the Clergy and three entire Subsidies and three Fifteenths and tenths and three hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Subsidies unpaid to Queen Elizabeth Anno 7. an Ayd to make his Son Prince Henry a Knight Anno 18. two Subsidies of the Laity and three of the Crergy Anno 21. three Subsidies and three fifteens of the Temporalty and some Subsidies of the Clergy Primo Car. primi three entire Subsides by the Spiritualty 3. Car. five entire Subsidies granted by the Spiritualty and as many by the Temporalty great sums of money raised by Ship-money and by an Act of Parliament for Poll-money pawning all his Jewels and the benefit for some years of Coynage of two hundred thousand pounds of Spanish Bullion and returning the value in English Commodities All which being great supplies and easements to the charges and burdens of our severall and successive Kings and Princes and were not without some charge in the collection would have been much greater if the people of England keeping close to a long custome of not only getting all that they can from their Kings and Common Parents but returning as little as they could of their Aydes or Thanks unto them would have permitted them to arrive to a just or true valuation or any more then a small part of what they should be content to rate one another at having by an Act of Parliament in 6. Ed. 3. obtained of the King that from henceforth all Aydes should be taxed after the old manner and not otherwise the Subsidies being most commonly rated but at two shillings eight pence in the pound for goods and four shillings in the pound for lands with consideration of debts and other diminishing circumstances and put in the Ballance and compared with that which was given to the people by the Confirmations of divers Kings and Queens of Letters Patents and Lands given therein Coronation Pardons the General Pardons of 21 Jac. those in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and of some of our later Kings and Princes for in the Reigns of many of the former they were not so frequent general or usuall The Act of Parliament of 21 Jacobi Regis for debarring the Kings Title to concealed Lands after sixty years possession where nothing within that time had been answered or paid to the Crown or was in super and the last all-surpassing Act of Indemnity and General Pardon granted by King Charles the second would be farre surmounted by those and many other beneficiall Acts of Parliament granted in every King and Princes reign of liberties and benefits to the people And were not enough or sufficient to repair the decayes of the Regal Revenues or keep them from a consumption occasioned by their vast charges of our Kings as well in times of warre as peace to keep their people in safety peace and plenty nor to cure the Revenue of a Hecticque Fever of almost 500 years continuance though some of our Kings and Princes took some parts of Trade into their own hands to supply their necessities as the Wool by King Ed. 1. Tinne by Ed. 3. that and corn by Hen. 6. and Beer transported by Queen Elizabeth and notwithstanding the care and provision of divers Parliaments to have the Crown Lands not alien'd or wasted and the care of the Laws of England that the grants of the King shall be void where he is deceived or not truly informed The Ordinance in the 21 of Richard the second that whatsoever should come to the King by Judgment Escheat Wardship or any otherwayes should not be given away That of primo King H. 4. ca. 6. that in a Petition to the King for Lands Offices or any Gift the value thereof shall be mentioned and of that also which they have had of the Kings gift or of other his Pregenitors or Predecessors before and in case it be not their Grants shall be void and repealed the Ordinance of 21 R. 2. that the Procurer of any gift should be punished continued untill 7 H. 4. untill the King should be out of debt under penalty of forfeiting the double value for moving or procuring any such suit The Statute of 4 of H. 4. cap. 4. that the King grant no Lands or other Commodities but to such as shall deserve them and if any make demand without desert he shall be punished by the Councell and not obtain his suit In 11 Hen. 4 That Petitions for any such Grants delivered to the King be examined by his Privy Councell lest the Kings wants should light upon the Commons and in 2 H. 6. That all the profits by Wards Marriages Reliefs Escheats and Forfeitures should be expended in helping to defray the charges of the Kings Houshold an account of the Kings Revenue in 1. Hen. 6. in England Ireland Wales and Aquitaine and of his charges and expences delivered into Parliament by Ralph Lord Cromwell Lord Treasurer of England and the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester and divers of the Lords of the Kings Councell appointed to consider thereof the Acts of Parliament in 18 and 43 Eliz. That the Queen should be answered for the overplus of the value of Lands granted by her Letters Patents after the rate of threescore years purchase The abating in several Kings Reigns the expences of Houshold and of their Retinue Favourites Gifts and Rewards and lessening of charges in Warre by Tenures in Capite and Knight Service Aydes to make their eldest Sonnes Knights and for the marriage of their eldest Daughters Profit of Annum diem vastum Aides and Assistances by Grand and Petit Serjeanties Aurum Reginae or something presented to the Queen in former Kings Reigns upon Grants of Lands or Estate Licences to Trade with prohibited Merchandize raising their Customes and sometimes farming out their Ships Fines upon licences of Alienation or Pardons Espargne of the Royall Revenue by the Marriages of the Heirs of the Nobility and Gentry of great Estates and transplanting and inoculating of great and Noble Families and Estates into one another not only for their good and advancement but the peace and welfare of the Kingdome and the checque which King James gave to suits and importunities at Court after that he had given away too much of his English Crown Lands to his craving Countreymen of Scotland publickly declaring what kind of Suits or Requests might be demanded of him and what he would not grant his orders to have once in every quarter of a year Certificates or Accounts of moneys issued for his Houshold Wardrobe Jewel-house Chamber Navie and Stables and his care and advice with his Privie Councel for supplies of his Revenues and regulating his expences for that the Exitus was every year by affairs troubles and cares of State disturbances and accidents often happening a great deal more then the Introitus the disbursements farre exceeding the incomes the ordinary receipts coming farre short of the ordinary disbursements and the extraordinaries very much out-going the ordinaries CHAP. III. Ruine and Decay
Northumberland Seymour Duke of Somerset Russell Earl of Bedford St. John Earl of Wiltshire Rich Willoughby Paget Sheffeild Barons his giving away great quantities of Ecclesiasticall and Chantry Lands Viscount Mountague Lord Howard of Effingham Lord North advanced by Queen Mary the Subsidie of four shillings in the pound for Lands and two shillings for Goods granted to King Edward the sixth in the last year of his Reign remitted by her and nine thousand two hundred pounds land per annum of the Crown given away paying at the same time twelve pound per cent Interest for twenty thousand pounds borrowed of the City of London and the greater charges and Expences of Queen Elizabeth in protecting the Neatherlands and United Provinces which cost her five hundred thirty four thousand pounds and four hundred thousand pounds in succouring King H. 4. of France besides what was disbursed for other Protestant Allies guarding the Back-door of Scotland relieving guarding the young King who was afterwards her Successor endeavouring to reduce Ireland to its former obedience which in a few years cost her as the Lord Treasurer Cecill Earl of Salisbury in the Reign of King James informed the Parliament nineteen hundred twenty and four thousand pounds and defending her self from the Assaults and machinations of the Pope King of Spain and other Catholick Princes advancing and enriching Cecil L. Burghley Sackvile L. Buckhurst Charles Blount Lord Mountjoy Knowles Wotton Sidney Carew Petre Compton Cheney Norris and Stanhop to be Barons and creating of the Earls of Essex Leicester Lincoln and Warwick Remission of a Subsidie granted to Q. Mary Farming of her Customs to Smyth but for thirteen thousand pounds per annum afterwards to forty two thousand pounds and raising them after that only to no more then fifty thousand pounds per annum five hundred thousand pounds spent by King James in a totall subduing of Ireland three hundred and fifty thousand pounds paid for Queen Elizabeth's debts to the City of London for which some of the Crown Lands were mortgaged and for debts to the Army Admiralty and Wardrobe and discharging the reckoning of brass money in Ireland with the same sums in silver his vast expences by Treaties and Ambassadours amounting in the seventh year of his Reign unto five hundred thousand pounds to keep us in our envied peace and plenty four hundred thousand pounds disbursed in relieving the Dutch besides what was spent in satisfying the greedy cravings of the Scottish Nation preferring and raising of the Duke of Richmond Ramsey Earl of Holderness Earls of Carlisle Kelley Morton and Dunbarre Howard Earl of Northampton Carr Earl of Somerset Herbert Earl of Montgomery Villers Duke of Buckingham Cranfeild Earl of Middlesex Cecill Earl of Salisbury Howard Earl of Suffolke Mountague Earl of Manchester Ley Earl of Marleborough and Digby Earl of Bristol All which and many more which might be here enumerated did not only as was usuall in the Reigns of our former Kings by necessary bounties encouraging of virtue and valour rewarding of merits and high deservings of Ministers of State and great Atchievements of men of warre through a successiion of ages accidents occasions and reasons of State draw and derive their honours from those fountains of Honour but large Revenues and Lands many times likewise to support and maintain their Dignities and sometimes upon the Petitions of the Commons in Parliament as to conferre upon John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Dukedome of Acquitaine in the reign of King Edward the third to make John Holland the Kings half-Brother Earl of Huntington in the reign of King Richard the second and to preferre and advance the Lords John and Humphrey Sons of King Henry the fourth and sometimes great Pensions and Annuities were given for life untill Lands could be provided to support them in reward of virtue and their services done or to be done for the good of the Nation and to continue them and their posterities as props and pillars of the Royall Throne in a gratefull acknowledgment of the favours received from it And besides those former rewards and Ennoblishments puts