for her sake meerly and as her Enemies But the truth is these men have truly an utter abhorrence against Popery and the Plot and joyn forwardly and zealously against it This their commendable zeal against Popery the Conspirators give out and make it believed is their zeal for their own peculiarities for their dividing way and for those things wherein they differ from us They have affrighted the Church of England with designs of those men against her even in these their actings and appearings against Popery and the Plot. What these men endeavour against Popery some that are of the Church of England do oppose for no other reason but for that they desire it And they are contrary to those of the Church of England with whom these Dissenters do concurr in any thing though never so conducible to the preservation of the Nation and our Religion and the Conspirators have now made and reckon'd even such also of the adverse party Whigs and Fanaticks and every thing they say or do is opposed thwarted contradicted and censured as disloyal and fanatical It is now come to pass that no mans reason is regarded the true state of things and our present condition the arts of our Enemies and their designs are not considered But whatever we say or do is fanaticisme savors of forty one By this Artifice they tye together a sort of men amongst you that consider little and make of them an obstinate party which they Act and manage and engage in courses which tend to their own and the publick ruin with an utter neglect of Rights Laws and antient constitutions nay they endeavour to subvert them all that they may more certainly and speedily arrive at the mischiefs designed by our Enemies The greatest fear of the loss of your Charter and City is from your selves Your Charter Government and Priviledges have no Enemies that can hurt them but your selves against you it is only that your Charter comes to be defended So transported are some of you grown with the humor of opposition and contradiction since the discovery of the Popish Plot against some that are called Dissenters Which is brought about by the ammusing arts and impostures of the Conspirators That you are become eager for the destroying of your Charter because these Dissenters have concurred with the majority in defending it Your Charter had never been attach'd if some of you had not been perswaded to be willing to forego it and at the same time seem to be weary of the ancient Government and careless of your Religion and willing to part with them too by the Embraceries of such Persons that fear a Parliament more than Doomsday By the influences of these Men who are for making a New Government because they cannot Live under the Old you are made content to forego your Charter and the Antient Government the safeguard of our Religion and the English Liberty for such new Establishments as these confiding Men will form and contrive for you who will use you most certainly as your easiness doth deserve No Quo Warranto had ever been brought against your City to destroy your Corporation and Government for petitioning His Majesty for a parliament in a time of a Popish Plot at home detected but not duly punished nor prevented when we are under the Fears of a Popish Successor against which Parliaments have heretofore consulted how to secure our Religion and of the growing power of France which every Man living apprehends had not some for no other reason but that they will be against Dissenters disliked petitioning Your dislike of petitioning is the only reason in the World for the unlawfulness of it Without that it had been impossible to have had a Lawyers opinion that a Petition to the King was unlawful made in form as the Law directs or allows for a thing lawful and necessary viz. that we might have our Government in use when we had the greatest need of it and that a Parliament might sit when we were under Evills scarce sufferable that no Power or Authority but that of a Parliament could redress Lawyers have opinions to sell at any time if they have the opinion of a forward and probable Dr tho' never so corrupt or corrupted to mistake or of the many to countenance them tho' they have not the least colour of reason to support them And according to their Fee and Expectation they seem confident must look assured and tell you they have a very good Cause this they can with some Face do in case any Error or Mistake hath prevailed to deceive many You your selves being first deceived they take money and are not bound to disabuse you especially when you are resolved not to change your opinion and act agreeably But if that Petition had been assisted and promoted by your selves too it might have prevailed for the best of Kings do not refuse the universal Desires of the People and the Nation had long since been discharged of all the Evils that now disquiet us But by your dissent from it it hath got the appearance of a Crime And the Plotters have got this advantage upon us thereby that His Majesty is not like to have any Petitions against them since they are declar'd ungrateful to His Majesty and he is become more inaccessible They have brought it about that it is now accounted a fault to desire a Parliament that only can and will redress our Grievances I will shortly shew you how contrary you are herein to the provision of our Law and that you have herein deprived as much as in you lyes your fellow Subjects of their rights in the Government By the Stat. of 4 Ed. 3. C. 14. 36 E. 3. C. 10. It is provided that Parliaments be holden once every Year which are confirmed by an Act of this King call'd the Triennial Act. In 25 E. 3. Statute of Provisors are contained these Words That the right of the Crown of England and that the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs and damages which happen to the Realm the King ought and is bound by Oath with the accord of his People in his Parliament to make remedy and Law in removing the mischiefs and damages which thereof ensu'd King Ed. 1. did appoint certain select Persons of the Clergy and Laity to examine the wrongs done to his People by his Ministers in order to the redress thereof in the approaching Parliament 17 Ed. 3. Dors Memb. 2. In the 15th of Ed. 3. a Declaration was openly made in the Parliament que chescum saith the Rolls que se sente grevez per le Rey ou ses Ministers ou autres que ils metroient lour petitions avants ils averont bone conenable remedy i. e. That all People which found themselves aggrieved in any matter even by the King himself his Officers or others should bring forth their Petitions and thereupon should have good and convenient remedy to them ordein'd Rot. Parl. 15 E.
