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	parliament_n	writ_n	3,273	5	9.6734	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91291	A summary collection of the principal fundamental rights, liberties, proprieties of all English freemen; both in their persons, estates, and elections; and of the memorable votes, resolutions, and Acts of Parliament, for their vindication and corroboration, in the late Parliaments of 3 & 17 of King Charles; collected out of their Journals, and printed Ordinances. Most necessary to be known, considered, re-established (in this present juncture of publick affairs) with all possible old and new securities; against past, present, and future publick violations, under-minings, by force or fraud, for the much-desired healing of the manifold large mortal wounds in these chief vital parts, and repairing the various destructive subversive breaches in these prime foundations of our English state fabrick; without which no effectual present or future healing, union, peace, or settlement can possibly be expected, or established in our distracted nations. / By William Prynne of Swainswick Esq; a bencher of Lincolns Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing P4095; Thomason E892_3; ESTC R206517	46,699	73

whatsoever as well Supreme as subordinate all Members of Parliament Barresters Attornies Graduates in our Universities Steward of Leets and Court-Barons throughout our Dominions should from time to time upon and at their investitures into their several Offices Trusts or taking their Degrees be corporally sworn To defend and maintain the Great Charter of England the Petition of Right and other Fundamental Lawes of this Land together with the antient undoubted Rights and Liberties of our English Parliaments according to their late Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant And that all Justices of Assize Judges and Justices of the Peace should specially be sworn at every Assizes and Sessions of the Peace in their respective Circuits Counties Corporations and the Justices of the Kings Bench every Term amongst other Articles to the Grand Iury to give them in charge upon their Oaths diligently to inquire of and present all Offences Exactions Oppressions Taxes Imposts and Grievances whatsoever against the Great Charter the Petition of Right and other Good Lawes for the preservation of the Liberty Right and Property of the Subject by any person or persons to the end that they may be exemplarily punished according to Law by Fines Imprisonments or otherwise as the quantity and quality of the Offences deserve It being the * Advice Desire Proposition and Petition of the whole Commons house first and after of the Lords and Commons house joyntly to King Charles in his last Parliament to which he readily assented though never since put into actual execution which is now most necessary to be effectually accomplished for the future having been so long neglected After these Votes and the Petition of Right passed several Impositions upon Wines Currans Tobacco Beer and the taking of Tonnage and Poundage without Act of Parliament being complained of it was by special Votes and Declarations of the Commons House resolved and declared in the same Parliament 8. e That the receiving of Tunnage and Poundage and other Impositions not granted by Parliament is * a breach of the fundamental Libberties of this Kingdom and contrary to his Majesties Regal answer to the Petition of Right And those declared Publick Enemies who should thenceforth collect or pay any Customes Tunnage Poundage or Imposts not granted by act of Parliament which was since enacted and declared for Law in the f two fi●st acts for Tunnage and Poundage in the last Parliament of King Charles and all those in a Premunire and disable● to sue in any Court of Justice who shall presume to levy the same without Act of Parliament The case of all Customers Excisemen and their Instruments at this present fit to be made presidents in this kind for the terror of others 9. A Commission from the King under the Great Seal of England directed to 33 Lords and privy Counsellors dated the last of Febr. 3 Caroli stiled g a Commission of Excise was complained of and brought into the Commons House and there read which commanded them to raise monies by Impositions or otherwise as they in their wisdoms should find convenient for the safety and defence of the King Kingdom and People the Kings Pro●estant Friends and Allies which without hazard of all could admit no delay the necessity being so inevitable that form and circumstances must rather be dispensed with than substance lost Injoyning the Commissioners to be diligent in the service as they tendred the safety of his Majesty and of his People Dominions and Allies This Commission of Excise by the unanimous Vote and judgement of the Lords and Commons was resolved to be against Law and contrary to the Petition of Right And thereupon was cancelled as such in his Majesties presence by his own command and was brought cancelled to the Lords House by the Lord Keeper and by them afterwards sent to the Commons and the Warrant with all Inrollments of it were cancelled and ordered by the Commons that the Projector of it should be found out and punished Which judgement h was thrice recited confirmed and insisted on by the Lords and Commons and some in greatest present power the last Parliament of King Charls in printed Speeches and Declarations And if this intended Commission of Excise though never executed was thus frequently damned as an intollerable and monstrous Grievance against our Laws Properties and the Petition of Right How much more are all present Orders Commissions Warrants for the actual imposing and levying all sorts of Excises on such without any act of Parliament X. The Commons House in that Parliament upon solemn Argument and Debate concluded That by the Laws of this Realm none of his Majesties Subjects ought to be impressed or compelled to goe forth of his County to serve as a Souldier in the Wars * except in case of necessity of the sudden comming in of strange Enemies into the Kingdom or except they be otherwaies bound by the Tenures of their Lands or possessions Nor yet sent out of the Realm against his Will upon any forein imployment by way of an honorable banishment Which Resolution in the last Parliament of King Charles was enacted and declared to be the Law of the Land and fundamental Liberty of the Subject by the i Act for impressing Souldiers for Ireland by two Declarations of the Lords and Commons against the Commission of array and assented to by the King in his answer thereunto All which unanimous Votes Resolutions of both Houses having been successively ratified in two several Parliaments in King Charles his Reign whereof some in present Power were Members and enacted by several Statutes assented to by King Charles himself it must needs be the extremity of Impudency Tyranny Treachery Impiety Perjury Barbarism for any who have formerly contested with him in our Parliaments or in the open field for all or any of these premised Fundamental Rights and Liberties of all English Freemen and who vowed protested covenanted remonstrated again and again before God and all the World inviolably faithfully constantly to defend them with their Lives and Fortunes all their daies in their several places and callings and who beheaded him as the Greatest Tyrant together with Strafford and Canterbury for infringing them to oppose contradict violate or infringe them all in a more transcendent publike manner than he or his worst Ministers formerly have done and now not really chearfully to corroborate defend transmit them to posterity in full vigor by all good wayes and corroborations that possibly can be devised without the least opposition and dispute to make the Nation free and their own posterity together with it XI After the Petition of Right had passed the Commons House and was transmitted to the Lords the House of Lords desired that this Clause might be added to the close thereof We humbly present this Petition to your Majesty not only with a Care of Preservation of our own Liberties but with a due regard to leave intire that Soveraign Power

