them without any Election against the ⸪ All Kings that are not Tyrants or perjured will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their Laws and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Commonwealth K. James 1. Speech to his Parl. 1609. in his Works fol. 531. Course of the King's Laws and the Liberties of the Commons of this Realm by the means and labours of the said seditious Persons whereby many great Ieopardies Enormities and Inconveniences well nigh to the Ruin Decay and Universal Subversion of the said Realm have ensued And therefore the King considering the premises and that the said Lords Estates and other his Leige-people against whom the said Acts Statutes and Ordinances were made had always had great and faithful Love to the Preferment and Surety of the King's Person according to their Duty and that few of the Acts made in the said Parliament holden at Coventry were made for the Weal of the King nor of his said Realm but the greater part of the Acts Statutes and Ordinances there made were laboured by the Conspiracy Procurement and Excitation of the said evil disposed persons for the introduction and accomplishment of their Rancour and inordinate Covetise It was Ordained and Established by the Authority of the then Parliament That the said Parliament holden at the said City of Coventry be void and holden for no Parliament The King Lords and Commons in 39 H. 6. declare the whole Parliament of Coventry An. 38 H. 6. to be void and holden for no Parliament and all the Acts of it are repealed and made void because of the undue and unfree Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to that Parliament And that all Acts Statutes and Ordinanres by the Authority of the same made be reversed adnulled undone repealed revoked void and of no force nor effect And although those Acts were repealed upon the justest Grounds and Reason in the world yet so great and powerful was the Coventry-Faction that it raised such a Fermentation throughout the whole Kingdom as never left working till it had effectually wrought the utter Ruin of Henry VI. and his Son Prince Edward as the * Historians joind with our * Cotton's Rec. Speed's History Records do fully shew and make manifest But now it will not be hors de propos to examine the Writ of Summons it self for therein we shall find several Observables worth our taking notice of As 1. That it plainly directs to and enjoins an entire Freedom in the Election of all those that are to be sent up to serve in Parliament The words are Tibi praecipimus Crompton's Jurisd p. 1 b. firmi èr injungentes quod c. Duos milites gladiis cinctos magis Idoneos Discretos Comitat ' prae dicti de qualibet Civitate Duos Cives de quolibet Burgo Duos Burgenses de Discretioribus magis sufficientibus libèrè indifferentòr Eligi fac c. And this is commanded to be done juxta formam Statutorum inde edit provis ' that is That they be freely and indifferently chosen according to the Tenor of the Statutes in that Case made and provided 2. And the Writ does proceed further and says Ità quod iidem Milites plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se Commanitate Comit ' c. ac dict' Cives Burgenses pro se Communitat ' Civitatum Burgorum divisim ab ipsis habeant ad faciendum consentiendum his quae tunc ibidem de Communi Concilio Regni contigerint ordinari super quibusdam Arduis Vrgentibus Negotiis Regem Statum Defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernen ' That the said Knights for themselves and for their County and the said Citizens and Burgesses for themselves and the Commonalty of their Cities and Burroughs may have severally from them full and sufficient Power to perform and to consent to those things which shall there happen to be ordained by the Common-Council of the Kingdom concerning the arduous and urgent Businesses of the King the State and Defence of the Kingdom of England and the English Church 3. But this is not all yet we shall observe from the Writ there is another Clause that carries a great weight along with it and that is this viz. Ità quod pro defectu Potestatis hujusmodi seu propter improvidam Electionem Militum Civium aut Burgensium dicta Negotia infecta non remaneant quovis modo i. e. So that the business may not by any means remain undone for want of such power or by reason of the improvident Election of the Knights Citizens or Burgesses One would think there needed no more than this very Writ to convince and satisfie all men that our Choice of Representatives to serve us in Parliament ought to be with all the Freedom Fairness and Impartiality that can be and that all vile Tricks and Artifices should be abhorred For how can those be fully and sufficiently authorised and empowered to act for the Good and Safety of the King and Kingdom that have not been freely elected by the People who must give them that Power which is absolutely necessary to make what they do to become valid and to be accounted the