will infallibly bring up the Papists into all Governments in Cities and Corporation Towns and in consequence thereof give us at the next Turn a Parliament of Papists and Red-coats But this is not all for I know there are many that have no concern for Gods Religion that have no other Religion but Loyalty and believe the onely Diety is Earthly power and Soveraign Authority Yet such have some conscience that the antient Government ought to continue and that attempts to change it are criminal in the Advisers I shall therefore add that this new Mode of incorporating Cities and Towns doth ipso facto change the Government For that one of the three States an essential part of the Government which is made up of the Representatives of the People and ought to be chosen by the People will by this means have five Sixths parts of such Representatives upon the matter of the Courts nomination and not of the Peoples choice What will be the consequence of such a Parliament I leave all considering men sadly to weigh and ponder and whether this is not a change of the Government let the Advisers thereof in time resolve themselves Amongst Plutarchs Apothegmas I find this saying of Dionysius the Tyrant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the Laws of a City may be wronged but the Laws of nature cannot be violated the nature of things will not change at pleasure the continuing of the old name doth not continue the old constitution after an essential change Res nolunt decipi Nor will the Nation contentedly see the Government changed we retain Loyalty enough to prevent it and our loyalty is strengthned with our concern for our Religion and a National interest against Popery Our Enemies know that they can never prevail and bring their design of changing our Religion to effect Without first changing the Government and the present constitution of Parliaments To make the Nation therefore obedient to their design we are to have a Parliament of their nomination by this new mode of incorporating Towns Dr. Bradys President fol. 249. of writs directed to the Sheriffe to Summon one Knight for a County and one Citizen for a City named in the writ in 27 E. 3. which appears by the record it self not to be a Summons to Parliament is not of weight enough to make it downright lawful for the King to name who shall be of the House of Commons Obliquandi sunt sinus by this side-wind they may gain the point But to prepare the People for admitting this illusion to pass upon them our latest Parliaments are to be disgrac't A Cabal takes upon themselves to Censure and arraign their proceedings and expose them to the Nation under what misrepresentations they please because they would not be confin'd to their Will and pleasure whereas every mans loyalty certainly is to be measured by his agreeableness to their projects They endeavour to make the Nation believe that a convention of the best bred Gentlemen in England of the greatest fortunes do not understand the interest of the King and Kingdom nor are so faithful to it as a few men got together by chance that are accumulating honors and making their fortunes by notable projects upon the Government Tho unhappy they are that they have not yet made themselves conspicuous either for their Wisdom or Virtue But whatever that great Assembly resolves in any matters That by the Laws and Customs of Parliament fall under their deliberation tho Kings have the liberty of dissenting as they have likewise a liberty of dissenting from the Kings desires for no Law can be made without them and they who have the Power to give moneys can deny it when askt it is a Crime to Censure and blame them And a Crime of a high nature it must needs be in any Subject of this Government for that it tends to the destruction of the Government it self But endeavours to lay them aside is Treason against the King his Crown and Dignity for that it will make him a very mean King or turn him into a Wicked and Miserable Tyrant And therefore our best Kings have always had a high Regard to their Parliaments and if it be a Crime to dishonor the King it is so likewise to disgrace Parliaments And he is a dolt or a Papist and a Traytor to the Government that doth not thus conclude and determine If it be a Scandalum Magnatum to reproach a mean Judge for erring and mistaking in his Office It is insufferable that a vile Pamphleteer should revile the States of the Realm for the exercise of their high and uncontroulable Authority such insolencies against the Government ought not to be respited untill doomsday or the Sitting of a Parliament But ought immediatly to be prosecuted by every man that loves his Country and the publick peace to condigne punishment But if these arts should prevail to bring about a change in our Government as they cannot sure in the Reign of our present gracious King who hath given us assurance in his publick declarations against such fears yet our Enemies know that their numbers are not visibly great And they can have no hopes of subduing the Nation to their Religion by their own numbers and by their own proper strength They have therefore engaged a party of Protestants to their assistance by raising in them apprehensions of a party of Protestants which they call dissenters as dangerous to the Government and the Church of England against whom therefore they ought in every