Present more before Justices or matter of Re●ard or by due Process and writ original according to the old Law of the Land And if any thing from henceforth be done to the contrary it shall be void in the Law and holden for ●rrour And therefore we all jointly and severally expect and claim the like Declaration and Resolution in all these particulars being assented to by King Charls himself in the Petition of Right and by these antient Warlike Kings and true English Parliaments from whose vigilancy magnanamity unaminity zeal courage in defence of these our fundamental Charters Laws Rights Liberties we should now be ashamed to degenerate after so many yeats wars and vast expences for their preservation and all sacred solemn Protestations Vows Leagues Covenants Declarations Remonstrances and Ordinances engaging us with our lives and fortunes constantly to defend them all the daies of our lives against all opposition And if any who pretend to the Name or power of a Parliament should now refuse or neglect to do their duties herein they may justly expect to be had in perpetual detestation and execration both with God and all English Freemen XII It was frequently averred declared k by the Commons in this Parliament That the old custome and use of our Parliaments constantly hath been and ought to be to debate redress all publick grievances and re-establish secure their violated * Great Charter Laws Rights and Liberties in the first place of all before they debated or granted any aides or subsidies demanded of them though never so pressing or necessary it being both dangerous imprudent and a breach of their trusts towards the people who elected them to play an After-game for their Liberties Laws and Grievances which would never be effectually redressed after subsidies once granted VVhereupon they refused to pass the Bill of Subsidies then granted till the Petition of Right was fi●st assented unto enrolled and their Grievances redr●ssed by the King XIII They cast Sir Edmund Sawyer a Member of the Commons House out of it upon solemn Debate l committed him Prisoner to the Tower and perpetually disabled him to serve in Parliament for the future for having a chief hand in making a Book of Rates for Tunnage and Poundag and laying imposiions on the Subject in nature of a Projector without grant or Act of Parliament And likewise suspended Mr. John Baber then Recorder and Burgesse of Welle only for making a Warrant to billet Souldiers on some of the Townsmen against the Law and Subjects Liberty out of fear Resolving that all Projectors and Promoters of illegal impositions Taxes billetings Projects out of base fear which Mr. Baber or by regal command which Sir Edmund Sawyer pleaded for his excuse were unfit to sit or vo●e in any English Parliament and fit to be turned out thence by judicial sentence with greatest Infamy And whether any such be fit to be Members at any other season let those whom it concerns determine XIV In this Parliament of 3 Caroli the a Speaker in the close of his first Speech to the King according to b usual custome in former ages prayed 3 Privileges in behalf of every Member of the Commons House the first whereof was That for the better attending the publick and important services of the House all and every Member thereof and their necessary attendants may be free both in Person and in Goods from all Arrests and troubles according to their antient Privileges and immunities Which the King then readily granted them all according to the true Rights and Privileges of Parliament By the mouth of the Lord Keeper c After which Sir Edward Cook arguing against the King and his Councils power to commit men only by special command without any legal cause expressed in the Warrant in the House used this expression This concerneth not only the Commonalty but the Lords and therefore it deserveth to be spoken of in Parliament because this might dissolve the Parliament and this House for we may be then all one after another thus committed 31 H. 6. rot Parl. n. 26 27. d No Member of Parliament can be arrested but for Felony Treason or Peace And all here may be committed under these pretences and then where is the Parliament Surely the Lords will be glad of this it concerns them as well as us e Not long after the Common House being informed that Sir Robert Stanhop a Member thereof was committed by the Lords of the Council thereupon the House in whose power it was either to send an Habeas Corp●s or their Sergeant with his Mace for any Member committed as was resolved the last Parliament before this together with the cause thereof ordered That their Sergeant should go with his Ma●e and bring Sir Robert Stanhop with his Keeper and the Warrant for his commitment into the House the next morning they fate Who accordingly brought him with the Marshal of the Houshold and the Warrant wherein it was declared That his commitment was by the Lords of the Council for breach of the peace and refusing to give Su●●ti●t for the Peace upon a challenge and a Duel intended by him as the truth of the Case appeared Whereupon the House were of opinion That standing committed for his real breach of the peace and refusing to give Sureties he could not have his Privileges without giving good security in the Kings Bench to keep the peace And Mr. ●a●shaw all●ging That in such cases some Members by order of the House had entred into Recogni●ances in the Kings Bench in former times to keep the Peace a Committee was ordered to search out the Presidents and consider of the Case But the quarrel being soon after taken up thereupon the Lords released Sir Robert without Sureties to attend the service of the House On the ●8 of April 1627 Sir Simon Steward a Member of the Commons House being served with a Sub p●na ad audie●dum judicium out of the S●ar-chamber at the sute of the Kings Attorny upon a Bill there exhibited against him for sundry misdemeanours complained thereof to the House and shewed that he had been inticed to enter into a Bond and Recognizance of 500 l. not to claim any privilege of Parliament The House upon solemn debate hereof April 20. resolved That Sir Simon notwithstanding this Bond and Recognizance should have his Privilege allowed him because he was elected by and served for others and could not make a Proxy and because else the House might thereby be deprived of his attendance by his Censure Yea this Recognisance with the Condition thereof not to claim his Privilege were held to be hold and against the Law And by order of the House the party who served the Subpoena on Sir Simon Steward was sent for as a Delinquent and Sir Simon commanded to attend the service of the House and not the hearing of the cause Vpon this on the 10th of May the Inhabitants of the Isle of Ely

the settlement peace liberty ease from taxes excises and good Government of the Kingdome by a happy close with the late King upon more safe and honourable terms of Freedom and happiness to the whole Nation and our Parliaments than ever we can hope for from our New Governours or Sword-men to usurp the Soveraign Power of King and Parliament into their own hands and perpetuate our Wars Taxes Excises Armies and Military Government upon us from generation to generation as experience now manifests beyond contradiction not for the peoples safety ease wealth tranquillity as they then pretended which people though they then cried up * * January 1648. voted for the only Supreme Authority their free elections for the only Basis of all lawfull Magistracy Power in and over the Nation and their safety as the Supreme Law yet now they imperiously trample upon as their conquered slaves and both by their publike speeches actions proclaim to all the world They now no more value them than they doe the very Acorns of the Swine or dust of their feet no further than they are subservient to their own aspiring designs and selfish ends For those few remaining Abuses in our Laws execution yet unredressed by former Laws as they no waies concern the army or army-Officers as Souldiers being out of their calling Commission and fit only for Iudges or Parliaments in their defaults to redresse So they concern not the generality of the People many thousands of them having no sute at Law in all their lives and the most of them very rarely but for the most part only some Litigious contentious persons who out of their pride and animosity occasion these abuses and prolongatio●s of sutes in Law which they and others complain against and therefore are justly punished and rewarded by them the expensivenesse and tediousnesse of their Law sutes being the best means to correct cure their contentious malicious spirits other sutes between peaceable persons being soon determined without any great expence or length of time if diligently prosecuted by honest Lawyers Attorneys and Sollicitors But the Grievances these Martial Reformers of our Laws have introduced under pretext of reforming some petty Abuses in the practice of the Law and Lawyers are of a far more grievous generall and transcendent nature subverting the very Fnndamental Laws and Liberties of the whole Nation and burthening them with two or three Millions of extraordinary Taxes Expences every year whereas all the abuses in the Law if