Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	power_n	sit_v	3,978	5	7.3782	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48107	A letter humbly offer'd to the consideration of all gentlemen, yeomen, citizens, freeholders, &c. that have right to elect members to serve in Parliament		1696 (1696)	Wing L1552; ESTC R3009	16,497	31

in his postscript speaking of the present Weight of our Coin say's He need not remark to you that the Words in the Act shall remain to be being Indefinite imports as much as if it had been said shall always remain to be of the same weight as now Which 'tis Humbly thought can no more be in the power of any Parliament to do than it was to have kept the Money till this time to the Standard of Ed. the first The same Author with an unbecoming Confidence strikes at his Majesty's Prerogative and Asserts it to be a pernicious Doctrin publickly Vented That the King by his Prerogative might alter the Standard of our Coin tho' I presume not to know the Limits of Prerogatives or Power of Parliaments Yet this I am sure that His Majesty's just Prerogatives extend as far as any of his Royal Predecessors Kings of England And Chamberlain in his Present State of England tells ye That anciently by the Lawyers the Royal Prerogative was call'd Sacra Sacrorum by which the Kings of England had power to appoint the Metal Weight Purity and Value of the Publick Monies and by his Proclamation make any Foreign Coin to be Lawful Mony of of England And as I am informed there will scarce one Act of Parliament be found for the various Alterations of our Coins this 400 Years but his Majesty of his Goodness and Clemency was pleased to say in his Speech Novemb. 22. 1695. This is a Matter of so very great Importance that I have thought sit to leave it intirely to my Parliament Let the Gentlemen Con those words I have thought fit and he goes on to beg pardon for the Omission he had lik'd to have made in not publishing this Impudence but had it been in some former Reigns there had been no Omission in giving him his Just Reward and his Book its Desert Gentlemen 'T is now time to consider what hath and now does occasion those General Complaints for want of Mony and Trade and what may be the proper Remedy There are many Reasons for the present Scarcity of Money besides the Exporting of our Coin 1. The Bulk of Guinea's which alone carried on the whole Trade of the Kingdom for some time and answered every Man's Bills and Occasions without Complaint of Scarcity Non-payment or Stock-jobbing Notes or Bills at 14 16 and sometimes 20 per Cent. discount these are partly exported by Foreign Dealers to their Private Advantage and partly hoarded up at Home for the same end willing to have the Advantage themselves they know others make by their Exportation This has made what we have left a dead and useless Cash and the Obligation and Encouragement to Coin more is taken off by Act of Parliament to the First of next Ianuary excepting the Royal African Company for their own use and declares That the Importation of Guinea's from beyond Seas may prove prejudicial to the Kingdom and therefore enacts That all Guinea's imported from the 2d of March last to the 1 st of next January shall be forfeited the one half to the King and the other to the Informer There 's no doubt but this Act has effectually answer'd its end because 't is no advantage to bring them over And what Forfeitures there have been thereon I know not but by the want of Guinea's we may suppose the Nation wants more than a Million of its Current Cash 2. By Recoining of about Four Millions of Clipt Mony and supposing a Million more to Coin will make something more than Two Millions and an Half and the Loss must be nigh as much more of the Currant Cash 3. By the Non-Currancy of Bank and Banker's Bills Goldsmith's and other Notes the Nation may be deprived of nigh a Million of Current Credit more which makes Four Millions and an Half besides the great Sums of Money dayly exported This makes a great Hole in the necessary running Cash of the Kingdom required to answer our Domestick Commerce and Occasions Sir William Petty in King Charles the Second's Time estimating the whole Running Cash of the Nation at Six Millions and Mr. Lownds computes the whole Silver Coin Clipt and Unclipt Hoarded and Currant in England before their melting down to be but Five Millions Six Hundred Thousand Pounds so that notwithstanding our Occasions are greater than ever for Money to satisfie the National Debts Arrears and Desiciency of Funds and that our Necessary Preservation calls for more large Supplies yet we have Four Millions and an Half less Cash and Credit to do it with than a Year since Nor can it be believ'd that all the Plate in the Kingdom will make good this Sum and we are sure at the Price 't is now at none will be brought in And in their own Words we may truly say That Instead of real Gold and Silver we had before we have now a Fairy Treasure in our Glorious New Money that no sooner appears but vanishes 'T is worth observing That 't was not the Quantity or Smalness of the Clip'd Mony so much as the Quality the Adulterate Baseness of the Metal False Impression and the Difficulty of knowing passable from not passable and the Trouble in receiving and paying to distinguish Six Pences from Shillings c. These were Inconveniencies that loudly cryed for a Reformation not but Experience demonstrates ye could buy as much of any Commodity here for Five Shillings that weighed not Half a Crown as you do now for Five Shillings that weighs as much more and payd as much Rent Debts c. as now and equal to it for all Uses Exportation excepted where 't is natural to believe an Ounce of Silver will purchase more than Half an Ounce the same if they bring their Coin hither Now supposing that every Man in the Kingdom had as much New Money as they Before had of Clip'd Money the Nation would not be one Half Penny richer than before If ye can buy