thing to be contrary Many Protestants they have thus abused and divided from the true intrest of the Church of England and have engaged them in courses that tend to her destruction under the pretext of their being contrary to her Enemies the dissenters They are taught to hate a Presbyterian as a Jesuit or to have as much kindness for a Jesuit as a Presbyterian which will better serve the purpose of an Observator This Frace-maker and Scaramuchi to the vain youth of the nation is ever enterchanging the Characters of men disguising truth with colours of falshood pleasantly deceiving you with the shiftings and turns of his inept Wit and making himself merry with the abuse confounding things of the most separate nature to embroyle us to do us into confusion and to make the Nations Tragedy If the Church of England had not been divided by these Arts and mingled with her Enemies the Church of England united would have been able to have defended her self against all the Power of the Popish Faction if it were much stronger than it is and by an easy Temperament have in time cur'd the frowardness of the Dissenters and accommodated the Schism that the Papists the irreconcileable Enemyes of our Religion at first occasion'd and at present by these Methods manage and improve to its Destruction The Division that our Enemys have made amongst you for this purpose is that which opposeth your Charter and the continuance of your
municipal rights and in this you of that Division do minister to their Design As many as are for destroying the Charter are for no Parliament or for the new designed Constitution of Parliaments have more hatred against the Dissenters than Zeal against Popery Their Loyalty is Slavery their Religion the Princes pleasure They are not for a legal Defence of their Religion but abandon it to neglect mock us with Prayers and Tears and expose us to Martyrdom plead for a Popish Successor and are forward advocates against their Religion Lives and Liberty invite Tyranny call for Persecution seem fond of Fire and Faggot Some of little understanding among you that thus behave your selves are excusable as misguided by som of your Ministers who are in good earnest begging Preferments Dignitys and Benefices for themselves by offering and betraying up our Church to a voluntary Martyrdom But these good men and merciful do not intend to singe a Finger of their own It is enough for them to commend Martyrdom The Honor they do thereby to the Christian Religion doth deserve they should be exempted It is too much in all reason both to do and suffer and to exhibit both active and passive obedience It is wonderful that that cause that could not yet draw one professed Popish Priest to write for it tho' so much it is for their interest to have it defended because it is not by any colour of reason to be defended they can be any thing it seems but Fools for their Religion and they will not so disgrace it It is a wonder that that cause hath found Writers and Preachers for it of our Protestant Divines But the Roman Priests have our Church in Derision certainly for the sake of the dishonesty weakness or folly of these men The most fitting return to these men is a scornful silence or rather to note them with ignominy for undertaking what the Roman Priests are asham'd of That which is too hard for the Learning and Wit of the Roman Clergy to manage with any Advantage to their Design some of our Church-men have undertaken without any moderate Talent of either to their own shame dishonor to our Church nay she is like to perish dishonorably by this means and her destruction is to come from her self Besides the dishonesty of such an undertaking is notorious in our Ministers The Priests of the Popish Religion in France did not write against the Exclusion of the King of Navarre from the Crown of France Id quamcunque decet maxime quod maxime est suum Most certainly therefore it doth not become a Protestant Minister to tye his People to the Stake to kindle the Papists Fires and to be their Hang-men and Executioners To be Sollicitors for the Abolition of that Religion they profess and are bound to teach and propagate But such men as these have helpt to make the Division of those Men that are against Charters and Governments of municipal Cityes and Towns which are the greatest defences against Popery more numerous But to make the Number less and to sift you to the Bran I pray reflect a little For you cannot be ignorant of their devices for the subverting of our antient Government that Popery may steal in upon us and surprize us which hath been in this last Age by various Methods of wickedness compassed But all their devices have been hitherto defeated and frustrated The City hath recovered out of the ashes to which the Popish Fires reduced it Armies have been disdanded and their Plot against the Kings life detected and brought into noon day-light declared prosecuted and punished by that very Parliament that the Popish Conspirators attempted to corrupt to betray our Government But that they could never obtain from that Parliament though obliquely it gave them many Assistances That Parliament was a Parliament of famous Loyalty Yet they disbanded Armies and never legitimated the Guards detected the Papists firing the City opposed an alliance with France addressed for a War impeached obnoxious Ministers D L. E D. c. kept the purse of the Nation opposed general indulgence and the destruction thereby intended by the Conspirators of the Church of England the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and declared the Popish Plot. Against this Parliament they could never have objected the mischiefs of that in forty one If there was no other reason therefore for dissolving that Parliament our Conspirators had from this end only sufficient reason to get it dissolved Dissolve them they might disgrace them with such imputations they could not But the subsequent Parliaments though consisting principally of the same members prosecuting the same design