it at this day for Creation money paid to the Dukes Marquesses and Earls to no less a charge then one thousand pounds per annum by which the people were in all ages no loosers when the Honour strength and defence of the Kingdome was maintained and increased by them and themselves kept in peace and plenty the manner of living in ancient and better times being with little money and small rents great services by the thankfull and ready duty and affections of Tenants to their Benefactors and mesne Lords not only made them great in power but enabled them to imitate their Princes as much as they could in great hospitalities deeds of charity and almes building and endowing of Churches Abbies Priories and Religious Houses and giving large Inheritances to their Servants Friends and Followers pro homagio servitio and other dependances Common of Estovers and of great quantities of Lands to severall Cities Towns and Villages and in such a plentifull manner distributed and gave their Lands as if the Lands in Capite by Knight Service Coppyhold Lands Commons which our King's Nobility and Gentry bestowed heretofore upon the inferiour sort of people and what they dedicated to God by giving to Churches Religious Houses Colleges Churches and Chappels should be surveyed and measured they would amount to no less then two parts in four of the Lands of the Kingdome The quondam lethargie sleepiness and unactivity of many of the Officers of the Exchequer who should be as the Argus eyes to guard the Royall Revenue the indulgence heretofore or neglect of some of her Officers and their not remembring that they were to be the Kings and his Treasurers Remembrancers respiting or nichiling of his debts upon feigned Petitions which can tell how to deceive the most carefull Barons or Judges of that Court when their Soveraign suffered in the mean time very great damage for want of the money the not duly estreating of all Fines and Amerciaments corrupt compounding for such as were estreated by under Officers at easie rates granting to the City of London their Fines and Amerciaments want of looking after as they doe in other Nations the execution of those multitudes of penall Lawes which otherwise will be to little purpose and assisting the collection of the Kings legall profits arising thereby the heretofore carelesness or corruption of some of our former Kings Officers who for fees of favour enlarged their Charters and Grants to bodies politique Cities Towns and Corporations and to as many private persons as would petition for them and decked them with the flowers of the Kings Crown which were not to be parted with so easily So as what by Grants or Prescription which in many cases is but the incroachment or filchings of liberties and priviledges concealed or not well looked after covered and drawn into a property by a time beyond
Restauranda OR THE NECESSITY OF Publick Repairs By setling of a certain and Royal yearly REVENUE FOR THE KING OR The Way to a well-being for the KING and His PEOPLE proposed by the Establishing of a fitting Revenue for him and Enacting some Necessary and Wholsome Laws for the PEOPLE London Printed by Richard Hodgkinson for the Author and are to be sold by Abel Roper at the sign of the Sun over against Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet 1662. REGI ET PATRIAE VERISQUE HONORIS ET FELICITATIS ANGLIAE CULTORIBUS HASCE VELUTI MATERIARUM SEDES DICAT DEDICATQUE FABIANUS PHILIPPS THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. I. REvenues of the Kings of England Pag. 6 CHAP. II. Supplies and Additions to the Royal Revenues and the many cares taken therein by Parliaments and otherwise p. 14 CHAP. III. Ruine and decay of the Revenues p. 30 CHAP. IV. The Remedies p. 58 Some Errata's or faults escaped the Printer which the Reader is intreated to correct and amend in this manner PAge 2 line 15 dele by p. 7. l. 10 dele may p. 27 l. 26. for their read the p. 68. l. 14. interfere had in principio dele in fine p. 69. l. 5. for and worser or worse and l. 29. for which r. and p. 58. for Chap. l. r. Chap. IV. p. 81. l. 23. dele that p 83 l. 31. dele and and 〈◊〉 Restauranda OR The necessity of Publick Repairs by the setling of a certain and Royall yearly Revenue for the KING OR The Way to a well-being for the KING and his PEOPLE proposed by the establishing of a fitting Revenue for Him and Enacting some necessary and wholsome Lawes for the People A Long course of time Annosa vetustas which weares out and subdues the most stubborne Rocks and Marbles and crumbles into dust and ruin things of long duration together with the necessities cares and affairs which do usually busie Crowns and Princes and their Royall Revenues in the protection and welfare of themselves and the people committed to their charge may without the inconsiderate censures of those who think much of every Ayde and Contribution which they give towards the effecting or support of their own and their posterities happiness be well supposed to be no small cause of wasting and lessening those Royal supports or means which our Kings of England have heretofore had to do it withall and as streams running far from their springs and fountains without the help or company of other waters to augment or goe along with them may be allowed more then a little to drie up or languish and might silence the murmur and complaints of those who can be content to beg get all they can from the King and by too often by false pretences concealing the worth or value of what they ask of him doe gain thereby ten times more then they seem to request or he intends to give them and making no scruple to deceive him which our blessed Saviour never taught them when he commanded to give to Caesar that which was Caesars think it is Kingly to be cozened and that he can never give or be deceived too much yet when he comes to demand any help or assistance from them though it be but for a publick good and their own preservation can crie out burdens and oppressions and as if he were some Ocean never to be drawn drie or Mountain never to be digged down or exhausted an Elixir to transmute and enrich others without any wast or diminution of its self or the Sun in the firmament which can enlighten heat and nourish all things and be never the worse for it marvail how he can come to want and if they doe believe him to be in any necessity are ready to lay the cause or blame of it upon his Officers for taking more care of their own Estates then his and for a thriving way of Arithmetick by substracting from his to increase and multiply their own whilest many who have but lately tasted of his bounty or whose Fathers Grandfathers or Ancestors have lest them goodly Inheritances which were either of the guift of the King or his Progenitors or purchased and gained by beneficial offices and places or imployments under them can look upon every Subsidy Tax or Assessment as a blast or mildew of their corn some plague or epidemicall disease or a greater national calamity and give them no better an aspect or entertainment then the children of Israel did their Egyptian Tax-masters when they were commanded to make their Tale of Brick and gather the straw though they never repine or grumble at the same time at ten times a greater sum to a Merry-meeting or a Feast or spent in a horse-race a thousand or five hundred pounds lost in a night at dice three or four hundred pounds spent in a Treatment or Banquet or the large or sinfull expensive vanities of themselves and their wives and children And too many who would be thought to be better Subjects and Patriots then others can seem to hate a Civil warre shrink at the imagination of the miseries thereof tremble at a forreign Invasion Free-quarter Plunder and the Outrage of Souldiers complain of want of Trade or the guarding of the Seas boast of the ancient honour and glory due unto their Nation and take a pleasure to recount it to their children or read it in their Histories and not a few also who in our late twenty years rebellion and the spoils and afflictions which attended it could drive honester men then themselves into Taxes and Assessements and think a million and a half in yearly Assessements for some years together besides a fifth part of their real Estates a twentieth of their personal and many other of their Depredations amounting to more then all the Taxes and Aydes put together which for five hundred years last past were imposed by our Kings and Princes to be little enough to sacrifice to a mistaken godliness will notwithstanding doe as very little as they can to contribute any thing to the procuring and enjoying the blessings of peace and plenty or avoyd the contrary And do never so well esteem of their own policies as when they can by pretences of debts poverty or charge of children shift of necessary and publick duties and by undervaluing of their own Estates or overvaluing others make as smal an offering as they can to their oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy and necessities of their Prince and Defender of their Faith as well as their Estates And too too many whilst they cannot but acknowledge if Scripture and the Lawes of God and man may be their guide and directors that he hath lately by Gods mercy and a miracle redeemed them and their Laws and Liberties out of a slavery which stuck like a leprosie and was like to be entailed upon them and their posterities rescued Religion and gave them their Lands and Estates again which the just Lawes of the Land once called their Birthright