rectified amount not to above 5 or 6 thousand pounds a year at the most and those volunt●rily expended by litigious persons not exacted from or imposed upon any against their Wills as Taxes Excises Imposts Tunnage and Poundage now are by the Souldiers without Act of Parliament against our Laws Which if redressed by the Swordmen now is not out of any affection towards or design to ease the People but out of spleen to the Profession and Professors of the Law and to increase the Peoples monthly Taxes to the Souldiers and maintenance of their new war to tenfold the value every year at least to what they now expend in Law-sutes by reason of these abuses they would now redresse which will be nothing so grievous expensive to the People as those alterations they intend to make in our Laws and legal conveyances which will but multiply Sutes and draw all mens estates into future sequestration in few years space There are four things specially provided for by our Fundamental Laws and the original constitution of our Government which principally concern all the Freemen of England in General above all things else 1. The Privileges and Fredome of their Parliaments and their Members 2. The safety and liberty of their Persons 3. The propriety of their Estates 4. The Free course of Common Law Right Justice All which our Army Reformers have lately violated in the highest degree beyond the Presidents of the worst of former ages against all Laws of God and the Land their own Commissions Trusts Declarations Protestations Vowes Leagues Covenants Engagements without any colour of lawful Authority to the whole Nations intollerable Grievance Injury Oppression Impoverishing enslaving and yet would be reputed the only just upright faithful righteous conscientious Protectors Reformers of our Laws Grievances government and Gods most precious Saints and all others meer Malignants or Disaffected persons to Liberty and Reformation who oppose or dislike their proceedings secluding them out of their New Parliaments as such when elected most freely by the People 1. For the Privileges Freedom of Parliaments and their Members formerly held most sacred and inviolable c c See the Epistle and Appendix to my Speech in Parliament and the History of Independency They have in their own and the Armies name impeached imprisoned suspended from sitting many Members of both Houses marched up professedly against them contrary to their Trusts Commands and the expresse Statutes of 5 R. 2. c. 4. 5. H. 4. c. 6. 8 H. 6. c. 1. 4 H. 8. c. 8. forced them to retract their own Orders Votes Ordinances eject imprison their own Members and Vote what they prescribed them Since which they imprisoned close imprisoned my self with sundry other Members in remote Castles sundry years without any cause hearing or recompence for this transcendent injustice And not content herewith they contrary to both Houses Votes seised impeached abused condemned beheaded the late King d d Cook 4 Instit. c. 1. modus Teneadi Parliam The head of the Parliament suppressed abolished the whole House of Lords the antientest chiefest Members of it secured secluded the greatest part of the Commons House and forcibly dissolved the Parliament it self by the Sword without any writ contrary to an expresse act of Parliament And how they have disturbed secluded abused dissipated dishoused their own mock-Parliament and their Members even in the like manner How they and their new Instruments have New-modelled that they now call our Parliaments how they have deprived many antient Burroughs Cities of their right of electing Burgesses or of so many Burgesses as they ought contrary to their Charters and the expresse Statutes of 5 R. 2. c. 4. 1 H 5. c. 1. 32 H. 6. c. 15. 9 H. 8. c. 18 disabled many thousands of their Votes in Elections who have Voices and enabled others to be Electors who have no Votes by our Laws incorporated Scotish and Irish Knights Burgesses as Members into their late Parliaments and interrupted the Freedom of Elections by Letters Menaces armed Troops Soldiers and other indirect means against the Statute of 3 E. 1. c. 5. the great Charter and Constitutions Laws Rights Privileges of our Parliaments to make what Persons and Number of their own creatures they please a pretended Parliament to bind our three Nations by colour of a void illegal Instrument made sodenly by a few Privadoes of their own in a corner having no more legal force to bind our three Nations or Parliaments than a Fiddle-string or the

but the very eighth and tenth Moral Commandements of God himself now practically quite expunged out of their Decalogue And do not all else hold their Lands and Estates as Tenants at will to these supream new Land-Lords who upon any New coined Delinquency or pretended plots really sequester or confiscate them at their pleasures by the self-same Law and Title Yea where as all our Kings in former ages took Aids and Subsidies from our Ancestors only as 1 1 Sec Bastals Tenths and taxes all the the Acts for Subsidies Tunage and Poundage as their free Gifts and Grants in Parliament and that in moderate proportions to wit one Fifteen Tenth or Subsidy and no more in antient times and but two or three Subsidies an● Fiftoens of later daies payable at sundry times in divers years for which our Kings returned them hearty thanks in their Answers to those Grants and granted them New 2 2 Magna ●●arta c. 37 52 H. 3. ● 5. 25 ● 3. c. 1 2. c. 28 H. 8. c. 1. M●● Paris Hist. Angliaep 311. 355. 367. 421. 576. 624 688. 838. 833. 338. 940 941. 960. Confirmations of their Laws Liberties and the Great Charter when violated together with beneficial General Pardons in recompence of these their Aids and Subsidies though for publick uses and defence which they never claimed nor imposed in the Clergy or Laity but by their several free Grants in full and free Parliaments and Convocations of the Clergy as all our Parliament Rolls our imprinted Acts Histories and 3 3 4 Institut●s c. 1. p. 10 25●0 35. Sir Edward Cook at large inform us Do not these our New Military Reforming Soveraigns as if they were more than Kings without any free gift grant or Act of Parliament in a full and free Parliamentary Assembly by their own New usurped Power without any thanks at all to the People or confirmation of their violated Laws Liberties Privilges or general Pardons against all former Acts and Parliamentary Votes impose both on the Clergy and Laity against their Wills beyond all Presidents of former ages what excessive heavy monthly Taxe s Excises imposts tunnage poundage and other payments they please upon the w●ole Nation without intermission which their new comodelled Parliaments themselves must nor alter nor controll by the 27 28 29 Articles of their Instrument and levy them by armed Souldiers Violence imprisonments quartering and other great penalties fines inflicted on the Refusers of them and dispose of them at their pleasures when levied without giving any account thereof to the Nation yea force them to pay their contributions some months before they grow due when no Land-lord can receive his Rents nor Creditor his debts to pay these Taxes till at or after the time they become due And all to enslave impoverish the Nation to carry on new Wars without consent of Parliament and gain new Conquests abroad whiles in the mean time our Merchants are robbed undone our trading decayed by these taxes wars and forwant of well-guarding the Seas at home And not content with these ordinary Monthly contributions excises imposts have not these Refarmers without any legal Trial hearing conviction of New Delinquency g g See my Gospel plea for the Ministers of the Gospel oft endeavouring to take away all Ministers Tithes though due unto them Jure divino as well as by the Laws of the Land exacted the Tithes of all formerly sequestred persons their heirs and Widows estates improved according to the best improved valu by a late Decimation for which there is no divine nor human Law or Right notwithstanding all former compositions Pardons under Seal Articles of War their own Act of Oblivion their late instrument of Government and oath for its observance besides all our antient Laws exempting them there from yea notwithstanding this sacred Canon Ezech. 18. 20. