Majesty also in peril whom O Lord preserve which being warned you may easily foresee and provide for And this is all that at this time I have to say And therefore here to make an end her Majesty is contented according to your Petition to grant her Royal Assent to such Ordinances and Laws as have been devised and agreed upon by you in such order and form as by the Clerk of the Parliament according to the antient Order shall be read and declared I have said After the Lord Keepers Speech was ended the Queen's Majesty did doubtless give her Royal Assent to such Acts as passed at this Session but neither the foresaid Speech nor the passing of the said Acts are at all mentioned in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House and therefore as the said Speech was transcribed out of a Copy thereof I had by me so is the manner of her Majesties giving her Royal Assent to such Acts as now passed supplied here according to a pattern or Platform thereof set down in the Original Journal-Book of the same House in an 39 Regin Eliz. which may very well serve in this place in respect that matters of form and course do seldom or never differ The Clerk of the Crown standing up did first read the Titles of all the publick Acts to every one of which allowed by the Queen the Clerk of the Upper House read these French words following viz. La Roigne le veult i. e. The Queen wills it Then were read the Titles of all the private Acts to each of which that passed the said Clerk of the Upper House read the Queens Answer in these French words following viz. Soit faite come il est desire i. e. Be it done as it is desired These two last Answers to the publick and private Acts that pass are to be written by the said Clerk at the end of every Act. To such Acts as her Majesty did forbear to allow the Clerk of the Upper House read in these French words following viz. La Roigne s'advisera i. e. The Queen will advise upon it Then in the third place after the Titles of all the publick and private Acts were read and the Answers to them as aforesaid then the said Clerk of the Crown standing up did read the title of the Bill of Subsidy and then the Clerk of the Upper House standing up likewise did read the Queens Majesties Answer in manner and form following viz. La Roigne remercye ses loyaulx subjects accept leur benevolence aussi le veult i. e. The Queen thanks her loyal Subjects accepts their benevolence and also wills it The said Clerk having read the Queens acceptance and thanks for the Subsidy given as aforesaid did then upon the reading of the Title of her Majesties Pardon by the Clerk of the Crown as aforesaid pronounce in these words following the Thanks of the Lords and Commons for the same Les Prelats Seigneurs Communes en ce present Parliament assembles an nom de touts vous autres subjects remercient tres humblement vostre Majestie prient à Dieu vous donner en santè bonne vie longue i. e. The Prelates Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled in the name of all your other Subjects most humbly thank your Majesty and pray to God to give you in health a long and happy Life The manner of her Majesties Royal Assent being thus transcribed according to the Pattern of the said President in the end of the Original Journal-Book an 39 Regin Eliz. now followeth the Dissolution of this present Parliament by Sir Nicholas Bacon Knight Lord Keeper upon her Majesties Commandment which is entred in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House in manner and form following Nicolaus Bacon miles Dominus Custos magni Sigilli ex Mandato Dominae Reginae tune praesent is praesens hoc Parliamentum dissolvit The Acts being thus passed her Majesty retir'd and put off her Parliament Robes and so returned to her Court at Whitehall ☞ Nota That Francis Spilman Esq at this time Clerk of the Upper House did after the Parliament ended transcribe out all such Acts as passed and certified them into the Rolls and did at the end of every publick Act transcribe the French words ensuing La Roigne le veult Being the same words which the Clerk of the Upper House doth usually and now did pronounce in the same House upon her Majesties allowance of each publick Act as aforesaid But as for the private Acts there was some more and greater Ceremony observed in the transcribing and Certifying of them into the Rolls by the said Clerk of the Upper House which although it be omitted in the end of the Original Journal-Book of this present Parliament an 1 Regin Eliz. yet I have caused to be supplied according to the form of a draught thereof set down in the end of the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House an 39 Reginae ejusdem which may very well serve to be supplyed and added unto the end of this present Journal in respect that matters of form do seldome or never differ in which I have only caused the direct times and persons to be sitted to this said foregoing Journal At the head therefore of every such private Act so certified into the Rolls as aforesaid was doubtless written in Latin as followeth In Parliamento inchoat tent apud Westm. die Jan. An. Regni serenissimae atque excellentissimae Dominae nostrae Elizabethae Dei grat Angl-Franc Hib. Regin fidei defensor c. Primo ibidem