acting by the same measures and in the same methods for the preservation of our Government and Religion Though with some accession of zeal which the inveterate evil growing more bold audacious and enterprizing did occasion and require are therefore charged with designs upon the Government and of all the Evils that followed forty one again to be Acted over upon this Nation And by this trick and the deceivableness of mankind they have brought it about that the Conspirators themselves have gotten the reputation with some abused men of the truly Loyal even for their having Parliaments in contempt And those that are truly so are charged for men factious and seditious and of the forty one leaven for that they esteem Parliaments to be part of the Government Parliaments themselves made odious or at least not desirable and the true Government at least suspended and ready to be abolished or made quite another thing under the old name for the better subverting with some colour our antient Government and the English Liberty But whatever is pretended the last Parliaments had no greater fault than this viz. That they did make some overtur's for reducing the Schismes and making the terms of the Communion of our Church receptive of the dissenters least they should joyn with the Papists against her for such an indulgence as would quite destroy our Church and is utterly inconsistent with any national Church whatsoever this would have rendred the Popish conspiracy desperate Since that a greater hatred hath been rais'd against the dissenters And it is brought about that some Churchmen are grown angry therefore with Parliaments and are become willing they should be laid aside as not friendly to their order and it is no wonder if they have seduc'd some of you of less consideration to joyn with them in such sentiments Heavy things are laid to the charge of the Dissenters at present though it is not long since they embraced them and since that time they are not a jot the worse save that they have shewed themselves steadily averse to Popery and that they are not to be bribed off by any assurance of a common Indulgence The Dissenters are represented and exposed as Enemies to the Church of England for which the Conspirators have undoubtedly an unfeigned kindness if you will believe them they get them persecuted
Warrant that we hear of yet granted by the Lord Chief Justice But it is not a Duke of Guise to be assassinated a Turbulent wicked and haughty Courtier But an innocent and gentle Prince as well as brave and renowned for noble Atchievements A Prince that hath no fault but that he is the Kings Son and the best too of all his Sons such a Son as would have made the best of Emperors happy Except it be that the People honor him and love him and every where publiquely and lowdly shew it But this they do for that the best People of England have no other way left to shew their Loyalty to the King and love to their Religion and Government in long intervals of Parliament than by prosecuting his Son for the sake of the King and his own merit with all the demonstrations of the highest esteem But he hath not used his Patron Duke much better for he hath put him under a most dismal and unfortunate Character of a Successor excluded from the Crown by Act of State for his Religion who fought his way to the Crown chang'd his Religion and dyed by the Hand of a Roman Assassinate It is enough to make his great Dukes courage quail to find himself under such an unlucky and disastrous representation and thus personated Besides he hath offered a justification of an Act of Exclusion against a Popish Successor in a Protestant Kingdom by remembring what was done against the King of Navar. The Popish Religion in France did de facto by Act of State exclude a Protestant Prince who is under no obligation from his Religion to destroy his Popish Subjects Though a Popish Prince is to destroy his Protestant Subjects A Popish Prince to a Protestant Kingdom without more must be the most insufferable Tyrant and exceed the Character that any story can furnish for that sort of monster And yet all the while to himself a religious and an applauded Prince discharged from the tortures that ordinarily tear and rend the hearts of the most cruel Princes and make them as uneasy to themselves as they are to their Subjects and sometimes prevail so far as to lay some restraints upon their wicked minds But this his Patron will impute to his want of Judgment for this Poets Hero's are commonly such Monsters as Theseus and Hercules are renowned throughout all Ages for destroying But to excuse him this man hath forsaken his post and entered upon an other province To the Observator it belongs to confound truth and falshood and by his false colors and impostures to put out the Eyes of the People and leave them without understanding But our Poet hath not so much art left him as to frame any thing agreeable or very-similar to amuse the People or wherewith to deceive them His Province is to corrupt the manners of the Nation and lay wast their morals his understanding is clapt and his brains are vitiated and he is to rot the Age. His endeavors are more happily applyed to extinguish the little remains of the virtue of the Age by bold impieties and befooling Religion by impious and inept Rhimes to confound virtue and vice good and evil and leave us without consciences And thus we are prepared for destruction But to give the World a tast of his Atheism and Impiety I shall recite two of his Verses as recited upon the Stage viz. For Conscience and Heavens fear Religious rules They are all State bells to toll in pious fools which I have done the rather that some honest Judge or Justice may direct a process against this bold impious man or some honest Surrogate or Official may find leasure to proceed ex officio against him notwithstanding at present they are so incumbered with the Dissenters Such publick Blasphemies against Religion never went unpunished in any Country or Age but this But I have