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A28308 Some remarks upon government, and particularly upon the establishment of the English monarchy relating to this present juncture in two letters / written by and to a member of the great convention, holden at Westminster the 22nd of January, 1689. A. B.; N. T. 1689 (1689) Wing B31; ESTC R2761 23,032 29

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over all the Kingdom I am perswaded it would abundantly answer expectation in the many Advantages which would attend it And perhaps it would be of equal Benefit in all other Elections as well as in those for Members of Parliament if the Government were so dispos'd as to fill up all Vacancies whether in Church or State by the plurality of Votes appointed to elect And I am apt to believe that succeeding Ages may reduce it into a Law that Privy Councellors shall be chosen by the Lords Judges by the Gentlemen at the Bar Bishops by their Dean and Chapters Ministers by their Parishioners Fellows and Masters of Colledges by the Graduates of the same Colledge Sheriffs by the Gentry of the Country Officers of Trust in the State and in the Army by the Parliament the Parliament by Freeholders of 40 l. per annum and all by the Ballott 'T is much e●sier I know to find Faults than to mend them and I could mention many other things of the same nature the Redress whereof I hope will be thought of in this great Convention before They proceed to dispose of the Crown 'T is an easier matter for a People to make ten Kings than to unmake One and to deck a Crown with the highest Prerogatives than to deprive it when they are Confer'd of the least of them If the Crown be given again with the same Qualifications that Other Heads wore it It will then be exalted above the Peoples reach without some such assisting Miracle as was lately shewn in favour of them Now to reform its Redundancies is natural easie and prudent the Government being escheated to the People by the Kings deserting it But to offer at any such Attempts afterwards will be both unkind and imprudent and will signifie no more than the chatterings of a parcel of Magpies about an Owl in her Majesty Some Men have espous'd an odd and unwarrantable Notion that the Kings Desertion of the Government amounts to a Demise or Civil Death If this be so the next Heir ought immediately to be Proclaim'd and must Inherit the Crown with the same inseperable Prerogatives that heretofore belong'd to it and all Laws or Acts of Parliament made to limit and abridge them if Lawyers speak truth are void and null But if the Departure of the King amounts to such a desertion as dissolves the Government then the Power must necessarily revert and vest in the People who may Erect a new One either according to the old Modell if they like it so well or any other that they like and approve of better Were such a mighty Thing to be determin'd by my single Vote the Government should be Monarchy and this Monarchy should be Absolute and Arbitrary and the Prince should be my King. 'T is He alone who is The Man in Christendom in respect of Courage and an innate Disposition to delight in the Happiness of his People with whom I could freely and securely intrust my All But the Honour I have for Him runs not to His Posterity for as a good Man may notwithstanding get a Profligate Son so I should be loath to Repose such a Trust at a venture in the hands of any one whom I do not know You have a great Work to do and 't is from Your Councels that after Ages must date their Happiness or Misery and it therefore Obliges Your most Serious Thoughts I hope Sir you will excuse the Liberties I have taken in giving you so large a Diversion from better Notions of your own which I know are of an higher flight and swifter wing than what I can pretend to Mine I do not impose but submit as becomes SIR Your Obliged humble Servant N. T.