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father with this Maxim in our Law Transgressio personalis moritur cum personâ when as yet many Sons yea some Infants are merely decimated for their Fathers and Wives Jointures Dowe●s charged for their Husbands delinquencies Nay which is yet more barbarous illegal hundreds of Orthodox able godly learned Protestant Ministers of our Church without any hearing or crime at all for their former expiated pardoned mistake in being addicted to the late Kings party are not only turned out of all their livings lectures fellowships schools at once but likewise prohibited to preach teach School in publike or private or to be entertained as Chaplains in private Houses to support themselves wives children or to administer the Sacrament or mary any under pain of imprisonment banishment And may not all our other Protestant Orthodox Ministers School-Masters Scholars be thus smi●ten down and suppressed at once by the like club-law and justice of which this President is a very sad presage Moreover do not these Reformers seise mens Horses Arms Swords fouling birding pieces yea the very Armorets Chand●rrs Arms and Ammuntion though their stock wa●es trade livelihood at their pleasures upon every pretended plot fear jealousie Yea do not Souldiers Excise-men and their agents break open search ransack mens Houses Studies Trunks Chests both by day and night and ' take away their Goods Chattels yea their Writings ' Records Papers as they h h See my New Discovey of Free-state Ty●a●n● did mine at their pleasures against all Law and many late Parliament Votes Nay have not they forced thousands of all sorts to enter into great penal Bonds of late with sureties both for themselves and all their Servants containing strange unheard-of i i Adjudged illegal 1 E. 3. c. 15. and 1 E. 3. rot 2 3 4. illegall Conditions and forced them to pay some 10 s. others 5 s. others 2 s. 6 d. for every Bond an unparalleld oppression though many of them not worth so much under pain of Imprisonment sequestration and banishment in case of refusal to omit all other extorted fees by Marshals Lieutenants Officers of the Tower and others from Prisoners by Souldiers for levying pretended arrears of Taxes and of Excise-men and their Instruments And are not these more grievous abuses fit to be redressed than any coruptions excesses fees in Lawyers or our Laws No private Person or Lawyers can take one farthing from another against his will nor do the least prejudice to his reall or personal estate against Law but he may have present remedy for it But these New Reformers by Excises Imposts Contributions Decimations Sequestrations and new-invented forfeitures can forcibly extort and levy some Millions of pounds from the whole Nation every year against their wills all our Laws yea strip whole families of their Inheritances without any remedy by Law or otherwise yet this must be no grievance or injustice at all in them though the Highest Treason and unpardonable crying offences in Strafford Canterbury the old Council-Table and beheaded King but a most righteous proceeding necessary to be still pursued

A SUMMARY COLLECTION Of the principal FVNDAMENTAL RIGHTS LIBERTIES PROPRIETIES OF ALL English Freemen Both in their Persons Estates and Elections and of the memorable Votes Resolutions and Acts of Parliament for their Vindication and Corroboration in the late Parliaments of 3 17 of King Charles collected out of their Journals and printed Ordinances Most necessary to be known considered re-established in this present juncture of Publick Affairs with all possible old and new securities against past present and future publick Violations Under-minings by force or fraud for the much-desired healing of the manifold large mortal Wounds in these chief Vital parts and repairing the various destructive subversive Breaches in these prime foundations of our English State Fabrick without which no effectual present or future Healing Union Peace or settlement can possibly be expected or established in our distracted Nations By William Prynne of Swainswick Esq a Bencher of Lincolns Inne Jer. 9. 21. Is there no Balm in Gilead is there no Physician there why then is not the health of the Daughter of my people recovered Jer. 51. 8. Take Balm for her pain if so be she may be healed 1 Chron 19. 13. Be of good courage and let us behave our selves valiantly for our people and for the Cities of our God and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight London Printed for the Author 1656. To the imprejudiced Reader BEing importunately solicited by Mr. VVilliam Shepheard a Lawyer specially imployed by some Swordmen and Grandees at VVhitehall from Whence he came to visit me at my Study in Lincolns Inne within two daies after their resolution to call a new Assembly at VVestminster wherewith he acquainted me to regulate the abuses in the execution of our Laws that I would consider of such abuses of this Nature as I had observed for him to present to that Assembly to be reformed by them being one chief end of their meeting which I then informed him I had no time to do being ready to take my Journey into the Country and that Sir John Davis in his Epistle to his Irish Reports had written so much in justification of our Laws as would satisfie and silence allsoldiers and others that ignorantly censured them He thereupon desired me at my vacant times to consider of this his motion in the Country for the publick good Which I since calling to mind and considering that in the Parliament of 5 R. 2 rot Parl. n. 17 18. it was the resolution both of the Commons and Lords desiring redress of their publick G●ievances and oppressions * that Reformation alwaies ought to begin in the Head and so gradually from the Highest Members to the Feet and that it will be both bootlesse impolitick and ridiculous for any publick or private State-Physicians or Reformers to spend their time and pains only to cure some small scratches or cuts in the toes or fingers or breaches in the tyles or seeling of our State and Laws as some Mountebancks and Pseudo-politicians now do and in the mean time to overpasse neglect if not increase dilate the large deadly wounds in the very Head Heart Vital Parts and most dangerous Breaches Under-minings in their very Foundations which threaten present death and suddain Ruine to the whole Body of our State Laws Nation if not speedily healed repaired with all possible care and diligence by the most skilfull Artists and Philopaters sufficiently qualified for such a desperate difficult publick cure Repair and with sincere self-denying publick spirits couragiously addressing themselves with all their skill might to this necessary Heroick work And withall observing that there can be no health ease rest quiet but perpetual pain languishing consumption torture decay in the Body politick of our Nation as in the Body natural so long as there is any dislocation fraction convulsion wound malady in the Bones Nerves Arteries or chief Parts and members thereof And then remembring that serious Protestation and solemn League and Covenant which I my self all members of the late Parliament most Persons in late power and the generality of all the well-affected people to publick Laws Liberty Justice Religion in our three Kingdomes not long since took in the presence of the most High God Angels and Men with hands lifted up to Heaven and then subscribed with those hands That they shall with sincerity reality and constancy in their several Vocations endeavour with their Estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights Privileges Laws and Liberties of the Parliaments and Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland c. And in this common cause of Liberty and peace of the Kingdomes assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and not suffer themselves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be divided or withdrawn from this blessed union c. but shall all the daies of their lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to their power c. Which Solemn League and Covenant I find subscribed in * print by VVilliam Lenthal Speaker Robert Nicholas Gilbert Pickering Oliver Cromwell Philip L. Lisle VVilliam Ellis Oliver Saint-John Miles Corbet John Lisle Francis Rous Nathaniel Fyennes Edmund Prideaux John Glynn Bulstrode VVhitelocke Edward Montagu and others in greatest present power and imployments whom I desire now to remember and perform the same effectually as they shall answer the contrary at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed according to those their printed subscriptions thereof for all the good ends therein prescribed I thereupon apprehended I could not perform a more seasonable acceptable or beneficial service to my native Country in pursuance of the Protestation and solemn League and Covenant lying still as sacred Bonds upon my conscience than to draw up this summary Collection of the principal fundamental hereditary Rights Liberties Properties of all English Freemen both in relation to their Persons Estates and free-Elections most mortally wounded more dangerously under-mined shaken subverted by force and fraud of late years since our Parliamentary and Military contests for their defence to the vast effusion of our Treasures and Blood by some who were most deeply engaged in their Protection and preservation than in the very worst of former ages under our late or antient Kings in every particular branch And of the several memorable Votes Resolutions Declarations and Acts of Parliament for their Vindication and Corroboration in the happy Parliament of 3 Caroli remembred and ratified likewise in the last Parliament of King Charles as the most soveraign Balm the most effectual materials prepared applyed by the learnedest skilfullest wisest State-Physicians and Builders in those Parliaments to heal and close up the mortal wounds the perilous Breaches our late Kings * Jesuitical arbitrary tyrannical ill-counsellors and other Viperous self-seeking projectors had sormerly made in them to the impoverishing oppressing enslaving