continuat usque ad in Octavam diem Maii tunc prox sequent communi omnium Dominorum tam spiritualium quam temporalium communitatis consensu Regiae Majestatis tunc praesentis assensu inter alia sancitum inactitatum ordinat stabilitum suit sequens hoc statutum ad verbum ut sequitur viz. And at the foot or end of every such private Act were these ensuing words in Latin likewise added as the said foregoing president doth very certainly infer Ego Franciscus Spilman who was Clerk of the Upper House in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth Armiger Clericus Parliamenti virtute brevis supradict dominae nostrae Reginae de Certiorand ntihi direct hiis annex certifico superius hoc scriptum verum esse tenorem Actûs Parliamenti supradicti in eo breve express In cujus rei Testimonium Sigillum nomenque meum apposui atque subscripsi Dat. die Anno Regni supradict dominae nostrae Reginae c. THE JOURNAL OF THE House of COMMONS A Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Commons in the Parliament holden at Westminster An. 1 Regin Eliz. An. Dom. 1558. beginning there after one Prorogation of the same on Wednesday the 25 th day of January and then and there continued until the Dissolution thereof on Monday the 8 th day of May An. Dom. 1559. THIS Journal of the first Parliament of her Majesty is not
Merchants the Controversies which have ensued by this means amongst them and the subtile means whereby the Statute was procured without the consent of the Major or Commons by such as were put in Trust. M r Alford said that he might not speak of the Prerogative aptly for that he was not Learned in the Law but made some remembrance of what he had there seen concerning the Act of Parliament for Southampton where it appeareth that without an Act of Parliament her Majesties Letters Patents were not sufficient and therefore he prayed convenient consideration might be and that the same if it should so seem good to the House might be conjoined to the former and other Bill c. Then spake M r Cleere Sir Francis Knolles Sir Nicholas Arnold Sir Henry Norris and M r Christopher Yelverton of Grays-Inn severally to the said Bill whose Speeches being somewhat imperfectly and uncertainly set down in the before-mentioned Anonymous Journal are therefore omitted although from them and the residue foregoing the effect of this Bill may be Collected to have been for the Dissolution of certain Companies of Merchants in Bristol whom her Majesty had Incorporated by her Letters Patents and authorized them to Trade to certain places by which it was pretended that the publick and free trading of others was restrained and at last upon the Motion of M r Fleetwood That the Bill being of great weight might be further considered of by the House and the Committees be appointed at some other time it was thereupon Ordered that they should be appointed on the day following which was done accordingly Then was read the Bill for coming to Service but what reading it was appeareth not by the aforesaid Anonymous Journal nor by the Original Journal Book it self in which this said Bill is not at all mentioned but it should seem that it was the second reading because divers Speeches ensued thereupon which in respect that they concern a matter of so great moment are therefore transcribed out of the Anonymous Journal in manner and form following M r Snagg shewed at large the inconveniencies of the old Law for coming to Service for said he by the former Law it was Enacted that the Service shall not be said or Sacrament ministred in other sort than in the Book of Common-Prayer is prescribed he shewed how differently the same was used in many places from the prescribed Rule as where no part of those Prayers were observed but a Sermon and some such other Prayers only as the Minister shall think good in place thereof whereupon have great divisions discords and dislikes grown amongst and between great numbers And since it is Law that in this sort Service shall be used and that whosoever shall be at any other form of Service shall incur the penalty prescribed and that the Ministers neither do nor will do herein as they should and as is by the Law prescribed and commanded he thought the proceedings in this kind should occasion a Dilemma in mischief for by this Law if he come not he shall lose twelve pence and if he come and be present and the Service be not said according to the prescribed Rule of the Book he shall lose a hundred Marks M r Aglionby Burgess of the Town of Warwick moved the Law might be without exception or priviledge for any Gentlemen in their private Oratories this did he prove to be fit out of Plato his Laws and Cicero both prescribing for the observation of the Law an equality between the Prince and the poor Man not giving scope to the one above the other Also he remembred the Authority of Lactantius Firmianus making this only difference betwixt Man and Beast that all men do know and acknowledge that there is a God and in this respect there should be no difference between Man and Man Withall he said the more noble the Man the more good his Example may do He therefore concluded that for so much of the Law so the same might be general he was of good liking that it should pass But for the other matter