Somerset and others attainted added by King Edward the sixth the forfeitures of the Duke of Northumberland William Parr Marquess of Northampton John Earl of Warwick Sir Thomas Wyat and others to Queen Mary the Lands of the Duke of Norffolk Philip Earl of Arrundel the Earls of Westmerland Essex and Southampton Sir John Perrot Leonard Dacres and others in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and hers as well as King Edward the sixth's ill advised and unhappy clypping and lessening the Lands and Revenues of many Bishopricks Deans and Chapters forfeitures of the Lord Cobham Sir Walter Rawley and of Winter Grant and other the Gunpowder Traytors the great revenues of the Earles of Tyrone and Desmond and other large confiscated Escheats and forfeited Estates in Ireland which came to King James for before his reign and the subduing of Tyrone that Kingdome as to the publick was a greater charge then profit addition of Scotland and all the Appennages and Lands of the royal Brethren and Princes of the blood of England in their several times and ages falling into the Regal Revenues would have made a plentifull support for the Crown of England if they had tarried as they did not one for another and continued unwasted and unaliened CHAP. II. Supplies and Additions to the Royall Revenues and the many cares taken therein by Parliaments and otherwise WHich could not be prevented by a thousand sixty one pounds and three half pence per diem revenue ex justis reditibus which William the Conqueror had in daily revenue after his Knights Fees and his large gifts and rewards given to his friends and followers which in the now value of money and rates of provision would a great deal more then treble that summe as Ordericus vitalis who was born in his reign and died in the beginning of the reign of King Stephen hath informed us exceptis muneribus regiis reatum redemptionibus aliisque multiplicibus negotiis quae Regis Aerarium quotidie aduagebant besides Gifts Presents Confiscations and other things which did daily increase his riches nor by sixty thousand pounds sterling 〈◊〉 by him in his Treasury his Censas Nemorâ—m rents or profits of Woods Escheats and incidents of Tenures in Capite and by Knight service Hidage Danegeld Sponte oblata for all Grants or Favours which passed from him Cambium Regium or benefit of Exchanges rating of the Fees of the Officers of his Household to a certainty per diem taking accounts upon oath for all his monies issued out or imprest for repair of his Castles and Houses and fines for granting of Priviledges and Liberties Contributions to William Rufus towards the building of Westminster-Hall three shillings upon every hundred Acres or Hide of Land in England to King Hen. 1. and his providence in making every third year a survey of his Woods and Forrests changing of the penalites of mutilation of members into pecuniary mulcts turning of his rents which were formerly paid in corn and other houshold provisions into money and six pence overplus in every pound for any loss or abatement which might happen in the value of money which being then by reason of his often absence and residence in Normandy reckoned to be good husbandry proved shortly afterwards by the change of times dearer rates of provision to be the contrary and a great disadvantage to his Successors one hundred thousand pounds in money besides Plate and Jewels left by him in his Treasury and possest by King Stephen resumption of divers Lands aliened from the Royal Revenue reforming of the Exchequer by Hen. 2. revoking of all Grants of Lands aliened from the Crown of the Castles of Clebury Wigmore and Bridgnorth from 〈◊〉 Mortimer City of Gloucester and Lands belonging unto it from Roger Fitz Miles Earl of Hereford Castle of Scarborough from William Earl of Albemarle with many other Lands Towns and Castles and from William Earl of Mortain and Warren base Son to King Stephen the Castle of Pemsey and City of Norwich notwithstanding that himself had granted them to the said William Earl of Mortaign in his agreement with King Stephen alledging that they were of the Demeasnes of the Crown and could not be alienated calling of certain of his great Ministers of Estate to account and imposing a Tax of two pence upon every yoke of Oxen in Ireland and two pence in the pound by Act of Parliament of every mans Lands and goods in Normandy to be paid in the year 1166. and a penny in every pound to be paid for four years following for the relief of the Christians in the Holy warre enquiring by his Justices Itinerants and Articles in Eyre in England of the rights of his Crown and Exchequer taxing in the 32. year of his reign all his Dominions in France with the Tenth of the Revenues for that year of all as well Clergy as Laity but such as went in person to the Holy warre the tenth of all their moveables as well gold as silver and the tenth of the moveables of two hundred of the richest men in London and of one hundred in York banishment of William de Ipre Earl of Kent with his Countrymen and followers when they grew to be a burden to the Kingdome nine hundred thousand pounds in money besides Plate and Jewels inestimable left in the Treasury to his Son King Richard the first great summes of money gained by him by renewing Charters and Fines imposed upon Sheriffs and Accomptants and such as had taken part with his Brother John in his usurpations the tenth of all moveables granted to him and the City of London giving him a voluntary contribution towards his voyage into the Holy Land banishment of Otho Earl of York the Son of his Sister and all the Bavarians a fourth part given him by Parliament of all spirituall and temporall Revenues as much for moveables and twenty shillings for every Knights Fee resumption of many Grants of Lands and Annuities two shillings of every plough land taken for preparation of a journy to Normandy examination of the Accounts of his Exchequer Officers five shillings laid upon every plough land for another forrain voyage and a general survey made of his Lands and Profits Three shillings for every plough land granted by Parliament to King John for his affairs in Normandy one hundred thousand pounds taxed upon the Clergy towards his charges in Ireland a thirteenth of all Spirituall and Temporall mens goods twenty six shillings eight pence for every Knights Fee two shillings upon every plough land an Ayde of twenty six shillings and eight pence of every Knights fee towards his warres in Wales with Escauge of such as held of him besides Benevolences Escheats and Americiaments twenty shillings of every Knights see towards his charges in Normandy forty shillings at another time and an Ayde for the marriage of his Sister Isabel to the Emperor Frederick The fifteenth part of every mans moveables to King Henry the third for a confirmation of
Magna Charta and Charta Foreste fortieth part of every mans goods towards the payment of his debts and a thirtieth part afterwards granted by Act of Parliament much of his Forrests and Woods converted to errable land his Parks of Woodstock and Gillingham ploughed many Grants made in his minority revoked his great Officers as Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent Chief Justice of England and others called to account Ranulph Britton Treasurer of his Chamber fined in one thousand marks a great summe of money given by the City of London to be made Toll-free every one that could dispend in land fifteen pound per annum ordered to be knighted or pay a Fine great summes of money gained by composition with Delinquents at seven years value of their Lands by the DictuÌ„ de Kenilworth his houshold charges lessened a meaner Port kept less Almes given his Jewels and the Crown royal pawned Plate sold to pay his debts at no greater a value then the weight though the workmanship did cost as much and the golden Shrine of Edward the Confessor forty shillings for every Knights see twice assessed for his warres in Gascony great sums of money raised of the Iewes the banishment of the Poictouins and his half-brothers who had made it too much of their business to beg what they could of the Revenue and by his own sometimes sitting in the Exchequer to preserve it thirty two thousand pounds sterling received of Leolin Prince of Wales propaee habenda and a resumption of divers of the Crown Lands which had been aliened Nor by an Inquiry in Anno 4. of King Ed. 1 by Act of Parliament of the Castles Buildings Lead and Timber of the Kings his Demeasnes Parks Woods extent of Manors forrain Parks and Woods Pawnage Herbage Mills Fishings Freeholds Cottages Curtilages customary Tenants Patronages Perquisitâ—s of Courts Liberties Customes and Services a Subsidie in Anno 6. of his reign of the twentieth part of every mans goods towards the charges of his warres in Wales the Statute of Quo warranto in Anno 18. to inquire and seise into the Kings hands all liberties usurped a Subside in anno 22. of his reign upon Woolfels and Hydes transported a tenth of all goods the eighth of the goods of the Citizens and Burgesses a twelfth of the rest of the Laity and a moiety of the Clergy in anno 25. and in anno 26. the ninth penny of the Commons the tenth penny of the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury and the fifth of York taking away much monies from the Priors Aliens payment by the Clergy in anno 23 of all such summes of money which they had promised to pay to the Pope towards the maintenance of the Holy warres and half a years value of their Ecclesiasticall livings and promotions abased monies four hundred and twenty thousand pounds fifteen shillings and four pence raised from the Jewes and a farre greater summe afterwards contribution of ships and ship-money by the maritime Coasts and Counties in case of danger and invasion sixty five thousand marks of silver received for Fines of some corrupt Judges and great summes of money likewise for forfeitures by an Inquisition or Commission of Trail Baston A fifteenth of the Clergy and a twentieth of the Temporalty to King Edward the Second in anno primo of his reign the moveables and personal Estate of the Knights Templers in England Contribution of ships and ship-money by the maritime Counties a fifteenth in anno 6. and the great and rich confiscated personall Estates of the two Spencers Father and Son and an Ordinance made pro Hospitio Regis concerning the regulation of his Houshold Thirty thousand marks paid to King Edward the third in anno 2. of his reign by Robert Bruce King of Scots to release his Soveraignity to that Kingdom a tenth of the Clergy Citizens and Burgesses and a fifteenth of others granted in anno 6. of his reign Aids of ships ship-money by the Sea-coasts and in an 13. the tenth sheep of all the Lords Demeasnes except of their bound Tenants the tenth fleece of wool and the tenth lamb of their store to be paid in two years and that such of them or their Peers as held by Baronie should give the tenth of their grain wool and Lamb and of all their own Demeasnes and two thousand five hundred sacks of wool given by the Commons anno 14. the ninth of the grain wool and lamb of the Laity to be paid in two years the ninth of the goods of the Townsmen and the fifteenth of such as dwelt in Forrests and Chases anno 17. forty shillings for every Sack of wool over and above the old rate anno 18. a Disme by the Clergy of Canterbury for three years two fifteenths of the Commons and two dismes of the Cities and Towns to be levied in such wise as the last in an 20. two fifteens to be paid in two years anno 21. two shillings upon every Sack of wool granted by the Lords without the Commons in anno 22. three fifteens to be paid in three years All such treasure as was committed to Churches throughout England for the Holy warre all the goods of the Cluniacques Cistercians and some other Orders of Monks half the wools of the Laity and the whole of the Clergy the jewels of the Crown pawned imprisonment of his Treasurer abasing some of his 〈◊〉 and ordaining some of his Exchanges of money to be at London Canterbury and York monies abated in weight and made to pass according to former value and the profits which the forrain Cardinals enjoyed in England during their lives taken into his hands one hundred thousand pounds received for the ransome of John King of France great sums of money for the ransoming of David King of Scotland Philip afterwards Duke of Burgogne Jaques de Bourbon and many of the French Nobility fifty shillings granted by Parliament in anno 43. for every sack of wool for six years by which imposition only as the Trade of Wools and Cloathing then flourished the King as it was computed might dispend one thousand marks per diem fifty thousand pounds by the Laity and as much by the Clergy granted him by the Parliament in anno 45. to resume his right in France a Poll-money by Act of Parliament of four pence for every person of of the Laity that took not almes of every Clergy-man beneficed twelve pence and of every Religious person four pence in anno 50. and a resumption of divers of his Crown Lands A Subsidie in the first year of K. Richard the second levied upon the great men to spare the Commons Poll-money of every person above fifteen years old Fines of seaventeen shires in anno 21. and causing them to pay great summes of money for aiding the Duke of Gloucester and Earles of Arrundel and Warwick the Bohemians which pestered his Court banished and a resumption of divers of his Crown Lands A tenth of the Clergy and a Subsidie