made too long a digression but that it carries with it some instructions towards the preserving of the honor of your August City viz. That you do not hereafter authorize the Stage to expose and revile your great Officers and Offices by the indignities your selves do them whilst the Papists clap their hands and triumph at your publick disgraces and in the hopes they conceive thereby of the ruine of your Government as if that were as sure and certain to them as it is to us without doubt that they once fired it And further for that it was fit to set forth to the World of what Spirit our Enemies are how they intend to attach us As also how bold they are with His Majesty what false and dishonorable representations they make of him and present to the World upon a publick Theatre which I must confess hath moved me with some passion I have now some mistakes to remove that I observe abuse you and make you think that it is in your power to destroy your Franchises I come to defend your Charter against your reason and understanding though against your will there is nothing can be said if it be peremptory and obstinate But that it can have no effect in Law it will be criminal and punishable The mistakes are these That the Excommunication of Dissenters render them uncapable of suffrage and voice in the election of your Officers That by thrusting them from a right of Suffrage a Common Council may be had that will dispose of the Charter And that the Common Council have authority to destroy it Which are both mistakes And I shall likewise make out to you that the Sherifalties of London and Middlesex are in the City by course of Common Law or by Statute Law and are not of the nature of a voluntary grant from the Crown of a meer right nor can they be considered as a property that is alienable for if they were so they might lawfully be regranted by those in whom the right is So that they cannot be displac'd but by Act of Parliament tho the consent of every Citizen were thereunto had And first that excommunicate Dissenters have a right to choose City Officers notwithstanding their excommunication is evident For that excommunication forfeits no private right If a Plaintiff excommunicate sues his excommunication is pleaded in delay only and not in abatement of the writ But outlawry pleaded abates the writ and barrs the Action If a Mayor sues in his incorporate capacity a plea of excommunication is not allowable to stay proceedings for that its a publick right that he pretends to but excommunication of an Executor will stay the Suit tho he sues in another right no excommunication is to be pleaded in delay of the process in judicial writs as in Quare non admist or in a scire facias upon a judgment because the right is ascertained by the judgment and it is not militant as in an original action And tho it be allowed that a person Excommunicate may be challenged if he be returned upon a Jury which is said in some of our old
Books as Sir Edw. Cook observes Littleton fol. 158. a. yet that was in the time of the tyranny of the Papal Church which was wont to doom to damnation such as were guilty of the least contradiction against her order as if perfectly wicked or where the person challenged was Excommunicate by the greater Excommunication which declared the person so Excommunicate perfectly wicked an Apostate from the Faith and Rule of the Christian Religion Such is not the present Excommunication of Dissenters Yet there is a difference between refusing to accept of a man to an Office such is the nature of the challenge of a Jury man and between the excluding a man from his right and franchise in a matter in which the Community also hath a right By what we have said it is clear that by Excommunication no right is forfeited no publick right is delayed no stated right is prejudiced That the right of suffrage is the right of the person and also the right of the Community That at this day Sir Edw. Cook seems to think that Excommunication is no matter of challenge to a Jury man and if it were it cannot preclude a right tho it makes a man incompetent or not so fit to be voluntary called forth and preferred to execute a charge It is very clear therefore that for Excommunication no man ought to be thrust from his right of suffrage and the Franchise of a Citizen And well is it that the Law is so or else there had remained a lurking mischief behind in our Law as mischievous almost as the writ for burning of Hereticks lately abrogated for As soon as we can get a set of Popish Clergy it is but interpreting the doctrine of the Church of England as Sancta Clara hath done to the sence of the Council of Trent and thereby make the doctrine of the Trent Council the doctrine of the Church of England and then every Protestant must immediatly incurr Excommunication Now if thereby we should loose our franchises and the rights of Freemen the Papists would have the Government and we used as Slaves and Villains for ever and by this slight without a Law or Parliament on their side the Religion of the nation may be chang'd It is very extraordinary that when this mischief cannot happen to us by Law We are making Presidents against our selves for the Papists their proceeding against us in such sort as is now proceeded against the Dissenters for whom I am not making an apology the Evils that we sustain at present by their occasion will not give me leave to be so kind unto them But let us not make hard resolutions against our selves when we know not how soon we our selves may fall into their case Only this I have to say for them you have no reason to be angry with them for that they have not complyed with the Popish interest for obtaining indulgence and exemption to themselves from the penal Laws much less have you reason to neglect the Defence of your Government and Religion because they adhere steadily to it But if they had not so behaved themselves we should not have wanted an honest man of sence amongst you to have divided from the interest of the City and its