Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	end_n	parliament_n	session_n	2,454	5	10.4165	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25581	An Answer to the case of the old East-India Company as represented by themselves to the Lords spiritual and temporal in Parliament assembled.		1700 (1700)	Wing A3395; ESTC R18101	11,811	24

then Companies Affairs were in such a Condition that it would be a plain Cheat to others that should come in upon their Stock However Law and Reason failing they had recourse to other Means and grea Summs of Money were distributed as it was acknowledged before a Committee of both Houses of Parliament to get a New Charter for the Old Company and at length a New Charter was obtained but those who were concerned to advise his Majesty in point of Law were so just to their Trust as to take care that no Right of Trade exclusive of others was granted and also that the Company should submit to such Alterations Restrictions and Qualifications as the King should make before the 29th Septemb. following and so on the 17th Novemb. a New Chapter of Regulations was made and another the 28th Septemb. 1694. Wherein amongst other things was the Proviso before mentioned That if it shall appear to the King his Heirs and Successors that the said two Charters or any other Charters heretofore granted shall not be profitable to the King his Heirs or Successors or to this Realm that then and from thenceforth upon and after three Years Warning to be given to the said Company by he King his Heirs or Successors under his or their Privy Seal or Signit Manual the several Letters Pattents c. shall cease be void and be determined Vpon the Security of this Charter the Company say pag. 4. they consented to a New Subscription and that there was anew subscribed 744000 l. and the Money brought in during the Sitting of the Parliament and that nothing was done said or offered against the Charter of Regulations so that upon the Publick Faith at least tacitly given 781 New Adventurers of which many are Widows and Orphans did subscribe a large part of their Substance to support this Trade during a Hazardous War for the Profit and Honour of England and that the new Adventurers thought they might without any Hazard subscribe on the Security of a Charter which was so plainly designed by his Majesty to preserve the East-India Traffick then in Danger of being lost This is the Gloss put upon that Transaction but let us examine the Matter to the bottom and then see whether it has not another Face How this Charter was obtained appears by the Report of the Committee of the Honourable House of Commons who finding great Summs of Mony paid for special Service and observing that the greatest Payment was in the Year 1693. they searched for the Orders for the Issuing of that Money the chief of which were One dated the 13th April 1693. at a Court of Committees in the Words following The Governour this Day acquainting the Court with what Proceedings had been made in their Affairs towards granting a new Charter and which what had been disbursed by him in prosecution thereof the Court approved of the said Charges and ordered a Warrant to be made out for the same and returned him thanks for his great Care Pains and Trouble in their Service desiring him to proceed in the perfecting thereof Another was Dated the 24th of November 1693. at a Court of Committees held the same Day viz. The Governour this Day making a Representation of what Summs of Money had been by him of lae disbursed in the management and carrying on of the Companies Affairs for their Service the Court approved thereof and ordered that a Warrant be made out for making the same paid in Cast accordingly giving him their Thanks for his great Care and Pains taken therein Another was at a Court of Committees holden the 22d of January 1693 4. in the Words following It being represented to the Court that in the further Prosecution of the Companies Affairs and in Order to their Settlement there have been several Summs of Money disburst amounting to 30000 l. in the whole the Particulars whereof were now laid before them on Consideration thereof had it is Ordered that the said Monies be made paid in Cash The said Committee of the House of Commons found by Examination of most of the Persons present at the aforesaid Committees that the Governour in the said Committees did only in General inform them what Summs he had disburst without naming the Particulars to whom or for what Service which several of them said was a new Course since Sir T. C. came to be Deputy Governour or Governour but in all times before he was concerned the Particulars of all Summs for the special Service of the Company were declared Further the said Committee found that in pursuance of the first Order dated the 13th of April 22275 l. was paid out of Cash in pursuance of that Order and 24983 l. in pursuance of the next Order dated the 24th of November 1693. and 30000 l. in pursuance of the last Order of the 22d Jan. 1693. Amounting in all to 77258 l. besides several smaller Summs amounting in the whole to 10144 l. 12 s. 3 d. Which with the former Summ makes 87402 l. 12 s. 3 d. And what Security was to be expected from a Charter so obtained which had more in it as it is to be feared of Private Promises than Publick Faith or such a Summ of Money was ill bestowed and Sir B. F. on his Examination on Oath acknowledged he had said to one with whom he treated that he would not let the Companies Money go for nothing so that it is not to be wondred that the Parliament took no Notice of the Matter whilst the Money was paying in when it is considered what is said above and Sir T. C. amongst other things acquainted the Committee of both Houses That there were several Contracts some to the Value of 60000 l. on Account of procuring a new Charter and others to ther Value of 40000 l. on Account of procuring an Act of Parliament By such means it might be hush'd for a while but it was not long before the Parliament took Publick Notice of it and if the greater Affairs of the Nation had not been so urgent and the Sessions been so near an End perhaps the Company might have had Justice done them then and been past complaining of any Imaginary Injustice done them now It appears therefore very plainly that it was not for the Profit and Honour of the Nation and to support the Trade that the New Subscribers came in but they were deluded into it by a Charter obtained by Indirect Means and by the hopes of an Act of Parliament to confirm it to be obtained in the same Manner The Trade would have been much better preserved and more to the Honour of the Nation if no such underhand Practices had been carried on and if some Persons thinking themselves to have a greater reach than others or being deceived by the Old Companies making his Majesty believe their Stock to be worth 750000 l. and by afterwards sharing 325000 l. of the New Subscribers Money amongst themselves or by the Persons failing them who had promised to get