Statutes of the Realm But notwithstanding these good and wholsom Laws to secure the Freedom of Elections and the plain form of the Writ of Summons pursuant to these Statutes and the ancient Custom of the Kingdom yet some Men we have read of have been so bold and daring in their attempts as to bid open defiance to them And although every Parliament almost since H. 6.'s time hath heard loud Complaints against the dangerous Consequences of illegal Elections yet no Parliament though many good Men have by bringing Bills into the House of Commons designed to prevent undue Elections hath had the happiness for the general Peace and Quiet of the Nation to regulate and amend that which so bare-facedly tended to the * Traiterous Subversion The 5th Article of High-Treason against the five Members in K. Charles I.'s time says That they had traiterously endeavoured to subvert the very Rights and Beings of Parliaments Husbands Collect. 4 to p. 35 Sanderson's Hist 473. of the very Rights and Beings of Parliament I shall therefore here in the next place subjoin some few Precedents to shew you how Misdemeanors in Elections have been formerly punished by the House of Commons in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles I. But one word first concerning Violent and Irregular Elections and Returns In an Oration made by a Worthy Gentleman viz. Mr. John Hales whom I take by the Contexture of it Fox's Book of Martyrs last Edit 3. Vol. fol. 819. Col. 1. to be one of the Long Robe to Queen Elizabeth and which was delivered to Her Majesty by a certain Nobleman at her first entrance to her Reign he tells
FREEDOM of ELECTIONS TO PARLIAMENT A Fundamental Law and Liberty OF THE English Subject AND SOME PRESIDENTS Shewing the Power of the House of Commons To inflict Punishments on Those who have been Guilty of Misdemeanours either in Elections or Returns In a Letter to a Member of PARLIAMENT According to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custom All Elections of Parliament-men ought to be made with an Entire Liberty without any sort of Force or requiring the Electors to chuse such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely Elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all matters that are brought before them having the Good of the Nation ever before their eyes and following in all things the Dictates of their Conscience P. of Orange's Declaration London Printed for Dan. Brown at the Black-Swan and Bible without Temple-Bar and Tim. Goodwin at the Maiden-head over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1690. SIR ACcording to your Commands I have now sent you out of my little reading a true Information of what Punishments the House of Commons have inflicted upon such Persons who by fraud force or bribery have violated the Ancient Liberties and Freedoms of the Commons of England in making undue Returns of Members to serve in Parliament And what I have here done in pure Obedience I hope you will receive with all friendly Candor and Benignity but you will give me leave first I hope to say something concerning our undoubted Right to the Freedom of Elections I find it Sir very clear that it hath been accustomed of old times to have Free Elections and that this was a Fundamental Law and Liberty of England For the Statute of Westminster the first which was made above four hundred years ago by the Assent An. Dom. 1274. of the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and all the Comminalty of the Realm thither summoned provideth That Elections should be freely and duly made without any disturbance whatsoever but I will give it you in its own words Because Elections ought to be Free the King Rastall's Stat. fol. 15. 3 E. 1. cap. 5. commandeth upon great Forfeiture That no Great Man nor Other by force of Arms nor by malice or menacing shall disturb any to make Free Election For it was a Right and Liberty which the good People of England had confirmed to them fifty years An. Dom. 1224. before as appears by the 9th Chapter of the Statute of Magna Charta Anno 9. Hen. 3. which says That the City of LONDON shall have ALL the Old Magna Charta 9 H. 3. cap. 9. Liberties and Customs which it hath been used to have And then it does immediately follow Moreover We will and grant That ALL other Cities Burroughs Towns and the Barons of the Five Ports and all other Ports shall have all their Liberties and Free Customs Liberties are here taken for Priviledges such as my Lord Coke says of Right the People had before And in his Comment upon the abovementioned 2. Inst fol. 168 169. Chapter of Westminster 1. he bids us see the Statute of 7 H. 4. which says That for Knights of the Shires 7 H. 4. cap. 15. for the Parliament in full County a free and indifferent Election shall be made notwithstanding any Prayer or Commandment to the contrary This Statute was made at the grievous Complaint of the Commons being interrupted of their Free Election 4 Inst fol. 10. by the King's Letters Patents by pretext of an Ordinance in the Lords House in 46 Edw. 3. but for Rot. Parl. 46 E. 3. n. 13. the future it was to be sine prece without any Prayer or Gift and sine proecepto without Commandment of the King by Writ or otherwise or of any other And he says this was an Act but declaratory of the Ancient Law and Custom of Parliament There were two Mischiefs before the making of this 2. Inst 169. Statute as my Lord Coke observes 1. For that Elections were not duly made 2. That Elections were not freely made And both these were against the ancient Maxim of the Law Fiant Electiones ritè liberè sine interruptione aliqua And again Electio libera est for before Regula 7 H. 6. 