antient Rights Neither is it in the Power of a Common Council whoever they be that are sworn of that body and however elected inclined or disposed to derogate by any Act of theirs from any of the Cities Rights and Franchises They are not the Body in whom the Rights and Franchises of the City are vested The stile of purchase is the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London and the most modern stile in use is the Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London Their beginning is of a much later date than the Citys Charters of Corporation they were first erected and have receiv'd several alterations by constitutions made in the Common Hall Their business and trust is to manage and defend govern and protect as Committees the Rights of the City and make by Laws which are controulable notwithstanding and sometimes have stood in need of confirmation by the Common Hall And this considered they are put under an Oath to give good and true Counsel touching the Common-weal of the City and that for favor of any man they shall maintain no singular profit against the Common profit of the City They can do nothing validly in prejudice of the Citys Rights and Franchises And if they have any conscience of a limited trust under an Oath to be observed and kept they will not attempt it Perhaps the dissolving of this great Corporation will be too adventurous an undertaking for that it may be charged with the extinguishment of many excellent Laws for the advantage of Trade for the better Government of the City and the customary Provision for Wives and Children upon which security provision by their customs marriages have been made which will be thereby defeated Besides the number of Orphans that will be desperately undone there being no fund of stock left to pay them as they are almost undone already by banckrupting the fund of City credit which would everlastingly have made good payment to their Orphans By the impending Quo Warranto A very spreading and fore calamity and to be remembred with the Bankers case which put many thousand Persons well stated to starving and great Necessities without relenting They made a War without the advise of Parliament they were unsuccesful as Sea and made depredations at Land by this great Numbers of the Kings subjects suffered the worst calamitys of War in time of our Land peace It is better to be kill'd out-right than to live and starve They were used as in the State of War tho Subjects of the most equal Government in the World in its constitution The Parliament is blam'd for discountenancing loans of money upon the Credit of the Crown but these men prohibited and disabled them But our modern men to make all sure have again banckrupted the Credit of the great Seal have taken away the planck which was allow'd to keep these poor wretches from sinking after the wreck made by their Predecessors They have vacated the great Seal that made provision for their interest money without any fear or dread of that fate that happend among their Predecessors for in this too they govern us according to Law The consideration of these Evils since they have ways at present to bring whom they please into the offices of authority and trust in the City will perswade them perhaps to attempt no farther alteration in the Cities rights then their dismissing themselves for ever of the right of choosing Sherifs for the Counties of London and Middlesex But this is so far from being done by any Authority in the Common Council that it cannot be done by the unanimous assent of the Common Hall nor by the consent of every of the Citizens and Free-men No more than a County can
If the minority be big enough to maintain support the ends of the Corporation the minority is still the Corporation If any single Person is unwilling the Society should be dissolved and this Corporation is under the Government of any greater Society of Men as a Corporation within a Polity this single person may require and prosecute the revolters from the Society to abide in that Community These societies of men that are form'd by the soveraign Authority cannot dissolve or make the terms of their Society and the Order and Rule of governing them other than is appointed by the Charter of Incorporation Nay it is a Question whether a King can change it who hath not the Power of making Laws For the terms of their Society their Order and Rule of Government is the Condition of Incorporating and upon these terms they consent to be incorporated no man by our Law is compellable to be incorporated against his own liking Roll. 1. Rep. Baggs Case And agreeable hereto changes in the Government of the City of London from the first Charters have been made by Acts of Parliament Acts of Parliament was made for the Division of a Ward and for altering the Election and Continuance of the Office of an Alderman for Life whereas in the first Charters they were choosen annually and not to be choosen the next Year I shall here transcribe the Acts themselves which are not printed but supplied to me by my worthy Friend Mr. Petyt whose enquiry nothing that is notable in our Records hath escaped The Commons in the Parliament 7. R. 2. prayed the King for the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the City of London for the time to come by reason that all the Aldermen were choosen from year to year at the Feast of St. Gregory the Pope and none of them could be re-elected for the year ensuing and others put in their places to the great endamagement of the City The Commons therefore pray the King to grant to the Mayor and Commons of the City and their Successors in that present Parliament that the Aldermen to be elected from year to year at the said Feast franchement Ezluz be freely choosen and that of the most sufficient persons and good fame of those who had been Aldermen as others per le Gardes de la Citee by the Wards of the City Saving to the Wards their free Election in manner aforesaid To which the King answer'd Le Roy le voet Grante to