of the People and endangering the utter subversion both of our Fundamental Laws Liberties Properties Government Parliaments Kingdomes Religion now in a more desperate deplorable condition than ever unless speedily revived by the fresh application of these healing Cordials reunited repaired supported with● these sementing Ingredients by some expert active Chirurgians and Master-builders to whom I humbly recommend them as a brief Corollary to the first and second part of my seasonable legal and Historical Vindication and Collection of the good old fundamental Liberties Franchises Rights Laws of all English Freemen till God shall enable me to compleat the remaining parts thereof in their Chronological series of time the best Legacy I can leave behind me to my Native Country and the whole English Nation whose real Liberty VVeal Tranquillity Prosperity next to Gods glory and the safety of our endangered Church and Religion hath been the sole scope end of this and all other his publications who though ingratefully despitefully requited for most of them would repute it his greatest infelicity to be enforced or hear other Cordial State-Physicians compelled now at last to say of England as Gods people once did of Babylon Jer. 51. 8 9 10. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed howle for her take balm for her pain If so be she may be healed VVe would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us go every one into his own Country for her judgment reacheth unto Heaven and is lifted up even to the Skies Yet the Lord hath brought forth our righteousnesse as he hath maugre all Enemies Oppositions Slanders the righteousnesse of him who desires thy kind acceptation of this Breviary and prayers for Gods blessing upon this and all other his real endeavours for sick desperately-wounded Englands cure Swainswick Septemb. 6. 1656. William Prynne A Summary Collection of the principal fundamental Rights Liberties Properties of all English-Freemen c. THe Liberty of the Subjects Persons having in the three first years of our late King Charles his Reign been very much invaded endangered under-mined 1. By Imprisonment of their Persons by the Lords of the Council without any special Legal cause assigned in the Warrants for their commitment but only the Kings command 1. By honorable banishments upon pretence of forein imployments 3. By confinements to particular places 4. By remanding and not bayling them by the Judges upon Habeas Corpora sued forth by them 5. By Commissions for Trials of Souldiers and others for their lives by Martial Law in times of peace when other Courts of Justice were open and the like The properties of their Goods and Estates being likewise much encroached upon and in a great measure subverted 1 By forced Loans and contributions 2. By Lieutenants and Deputy Lieutenants exorbitant Powers and new rates taxes imposed on and forced from them without grant in Parliament for billeting Souldiers and quartering Souldiers in mens Houses against their wills till they paid those rates 3. By exacting Tunnage Poundage New customes and impositions without special grant and act of Parliament 4. By an intended Commission of Excise never put in execution and other particulars of like nature And the Liberty of their Free-elections much impeached by Lieutenants and others Letters menaces summoning of trained Bands to elections and the like indirect courses Whereupon the Parliament begun on Monday 17 Martii 3 Caroli in the year of our Lord 1627 to vindicate these their infringed Liberties properties freedomes and preserve them from future violations of this nature after many learned Arguments by Sir Edward Cook Mr. Noy Mr. Selden Mr. Littleton Mr. Mason Mr. Creswel Mr. Shervile Mr. Sherland Mr. Bancks Mr. Rolls Mr. Ball with other Lawyers and able Members of the Commons House passed their unanimous Votes against them Nemine centradicente fit now to be revived re-established after more dangerous avowed publick Violations of our hereditary Fundamental Liberties Properties by the greatest pretended Military and civil Champions for and Patrons Assertors and Protectors of them than any in former ages as the probablest means under God then and now to cure the mortal distempers and repair the sad divisions breaches desolation of our Land a Resolved upon the Question 1. That * no Freeman ought to be committed deteined in Prison or otherwise restrained by command of the King or privy Council or any other unless some cause of the commitment restraint or deteiner be expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed deteined or restrained 2. That a Writ of Habeas Corpus may not be denied but ought to be granted to every man that is committed or deteined in Prison or otherwise restrained although it be by command of the King or Privy Councill or any other he praying the same 3. That if a Freeman be committed or deteined in Prison or otherwise restrained by command of the King or Privy Council or any other no cause of such commitment deteiner or restraint being expressed forthwith for which by Law he ought to be committed restreined or detained and the same being returned upon an Habeas Corpus granted for the same party that then he ought to be delivered or bayled 4. b That no Freeman ought to be confined to his House or any other place by any command of the King or Privy Council or any other unless it be by * Act of Parliament or by other due course or Warrant of Law 5. c That the Commission for martial Law and all other of such nature to be executed within the Land at such times as were appointed by this Commission then questioned to wit in times of peace when the Kings Courts of Law were open and other Legal trials might be had by Juries in Courts of Iustice are against the Law 6. That † billetting and placing of Souldiers or any other person in the House of any Freeman against his will is against the Law 7. d That it is the * antient and undoubted Right of every Freeman that he hath a full and absolute propriety in his goods and Estate And that no taxes Tallages loan benevolence or other charge ought to be commanded imposed or levyed by the King or his Ministers without common consent by Act of Parliament All which Votes were drawn up and inserted into the Petition of Right assented to by the Lords and at last by the King himself in his Answer to that petition as the antient Fundamental Rights and Liberties of all English Freemen And therefore after all our late Parliamentary and Military contests wars for their defence fit to be confirmed ratified by all sorts of Domestick waies and policies by which the great Charter was * antiently confirmed and all violations of them exemplarily punished without any further argument or debate being indisputable principles and foundations whereon all our Liberties Properties as English Freemen are bottomed To which end I would advise that all Civil and Military Officers