12. ◠this Act in the irregular Reign of H. 3. the Electors had neither their free nor their due Elections for sometimes by force sometimes by menaces and sometimes by malice the Electors were framed or wrought to make Election of Men Unworthy and not Eligible so as their Election was neither due nor free This Act briefly rehearseth the Old Rule of the * Note Common-Law is general Prescription and that Prescription is before 1 R. 1. who was elder Brother to King John Father to H. 3. Common-Law for that Elections ought to to be free wherein both the said Points are included 1. It must be a due Election and 2. It must be a free Election This Statute doth enact That no Man upon grievous Forfeiture shall disturb any to make free Election and is excellently penned in two respects First For that generally it extendeth to all Elections that is to say to every Dignity Office or Place elective be it Ecclesiastical or Temporal of what kind or quality soever The Act is penned in the Name of the King viz. The King commandeth and therefore the King bindeth himself not to disturb any Electors to make free Election as in the like Case upon a Statute made in the Reign of the said King the Act saying Rex Westm 2. 13 E. 1. cap. 1. 2 Inst 332. perpendens c. the same bound the King Now that Electors might make free and due Elections without displeasure or fear thereof by this Act of Parliament as a sure defenee the King commandeth the same upon grievous forfeiture And this Act extends to All Elections as well by those that at the making of this Act had Power to make them as by those whose Power was raised or created since this Act. Grievous Forfeiture That is the Disturbers Nota benè to be punished by grievous Fines and Imprisonments Thus far the Learned Chief-Justice Coke And it is observed says the same Great Man that 4 Inst 1. when there is best Appearance there is the best Success in Parliament Therefore there was a special Act of Parliament made on purpose in the 5th R. 2. to command all Rast Stat. 140. 5 R. 2. cap. 4. and singular Persons and Communalties which from thenceforth should have the Summons of the Parliament to come to the Parliament in the manner as they were bounden to do and had been accustomed within the Realm of England of old times And if any person so summoned be he Archbishop Bishop Abbot Prior Duke Earl Baron Banneret Knight of the Shire Citizen of City Burgess of Burgh or other singular Person or Communalty should absent himself and come not at the said Summons except he
eligendum deputandum Milites pro hujusmodi Comitatibus ad interestendum Parliamento ought to be free in chusing and deputing Knights to be present in such Parliaments for each respective County and to declare their Grievances and to prosecute such Remedies thereupon prout eis videretur expedire as to them should seem expedient Yet the King ut in Parliamentis suis liberiùs consequi valeat suae temerariae Voluntatis effectum that he might in his Parliaments be able more arbitrarily to accomplish the effects of his head-strong will did very often direct his commands to his Sheriffs ut certas personas per ipsum Regem nominatas ut Milites Comitatuum venire faciant ad Parliamenta sua that they should cause to come to his Parliaments as Knights of the Shire certain Persons named by the King which Knights being his Favourites he might lead as often he had done quandóque per minas varias terrores quandóque per Munera sometimes by various Menaces and Terrors and sometimes by Gifts to consent to those things as were prejudicial to the Kingdom and exceeding burthensome to the People and especially to grant to the King a Subsidy on Wool for the term of his Life and another Subsidy for certain Years thereby too grievously oppressing his People I shall descend from that unfortunate Prince to King 23 H. 6. cap. 15. Hen. 6. and there in the 23d year of his Reign almost 256 years ago a Statute was made intituled Who shall be Knights for the Parliament The manner of their Election The Remedy where one is chosen and Pulton's Stat. fol. 349. another returned In the Body of which we read That every Sheriff after the delivery of the Writ to him made shall make and deliver without fraud a Precept under his Seal to every Mayor and