Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
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A39513
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An Account of some transactions in this present Parliament in a letter to a person of quality in the country.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing E965; ESTC R25052
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6,327
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10
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An Account of some Transactions in this present Parliament in a Letter to a Person of Quality in the Country SIR I Received yours ten days since but could not sooner inform you of the Proceedings of this Parliament some expected they would have examined and undone all the last had done and that several of the Members would have refused the new Oaths and taken the old Ones without naming the King but in a little time they saw their mistake and that this truly reputed Church of England-Parliament is well pleased with their glorious Deliverer from Popery and Slavery and secure that the Church of England as established by Law will flourish and be safe under his Protection A Noble Duke who formerly personated a singularity of Humour to preserve himself for great Services as yet not arrived to be a Minister of State though very active and instrumental in preserving our new Establishment brought in a Bill to Recognize their Majesties the Lawful and Rightful King and Queen of these Realms and to declare the Acts of the late Parliament begun Feb. 23. 1688. were are and of right ought to be by the Laws of this Realm which certainly if any thing his Grace undertakes can be so seem'd altogether needless for the Bill of Rights Recognized them and the Votes of the last Parliament having the Authority of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled as well as the Royal Assent were received for Laws and the Lives as well as Estates and Liberties of many have been determined accordingly therefore this declaring and enacting of them now in the Opinion of many seemed not only needless but dangerous as striking at the Foundations and rendring the Authority of the late Meetings questionable as well as the Establishment of this Government For if the Convention however called without what some Men stile Legal Authority could make or Vote an Abdication and Vacancy of the Throne dispose of the Crown and abrogate the Oaths essential to such Meetings they might surely without the formality of Writs be created or transformed into a Parliament and be de Facto a good Parliament otherwise their Majesties Title is founded only in Possession or which I dare not say Usurpation In that famous President of Richard II. we find 35 Articles of Mis government charged on him by a Parliament called by Writ in his own Name and he by them declared unfit for Government who like a good natured Prince submitted and resigned his Kingship released his Subjects from their Allegiance and transferred his Right and Title to Henry of Lancaster who thereupon claim'd it was vested therein Recognized and Crowned held nine Parliaments and his Son Henry held as many and his Grandchild lineally succeeded was Crowned and held nineteen Parliaments yet as soon as Edward IV. claimed his Hereditary Right all the confirmations of the 3 preceding Kings amounted to no more than to be owned by the Statute Kings de Facto in Deed but not de Jure of Right This some fancied would have puzled or slackned proceedings but it did not consist with the Wisdom of the House to mispend their more precious time in untying Gordian knots or to lay much stress upon such Cobweb Laws as were spun out of the Brains of such a Temporizing Parliament as that of Edward IV. Our more refined Age is not to take Presidents from our doting Ancestors but make them There are always Maximes suited to Times Circumstances Convenience and Necessity In former times diversity of Religion gave no Byass to Revolutions of State Faction among the Nobility and Secular Interest and Dubious Titles or Ambition only disturbed the Succession of the Crown But the prevailing consideration now among some moderate Men is this that though they did not contribute to the Revolution yet they would preserve it and though the things done cannot be justifyed according to the old Laws of the Land yet because dangers may attend the return of the late King they adhere to the present Government which reasons will justifie other things which neither give Credit nor Authority to this but will oblige us to persevere in the way we are in and bid defiance to Repentance because there may be less ease and quiet in a new course of Life They who have been active in the Change and have Dependencies Offices and Expectances must not give place to any Scruples as others may but must think and say He is Lawful and Rightful King for although according to our Modern Politicks a King de Facto signifies an Usurper yet the P. of Orange's concurrence and agreement with the 3 Estates of the Kingdom can create a Right Besides when we see so many upon this consideration buy or take Offices Employments and Honours under this Government it must be a sufficient demonstration that the Acts of the late Parliament need no Confirmation but stand firm upon an Original Right and that it may clearly be proved beyond doubt that the People's Sovereign Power may fill as well as declare the Throne Vacant so that it is of no mement to insist upon Hereditary Right or the examples of former times or the Authority of Ancient Laws These matters occasioned some days debate in the House of Lords but the Bill had an unexpected dispatch among the Commons who did not scruple the Words are and were as some protesting Lords had done for the Authority of both Houses justifies the good Sense and English of whatever passeth with them and there is no obligation I know of upon the Members to gratifie the Captious with an explication of their meaning since the Nation reaps the benefit of their Wise results There is great reason that they who are intrusted with our Religion our Estates our Liberties and Lives should Recognize Him whom so many invited and so few resisted whom they have enabled to recover one of the four Provinces of Ireland and will soon Conquer the rest and Triumph over France it seif which assists the Rebels there In short the Convention represented the whole Body of the People they declared or created the P. of Orange King and he being once constituted the Head there must result as proper a Leviathan of Government as Mr. Hobs could describe and I think the Authority of such a Writer should satisfie all Men where the Supreme Power resides Yet notwithstanding what I have hitherto Writ there were many who thinking the King no Wiser than themselves judged he would not have passed the Bill since in their Opinion it being built upon a Republican Foundation might be a President hereafter to some popular Lord who being Master of the Art of deceiving alluring and cajoling the People may arive to be the Captain of the Mob and thence be incouraged to send out his Circular Letters for Election of a Representative which having the same fondness for him that the Choosers have the fittest and best Men in suh caseâ— often declining the imployment they who were chosen might Vote an