the memory of man upon a meer supposition that there might possibly have been a loyal or good grant or commencement for them every little Manor of those multitudes of Manors and Franchises which the Commons in a Parliament of King Edward the third complained off and proportions of Lands in England many of which are called Manors by supposed Titles or reputation only as so many little Seigniories Jurisdictions or Royalities as they are improperly called have Courts Leet and Baron and free warren some of whom enjoy the honor and profit of the King in trying and executing Felons and many using all manner of inferiour justice upon the Tenants correction of the Affize of Bread and Beer have Tolles Fairs Markets Fishings Waives Estraies Felons goods and of persons outlawed and waived Issues Fines and Amerciaments Wrecks of Sea Deodands Mortuaries Treasure Trove and punishment of breach of the peace c. granted or claimed as belonged to them The not having a Clerk for the King besides the Clerks of the Assizes to keep a Roll of all Fines Amerciaments and Profits due to the King in the Iters or Circuits to estreat and certifie them into the Exchequer as was usual in the Reigns of Henry the third Edward the first and the elder Kings and many of the Justices of peace not duly certifying their Recognizances The letting the Greenwax to Farm with defalcations of such as the King shall grant away which breeds no smal neglect in the payment or gathering of it the not duly making or sending the originall Roll of the Chancery into the Exchequer the posting off many of the Kings Farms and debts de anno in annum by some of the former Clerks of the Pipe not holding the Sheriff to a strict opposal nor inforcing them to pay the monies levied of the Kings before their discharge or departure out of the Court not drawing of debts down into the Cedule Pipae being a more forcible process the heretofore Stewards and Bayliffs of Manors belonging to the Crown not justly accompting in the Exchequer as they ought the not awarding as there shall be occasion Commissions to worthy Gentlemen of every County to enquire of the Kings debts not levied and of the Sheriffs and other his Officers false Accomps ordained by the Statutes of 3 E. 1. c. 19. and 6 H. 4. cap. 3. neglect of the former Clerks of the Estreats and many other abuses crept into evil customes by some Officers or Clerks of that Court and in anno 1641. discovered and published by Mr. Vernon the superfluous number and charge of many Stewards Bayliffs and other Officers imployed which besides the many deceits used by some of them to the King and exaction upon the people did as was informed in their annuall Fees paid and allowed by the King yearly exceed three thousand pounds more then what they accompted for the selling or granting away and dismembring many Hundreds Wapentakes and liberties from the Crown and bodies of the Counties which the Statutes of 2 and 14 Ed. 3. doe prohibit to be aliened The falshood of such as did formerly make kind and easie particulars to such as were to buy or have any of the Kings Lands given them knavery and abuse of Under Sheriffs carelesnes and covetousness of the High Sheriffs in appointing them and not looking better to the performance of their own oathes as well as theirs The not duly accompting for prizes taken at sea and other maritime profits the heretofore sleepiness or slugishness of Justices of Peace in all or most Counties and Cities who being intrusted by the Law to take care of the observation of some scores of Statutes and Acts of Parliament would though their eyes and ears might almost every day perswade them to a greater care of their oathes and the good of their Country too often suffer grosse and numberless offences to increase and multiply and neither punish molest or trouble them or so much as give any information of them and too many of the Clerks of the peace Clerks of the Market and others not duly recording or certifying their Estreates The customes which in all civilized Nations and even amongst the Heathen are de jure Gentium to be paid to Kings and Princes and by the Laws of England and Parliament assent are due to the King who is the Soveraign of the Sea keeps the keyes of his Ports gives safe conduct to forrein Merchants to come hither and by his power friendship and treaties with his Allies neighbour and other Princes obtains the like with many priviledges for his own Merchants to goe and trade thither prevents with no small charges by his Ambassadours kept in their Dominions all injuries procures them right and justice and in case of deniall forceth it are now so daily cosened and put up into other Pockets as notwithstanding all the care taken in the farming or collecting of them though the people upon the retaile are sure to pay them to the full the King as it is believed doth not receive above a third part thereof by reason of the treachery and connivance of the former Searchers or Waiters and the Merchants defraying as they can sometimes confess the pompous charge of their City and Country Houses Wives and Coaches with their purloined Customes and that the cosenning of the King in his Excise yeilds them many times more then their Merchandise and their Apprentices now not taken under three or four hundred pounds a peice can live more like Gentlemen then Servants and purchase all kind of vanities vice and pride with what they likewise filch and take from him and when the Customes are let to farm though the Farmers take them as they are capable of such kind of losses can abuse their consciences and perswade themselves that they do no wrong to the King who is to have onely his Farm or Rent And that howsoever the more they cozen him the better they may be enabled to trade and the more they trade the more may be his Customes The not improving of their Lands other Revenues by raising of their Rents and rates according to the rise of money and provisions which the Subjects have exceedingly and to their great advantage done in their own Estates and Revenues and ten to one more then what was formerly The heretofore demising and letting to farm very many of the Kings Manors and Lands at the old and small Rents for three lives 21. 31. or 40. years in Reversion bespeaking a continuall wasting and weakening of his Revenues before hand Discoveries of information of deceipts or wrong done to his Revenues seldome made and then not without an allowance or gratification craved of three parts in four or a great share to begiven to the discoverers or prosecutors Many mens pretending service to the King but doing all they can to enrich themselves and deceive and lessen him and having by indulgence or cunning escapes from punishment made vice
look like virtue and their wickedness to be successfull or been brought off when not often catched by a gentle composition or some money or recompence given to a friend at Court or Conniver are so habituated and used to cosen the King as notwithstanding the severity of our Lawes if they were let loose and not too many of them laid as they are to sleep they doe as frequently continue their practise in it as they dress themselves and put on their cloathes and can as little forbear or live without them insomuch as some having been known to have been men of an otherwise strict morality life and conversation and dealing very punctually and honestly with all men but the King can no more resist an opportunity or temptation of cozening of him then a Child at a Basket of Cherries can forbear eating of them or a Cutpurse not to be nimble in a crowd Disuse of the duties of Sheriffs and Escheators which by their then few conduit Pipes did better look after the collecting the Kings Revenues and with less trouble and charge to the King and people bring it into his Cisterns then those who being under no oath or controll are as it is to be feared by a too often respiting of the Kings debts or laying them to sleep for some years untill they be grown antient many times the occasion of their being drowned in a Generall Pardon begged by Courtiers or made to be a new discovery desperate or insolvent and by undertaking more then they should doe have to the greater charge of the King and his people disheartned and caused the more antient more diligent and powerfull Officers of the Exchequer for a great part of what belongs unto their Offices to be ineffectuall Discontinuance of the Lawes and Customes for the collecting of the Regall Revenues and the many excellent cares and orders of the Exchequer as good as any Prince in the world can have or devise for the speedy and orderly getting in issuing out and accounting for the Revenue A succession and improvement of knavery in some whom our former Kings trusted occasioned or encouraged by our warres abroad in France after 4 Edward the first for then there was an endevour of an Extenta Maneriorum and an enquiry after many of the Rights and Regalities which are not retorned or certified in Chancery nor any where else to be found but by time and the troubles thereof are lost or carried away And after the Statute of Quo warranto in 12 Ed. 1. for then also the great care and good husbandry of our Kings in preserving or improving their Revenues was not laid aside or by the troubles of King Edward the second and the irregularities of his Favourites for much about that time there began to be a quitting of the former cares of the Revenue or by our successfull warres abroad in France by Edward the third and Henry the fifth the unhappy Quarrels of the York and Lancastrian Families for almost sixty years together and the hatching or breeding of them in the unquiet and unfortunate reign of Richard the second or the short reign of Hen. 7. who had not time enough to reduce things into their former Channel but was busie in gathering the treasure which he left to his Son Henry the eighth or being newly settled in his Throne did not