liberty of Speech-making was Remora if not the overthrow of all Parliamentary results and made us many times more like persons conveened in a Cock-pit then a Councell which caused a high resentment in some temperate old Members Among whom quoth one striking his hand on his brest in our sight and hearing I have been of all Parliaments since Duodecimo Jac. and never saw such doings Another cries out that he had seen all the Parliaments of King Charles and that of Oxford where they were called Hornets after they had been adjourned from Westminster where they were but waspes all which were nothing to this For whether it were the intemperate desire of fame or private opinion of parties which often deceives men and never more then at this time or temporall interests or irregular zeal or engagement in Faction and Designe certain it is that all concurred to use a liberty could be denyed to none of them and they that held themselves before almost undone for want of liberty were now about to be undone with too much The truth is much talking is troublesome in all companies and in Councells dangerous where all matters are to be handled with gravity and weight But you remember well enough that our long debates which sometimes held from morning till night and then almost from night till morning agen looked little better then great brawles and when the people supposed their Gallant wise Members were very busie and took great paines to sit up late anights making them good Lawes they were then altogether by the ears perhaps and drawing Swords about the Candles 'T is as observable how matters are not much mended and that publique Affaires move still by the like wild and preposterous consultations For as when the rest of the people lived in full peace they were only then fighting and quarrelling in the House of Commons so now when the Kingdome was put into open Warre and different parties were every where acting

Tragedies on each other when like wise patriots they should be quenching the flames of publique discord they are spending their time like young novices in Religion and getting by heart a Catechisme which they have newly received from their reversed Tutor the Synod But popularity that bewitches all natures not mightily supported with virtue and wisdome soon taught wise men that there was no stop to be given to this careere of Speech-making unlesse the King should dissolve the Parliament which as the King had not done formerly without great temptation so now to prevent it the temptation being greater then ever you know the arts were used with all the desired successe that could be And notwithstanding His Majesties great alscrity in so important a matter to consent to the perpetuity of this Parliament yet this security was so far from working off the clamour of the Members that it raised the key higher and from generall discourses they descended every day more and more to particulars Happy was he that found out a Subject would tickle the attention of the Houses and could set it forth pathetically Doe you not remember how Cromwell speaking for Layton out of the Gallery dropt teares downe with his words and did not Lilburne Burton Prin and Bastwick find the like passionate Orators and yet what effect did their glorious enlargements produce but to let the world see the turbulent spirit of these men was habituall and not imputed and justifie the proceedings of the late governours against them And that 't was no wonder they fell out with the King His Privy Councell and the Bishops when now being all at liberty they could not agree among themselves For Prin was become a State-Presbyter and Bastwick an Ecclesiasticall Burton an Independent and Lylburne a Leveller and all of them acording to the interest of their severall causes did not only write and raile at one another and at severall Members of the Houses and the Army but at the whole Army and Parliament it self It was strange to see the cheapnesse of your Jurisdiction and what a facile ear was given to all Accusations and Calumnies as if the Parliament had been called only to hear Informations or receive Intelligences I passe by the Triumph was made over many great Personages in their loud Impeachments of High Treason the great labour was had to prove them Some of which were sold afterwards for money and others to this day lie by the walls unregarded and forgotten And those that did perish by their Accusations suffered more I doubt to satisfie the pride and greatnesse of the Accusers then the merit of their Accusations And when the wits and understandings of men failed their revenge malice bore up the undertaking for when the whole House was gravell'd knew not how to proceed in the Tryall of the Earl of Strafford M. Pym you know was fain to call up that stupendious Oracle of all Learning SELDEN the Great to help the infirmities of the Members and declare to the forme of proceeding what had been the practice of former Ages in the like Impeachments The matter rested in the hearts of the Accusers and needed no assistances As appeared sufficiently upon the closing up the evidence at the Bar by M. Glyn who ranging all his matter to the best order and advantage he could to charge the Prisoner seconded with a reserve of his own aggravations made such a tedious unsatisfactory impertinent clamour that of those Lords who should have heard him some fell asleep others lay along tired all found out some diversion for their tormented thoughts representing to them the fatality of that great Peer's life before them which they could not save because they saw the Commons would not You must needs remember upon all occasions how nice tender they were ever of their Orders and Priviledges holding them superiour to all Laws and Rules whatsoever It was a State sacriledge to invade either of them Whence it came to passe that their own and their servants persons were free from all Legall processe in all causes and Courts And one Benson a Yorkshire man thought the vertue of Member-ship so great that he extended it to protect fourscore persons none of his servants at one time for which also he received 20s a piece and I beleeve the first example that ever was of protecting a Rape by Priviledge of Parliament was in the person of that godly and faithfull Member to the Cause whom they called Prince Griffith I know there hath been something done of late to remit protections and humble the power of Parliaments which signifies no more but this that in a time when peoples mindes were in a tumultuary discrasie ready to break the reines of Government and some temper was fit to be administred nothing was thought more popular nor apt to court the People into their Obedience then to offer them to lay down this Spell of Priviledge which while they were about them no creditor could do them hurt What opinion the House of Commons had of the Lords was seen every day for it appeared all along they were made servile to the designes of the Commons And in truth it were too much trouble to put you in minde how often and how tamely they have suffered themselves to be baffled out of as much right and reason as would have served for noble advantages to have raised their lost honours to their Ancient greatnesse and splendour And in case as of late it hath happened that Petitions and Addresses were made to the Houses which exactly suited not with the sence and successe of their present designes Doe but observe what the different receptions of them were with how much more secret State and Dignity the answers were delivered from the Lower House who when they dare will be sure to reprehend and when they dare not their answers shall be made up of such supercilious sentences as shall signifie nothing or some cold opinion of the action and leave the Petitioners rather to study out their own duty then expect redresse 'T is an athletick labour to put you in minde of every thing But you may suppose that when so many were got together that could think themselves any thing that there was no Power nor Jurisdiction nor Rule but they were that it was no hard matter for them to make a transition from the power to the execution and fall to acting any thing Hence it came to passe that Treason against the King and Sacriledge against the Church were become popular Topicks The first was upheld under the pretences of restoring the Crown to a stability of Greatnesse and Soveraignty and the other covered with the title of Reformation But these appearing at last with their disguises off discovered only the power of some active subtle Members working out different designes through the borrowed resemblances of Justice and vertue You need not be remembred with what notorious partiality and favour those Causes were received which