Abdication and Vacancy and Elect another King But I think we have little reason to fear this in our present Master's days who is so well served by Forreigners Surely they are mistaken who say that the Act of Settlement which entailed the Crown is repealed by the Recognition for it is established by the latter clause otherwise by Recognizing that their Majesties were are and of Right ought to be by the Laws of this Realm our Sovereign Liege Lord and Lady King and Queen c. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Danmark who passed resigned or disclaimed her Right by prefering her dear Sisters Husband to the Throne may be excluded with her hopeful Issue from the Succession which otherwise might devolve to the King's Heirs especially if our King were capable of an unjust Act since it might be suspected under any other Prince that where many Foreign Troops have the Guard of a Country they will be better affected to and readilier aid a Foreign Prince than any of the Princes of the Blood who are Natives I dare not go any further in the account I have from the House of Lords nor tell the censures past upon them least I should encourage the Enemies of our Gracious King I forbear also to give you an account of the Heats in the House of Commons their Zeal for the Church of England and the rejecting the Oath of Abjuration which was an odd project and I wonder the King's Friends so much favoured it which seem'd a fatal blow to our Liberties and in the Opinion of a most Reverend Divine was a setting our selves against Providence and I am sure was destructive to our Liberties since the Monarchy is Elective as by the chusiing a Foreign Prince is evident it would be very hard to incapacitate a Native for if a Toy should take the People in the Head again to think of King JAMES which would not be so strange as the Abdication this Oath would have put the Negative upon the People who commonly are troubled with the Disease called Nitimur in vetitum which would mad them that they could not have their Wills But leaving these matters I will touch upon some things done by the House of Commons which seems to concern you and all the Preeholders of England in their Estates for that they have liberally given the King Money but you must not think them too free in their supply nor blame them for taking no more notice of the multitude of Strangers who must be maintained at our charge since so few English-Men are fit for or to be trusted with the defence of the Government or our Country Indeed the concern for Religion and our obligations to the Preserver thereof ought to make us lesâ— tender for the Prorogation of the last Parliament the very day the Money Bill was passed and the unexpected Dissolution before the Act of Indemnity was finished or several Grievances redressed meerly to draw on this Parliament to give more Taxes and own the Authority of the last In King Charles the Second's time we found several things tacked to the Money Bill least they should give to without taking from the Crown But the House is now more generous because we have a Prince we can trust with all that is most valuable and they are abundantly satisfyed with the several ways there are to expend the Treasure raised and granted They know what Summs have passed the Texel the Pampus the Mosell Elb and the Rhine how much is sent to Copenhagen and Berlin besides what Count Conningseck expected and the Dutch yet want the equipping of the Fâ—eet the discharge of the vast Arrears to it and the Army and the growing charge to both till Ireland be reduced and Scotland throughly subjected to his Majesty's Obedience so that we are not to Murmur at their liberal Aids seeing some compute that no less then five Millions in a Year can defray these unavoidable Charges which would exhaust the Revenue of Potosa if it were not in the Hands of extraordinary Managers If we may believe the publick account given us in the Foreign Intelligences we may compute how great a Charge the whole must be from that Negotiation of Mr. Cox at Zurick for the Aid of 4000 Suissers contracted for there which as is expressed is that near upon 200000 l. English must be paid the one half down the other in two equal portions some time after as a cautionary pawn for performance of Covenants which is to be deposited in the Treasury Chamber of their States with many other circumstances too tedious to relate whereby we may learn how much must be drein'd from us by Foreign Troops which we might fear would prolong the War extravagantly if they were not such as our King hath chosen I know this galls the Country which considers the decay of Trade and losses at Sea and that while our Traffick was as free and profitable as ever it had been known yet for near 15 years by past there were neither Subsidies Polls or Taxes But to ballance this we must consider that we have a new and better Government which being hastily though necessarily raised requires extraordinary supports to secure it from the fate other new Buildings have had least by its fall it crash those who promise themselves security under it Upon these Considerations and for the sake of those brave Patriots who were the Contrivers and Architects of this great Structure we must not think Taxes any Charge The success of this Summer may recompense all especially if according to his Promise and declared Resolution our Godly Sovereign will adventure to Ireland no doubt but according to the example of England it will submit or be easily reduced from whence he may pass to the Conquest of France and become the Emperor of the West or the first Prince in the fifth Monarchy and the destroyer of Antichrist which the Great Great Grandchild of the old Brittish Merlin the Reverend Bishop of St. As can make out by his own Dreams Daniel 's Vision or the Revelations But if these Glorious Things should not happen in our Times we have our Religion secured so that none can hurt or destroy it but our selves for indeed we have so drest and made it our own that if some Reverend Fathers were not Sponsors we should think it changed for the old fashioned Church of England-Men say it is not that which was at the first Reformation nor what our Forefathers or Primitive Christians professed But so long as we have our Religion as it is let our Ships our Trade our Estates Lives and Liberties go which way they will we cannot be unhappy having the same evidence and assurance for our Country some good Men haue had for their own Salvation And if Hurricanes wreck our Ships pestilential Diseases destroy our Forces by Sea and Land our Powder-Mills be blown up whereby besides the loss of so great a proportion of that so necessary Commodity and some lives at which our