think it safe or seasonable to make alterations or put them into their former or better order or the great increase of Revenue as well as treasure in Money Plate and Jewels to Henry the eight by the dissolution of the Abbies and religious Houses or that the fragments not given away or disposed by him employed the bounty and munificence of his Successors Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth during their severall reigns and her many great cares and affairs of State otherwise busying her or our Halcion dayes peace and plenty in the reign of King James and a great part of the reign of King Charles the Martyr and the hearkening to pretences and erecting more Offices to hinder the cheating and knavery of others when as the proposers either by intending it at first or easily learning to imitate or exceed them did afterwards draw from the King and People more money then what their undertakings ever amounted unto and proved to be as little for the Kings good as Sir Simon Harvey's design of Reformation in the Reign of King James for the better ordering of the Expences of his House where after many dishonorable essayes and retrenchments casting many of the Kings Servants into ruine and discontents and serving some of the Tables with half a Goose instead of a whole one he could at last when he had gained a pension of five hundred pounds per annum for his own life and his wives put up all his Engines and conclude with making every thing worse then it was before And no better a husbandry then those that will feed and give wages to half a dozen Shepheards to keep a score of sheep and allow them the keeping of some of their own into the bargain and make no better a totall at the years end then the Gardner which gives entertainment to a multitude of Catterpillers in his Garden and thinks it is preserved by them the waters being ever likely to come short or but faintly when instead of fewer or greater Pipes which brought it better there shall be so many to divert or wast it in the way or passage to the Royall uses The necessity of Intelligence Leagues and Correspondency with neighbour and forraign Princes and States and the charges incident thereunto which cannot be thought to be small when as that with the house of Burgundy within the space of sixty years betwixt the reign of King Henry the sixth and the later end of the reign of Henry the eighth amounted to no less then six millions the more then formerly greater charges of sending and entertainment of Ambassadours Princely Gifts and Presents to such as come hither and the Generall Pardons at the end of severall Parliaments granted by our Kings and Princes and to the great advantage of the People of late petitioned for as a kind of custome and renumeration for some Ayds or Subsidies which came not up most commonly to a moiety of what was in every Parliament quitted and released to them The granting away in all ages many of the Royall Rights and Prerogatives to the people And in a long course and series of time like some aged parents in love to some of their children or by the importunites or designes of others giving away too much of their own Revenues and Estate and bereaving themselves of that which is now thought too little for those who have gained it from them Restorations and many times by petitions of one or both Houses of Parliament of the Lands and Estates which came to the Crown by Attainders and Forfeitures for Treason their confiscations never amounting
in his houshold expences as formerly now that his Pourveyance is taken away looseth two hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annum by the loss of his Tenures and Pourveyance is at eighty thousand pounds per annum charge for the maintenance of the Garrison of Dunkirk above five hundred thousand pounds per annum for the Navy and Land forces hath to procure a publick quiet paid many hundred thousand pounds of the Arrears of the Navy and Army employed against himself and left in Arrears by his Enemies must be ten times a giver if he should grant every ones Petition to one that he shall be a gainer or receiver discontents himself to content others and forgetting that old rule and practice of the world sibi proximus is enforced to provide for others and not for himself and in the midst of his own necessities is to be the rewarder of virtue and still as well as he can the raging waves of the multitude is the Asylum or refuge of all that are distressed and bears or lessens their burdens out of his own Revenues And when Neighbour Princes are not usually without ambitions and taking all opportunities to enlarge their power and Dominions by the weaknesse of others or to weaken and oppress any of their Neighbours and make advantages of their troubles and necessities doe seldome want pretences of titles or revenging Injuries done to them or their people by Kings or their people and can lay aside their sworn Leagues and Confederacies as soon as their Interest or Designs shall invite them thereunto when the French King hath by computation an ordinary yearly Revenue of above twenty millions of Crowns which makes above five millions sterling per annum besides his extraordinaries which by Taxes and Tallages in the late warres being now by a habit and custome grown something easie and familiar to them may be raised to vast yearly sums of money and more then treble the ordinary when the King of Spain aboundeth in his Revenues in his Dominions in Christendom besides his extraordinary Aids Assesments and vast treasures and supplies from the West Indies which is a ready or rich pawn or credit for borrowing of monies upon all extraordinary emergencies occasions or necessities of State affairs The City of Venice with her Territories hath above a million sterling per annum in her yearly Income besides extraordinaries and a treasure of money enough to pay six Kings ransomes with Jewels and Plate unvaluable And the Dutch have one million and two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum yearly ordinary Revenue out of Amsterdam besides what they have yearly out of all other Cities Towns and Places by their huge Excises and Assessments upon all the seven United Provinces And the King of England who was wont to be Arbiter totius Europae hold and keep the Ballance of Christendom even and if he do not it cannot be either safe or well for his own Kingdomes and People and their Trade and Commerce must pine and wither away languish and groan under so great expences and necessities whilest he is to preserve himself and people in peace plenty and safety and hath so little to doe it withall when at home all men do seem to love and serve him very many doe ask and get what they can from him and too many deceive him And as that prudent and great Statesman Cecil Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer of England observed to the Parliament in the Reign of King James it is a certain rule that all Princes are poor and unsafe who are not rich and so potent as to defend themselves upon any sodain offence and invasion or help their Allies and Neighbours Hath a small Revenue to govern an unruly People one part of them ready to runne mad with mistaken opinions in Religion and too many of the residue overgrown with vice and luxury a burden of burdens laid upon him the burdens of his people and the burdens of his Ancestors by their bounties expence and necessities and are by so much greater or heavier then theirs as his Revenues are consideratis considerandis a great deal lesser CHAP. I. The Remedies WHich a small or ordinary repair will not help but requires new and more sollid and lasting foundations endeavoured seriously and attempted by King James about the seventh year of his Reign by the advice of his Parliament and Privy Council but not then or any time since brought to perfection And may in a legall and well pleasing way to the people without the unwelcome raising of the Tenths of the Abbie and religions Lands to the present yearly value which may be of dangerous consequence and the Tenths and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy of England who have been over much pared already or a Resumption of the Crown Lands which unless it be of such wherein the King or his Father have been grossely deceived and the first money paid for the purchase upon an account of the mesne profits and interest satisfied will hugely disturb the Interest and House-gods of too many of the Nobility Gentry and rich men of the Kingdome and without any new or forreign devices or Talliages to raise monies and Fricasser or tear in pieces the already too much impaired estates of a Tax-bearing tired people which that Monarch of virtues and blessed Martyr King Charles the first did so abhorre as he caused Mr. Selden Mr. Oliver St. John to be imprisoned in the Tower of London a bill to be exhibted in Star-chamber against them and the Earl of Clare and others for having only in their custody and divulging a Manuscript or writing of certain Italian projects proposed to him by Sir Robert Dudley a Titulado Duke in Tuscanie and with out the gawling grating and most commonly unsuccesfull way of Projects which if set up will be thrown down again by the after Complaints and discontents of the people or hunting and vexing them with informations or calling their Lands and Estates in question to the ruine of them and their Families upon defective Titles or by Monopolies or a trebling abuses by pretending to reform them or Essayes of new wayes of profit framed or found out by such as designe more to themselves then for the good either of King or People and either know not or cannot or will not foresee the many evills and sad consequences which may as effects from causes fatally and unavoidably follow such or the like attempts which the necessities of Kings or want of competent revenues may either put them or their servants and followers upon Be as is humbly conceived prevented by severall Acts of Parliament to be made upon the propositions following which will not only encrease the Kings Revenues but encourage and make the People very willing and well contented therewith when as what they shall for the present loose thereby shall at the same time by enacting of some good Laws for them be abundantly repenced By a generall inclosure of