wherewith your Majesty is trusted for the Protection Safety and Happinesse of your People The Commons after a long and full Debate resolved That this Saving ought to be rejected and by no means to be added to this Petition though very Specious in shew and words for that it would be destructive to the whole Petition and would leave the Subjects in farre worse condition than it found them For whereas the Petition recites That by the Great Charter and other Laws and Statutes of this Land No Loan Tax Tallage or other Charge ought to be imposed on the Subjects or levyed without common consent by Act of Parliament Nor any Freeman of this Realm imprisoned without cause shewed Nor any compelled to receive Souldiers or Mariners into their Houses against their wills Nor any man adjudged to death by Martial Law in times of Peace but only by the lawful trial of his Peers according to the established Lawes and Custom of the Realm This addition would make the Sense and Construction thereof to be That the King by his Ordinary power and Prerogative could impose no Loan Tax Tallage or other things upon his Subjects without their common consent by Act of Parliament Nor imprison any Freeman without cause shewed Nor billet any Souldiers or Mariners in mens Houses against their wills Nor condemn nor execute any Subject by Martial Law But yet by his Soveraign power wherewith he is intrusted for the Protection Safety and Happinesse of his people here left intirely to him he may when he saw cause and necessity impose what Loans Taxes Impositions and Charges he pleased on his people without common consent and Act of Parliament imprison them without cause shewed quarter Mariners and Souldiers in their houses against their wills and condemn execute them by Martial Law upon this pretext that it was for the Protection Safety and Happinesse of his people in general All which himself and his Council not the Judges and our Laws must determine And so this Addition if admitted would quite overturn the Petition it self the Great Charter and all other Acts recited in it and give an intimation to Posterity as if it were the opinion of the Lords and Commons in this Parliament that there is a trust reposed in the King upon some emergent cases and necessities to lay aside as well the Common Law as the Great Charter and other Statutes which declare and ratifie the Subjects Liberty and Property by his Soveraign power And so by consequence to enable him to alter the whole frame and fabrick of the Commonwealth and dissolve that Government whereby this Kingdom hath flourished for so many year under his Majesties most royal Predecessors Whereas in truth there is in the King no Soveraign Power or Prerogative royal to enable him to dispute with or take from his Subjects that Birthright and Inheritance which they have in their Liberties by virtue of the Common Law and these Statutes which are meerly positive and declarative conferring or confirming ipso facto an inherent Right and Interest of Liberty and Freedom in the Subjects of this Realm as a Birthright and Inheritance des●ended to them from their Auncestors and descendible to their Heirs and Posterity But the Soveraign power wherewith he is intrusted is only for the protection safety and happinesse of his people in preserving this their inherent Birthright and Inheritance of Liberty and Freedom and those Lawes and Statutes which ratifie and declare them Upon these and other reasons alleged by the Commons the Lords after three large Conferences agreed fully with the Commons and rejected this destructive Addition to the Petition of Right which the Lords and Commons in their * Declaration touching the Commission of Array January 16. 1642. to which many now in power were parties recite insist on and corroborated in Parliament as an undoubted truth If then the King by his absolute Soveraign power wherewith he was intrusted could upon no emergent occasion or necessity whatsoever violate elude evade subvert all or any of these fundamental Laws Liberties Rights and Inheritances of the Subject by the joynt unanimous resolution of the Lords and Commons in these two Parliaments of King Charles much lesse then may any other Person or Persons or new Powers do it who condemned him for a Tyrant and suppressed Kingship as tyrannical over-burdensome dangerous to the peoples Liberties Safety Prosperity upon any real or pretended Necessity or Emergency whatsoever Much lesse may any true English Parliament permit or enable them upon any pretence to do it in the least degree to the prejudice of Posterity after so many publick Parliamentary and Military conflicts for these Laws and Liberties The rather because that our Noble Ancestors would admit no Saving or Addition to the Great Charter or any Statutes for its confirmation that might any wayes impeach their Liberties Rights or Proprieties And when King Edward the 1. in the 28 year of his reign upon the Petition of the Lords and Commons granted a New Confirmation of their Charters and in the * close thereof added this Clause Salvo jure Coronae Regis That the right and prerogative of his Crown should be saved to him in all things Which the Lords most insisted on to justify the forementioned rejected Addition to the Petition of Right when it came to be proclamed in London the people hearing this Clause at the end thereof added by the King fell into execration for that Addition and the great Earls who went away ●atisfied out of Parliament hearing thereof went to the King and complained thereof who promised to redress it as Mr. Selden then informed the Commons house out of a Leiger Book of that year in the publike Library of the Vniversity of Cambridge Whereupon in the Statute Do Tallagio non concedendo 34 E. 1. the King to please his discontented Lords and Commons not only granted That no Tallage or Ayd should be taken or levied by us or our heirs in our Realm without the good will and assent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land c. 1. But likewise added c. 4. We will and grant for us and our Heirs That all Clerks and Lay-men of our Land shall have their Laws Liberties and Free Customes as they have used to have the same at any time when they had them best And if any Statutes have been made by us or our Ancestors or any Customs brought in contrary to them We will and grant That such manner of Statutes and Customs shall be void and frustrate for evermore Yea King Edward the 3. in pursuance thereof in the Parliament of 4● E. 3. c. 1. assented and accorded That the Great Charter and Charter of the Forest be holden and kept in all points And if any Statute he made to the contrary that shall he holden for none And c. 3 It is assented and accorded for the good Government of the Commons that no man be put to answer without

Oath not warranted by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm administred unto them and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and to give attendance before your Privy Counsel at London and in other places and others of them have been therefore imprisoned confined and certain otherways molested and disquieted And divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several Counties by Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Commissioners for Musters Justices of Peace and others by command or direction from your Majesty or your Privy Counsel against the Laws and free Customs of the Realm And whereas also by the Statute called the Great Charter of the Liberties of England it is declared and enacted That no Free-man may be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his Freehold or Liberties or free Customs or be outlawed or exiled or in any manner destroyed nor passed upon nor condemned but by the lawfull Iudgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And in the 28 year of King Edward the 3. it was enacted and declared by an Authority of Parliament that no man of what State or condition soever shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements nor taken nor imprisoued nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law Neverthelesse against the Tenor of the said Statutes and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realm to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your Majesties writs of Habeas Corpus there to undergo and receive as the Court should order and the Keepers commanded to certifie the causes of their deteiner no cause was certified but that they were deteined by your Majesties special command signified by the Lords of your Privy Council And yet were returned back to several Prisons without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to Law And whereas of late great companies of Souldiers and Mariners have been dispersed into divers Counties of the Realm and the Inhabitants against their Wills have been compelled to receive them into their Houses and there to suffer them to sojourn against the Laws and Customes of this Realm to the great Grievance and Vexation of the people And whereas also by authority of Parliament in the 25 year of King Edward the third it was declared and enacted That no man should be forejudged of life or limbs against the form of the Great Charer And by other the Laws and Statutes of this Realm No man ought to be adjudged to death but by the Laws established in this your Realm either by the Customes of the same Realm or by Act of Parliament And whereas no Offender of what kind soever is exempted from the proceedings to to be used and punishments to be infflicted by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm Neverthelesse of late time divers Commissions