no more Land pay no more Rents or Debts with it nor buy more Commodities at home with it as certainly ye can't then 't is neither better or worse in Value but the same only with this Difference that you have as much more Silver in your Coin as serv'd the same Use before and so have but Half the Quantity of Money you might have and before ye were assured none cou'd be carryed away to your Loss but ye have now no Assurance but it may all and the only Advantage is that 't is more commodious for Tale and not so easily counterfeited as before tho' too much practised already It will be Objected the Damage the Merchants would sustain by their Foreign Bills and Remittances more than now This is only a Mistake for before our Clipt Coin in Specie was carryed beyond Seas for Payments and they met with such Loss and Difficulties as well as our selves in the Receipt and Payment they did not fall their Exchange tho' the greatest part of the Currant Cash in the

the Nation as the carrying out Mony in Specie But what Methods that Honourable House have taken to prevent it I know not nor to the best of my remembrance have seen any thing publick relating to it It is not impossible but we might furnish our own Armies at least with Corn and Cheese and many other things from hence without sending Mony thither to but it which would much diminish the Charge of our Army It is not impossible but we might have furnish'd the Duke of Savoy when an Ally and other Allies that have our Assistance instead of Mony with Corn if cheap here and with Guns Pistols Swords Powder Bombs Ball Clothes Hats Stockens Shooes all Furniture for Horses and many other things which would have done their Business as well as Mony But it may be said They cou'd buy them cheaper at Home That can't be for they can't have them cheaper than for nothing and the Mony would have been spent at Home and created a Trade and have been no loss to the Nation if we part only with our Labour and Product 'T is worth observing the advantageous Policy the French King has made use of during this War who from the beginning has greatly advanced his Coin and by that Policy chiefly has been able to Cope with and Baffle the United Force of the greatest part of Europe and yet 't is very remarkable that those Gentlemen who so highly extol that Monarch's other Policies run Counter in this and say he is a Prince that has but little or no Trade and may do it but it 's beneath us that are a Trading Nation This is a mean shift and it had been happy for this Kingdom if we had traded to so good advantage as he has done he has not let the Merchants run away with his Gold and Silver but makes it to enrich Himself and Country and not them but by bringing it in He has neither Gold or Silver the Produce of his own Country no more than we nor has he so much as Lead or Tin of his own growth nor many other useful Commodities and yet he wants not any of them more than we for ought we can learn He maintains an Army three times as numerous as ours and at prodigious Charge in Maintaining his Garisons and great Fleets has Armies in all places where we have and more and sends great Sums to his Confederates the Turk and the King of Poland whil'st living besides the great Charge in Maintaining his roguish Iacobite Emissaries and others in most Countries in Europe and Lords it over his Neighbours And these are all the Inconveniences that we can know he has found this 8 Years by the Advance of his Mony a quite different Story to what our last 7 Months has brought us to and 't will easily be believed that he would not have continued it if it had been a disadvantage to him And why that which is so advantageous to him and was so to us whil'st the Clipt Mony went whose diminish'd Weight made us on equal Terms with him should now be thought our loss And 't is well known his Gold Pistoles have been the chief Artillery that has made him Lewis l' Grand Now Gentlemen he that can tell ye of one real Benefit the Nation have had or are like to have to balance these Inconveniences the present Standard of our Coin has brought on the Kingdom ought to be to you more than the great Apollo I shall add That the City of London have given ye all a good President in their late Request to their Representatives in Parliament wherein they make their earnest Request That they would use their utmost and joynt Endeavours at the first Sitting down of the Parliament that the Plot may be throughly examined into and that the Conspiratiors who have hitherto made it their business not only to keep a Private Correspondence with our Enemies and to deliver up the Ships and Effects of our Merchants and Traders into their hands but also to betray His Majesty's Councils and so destress and undermine the best of Governments may be detected Without which they humbly offer it as their Opinion That all other Endeavours for the Preservation of the King and Kingdom will prove ineffectual Therefore if ye now omit what ye think necessary for your own Good and Safety to Offer ye must blame your selves Nor can ye but be truly sensible of the great Blessing we enjoy above other Nations in our Religion and belov'd Liberties under the best of Kings whom Heaven has Crown'd with all Royal Virtues whose Goodness has left it entirely to his People to make themselves a Great Rich and Happy Nation and has pleased to Recommend it to the Consideration of his People whether there do not still remain some Inconveniencies relating to the Coin which ought to be remedied Tho' after all we may too fitly be compared to the Image in Nebuchadnezzar's Vision We have a Golden Head 't is true but Members of Brass Clay and Iron That all may Unite for the Glory of God the Honour and Preservation of His Majesty and Government the Good of the Protestant Religion in general and may Heaven Defend them from the wicked and mischievous Designs of their Open Enemies and False Friends is the Hearty Prayer of GENTLEMEN Your Humble Votary