endure so long as good Government should be in the City by reason of that clause Rot. Parl. 7o. R. 2 ds Numb 24. In the Parliament 17o. R. 2 di Numb 25. It was ordained that the Aldermen should not be removed Sanz honest reasonable causes without reasonable Cause In the same Parliament Numb 27. upon the Petition of the Mayor Aldermen and Commons in the said City by reason of the greatness of the Ward of Farringdon which was too great to be governed by one Alderman The King grants that les Gents de la dite Gard of Farringdon within might choose one Alderman and those of Farringdon without another and that both those Aldermen so choosen should not be removed Si non per cause reasonable as it was ordained by the King in Parliament to the Aldermen of the said City But though the Government of such Societies and Corporations may be changed by Law Yet no Law can change the Government of Kingdoms and Common-wealths and alter the terms of Government and Obedience established nothing can do this but chance and time violence and an irresistible Power But every English man ought from the Nature of his Allegiance to defend the English Monarchy with his Life under the Authority of the Government and the protection of Laws To conclude the best way to shew our Loyalty to the King is to think honorably of His Majesty to account his Person Sacred as it is and himself impeccable for so our Government hath made him by imputation which is the highest Prerogative of the Crown and a notable instance of the wisdom of our Government Imperii Majestas Tutelae Salus We heartily bewail the unhappy death of the late King But detest that it should be made a pretense to change our Government They are very bad men that raise on the one side in the People a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or King-dread and on the otherside in the King a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or People dread from his deplorable death Such passions indeed respectively possess the People and Successors of Tyrants and work the woo of the People or the abolition of the Kingly Government But most unnatural these confounding apprehensions are from the death of a good King bitterly bewail'd by almost all of his subjection It is too unreasonable that we should offer up our antient Government our pretious liberties our Religion it self in the defence of which he dyed to attone for the guilt of an inconsiderable part of the Nation that was engaged in that detestable fact and are since gone to their proper place This is hard that we must loose our Government and have no more English Kings to expiate for their guilt We do not shew our Loyalty but discover an ignominious baseness if we yeeld up our rights at the perswasion of a Courtier who tells us it is for the Kings Service when he is thereby promoting his own advantages and projects and shifting for indeminity upon the ruin of the Government Plutarch in his treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 base sneaking says that the Asâ—â—ticks became slaves because they could not pronounce the word NO and gave denyal to Sycohants and flatterers If these Courtiers really and honestly thought it were for His Majesties Service that all Authorities and Dignities in the Government should be held precaciously of the Crown they ought to hold their honors and session in Parliament by the same tenure for that those that shall inherit to them may be wiser than themselves for this there way is their folly and their posterities I hope will not approve their doings When our Preachers exhort to obedience they ought not to be heard if they press us beyond the terms of obedience that the Government hath established And we may dutifully insist notwithstanding to have the benefit of such Laws that the power of the Government can make to preserve us in the peaceable enjoyment of our Religion when we have a Protestant King When they exhort us to Christian patience they should not forget to tell the People that they are not bound to suffer but where the Christian virtue of Fortitude is perfected and not else but as Christian charity doth direct But they ought not by any means to abuse the People with a vain amuzement that a Popish Successor will protect the Church of England I shall end with the words of King Solomon Proverbs 24. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their Calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the Ruine of them both It is not good to have respect of Persons in Judgment He that saith unto the wicked thou art righteous him shall the People curse Nations shall abhor him But to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good Blessing shall come upon them If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain If thou saist behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the Heart consider it and he that keepeth thy Soul doth not he know it and shall not he render to every Man according to his Works ERRATA Pag. 2. L. 23. r the negligence of page number the twelfth is misplac'd after page the thirteenth and must be read before it pag. 7. r obliquandi for obliquendi pag. 12. lin vlt. for which r what pag. 13. L. 19. for help r help'd pag. 19. L. 26 dele all pag. 36. r. By-laws p. 38. l. 21. r. their FINIS