under your Majesties Great Seal have issued forth by which certain Persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners with Power and Authority to proceed within the Land according to the custome of Martial Law against such Souldiers or Sea-men or other dissolute Persons joining with them as should commit any Murther Robbery Felony Mutiny or other Outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever and by such Summary Caurse and Orders as is agreeable to Martial Law and as is used in Armies in time of Wars to proceed to the Trials and condemnation of such Offenders and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the Law Martial By pretext whereof some of your Majesties Subjects have been by some of your Majesties Commissioners put to death when and where if by the Laws and Statutes of the Land they had deserved death by the same Laws and Statutes also they might and by no other ought to be judged and executed And also sundry grievous Offenders by colour thereof claiming an exemption have escaped the punishments due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm by reason that divers of your Officers and Ministers of Justice have unjustly refused or forborn to proceed against such Offenders according to the same Laws and Statutes upon pretence that the said Offenders were punishable only by Martial Law and by Authority of such Commissions as aforesaid Which Commissions and all other of like nature extended to any except Souldiers or Mariners or to be executed in time of Peace or when or where your Majesties Army is not on foot are wholly and directly contrary to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent Majesty that none hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift Loan Benevolence Tax or such like charge without common consent by Act of Parliament And that none be called to make answer or take such Oath or to give attendance or be confined or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same or for resusal thereof And that no Freeman in any such manner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or deteined And that your Majesty would be pleased to remove the said Souldiers and Mariners and that your People may not be so burthened in time to come And that the aforesaid Commission for proceeding by Martial Law may be revoked and ●nulled And that hereafter no Commission of like nature may issue forth to any Person or Persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid lest by colour of them any of your Majesties Subjects be destroyed or put to death contrary to the Laws and franchises of the Land All which they humbly pray of your most excellent Majesty as their Rights of Liberties according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare that the awards doings and proceedings to the prejudice of your People in any of the premises shall not be drawn hereafter in consequence or example And that your Majesty would also be graciously pleased for the futher comfort and safety of your People to declare your Royal Will and pleasure That in the things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serve you according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as they tender the honor of your Majesty and the Prosperitie of this Kingdome To which Petition King Charles at last gave this full and satisfactory Answer Soit droit fait come il est desire par le Petition that is Let All Right be done as it is desired by the Petition To the unspekaable joy of this Parliament and all his Subjects Adding withall thereunto I assure you my Maxim is That the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties The benefit of which most excellent Law Petition and of all the precedent Parliamentary Votes Lawes with the present repealing and vacating all Acts Votes Orders Ordinances Declarations Resolutions

we desire men of moderation may be chosen and we desire you to give your Voito A. and B c. And for that besides these Letters they warned the trained Band to attend the day of the election By which Letters Menaces and Practices they were voted guilty as practising to pervert the free-dome of the election of the Knights of that County and thereupon thus censured by the House On the 28 of the same May 1628. Sir John Eliot reported from the Committee sundry complaints against the Lord Mohun Vice-warden of the Stanneries in Cornwal by the Tinners of that County whereof this was one That the Tinners in Cornwal have time out of mind used to elect a Parliament of Tinners so often as there is occasion summoned ever in this manner The Lord Warden of the Stanneries grants his Commission to the Vice-Warden who thereupon directs Sommons to the 4 Maiors of the 4 Divisions of the Stanneries appointing them to elect within every Division 6 Tinners to be elected by the Maior and his Corporation and so the parties elected are returned to serve in their Parliment That the Lord Mohun being Vice-Warden at Christmas then last past sent his Warrant to the 4 Maiors commanding them to elect such and such Persons by name to be Tinners for the Parliament The Maiors obeyed and summoned the men who met the 4th of January last Upon the meeting the Tinners questioned the lawfulnesse of that Parliament First because there was no Commission from the Lord Warden but only a Letter and that for a meeting only to confer. 2. For that the Election was not free and due VVhereupon that Parliament was dissolved as void Upon which the Lord Mohun the 5 of February sent out new Sommons to the Maiors that they should reassemble such and such Persons as he named in his Warrant Who meeting together he perswaded fourteen of them against the Protestation of the other ten to impose the sum of 500l upon the Tinners towards the maintenance of their Liberties as he pretended and sent forth his Warrants to collect the Money sitting this Parliament VVhich the Tinners complained of in Parliament as a great Grievance and impeachment of their privilege and freedom of their elections and Parliaments and was so voted by the Commons House and the Lord Mohun thereupon summoned to answer the charge Whether the Fredom of many late Elections of Members for this Assemblie in Counties and Burroughs hath not been perverted hindered abolished by like Letters Menaces from Whitehall Major Generals Captains other Grandees by drawing up Troops of armed Souldiers to the places of Election to terrifie the peole enjoining such and such persons by prescribed Lists Letters and otherwise to be chosen such and such to be opposed and not elected as being persons disaffected turbulent unquiet Spirits c. and other indirect practices to make up a packed Court-Coventicle to carry on private designs instead of a New Free state Parliment is worthy the inquiry and censure of those whom it most concerns to preserve and vindicate the Free-dome of Elections long since established against such practices menaces force and terror by the Statute of 3 E. 1. c. 5. which enacts Because Elections ought to be free the King commanded upon great forfeiture that no great Man nor other by force of Arms or by malice or menacing shall disturb any to make free Election For violating which Law and antient custome the whole Parliament of 1. H. 4. rot Parliamenti nu 36. thus impeached King Richard the 2. when they enforced him to resign his Crown for his misgovernment in this particular amongst others That although by the Statute and Custome of his Realm in the Assembling of every Parliament his People in all Counties of his Realm ought to be free to choose and d●pute Knights for the said Counties to be present in Parliament and to declare their Grievances and to prosecute remedies thereupon as it should seem expedient to them Yet the said King that he might be able in his Parliaments more freely to obtain the effect of his rash will frequently directed his Mandates to his Sheriffs to cause certain persons nominated by the King himself as Knights of the County to come unto his Parliaments Which Knights verily favouring the King he might easily induce as he frequently did sometimes by divers Menaces and tenors and sometimes by Gifts to consent to those things which were prejudicial to the Realm and very burdensome to the People and specially to grant to the said King a Subsidy for certain years to the over-great oppression of his people Which misdemeanour and incroachment upon the freedom of his Subjects elections and packing of Parliaments for these ends lost him not only his peoples hearts but his very Crown Regal Power and life Which others who now tread in his footsteps and exceed him herein may do well advisedly to consider for fear of the like impeachment and tragical events In 11 R. 2. Rot. Claus. dors 