not to be endured villanies and knaveries not seldome but daily and very often practised in a Kingdom professing Christ and Christianity by Vintners Brewers and Bakers in Wine Beer and Bread the main supports of life and nourishment which might have been suppressed if the Stewards of Courts Leet Sheriffs in their Turnes and the grand Jury men of every County twice a year impannelled and solemnly charged by the Judges to look better to these other generall abuses not by a strange custom neglected slept over their had oathes and duties those grand principles and fundamentall necessaries for food and sustenance are corrupted abused and unwholsomed diseases and evils and oftentimes death arising thereby secretly instilled and conveyed and as it were forced into the bodies of the people which may well call and crie for a Reformation As well as the great abuse of Leather which under colour of transporting Calve skins and obtaining licence to send thither a certain number of hides or skins of Leather doe ten times exceed the number and by multitudes of Coaches more then formerly false Cocquets and connivance of Searchers and Officers in the Ports which should look better to it there is notwithstanding great quantities of Russia and other Leather Hides imported from forreign parts so great a scarcity and dearth of Leather as that which the Shoemakers not long agoe were wont to pay but fifteen shillings for they must now pay double as much and that which they buy is by the knavery of the Tanner who to save the charge of Bark doth not permit it to lie in the Tannepit half the time appointed by the Law and of the Currier and the carelesness and worse of the Lord Mayor of London's Officer who keeps the knife as they call it at Leaden Hall and should seise all bad Leather neither well tanned good or cheap by which villanies deceipts careless looking to the execution of good Lawes evils of transportation and some of the Nobilities and Gentries profuse rates and prices given to their Shoemakers the shoes which they wear are come to the price of five shillings and six pence and six shillings a pair and sober and more carefull men in the laying out of their money must now doe what they can pay four shillings six pence or five shillings for a pair of Neats Leather shoes for which within this twenty years was paid but two shillings eight pence and when they have come up to those strange prices have their inner soles many times made with chill and soaking Seal skins or Horse hides and all the upper Leather and under of their Shoes so ill tanned as it being scarcely separated or to be known from a raw hide it lets in water like brown paper or bayes and with a showre of rain or a little wet shrivels and runs into wrinckles and an unhansomeness and scarcely keeps out a little rain or dirt which breeds Rheums Colds and Diseases in the people who being Islanders and living in a Country of so much rain and wet which by some other Nations living in drier Countries called the Matella Planetarum Piss-pot of the Planets cannot walk or live so healthfully as they doe in warmer Countries with wooden Shoes or Sandalls which may be remedied as to the peoples better usage in their Bread Beer Wine and Shoes the grand necessaries of life 1. By a better execution of the Laws already enacted 2. By not altogether trusting Tradesmen with the care thereof in Corporations who being either of the same Trades or others furnished with as evil Artifices are but bad Overseers or Suppressors of deceits in Trade by which they all now more then ever enrich themselves 3. If the Justices of Peace in every County by as Oath particularly to be framed for that purpose which in a time of heeding no Oathes or an age of equivocation or putting false constructions or interpretations upon them may be more then formerly needfull were enjoyned better to look to Lawes already made or to be enacted for that end and allowed upon the discovery or prosecution a fourth part of the forfeitures and penalties which will help to put them in mind of their duty and to be like the Athenian Nomophylaces more vigilant in the finding out prosecution and conviction of any such transgressors 4. That there be yearly appointed by the King or the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Treasurer in his behalf Assayers or Surveyors of the Bread Beer Wine and Leather made or to be made or vented in every County and City which as concerning Ale and Beer will be but the same with the Ale-conners and Tasters which our antient Lawes and Customes thought necessary and to have for his pains discovery prosecution and conviction of offenders contrary to the Laws made or to be provided one part in four of the penalties and to attend therein also and observe the directions of the Justices of Peace therein 5. That the Wines according to the Statutes be as formerly rated at a reasonable price set as well for the Merchants as the Vintners or Retailers 6. That no Wine-Cooper be upon a great penalty suffered to buy or sell wines which can never be for the good of the people when the Devil or the Conjurer having mingled and sophisticated what he bought pure from the Merchant shall have power to make it as bad as he will and put it to sale when he hath done 7. That every Merchant and Vintner doe as the Victuallers and Cooks are by Statutes appointed for the keeping of Lent yearly enter into Recognizances to the King not to corrupt or alter their wines nor willingly or wittingly permit them to be adulterated or altered by the Wine-Coopers but to sell them according to the lawfull measures and observe and keep the rates and prices yearly to be set 8. That every Brewer and Baker doe yearly enter into Recognizances to make wholsome Bread and Beer and keep the Assize 9. That every Tanner and Currier doe the like as touching the well tanning and dressing of their Leather And that the Officer which shall keep the knife at Leaden Hall in London do the like well and truly to execute the duty of his place 10. That the Vintners who by a late invention and ill use of glass bottles doe evade the rates of wines limited by a late Act of Parliament and recompence the abatement of price by the falseness of their measures may be ordered to use as formerly Pint Quart Pottle and Gallon Pots marked and allowed according to Law 11. That for the first offence every of the said Tradesmen shall forfeit one hundred pounds for the second two hundred pounds and for the third be disfranchised and never more permitted to use that Trade 12. And that a conviction of any such offences may be pleaded in barre unto them in any Action to be brought commenced and prosecuted To be delivered from which great and many deceipts and frauds and every
but carefully and duly estreat and certifie them every half year into the Exchequer in the Terms of Easter and St. Michael which the example of Hengham a Judge in the Reign of King Edward the first who for reducing an Amerciament or Fine of thirteen shillings four pence to six shillings eight pence in favour and pitty of a poor man was grievously fined and ordered to provide at his own charge the great Clock at Westminster may perswade them not to violate That the Ballance and In and Out of forraign Trade may be observed and reduced into Books to be yearly brought into the Exchequer but not with Blanks fair Seals Covers and Labels as they have used to be to little purpose That the more to encourage Merchants to an honest accompt and payment of their Customes to the King and to deal better with him it may be enacted that where any Ships of any Merchants and their goods and lading shall be taken in times of hostility with any other Prince so as it be not by the carelesness and neglect of the Merchants in carrying prohibited goods or the Captain or owner of the Ships in not making so good a defence or not arming or providing themselves so well as they ought the losses of such Merchants and shipowners duely estimated and proved before the Judges of the Admiralty shall be refunded out of the next Prizes which shall be taken from that Nation Prince or Enemy that took it the accustomed allowances to the Lord high Admiral and others first deducted That the wages of Servants now trebled more then what it was twenty years agone and of Labourers and Workmen very much increased by reason of the intollerable and unbecomming pride of clothes now in fashion amongst them by licence and imitation of times of pride disobedience disorder and rebellion and the folly of some of their Masters and Mistresses enjoyning them to wear clothes too high for them may be limited and ordered to be as they were before these last twenty years that every Master or Mistress that giveth more shall forfeit double the value to the King and that no Servant who hath formerly served in any other place be received or taken into service without a certificate or testimony of their good behaviour from their Maister or Mistress where they last served if they shall not appear to be unreasonable or for malice or any sinister ends to deny the same That the Tenths of all the Fishing in the British or English Seas by Barks or Busses now beginning to be instituted and taken into consideration which in part was intended to be had by King Edward the sixth upon the coasts of Wales Ireland and Baltimore by building a Fort or Castle upon the streight to command as Captain John Smith relates in his discourse of the benefits of Fishing in our English Seas a tribute for Fishing and if industry fail not is like if we but imitate the Hollanders who have hitherto enjoyed that which was none of their own and enriched themselves by our carelesnes to grow up to a great and not to be estimated National profit be paid and accompted for to the King and his Heirs and Successors who may well deserve it when as besides his Soveraignty of the Sea and the guard and protection of them by his Navie and Shipping he hath of late in the midst of his own wants and necessities for the better encouragement of his people to seek their own good and that which our British Seas will plentifully afford them given all his Customs inward and outward for any the returns to be made by the sale of Fish in the Baltick Seas Denmark and France for seven years for the first entrance into the Trade of Fishing That the rivers in England and Wales not yet navigable and fit to be made navigable may by a publick purchase of the Mills or Wears standing upon them and pulling down the Wears Kiddels hindring it attempted in the Reigns of King Henry the third and Edward the third by several Statutes made for the taking of them away be made navigable and a reasonable Toll or Custome upon every Vessell and Fraight paid to the King his Heirs and Successors That for the better support of our Nobility and the honours which they enjoy and that as starres in our firmament they may be able to attend the Sun their Soveraign and not suffer such Eclypses in their Estates and Revenues as too many have lately done that the Lions which should guard the Thrones of our Kings may not pine away or languish and the stately columns and pillars thereof moulder into ruins and decay and have small or unbecoming Estates to maintain them in the splendor of their Ancestors and the Royal Revenue not to be troubled or lessened by suits or requests to supplie them they may according to the intent and custome of the Fewdall Laws and the locality which ought to be in Earldoms and Baronies not be without some honorary possessions which was so usual and frequent in England as through the three first Centuries after the Conquest the Lands belonging to Earldomes and Baronies were accompted to be