3. Numb 5. the like was done by the very Writ of Summons of Parliament 21 E. 3. part 2. Dors Memb. 9. and in open Parliament 37 Ed. 3. Rot. Parl. N. 2. The Divines that have no care how to prevent the impendent Evils will allow us at least Prayers and Tears Sure then then they ought to give us leave to petition the Throne and shed the Tears of Suppliants at the Foot-stool of His Majesty When they encourage men in their importunities to God Almighty by remembring the Parable that our Saviour used to that purpose of the unjust Judge that neither feared God nor reverenced man and yet did right to the Widow at her importunity sure they do allow petitioning his Vicegerent We cannot believe they pray in secret to God Almighty unless they will petition His Majesty openly for putting a stop to the incursions of Popery upon us Our Enemies the Papists cannot inwardly condemn our Petitions as unlawful tho' they are afraid of them for that they may possibly obtain to prevent their Design A bloody Assassinate and Cut-throat is not made more cruel by the wailings and passionate beseechings of the innocent Man for his Life Though they give the Villain some trouble and make it more uneasy to him to do the feat by the regrets which he suffers from his Humanity awakened by Pity moving intreaties and expostulations But it is suspected you are like to have little success in your intentions to destroy the Charter in Course of Law to which you are perversly acted by your displeasure against the Dissenters and others whom you causlesly hate and unreasonably oppose for their sake And therefore you have proceeded by the way of fact and have procured that the great Offices of the City are executed by Men not duly thereto chosen for the bringing this about you have used such bad arts as would quite destroy your credit and shut you out of all Commerce if they were practised in your private dealings in your Trades and Occupations If you seriously reflect and consider the methods that have been used for that purpose and will allow the same Rule which is observed by you in your private transactions and trade for publick affairs and administration of publick rights which are in their nature Sacred of a publick concern the violation of them more hurtful scandalous and criminal and in this your Consideration also will lay aside your factious animosities against the other party to which you have furiously made your selves opposite you will be herein self condemn'd I will not remember the particulars of fact they are fresh in your memory and your own thoughts if any thing must make you wise and recover your understandings But by this Course you have Evacuated your Charter in fact and have already Officers of a Forreign nomination You have given trouble and disgrace to the Old Sheriffs that were duly chosen to their Office and acquitted themselves faithful to the Rights of the Charter not only depriv'd them of the reward that is due to a faithful and strenuous discharge of so difficult an Office but blame them and reproach them and for their good deed sake go about to deprive the City of a free choice of such Officers for the time to come Who will be most gratifyed by these proceedings with little recollection you may easily conclude They haue already condemned the Charter and City and have executed the Magistrates in Effigie upon the Stage in a Play called the Duke of Guise frequently acted and applauded intended most certainly to provoke the rabble into tumults and disorder The Roman Priest had no success God be thanked when he animated the People not to suffer these same Sheriffs to be carried through the City to the Tower Prisoners Now the Poet hath undertaken for them being kicked three or four times a Week about the Stage to the Gallows infamously rogued and rascalled to try what he can do toward making the Charter forfeitable by some extravagancy and disorder of the People which the Authority of the best governed Cities have not been able to prevent sometimes under far less provocations But this ought not to move the Citizens when he hath so malitiously and mischievously represented the King and the Kings Son nay and his favorite the Duke too to whom he gives the worst strokes of his unlucky fancy He puts the King under the person of H. 3d. of France who appeared in the head of the Parisian Massacre The Kings Son under the person of the Duke of Guise who concerted it with the Queen Mother of France and was slain in that very place by the righteous judgment of God where he and the Queen Mother had first contrived it The Duke of Guise ought to have represented a great Prince that had inserved to some most detestable Villany to please the rage or lust of a Tyrant Such great Courtiers have been often sacrificed to appease the furies of the Tyrants guilty conscience to expiate for his Sin and to attone the People Besides that a Tyrant naturally stands in fear of Ministers of mighty wickedness he is always obnoxious to them he is a slave to them as long as they live they remember him of his guilt and awe him These wicked Slaves become most imperious masters They drag him to greater evils for their own impunity than they first perpetrated for his pleasure and their own ambition But such are best given up to publick Justice But by no means to be assassinated Untill this age never before was an assassination invited commended and encouraged upon a publick Theatre It is no wonder that Trimmers so they call men of some moderation of that party displease them For they seem to have Designs for which it behoves them to know their men they must be perfectly wicked or perfectly deceived of the Catiline make bold and without understanding that can adhere to men that publiquely profess Murthers and applaud the Design Caius Caesar to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars was in the Catiline Conspiracy and then the word was he that is not with us is against us for the instruments of wickedness must be men that are resolute and forward and without consideration or they will deceive the design and relent when they enterprize But when he was made Dictator and had some pretences and a probability by means less wicked and mischievous to arrive at the Government his words was he that is not against us is with us But to Pompey only it belonged and to his cause or the like cause to the Defenders of antient established Governments of the English Monarchy and Liberties to say they that are not with us are against us in internecino bello in attacks upon Government medii pro hostibus habentur neutral men are Tray-tors and assist by their indifferency to the Destruction of the Government As many as applaud this play ought to be put under sureties of the peace and yet not one