13. The King sent Writs to the Sheriffs of Kent and all other Sheriffs to summon a Parliament with this New unusual clause by reason of the differences between the King and his Nobles Eligere homines in debatis modernis maxime indifferentes But this being a Novelty contrary to the Freedom of Elections and the Statute of 3 E. 1. c. 5. contraformam Electionis antiquit us usitatae et contra libertatem Dominorum et Communitatis regni hactenus obtentam Ideo therefore this clause was struck out of the Writs by order of Parliament ever since And that Parliament was afterwards repealed by the Parliament of 21 R. 2. When the Parliament of 6 H. 4. Anno 1404. was to be summoned the King by pretext of an Ordinance of 45 E. 3. rot Parl. n. 13. wrote Letters to the Sheriffs and other Officers * That no Lawyer should be chosen or returned a Knight or Burgesse for the Parliament yet inserted it not into the Writ as Walsingham and others mistake But the very next Parliament after 7 H. 4. the Commons grievously complained against the interruption of the Freedom of their Elections by these Letters Whereupon to prevent the like incroachment and int●rruption for the future at the grievous complaint of the Commons of the undue Election of the Knights of the Counties for the Parliament which be sometimes made at the affections of Sheriffs and otherwise against the form of the Writs to the great slauder of the Counties and hinderance of the businesse of the Comminalty in the said County it was ordained and establishid * by a special Act yet in force that all that attend to the Election of the Knights in the full County shall proceed to the Election freely and indifferently notwithstanding any Request or Commandement to the contrary By vertue of which Acts and premises all late Letters to Major Generals and Sheriffs with like or worser clauses to restrein the people in the freedom

of their Elections must be void and illegal In 18 H. 6. n. 18. A New Election and Writ was awarded and sent to tht Sheriff of Cambridge with proclamation That none should assemble with names to the New election nor intermeddle in it without warrant of Law the former election being vacated by reason of the force and disturbance Anno 38 H. 6. there was a Parliament summoned at Coventry on the 2. of November wherein divers Knights and Burgesses were returned by the Sheriffs nominated onely by the Kings Letters surreptitiously procured from him by divers seditious and other evil disposed persons to destroy and suppresse others of a contrary party without any election by the people This packed Parliament ordered That they should stand and serve as Knights and Burgesses though they were not elected nor duly chosen and that the Sheriffs should not incurre the penalties of the Stacute of 23 H. 3. c. 11. as appears by 38 H. 6. n. 35. and the Statute of 39 H. 6. c. 1. But what was the issue The very next year a new Parliament being summoned the first Act they made was to declare this Parliament and all Acts Statutes and Ordinances made therein to be null and void and of no force and effect Because it was unduly summoned a great part of the Knights for divers Counties of this Realm and many Burgesses and Citizens for divers Boroughs and Cities in the same Appearing were named returned and accepted some of them without due and frée election fome of them without any election against the course of the Kings Laws and the Liberties of the Commons of the Realm by the means and labours of the said seditious Persons c. As the Statute of 39 H. 3. c. 1. worthy perusal and consideration of this next Assembly resolves in positive termes though not one of those then duely elected by the people was secluded Which I desire all our ignorant violent Swordmen young Statesmen and Instrument-makers to take Notice of for fear all their Conventions Acts and proceedings prove meer Nullities in conclusion upon this account of unfree and undue elections and seclusions of Members duly elected against Law and the Parliaments Peoples Rights and Privileges 16. In this Parliament of * 3 Caroli the Attornies of York complained to the Commons House that King Charles in the second year of his reign had granted to Sir Thomas Mounson by Patent the sole making of all Bills Declarations and Informations before the Counsel of York and likewise the sole making of Letters Missives and Processe in that Court for 3. Lives The Committee of Grievances and after that the whole House of Commons in the Parliament of 18 Iacobi and after that in the Parliament of 19 Iacobi 29 Novemb. adjudged the like Patent as this made by King Iames to John Lepton 4 Iacobi of this Office To be a Grievance and Monopoly both in the creation and execution And the whole Committee of Grievances and Commons House upon the Report and full debate of this Patent to Sir Thomas Mounson adjudged it likewise to be a Grievance both in the Creation and Execution in respect of Bils Declarations and Informations though not in respect of Letters and Processe the sole making whereof the King might lawfully grant upon the erecting of this Court by a special Patent but being mixed with Bills Declarations and Informations in the same Patent they adjudged the whole Patent to be a Grievance as they likewise resoved the Earl of Holland his Patent of Exchange for the sole buying of Gold and Silver to be a Monopoly and Grievance both in the creation and execution June 23. 1628. And that principally for 3 Reasons First because it was a * Monopoly within the Statute of 21 Jacobi tending to the prejudice of the Attornies of York in their very Profession of making Bils Declarations Informations which they antiently made and likewise of the people who must dance attendance on this sole Secretary and his Clerk til they were at leisure to dispatch their Bils and Declarations 2ly Because upon the making of Bils and Declarations men must shew their evidences to this Patentee and his Clerks and trust them with them as in cross Bils they must see the evidences of both parties which would be very mischievous and prejudicial to the Clients 3ly Because this would erect a New fee and bring a New charge upon the people Which fee Lepton took for the execution of his Patent though Mounson had not yet taken any New fee And whether the old Court project which I formerly twice quashed now about to be revived as I hear of erecting Registers in every County to record all Morgages Feoffments Leases Sales of Lands Statutes Fines and Obligations made therein to prevent fraudulent conveyances and other mischiefes as the Projectors pretended but in truth to put a new charge fee and intollerable vexation upon all sorts of people to their intollerable prejudice and vast expence of many thousand pounds a year for fees and travelling charges which these Projectors only aim at for their private Lucre and to discover all mens real and personal Estates as King Richard the first and his Successors did the English Jews estates and wealth by the self-same device and then seised and confiscated them at their pleasures as you may read at large in the First and Second part of my Short Demurrer to the Iews long discontinued barred Remitter into England will not prove a greater Grieviance than this Patent for the self-same reasons and sundry others Whether the Committee for sole approbation of Ministers to livings who must all post up to London and there dance attendance sundry weeks or Months to their vast expencè and oft times return at last with●ut their expected preferments without any sufficient cause alleged either to their Patrons or themselves being held fit for other livings but not for those to which they are presented especially if benefices of good value or note to which some of the Approvers their Friends or kinred have an eye And the New fees there paid to their Clark and Register for approbations and admissions be not as great a Grievance and Monopoly as this of Lepton and Mounson fit to be redressed I refer to the approaching Assemblie and others to resolve upon full debate and sundry complaints I have heard made by divers against their Proceedings and New erected Fees which cannot be created but by act of Parliament as is resolved 13 H. 4. 14 Brook Patents 100. Fi●zh Nat. Brev. f 122. Cook 11 Report Darcies Case fol. 86. b. 17. They appointed a * special Committee to hear examine report punish the manifold complaints of the Counties and Corporations of England against the New exorbitant power and proceedings of Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenant in quartering Souldiers in mens Houses against their wills in imposing rates and taxes on the Country without Act of Parliament for the payment and billetting of Souldiers and