Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	law_n	prerogative_n	3,673	5	10.4433	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59477	Some observations concerning the regulating of elections for Parliament, found among the Earl of Shaftsbury's papers after his death, and now recommended to the consideration of this present Parliament.	Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 1621-1683.	1689 (1689)	Wing S2899; ESTC R13575	7,648	20

SOME OBSERVATIONS Concerning the REGULATING OF ELECTIONS FOR PARLIAMENT SOME OBSERVATIONS Concerning the REGULATING OF ELECTIONS FOR PARLIAMENT FOUND Among the EARL of Shaftsbury's Papers after his Death and now recommended to the Consideration of this Present Parliament With Allowance LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randall Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1689. SOME OBSERVATIONS Concerning the REGULATING OF ELECTIONS FOR PARLIAMENT c. THE Parliament of England is that Supreme and absolute Power which gives Life and Motion to the English Government It directs and actuates all its various procedures as the Parent of our Peace Defender of our Faith and Foundation of our Properties and as the Constitution of this great Spring and Primum Mobile of Affairs is in Strength and Beauty so will also all Acts and Performances which are derived from it bear a suitable proportion and similitude For whether the Constituting Members of this Great Body be such as may give it the denomination of Sanctum Indoctum or Insanum by which Epithets some former Parliaments have been known and distinguished such will also be all the Acts and Statutes which are made by them each naturally wearing the Character and Likeness of that to which it owes its Being This Great Council bears a date coaevous perhaps with the Originals of our Government and was Constituted with sufficient prudence and caution with relation to the Innocence and Ignorance of the Times and People then in being It was then that a Deed of three Inches square was sufficient to convey away twenty good Mannors and Lordships But Subtilty and Cunning having now made some bolder advances into the World we are forced to alter our Measures and instead of Inches to take Ells. It seems therefore necessary as in things of smaller concernment so most especially in matters of so much greater moment as is the settling and fortifying our Parliament so to erect its Bulwarks and Rampiers that the most vigorous Attacks of Fraud and Corruption may make no Breaches or Inrodes upon it It is here our care and diligence ought to be applyed with the greatest exactness for as our Laws and Government are Established we can derive our Happiness or Misery from no other Source It is from the Fruit of this Great Council that we must expect our Nutriment and from its Branches our Protection I hope therefore it may not seem over Officious if with the skilful Gardiner I do open and expose the Roots of this great Tree of the Common-Wealth with an intent that every Branch and Fibre may with the greater ease and conveniency be so trimmed and laid that no Defects or Redundancies may continue But that every individual of this Great Body may happily conspire to produce that Peace and Tranquillity in the Nation which may be expected from their Counsels and a well constituted Government It seems then reasonable to believe That the Priviledge of sending Representatives to Parliament though grounded upon a Natural and Fundamental Right in the People was at first immediatly derived from the King for that where Histories and Records begin to transmit memorials to succeeding Ages we find him sending his Writs directed to such Persons Towns or Vills which he thought most considerable within the Kingdom by vertue of which Writs Elections were accordingly made and Representatives returned to Parliament That the Kings Prerogative does still extend to grant this Franchise to such other Towns or Villages as he shall think fit I cannot affirm because some Learned in the Law assure us it cannot legally be done but by Act of Parliament But others are again of a contrary opinion as was adjudged in the Case of Duncannon and Newark It is certain that Parliamentary matters were never settled otherwise than by Act of Parliament as appears by several Statutes in such Cases made and we also find the priviledge of sending Members to Parliament given to several places by Act of Parliament which had been unnecessary could the King alone have granted it by any other Method It is moreover a thing of very dangerous Consequence to have such a Power lodged in the King alone for then he might thereby infranchise what number of Vills he pleases and by the same power place the Election of their Representatives in a select Number such as he should always have the power to direct and appoint which would be in effect to choose his own Parliament and thereby to Make or Repeal what Laws he pleases Wherefore I conceive this Point ought now to be so settled as for the future to obviate all such inconveniencies which might otherwise ensue Another thing which also requires the care of this Great Council is to limit and restrain the exorbitancies of a Quo Warranto so that the Electing Burroughs may have their priviledges and immunities secured from the Judgment of a Corrupt Judge who derives his Being and holds his Judicial Breath only ad voluntatem Domini If this Grievance be not obviated by some good Law a King may as well destroy all the old Burroughs as erect new ones to the inevitable overthrow of our Laws and Government In the next place I conceive it may become the Prudence of this Parliament from which we may expect the Foundations of our Happiness will be so laid as to become impregnable against all the future Assaults of an invading Tyrranny to look into the Constitutions and Customs of such Burroughs which have right to Elect and which in several particulars seems to require a touch of the Supreme Authority to set them Right The first inconvenience they labour under is the variety of their respective Titles some claiming to Elect by Prescription others by Grant some again by a select Number others by the Populacy some by the Magistrate and Burgesses others by the Magistrate Burgesses and Freemen others again by the Magistrate Burgesses Freemen and Commonalty and some also in respect of their ancient Burrough Houses only the rest of the Town which is the much more considerable part being excluded The Grievance which grows from this difference of Title in several Burroughs is often ambiguity and uncertainty of Title in the same Burrough for sometimes the select Number contends with the Community one Burrough House with another c. And from hence it is that we have usually so many Petitioners in each Parliament the Magistrate not knowing which of right ought to be Returned Nor can a Committee of Elections ever settle their respective Titles by a final determinative Judgment for we find it often giving an Opinion upon one and the same Title and in the same Burrough differently as favour and power can make the stronger interest All this may be remedied by an Act which should give one and the same new Title to all the Electing Burroughs in England and Wales by which alone they should all for the future claim to send Members to Parliament thereby settling the Electing power in such persons whether they