parcels and members thereof and the word Honor so comprehensive as it conteined and comprised all the Lands belonging thereunto as well as the Earldomes Baronies and Title which did in sundry of of our former Kings reigns grants pass and comprehend the Land as well as the Titles And that according to that laudable and ever to be imitated example of Thomas late Earl of Arundel and Surrey in obtaining an Act of Parliament in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr for the annexing of divers Baronies and Lands to the Castle and Earldome of Arundel inseparable and unalienable in contemplation of the poverty and small Estates of the then Lord Stafford and some other of the antient English Nobility wetherbeaten and wasted by the injuries of time or the luxuries and carelesness of their Ancestors The Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons and Baronets of England leaving some other Lands to their own disposing for the preferring of younger children payment of debts and supply of necessities which accidents may cast upon them may be ordered to settle annex by like Acts of Parliament the Capita Baroniarum and chief Castles Manors and Lands belonging to their Earldomes Baronies or Estates competent and sufficient to keep up and sustain the honour and dignity thereof from the gripes or defilements of poverty and Adversities not to be aliened or separated from their Earldomes Baronies or Dignities as long as it shall please God to continue them That the antient use of the Exchequer be restored and the Kings revenues carefully collected and answered and that the Justices in Eyre of the Kings Forrests and Chases on this side and beyond Trent Clerkes of the Market and Commissioners and Clerks of the Commissioners of Sewers do duely certifie into the
Exchequer all Fines Issues Amerciaments imposed and forfeited That upon all manufactures made beyond the Seas and all things to be imported tending to excess and luxury as Tobacco Silks c. there be an Imposition more then ordinary which the wisdom of Neighbor Nations have ever thought expedient and was in the Reign of King James the prudent advice in Parliament of the Lord Treasurer Salisbury That in the deplorable Cases of wreck at Sea the Masters or Owners of such Ships not being Pirates or Robbers whether there be any living thing remaining or not in the Ship all and every part of the lading Tackle and Ship which shall be saved from the fury of the Sea or found on shore notwithstanding any detestable custome to the contrary may according to the Ancient Equitable Laws of Oleron be saved and preserved for the right Owners coming within a year and a day to claim the same and tendring such just charges and recompence as by two of the next Justices of Peace not interessed shall be found to be reasonable for those that were Instrumental in the preservation thereof that so the inhumane and unchristian customes of too many who live upon the Sea Coasts being in a Shipwrack as pittiless and cruel as the Winds and Seas taking away that which they left and rejoycing in the disasters and miseries of those that are afflicted may be abolished That Champerty and maintenance being now crept through the care and severity of all our former good Laws and Statutes made to prevent it into such a general practice and profit as in the confidence of dark contrivances and the impossibility or difficulty of discovery of them Some of our Gentlemen of the Gyges ring or invisible Estates in a way which they have found out to live aswell without a Revenue or other lawful means and professions as with them can like Nimrods or mighty Hunters by shares gained in the driving of Causes support an idle Gallantry by the spoil and oppression of others some women more wily then good can be Agitators or Retrivers of causes not concerning them for a part of the hoped for Booty and many Citizens and Tradesmen do buy pretended Titles and Interests and ingage and furnish money for no small parts to be had upon the success of Suites in Law and too many Attornyes Sollicitors and others can make it the best of their employments to deal in gross and by whole sale and will not as the Law enjoyns them make Bills or Tickets to their Clyents of their just and allowed Fees and disbursments Some good Laws and powerful restrictions may be made to prevent or punish those grand abuses and that if either the Plaintiff or Defendant in any Action shall require it an Oath or Oaths may be given at the Tryal or Hearing of such Suites or Causes to any who may discover such Champerties or Maintenance and if any shall be found offending therein either by disbursing of money to have any share or part of the thing inquestion on or by any pre-contract or other ingagement the Verdict may not be taken nor Judgement entered or if it shall be discovered and proved after the Verdict taken and Judgement entred before the end of the Term wherein such Judgement shall be entred the said Judgement be by the Judges of that Court arrested or made void and whether it be discovered and proved before Judgement entred or after the parties offending as well those that committed the Champerty and Maintenance as all their Abettors may every one of them forfeit and pay to the King and his Heirs and Successors the sum of one hundred pounds and be imprisoned without Bail or Maineprise untill they shall have paid the same and also forfeit and pay to the party greived his double Costs and Damage together with the moyety or half of the matter in question That there be no pardon or reversal of any Outlary in Civil aswell as Criminal Causes or Actions without five Marks first paid to the King in discharge of his Contempt and a Charter of Pardon as was anciently used first sued out under the Great Seal of England That all Sheriffs under-Sheriffs and their Deputies do at the entrance or admission into their Offices take an Oath not to imbrace any Juror or Juries or for any Fee or Reward or otherwise to nominate any at the request either of the Plaintiffs or Defendants or of any on their behalf and that they shall not make out or deliver or willingly or wittingly permit to be made in their names any Blanck Warrant or Precept to Arrest any person without a Writ under the Seal of the Court wherein such Action is laid or to be tryed first had and delivered unto them and that no Sheriff or under-Sheriff do crave allowance or respit for any debts of the Kings but upon just cause That every Juror if the Plaintiff or Defendant or their Attorneys shall before they besworn require it do also take an Oath that he hath not received any Instructions or Evidence before hand from the Plantiff or Defendant or their Attornyes or any on their behalf That all English Merchants trading into Foreign parts may be ordained to bring into England at or in their return a certain and reasonable quantity of Bullion or coin of Gold or Silver to be yearly certified and Registred in the Exchequer and that such as shall be brought in may not as it is now be bought and Registred in the name and for the use of the East Indian Company and that the East Indian Company to prevent any disguise which may be made use of betwixt them and the Merchants may also be ordered yearly to Register and Certifie into the Exchequer all such Gold and Silver Bullion or coin thereof as shall be imported by the said East Indian Company That all Foreign Merchants Trading into England or any the Dominions thereof be ordained to export at their returns English Manufactures and Commodities to the value of what they imported and not to make their returns in money or by Bills of Exchange as the Jews in great numbers trading hither are known now to do And that all Merchants Alien if they be not such as have houses and habitations here or if they have do at their first beginning to Trade enter into Recognizances of great penalties in Chancery not to Transport or cause to be Transported out of England as was in part provided for by the Statute of 2 H. 6. chap. 6. Or returned by Bills of Exchange any more then the sum of five pounds for their necessary charges upon pain of forseiting treble the value thereof That the many more then formerly used deceipts in the Shearing Tentering hot Pressing and false Dying of our English Clothes which do much or more endamage our Trade of Cloathing then the Transportation of Fullers Earth Sheeps Pelts with the Wool upon them or the Clothes in the Whites may
be by some good Laws restrained and suppressed and that the Aulnage aswell of Cloth as Stuffs may according to sundry Acts of Parliament and other provisions be better looked unto and put in execution That the great and many Deceipts Abuses and Adulterations now used in most or too many Trades and Manufactures surpassing all the Cheats and Tricks of Hocus Pocus or which the Pillories the Court of Star Chamber heretofore punished ingrossings of Commodities or carrying them beyond the Seas on purpose to make a scarcity and bring them in again at double or greater Rates unlawful confederacies to make the Manufactures so slight or evil wrought as they may the sooner be worn out or by a small price paid to the Workmen get the greater Rate in the Retail Bonds or Securities enforced from Workmen not to make or sell at that rate to any other Combinations to inhaunce Prices and so many more ungodly Artifices imployed as Tricks and Trades are now grown to be Termes convertible and the Divels Registers have not precedents enough for them whereby not onely numberless great oppressions are daily exercised upon the people to the impoverishing of many of them by those that like Pikes in the Fish Ponds do live only better then others by devouring and undoing the smaller Frye and industriously imploy themselves therein and at the same time cry out of injustice and oppression where it was not and busied themselves about Religion and Gospel Purity when they never intended nor could not afford to practice it whereby all our English Trade and Manufactures are disparaged and brought into a slight esteem and made to be unsaleable or at very low rates in the parts beyond the Seas and to give place to the Commodities and Manufactures of other Nations more honestly made and if not speedily remedied will render all his Majesties cares of reviving and promoting the English Trade and Merchandise of no avail as long as that Canker or a principal cause of the decay and ruine of it shall be permitted may by some good Laws be restrained and suppressed That the many good propositions heretofore made by Mr. Henry Robinson and some others concerning the Regulation or bettering of the ways of Trade and Merchandise may now after a Committee of Trade in the times of Usurpation and Confusion sleeping too much over it and doing nothing whilst Trade it self came to be almost ruined be taken into a more serious consideration and some good Laws enacted in pursuance of them That the Manufacture of Linnen Cloth the importation whereof from Flanders