an Act of Parliament or by Losses at Sea or by what other Means soever it were happened to fail in their Expectation who are answerable for it but themselves If any Widows were drawn in it was but few and that not for much to be sure but that 's a state Cry and they and all others had Warning enough by the Transactions before the Council and by publick Prints in one of which Entituled Reasons proposed for the Encouragement of all People to underwrite to the New Subscriptions appointed to be made to the late East-India Companies Stock after an Account of their Affairs this Caution was given pag. 7. If People will put out their Eyes and always be thus bubbled out of their Money as well as their Senses they may go on till they are weary and perhaps this is done that the old pretence might still be urged for their Continuance viz. That a great many Widows Orphans and Innocent and Ignorant People might not be cheated and undone if they should be dissolved but let not the said Gentlemen deceive themselves and others doubtless the Parliament will not be thus affronted but will take notice of these Proceedings and assert the Right and Liberty of the Subject to the Freedom of this Trade c. If Persons will then adventure their Money after all this they must take their Fate and I think if such a Procedure escapes censure it is a happy Issue though they come to some Loss not to say any thing of the Violences and Irregularities of the Old Company For 10 Ed. 3. One John Peach was arraigned at the Parliament Bar for that he had obtained of the King a Monopoly for Sweet Wines The Pattent after great Advice and Dispute adjudged void and before his Face in open Parliament cancelled because he had exacted 3 s. 4 d. for every Tun of Wine himself adjudged to Prison until he had made Restitution of all that ever he had received and not delivered till after a Fine of 500 l. paid to the King which at that time was a great Summ of Money In Queen Elizabeth's time upon Complaint in Parliament of Pattents granted for Monopolies most of them were immediately revoked and the rest left to the Law In King James the 1st time an Act of Parliament passed to make void a Charter for the sole Trade to Spain and another against all Monopolies and though the Pattents for some Trades with joint-stocks whilst the Trades for which they were granted were in their Infancy have been permitted for the settling of a Trade and till the first Adventurers have reaped some reasonable compensation for their first Undertaking and Adventures yet afterwards when those Trades have encreased and become great the Wisdom of the Nation has always thought fit to open a Way for the Kingdom to receive a General Benefit thereby This as to Pattents in General and from the President in Ed. the 3d. Time I shall make no Inference but leave it to the Company themselves only I shall observe it was never esteemed a Breach of the Publick Faith and Credit of the Great Seal or a Derogation from the Honour of our Kings to have their Pattents annull'd by Parliament when the Grants were thought by that Grand Council of the Nation not to be profitable or to be against the Common Right of the Subject whatever the express Covenants in those Grants were and no King or Queen by any Grant or Pattent thought thhemselves bound in Honour or Conscience not to pass an Act of Parliament to make void such Pattent and the reason is plain the King being busied in the many arduous Affairs of the Kingdom cannot be supposed to know always what he may legally grant and is oftentimes deceived in his Grants and for that reason they are often annulled by the ordinary course of Law and so might this Companies Pattent have been without any Wrong or Injustice to the Company for all Persons having a Right by Law to trade to the East-Indies unless excluded by Parliament the King by his Charter could not grant to the Company any new Right to the Trade only the Priviledges of an Incorporated Body but the Parliament justly bearing a high Veneration to his present Majesty who has run so great Hazard and performed so Great and Glorious Atchievements for the Honour and Weal of the Nation have notwithstanding taken care in the late Act passed that nothing should interfere with his Majesties Pattent before which Time the Case stood thus The Company had a Pattent of Incorporation from his present Majesty with Power to trade to the East-Indies and other Priviledges without any express Clause to exclude others or any Covenant as was in the former Charters from the Crown that his Majesty would not grant License to others to trade thither during the continuance of the said Charter but with the express Proviso before-mentioned to have power to make void the said Charters upon three years notice if it shall appear to the King that the said Charters shall not be profitable to the King or this Realm During the continuance of these last Charters therefore even according to the Charters themselves all other the Subjects of England had a Right to Trade to the East-Indies as well as the Company and many used that Right and actually traded thither without Interruption not only as by Law but even as by those Charters they might and no doubt but the Persons so trading would have been contented if the Trade might have been continued to be carried on as it was before this last Session of Parliament they sought no Alteration the Law as it stood was their Protection and Security and the Charters the Company had and the Money their Joint-stock was enabled to scatter up and down was the Companies Security and the private Traders thought theirs as good as the Companies But though the Company in their Case talk so much of their Dependance on the Security of their Charters and the Right in Law which they had by them yet they themselves were convinced that their Right was not well founded and therefore as they had sought formerly to get an Act of Parliament without which they knew well enough they had no such Legal Right as they pretended so this Sessions they were for making another Attempt and in Order to succeed they first made an Offer to lend 700000 l. to the Government to have the Trade to themselves exclusive of all others The other Subjects of England being about to be excluded by such means from the Trade were soon alarm'd and that not without Reason and begin to think with themselves how to preserve their Right in the Trade and their honest Result was That if the Parliament thought fit to raise Money by that Trade they desired only to fare as the rest of their Fellow Subjects and they would be ready to lend to the Government as well as the Company and a much larger Summ. Hereupon the House of