concerning the receiving of the Communion he argued that it was not convenient to inforce Consciences And to that purpose he shewed the Authority of D rs which he vouched without quoting the place or sentence He said also that it was the Opinion of Fathers and Learned Men of this Land and therefore wished they might be consulted with Finally he concluded that bonae Leges è malis moribus proveniunt but no good Laws may make a good man fit to receive that great Ministry of God above This whole Speech he tempered with such discretion as in such Case was seemly And whatsoever he spake he spake the same under Correction M r Strickland standing up first prayed he might be excused for that he was to speak on a sudden and unprovided For the first He approved what M r Aglionby had said For the second he said he could not be of that mind and he vouched out of Esdras that the Church yea the Consciences of men were by the Prophet restrained withal he said Conscience might be free but not to disturb the common quiet He shewed the practice and doings of the Pope the banishment of the Arrians c. That the word of the Prince for lack of Law must not be tied The Israelites he said were constrained to eat the Pass-over And finally he concluded that it was no straitning of their Consciences but a Charge or loss of their Goods if they could not vouchsafe to be as they should be good men and true Christians M r Dalton reasoned to this effect that there could ensue no inconvenience by those two Laws which were intended to be contrary his reason was except the Service be according to the Law no man is bound to stay there no more than if he be bound to come and hear Service if there be no Service he is to forfeit his Bond. For Answer to M r Aglionby he said the matters of Conscience did not concern the Law-makers neither were they to regard the error curiosity or stiff-neckedness of the evil ignorant or froward persons For be it they did proceed orderly to the discharge of their own Consciences in making the Law let them care for the rest whom it behoveth He was of mind that Gentlemen should not be excepted for the causes aforesaid but he wished provision might be made for such as be imprisoned or cannot come for fear of Arrests He wished also that the Law might have continuance but till the end of the next Parliament These foregoing Speeches being thus transcribed out of that often before-cited Anonymous Journal more particularly mentioned at the beginning of this present Journal and two other Speeches of M r Fleetwood and M r Popham of no great moment being omitted now follows some part of the next days passages out of the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons On Thursday the 12 th day of April M r Comptroller upon
all times it is to be prevented Where it is said the like hath not been seen and a Miracle made of it as if there were never former Presidents ever seen of the like or ever heard of before It is no longer since than in Queen Maries time when to the Parliament it was suggested that the Congregations in the City of London Assembled did use this kind of Prayer to God either to convert her or confound her Whereupon it was Enacted that every person who so and in such sort had prayed or who so after should pray should be taken for a Traytor The Case of Bennet Smith is not so strange nor so long since but it may be remembred his transgression was not such nor so to be adjudged at the time of the offence perpetrated as it was afterwards yet by Authority of Parliament the offence precedent was from the old nature altered and he who before at the time of the offence until the making of the Law was not to be priviledged but by his Clergy was now by an Act made after by Judgment Executed And since in the Case of a private man as was this of Bennet Smith such consideration and such good discretion was used who can imagine it to be odious Nay who is it that would not the like or greater care to be had of a Prince and especially of so good and virtuous a Prince as she for whom our Conference is now But yet we are charged with partial affection unsetled minds and doubleness Whether this Speech now be an offence to the House he earnestly craved the Judgment of the House For that it might seem by the Gentlemans earnestness who spake that some one his Friend whom he was bent to serve would be touched Whereupon for his own part he eft-soons protested he had no certain resolution with himself of any title but was to be satisfied with the consent of that Assembly howsoever adding further if his Motions might so sort as they were liked he offered this Proviso to be added That if any such person who had made any such claim shall disclaim and renounce all Title during her Highness Life the same person c. to be then restored to the old Estate M r Comptroller after some Declaration of grief perceiving the matter grow to heat as verily the greatest number of the House were more than moved with the vehemency of M r Goodiers Speech and that men were disposed to talk at large of matters contrary or repugnant to the Bill moved that it might be severed because the first part came in and was exhibited to that House by her Majesties Learned Councel the other was but the advice of a private man