Misery and as it has deliver'd us from the Evil Administration of Law so in some things I wish it would rescue us from the Law it self and so far change it that for the future it may be no more subject to such Shams and Delusions nor in a capacity thus to become an Accessory to its own Death It seems farther very incongruous That where Government is made up of two different Interests as here it is the absolute power of Peace and War should be only in the King whilst the power of maintaining it continues in the People For if the King should be led aside by a private Interest and should refuse to make War in a time when perhaps the Safety and Honour of the Nation did wholly depend upon it What a condition must the People then be in Put the case that before this our late but seasonable Deliverance the King in whom this Power did reside should have open'd the Gates of the Kingdom our Harbours and Strengths which are to protect us from Forreign Invaders to a French or Irish Army Who durst lift a hand to stop this inundation of Tyranny without incurring the penalty of a Traytor Nay they must farther be call'd Friends and Allies even whilst they pillage our Houses and hold their Knives to our Throats This Branch of our Laws serves to cover the Landing of a Forreign Power and so long to cherish and keep it warm till like the Serpent in the Fable it at last stings the improvident Benefactor to death Another thing which highly requires Your Regulation is the Elections for Parliament 'T is a great Blemish to our Government that such whose Place gives them the Title of Founders of our Laws and Preservers of our Liberties and whose Reputation for Principles of Honour Honesty Prudence should be beyond assault or censure must yet be expos'd to a Necessity of doing such things as are really mean and scandalous as well as expensive before they can get into a Capacity of doing their Country service for if such things be not done some Pensioner from Court bids higher jostles him our and gets thereby into a Power to put to Sale both the Laws and Liberties of his Country which he is willing to barter for the hopes of some Court Preferment and the Euge of his great Master In old times no person had an Electing Vote in the Shire who had not a Freehold of 40 s. per Ann. but I could easily demonstrate 40 s. then to be Equivolent in value to 40 l. now for by the discovery of the Western World Gold and Silver is to that degree increas'd Now if the number of Electors were reduc'd to those only having Freeholds of 40 l. per An. these lavish Expences would certainly cease and the Electors though fewer in number would be less apt to be led aside by such low and indirect means There are also great irregularities in the Corporations and Burroughs Electing as well as in the Electors I can see no reason why Cornwall a poor and barren County should return 43 Members for Parliament and yet Cheshire together with the City of Chester should return in all but 3 and why old Sarum which has but 2 Houses and those under the Commands of one Landlord should send 2 Representatives to Parliament whilst many other Towns which might deserve the Title and Priviledges of Cities send no Representatives at all I can scarcely think a Parliament thus Constituted can truly and fairly represent the People the Majority and Richest of them being by such inequallities excluded from an Electing Vote The same inconvenience springs from the Constitutions of the Boroughs which Elect not by vertue of their Wealth Dignity or Number of Inhabitants but by the Burrough Houses in which they live These only which perhaps are the most inconsiderable part of the Burrough having in them the Electing power exclusive of the rest This Qualification makes such Houses sell better to a purchaser then any others in the Town and it is customary for Gentlemen who are desirous of a Seat in Parliament to lay out their Mony in such Bargains and tho' it costs them dear yet if it be possible they will be Landlords of a sufficient number of these Borough Houses in the purchase whereof some Friends Name is mostly made use of in Trust that thereby they may Command an Election either for themselves or their Assigns at pleasure What is this less than buying of Votes with Money A Crime which has been always lookt upon with a severe brow and yet Licens'd by this old Usage Nor can I discern why this Electing power should be thus fixt to the Freehold in being restrained to a small and inconsiderable number of Houses as if Wood and Stone had a Rational faculty and must be made use of to build and repair the Government The Methods of Electing in these Boroughs are various Titles to Elect are also different and very often dubious and uncertain This necessitates double Elections and countenances false Returns which are often made ill use of for the King having a power to nominate the Sheriff and he to make a Return it may happen that the true and rightful Members shall continue Petitioners only whilst such as came in by unjust Returns pass an Act to give the King Money for the maintainance of a Stranding Army This Artifice was of much use in the last Parliament at Westminster and became so notorious from the great Number of Petitioners that a Gentleman being ask'd whether the House of Commons sate that day in the Parliament No reply'd he It stood in the Lobby It is Customary in the Borough of Limmington in Hampshire to Elect by the Ballot The manner is to give to every Electing Burgess their number being limitted and known a different Colour'd Ball for every Competitor each Colour being respectively appropriated to the several Competitors As suppose there should be three Candidates each Elector has three several Balls given him which he so manages as to keep only that in his hand which by its Colour belongs to the person he intends to chuse this being inclos'd in his hand he puts it into a close Box made for that purpose leaving no possibility to any one to detect what colour'd Ball he put into it Thus each having put in his Ball according to his Vote the Balls of one Colour are separated from those of another colour and so according to the Majority of Balls of one Colour the Return is made This Method I know to be of great advantage where it is made use of It prevents Animosities and Distast and very much assists that freedom which ought to be in Elections No man in this way need fear the disobliging of his Landlord Customer or Benefactor for it can by no means be discovered how he gave his Vote if he will but keep his own counsel If this or some such Device were appointed to be made use of in every Borough