Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A38468
|
The English-man's happiness under a Protestant-prince and the present condition of the kingdom considered.
|
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing E3100; ESTC R9047
|
6,331
|
4
|
The English-Man's Happiness under a PROTESTANT-PRINCE And the present Condition of the Kingdom Considered O Fortunati bona si sua norint AMongst so many Pamphlets which have been vented of late some I am very confident there have been of good use if read which have been thrown by because they were not crowded into the narrow compass of a Penny Sheet as if a greater Charge with an Hours serious Reading were too much to inform Mens Judgements and Reform their Principles and though it be very hard to keep within those bounds I shall endeavour if not altogether within to come as near them as is possible the end of this Paper is to convince some Malecontents who are uneasie under the Government and who reproach the King with want of Affection for his People onely because he has some for his Brother That we are most happy in many great things which the King has done for us and that he hath done them freely and consequently for the love and good will he bare us in doing of which I shall as much as in me lies avoid Notions Arguments which seldome or never reconcile contrary opinions and insist chiefly on matter of Fact which being of late time and in every Mans memory admits no Contradiction And here I shall not run back into the late times and step between them and the Act of Oblivion to encrease the Obligation which I do but just name though it may well be placed in the very Head of all Subsequent Benefits and perhaps had never more cause to be spoken of then now when most Men seem to have forgot that there has been such a thing I do heartily wish the Principles of those Times were as truly forgotten on our side as the practices that resulted from them are forgiven of his 't is from the Restauration the New Epocha of this Kingdome from whence we may much more truly date Annum Restauratae Libertatis that I shall begin After the Act of Oblivion the people were very sensible what vast Demands and Pretensions some Eighteen Years of such Killing and Slaying had given the King upon all Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service what Summs would be comming to him by the Court of Wards and Liveries how he had a kind of Command over every person and an immediate and very considerable Interest in every Estate by the Wardship of Minors Marriages Primerseisins and Fines c. so that unless this were remitted too the Act of Oblivion was in effect no pardon to them that hold in Capite since with their Lives it gave not their Estates but his Majesty prevents their fears and by Act of Parliament 12 Car. Ch. 24. deprives himself of the Richest Jewel of the Crown a Prerogative so truly Royal and of so vast Advantage that in England the people in the Judgement of the Learned in the Law were never truly free till then so strict an Hand of Power could the King keep over us by those Tenures that not the least Disrespect or Disobedience was to be feared and to the vast Advantages of this part of Prerogative must all the great Actions of our former Kings be imputed when the Gentry were bound to serve the King and the People the Gentry And because good and wholesome Laws are the best Security and greatest Happiness of a Nation I desire the Reader to observe that no one Vseful Bill has been tendred to his Majesty which he has Refus'd till within this Year and that but once of which hereafter if innumerable and continued Affronts Calumnies and Injuries which every private Man of Honour would resent and punish compelled him for his own Honour and that of all Kings to make War with a Neighbour no sooner was he informed that the same was Prejudicial to his People but he shuffles up a peace upon tearms very hard for himself and sacrifices his own just Resentments to the gainful desires of a part of his people and that in a time when such was the state of his Enemies he might by standing off a while have made his own Conditions But when a War has been entred into for Injuries offered to his People no Consideration no not Plague nor Fire which in the compass of Twenty Months impoverish'd the Land by the loss of so much Money and People could perswade him to end the War till ample offers of Satisfaction were made and they for whose sakes he began that War either weary of it or believing themselves sufficiently revenged desired it see the Articles of Peace with Holland in 1674 and those in Aug. 1667. If once upon Advice he granted a Tolleration of Religion did he not so soon as he was satisfied by his great Council of the pernicious and Dangerous Consequences of such a Liberty recall it when after that the Nation began to apprehend it self not sufficiently secured by the Laws then in Esse against Popery and that in their general opinion a Law was judged necessary to qualifie and distinguish all Persons in Office and place of Trust did not his Majesty Consent to all such Laws as they offered him and particularly to that great and memorable Act for preventing of Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants 25 Car. Ch. 2d thereby disabling a Papist from holding any Office or Employment tho' but of a Noble a Year and that without reservation of any one person on his side tho' he had then several by him of whose Truth and sincere Affection to his Person and Government he had unquestionable proofs Was not this one thing alone sufficient to belye those Villains who let fall Words as tho' the King himself leaned a little that way for it is not to be imagined by a Man of Sense that a Prince who had power to refuse a Law would ever pass one to the utter defeating all designs and measures of a party whose Interests he secretly favoured and meant to Advance When afterwards that party restless in contriving Mischief contrived or rather continued and carried on the most Hellish Design that was ever inspired from thence into the very worst Order of Men and that Design was happily discovered how did his Majesty behave himself in that matter he Summons his Parliament and till that can come proceeds by all imaginable means to search into the Plot and after the Plotters to seize their Persons and Papers then lays the whole before the Parliament assuring them That he would be always ready to aid them in the Inquiry into the Plot in any thing where his concurrence was necessary and accordingly as they desired by several Proclamations assisting them by some commanding the Absence of Papists by others enquiring after Blood with most bountiful promises of pardon and recompence Searching all Counties securing the Ports to prevent any flight from and looking into the very Prisons to bring all Malefactors to Justice For such as laid hold of mercy and came in upon his Proclamation he not only pardoned