and other Foreign parts expends the Nation little less then 100000 l per annum by reason that too many of our Wives in England have exchanged their good Housewisfery for Gallantry and Spinning for spending may be more incouraged in England by Injoyning six Acres in every hundred Acres of errable Land in England and Wales to be yearly sowed with Hemp Flex and that there be an Aulnage of Linnen Cloth as well as of Stuffs and Woollen Cloth That our Laws be not as too many of them use to be Still Born or expiring by that time they can be read or recorded or Starved at Nurse but that some good Laws may be made to prevent or cure their Swouning or Convulsion fits and bring them up to the good ends or purposes for which they were ordained and put them in execution That our Paths being restored we may rejoyce in our Laws and Constitutions and abhor those wandring after Dark Lanthorns or the ignis fatuus of newlights which have lead us into many great miseries and confusions That the Excise of Ale Beer Perry and Syder and the charges affliction and troubles which it brings upon the people which before our times of misery would have brought death and ruine any private contriver and was at the first created by Oliver and his Impes to maintain a cursed Rebellion and set up a destroying and detestable Anarchy may be abolished and taken away and the Nation restored to the freedom and quiet which they formerly enjoyed under this our ancicent and excellently composed Monarchy That his Majesties Ancient and just Rights of Royal Pourveyances upon a due Regulation of any evils or oppressions which may be proved to have been committed in the manner of taking of them may be restored to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and that very great Consumption of his Estate occasioned by an enhaunce and trebling of the Rates and prices of Provision for his Houshould which hath laid heavy burdens upon his too small and overmuch impoverished Revenues multiplyed his wants and necessities disturbed and disparaged the order and honor of his house and produced very many great Inconveniences worthy to be remedied by the Parliament and the care which they usnally take for the support of his Imperial Crown and Dignity may be cured And when a long and generall observation and experience can tell every man who is not a stranger to his own affairs or of other men how hard a thing it is for one that is behind hand to overcome his Povertie and get before hand how impossible it will be for a private man to live out of Debt when his yearly and necessary expences and disbursements shall far surmount his Receipts and Revenues how necessary a Treasury Banke or overplus of money which is Robur belli fundamentum ac firmamentum pacis is for a King in times of War and its many chargeable occasions and the power and reputation of it in times of Peace to preserve it and that all Kingdoms and people never were or could think themselves safe without it That in order to publick good and to consolidate the hoped for happiness of King and People which the pretended Parliaments of our late Times of Usurpation busying themselves in laying Burdens and Taxes upon the People for the maintenance of a War and an Arbitrary power and Tyranny and the continuance of their miseries could never find the way or leisure to establish A Royal and Princely yearly Revenue may be settled upon his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and to the end to make the Plaister or the Tent proportionable to the wound and to the cure intended and not make the repaires of his Revenues to be insufficient or more chargeable and burdensome by doing it by parcels or at several times whereby it may ruine before it can be repaired or suddainly after and for the better satisfaction of some of the Purchasers who were the cause of their own and his Majesties troubles and miseries and of the Kings Loyal Party who suffered with him in it The highest monethly Assessement or Tax which in our late times of confusion was One hundred and twenty thousand pounds per mensem may by Assessement or Subsidies or some other way proportionable unto it for the next two years if the Parliament shall think fit be assented unto and yearly collected
safety of all dependeth shall be every day to seek for victuals to feed them or himself Ammunition or Weapons to defend and mony to pay them Unless they could be assured by no doubting Oracle that it would be for the good honor peace and plenty of the Kingdom to have the head faim languish want its necessary support Food and that the members in the body natural although never so warmely clad or made much of can thrive whilst the Head is sick and infirme Or unless they would be as wise as the Citizens of Constantinople who rather then they would impart any of their Riches to their Emperor for the most necessary defence of their City Estates and Religion against the Turk when their City was besieged by him would reserve it for a prey to their enemies and a perpetual slavery for themselves and their posterities or as our late men of Reformation and murmerers at their own happiness did in their complaints and taking away Ship-money and exchanging it for more miseries then ever any of their Ancestors endured when afterwards they were enforced to call their slavery a happiness and to pay and pray and give God thanks for it When as the great charge of Government in times of peace and the quietest imaginable and the necessity of the peoples Aids and Taxes to support it may the better be believed when Augustus Caesar notwithstanding the enjoyment and full possession of the Empire or greatest part of the world with the riches and spoils thereof laid up in the publike Treasuries and their Capitol enough besides what Julius Caesar had in the civil Wars consumed to make it the greatest that ever was together at one time above ground and his great frugality and care in managing his Revenue by keeping a book or memorials as Tacitus saith wherein Opes publica continebantur quantum Civium sociorumque in armis quot classes Regna Provinciae Tributa vectigalia necessitates ac largitiones and had as Bodin saith received Immanem pecuniarum summam ex Testamentis great Estates of Inheritance from those very many that made him their Heir could not subsist without Tributes and Taxes but though the bloody and expenceful Bellona was laid to sleep and there was nothing likely to disturb that happy and grateful calm of peace with which the world was then blessed found a necessity to Tax all the world and even Joseph with Mary the mother of the Redeemer of it must go up to Bethlehem to be taxed and pay Poll-mony and for all that with all his care and providence in governing that Empire having spent two paternal Patrimonies ceterasque hereditates in Rempublicam and much of his own Estate upon the Commonwealth left but a small and inconsiderable Revenue to his heir And when as the King by his inestimable charges great and daily expences for the protection and good of his people and necessary maintenance of his Royal Dignity is in a worse condition then any of his Nobility or Gentry who may when their necessities enforce them strike sail if they please and measure their expences by their Estates Because he cannot defend himself without defending his people must do like a Prince and live like a Prince and it cannot be for the good safety and honor of them that he should either live or do otherwise But should rather believe as King James the fifth in Anno 1540. his Majesties great Grandfather did when in a preamble to an Act of Parliament in Scotland for the annexation of Lands inseparable to the Crown he did declare that it Was understood and weill advisedly considered be the Kingis grace and the Estates of his Realm beand assembled in Parlement that the patrimony of his Crown and Revenues thereof beand angmented is the great weill and profit baith to the Kingis Grace and his Leiges and that King James the sixth his Majesties Grandfather and his Parliament of Scotland in Anno 1600. did not erre in the preamble of an Act Of Annexation of forefaulted Lands and others to the Crown wherein they did declare That it is clearly understand by the Kings Majesty and Estates of the Realm that the augmentation of the patrimony and Revenues of the Crown not onely serves for the forth setting and maintenance of his Highness Honor and Royall Estate but alsorelieves greatly his Subjects of divers charges and heavy burdings And when after his coming to enjoy the Crown of England he did in his Declaration in the year 1619. Declaring what things he would be moved to grant to his servants and suitors by way of bounty and what he would not signifie his desire not to cast himself and his posterity into these wants or straits which might drive them to lay burdens on the people Nor should the people of this nobler and better natured Nation who have in the times of Monarchy been blest with a greater freedom then France Spain Holland Venice or any Christian or Heathen people or Kingdom were ever owners of be unwilling to imploy as much of their care and well wishes in setling the Kings Revenue now so much weakened by age and kindness and ruined for want of repairs and being repaired will be but to help to protect and defend themselves as they usually and commonly do in the repairing and building a new their owne houses amending or making new their Clothes when they perceive them to decay or refreshing or bringing to heart again their Lands which by doing them good have needed it When as those who contrived and assented unto Olivers Instrument of Government as it was called who was one of the greatest of Villians and Tyrants in the Christian world and not only murdered his King but did all he could to destroy the Bodies Estates and Souls of his good people did more resemble Antichrist then either Pope or Turke highly deserve a burying place under the Gallows all that Ignomany could devise to lay upon him and was of neither Royal or Noble Birth or breeding and could be well contented to allow him Ten thousand Horse Dragoons twenty thousand Foot and the Navy to be maintained by a constant yearly Revenue to be raised for that purpose with the remainder of the Kings Queens and Princes Revenues not disposed of except Forests and Chases and the Mannors thereunto belonging all the Lands of Delinquents in Ireland in the Counties of Dublin Kildare Clare and Katerlaugh the forfeited Lands in Scotland which were great and considerable the two parts of Recusants Lands in England not compounded for and all Debts Fines Penalties Issues and Casual Profits belonging to the Keepers of the Liberties of England so miscalled with two hundred thousand pounds per annum yearly Revenue for the Administration of Justice and charge of Government to be and remain to that Minotaure or Protector so called and his successors and the Framers of that which was called the Petition and Advice could afterwards in the year 1656. by