Bailiff or Bayliffs or Bailiff where no Mayor is of the Cities and Buroughs within his County reciting the Writ commanding them if it be a City to chuse by Citizens of the same City Citizens and if a Burough Burgesses to come to the Parliament and such Officers as aforesaid shall return Lawfully such Precept to the same Sheriff by Indentures between them of such Elections and the Names of the Citizens and Burgesses so chosen and thereupon every Sheriff shall make a good and Rightful Return of every such Writ and of every Return by such Officers as aforesaid And every Sheriff at every time that he does contrary to this Statute or any * 3 E. 1. other Statutes for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses shall incur the pain contained in the Statute of 8 H. 6. which is to 8 H. 6. cap. 7. forfeit 100 l. to the King and suffer Note The difference of the Value of 100 l. then and 100 l. now for K. H. 8. left to his Two Daughters by his Will no more than 10000 l. a piece who were afterwards Queens of England a Years Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprize and moreover shall forfeit and pay to every Person so chosen Knight Citizen or Burgess and not duly returned or to any other Person who in default of any such Knight Citizen or Burgess will sue 100 l. more to be recover'd by Action of Debt against the said Sheriff or his Executors The publick Detestation and Abhorrence of pack'd Returns of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament or Administrators with his or their Costs in such case dispended inwhich Action the Defendant shall not wage his Law nor have any Essoign allowed And in the same manner at every time that any Mayor and Bailiffs or Bailiff or Bailiffs where no Mayor is shall return other than those who be chosen by the Citizens and Burgesses of the Cities or Buroughs where such Elections shall be made they shall incur and forfeit to the King 40 l. and moreover 40 l. to the Person so chosen and not returned to be recovered in manner as aforesaid by such Person chosen or any other who in their Default will sue for the same One would imagine that after such an Act as this was made it should scarce ever be attempted by any to invade our Liberties especially in a point that so nearly concerns the Salvation of all our Interests For as the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh who was accounted the greatest Statesman that ever this Nation had was often heard to say That England could hardly ever be ruined unless it were by her own Parliaments so we need never to fear that Parliaments will undo us unless we suffer ourselves to be cozen'd into Slavery by being cheated out of our Best and Highest Rights I mean †Prince of Orange's Declaration our Entire Freedoms of Electing such for our Representatives with whom we can with confidence trust our Religion Lives Honours Liberties Estates and Posterity But if the Nation shall at any time hereafter be so careless as to permit a pack'd House of Commons to be put upon her she may then indeed be given up as an easie Prey to the Arbitrary Pleasure and Lust of those contriving Managers of her Ruin and what will still add Weight and Aggravation to her Misery as she falls with Scorn so she will fall unpitied to all Christendom Thus was that weak Prince King Henry the Sixth 23 H. 6. 38 H. 6. call'd the Coventry Parliament imposed upon by his evil Councellors and Favourites but fifteen years after the making of this last mentioned Statute and what were the miserable Effects thereof you shall hear the Parliament of the next Year following at Westminster declare in these words That divers seditious and evil disposed Persons having no regard 39. H. 6. cap 1. Rastalls Stat. fol. 287. to the Dread of God nor to the Damage of the prosperous Estate of the King nor his Realm sinisterly and importunely did labour with the King to summon a Parliament to be holden at his City of Coventry the 20th day of the Month of November the 38th year of his Reign only to destroy certain of the great Nobles faithful and lawful Lords and Estates of the King's Blood and other of the faithful Liege-people of the Realm of England for the great Rancour Hatred and Malice which the said Seditious Persons of long time have had against them And of their greedy and insatiable Covetousness to have the Lands Hereditaments Possessions Offices and Goods of the said Lords and faithful Liege-people by which sinister labour certain Acts Statutes Ordinances against all good Faith and Conscience in the said Parliament were made finally to destroy the said lawful Lords Estates and Liege-people and their Issues as well Innocents as other and their Heirs for ever which Parliament was unduly summoned and a great part of the Knights for divers Counties of this Realm and many Burgesses and Citizens for divers Buroughs and Cities in the same appearing were named Returned and accepted some of them without due and free Election some of