which advice though it justly deserved Commendation yet was it not in his fancy to be joined with that which came in other sort M r Snagg argued to this effect that in making of Laws plainness of Speech should be used all intrapments to be shunned and avoided And here he moved why the Statute of Edw. 3. whereby it is Enacted that all such who shall endeavour compass or imagine the Death of the King c. should be Traytors c. should not be said sufficient reaching as far and comprehending as much as this latter advice For the regard of the time past he said he could have no good liking thereof and what was practised in Queen Maries time under Correction he took to be no Charitable President concerning the Authority of the Parliament he did conclude nothing but said it was a prevention Sir Francis Knolles shewed that he could not utterly dislike the conjoining of the Additions sith that they rise all of one ground and that they both are good and charitable whereof he acknowledged her Highness to have Intelligence and the cause already to have been in Conference by her Councel And for the word hath he saith it contained no such absurdity but with good zeal it might be maintained And therefore such vehemency and sharpness of Speech he said was more than requisite yea more than convenient And as for the obscurity he said of men that would mean well it could not be misconstrued and to stay or prevent devices past he thought it but honest Policy which being otherwise used in a Princes case is not to be disliked He remembred her Highness unwillingness to punish such offences and therefore though the Law be sharp yet such is her Mildness that if any have offended for so much as may concern her person surely he thought it would not be Executed and her Clemency tempered with Authority could never grow to Cruelty wherein what his Conscience was he thought not fit to make further shew thereof but simply and plainly he would deal herein not meaning to treat in such sort as if he thought to deserve thanks or any thing of her Majesty for what he did he did it also as mindful of his own safety Another then spake whose name is not expressed in the aforesaid Anonymous Journal shewing the weight of the matter which was then in hand to rest as well on the general safety of the Subjects as on the preservation of her Majesties Person and therefore he could not but approve the effect of the whole both in Bill and Addition albeit for the pains in the Bill he was somewhat variant from that which was there offered and in the understanding of some words he was doubtful as for the word compassing he made some question of this bodily hurt he had no perfect Intelligence since the hurt of body may grow by grief of mind and grief of mind perhaps by small cause He also said that saving in the Statute of 27 H. 8. he hath not read it But further he said that he that would not allow her for lawful Queen in his conceit should also be called a Traitor but for the speaking of those most slanderous words of Heretick Infidel Schismatick he would not any man to be for the first offence taken as a Traytor for that the not acknowledging of the Supremacy being a far greater offence is but the pain of Praemunire And therefore except the same offence also might be made Treason he could not like thereof But if it should so seem to them good that it should be as he indeed wished then was he well pleased to put them both to one Predicament And for the word Heretick he said that the Papists all of force must be forced to say her Majesty is one or that they themselves must be content to carry the name and to be noted Nomine as they are ' re veritate Hereticks which name they willingly will not bear He further said that with the rest of those words of slander he thought it might do well to insert the name Papist That if any man should say her Majesty to be an Infidel Papist or Heretick c. to be a Traytor for that some say there are in these days that do not spare to say
Heathens that were most barbarous But here it may be said the mischief appeareth where is the remedy and that it were better not opened in such a presence than opened without the remedy both devised and declared In mine opinion the remedies may easily be devised all the difficulty is in the well Executing of them As first if the chief Parsonages of this Realm both in Town and Country would give good Example it cannot be but it would be much to the remedying of a great part of this mischief Secondly The dividing every one of the Dioceses according to their greatness into Deaneries as I know commonly they be and the committing of the Deaneries to men well chosen as I think commonly they be not and then the keeping of certain ordinary Courts at their prescript times for the well Executing of those Laws of Discipline as they ought to be with a sure controulment of those inferior Ministers by the Bishop or his Chancellor not biennially or triennially but every year twice or thrice which use of necessity without very great difficulty may do much in very short time to the reformation of this the chief Officers Ecclesiastical all being very well and the Laws themselves being first made sufficient and perfect which in this Parliament may very well be brought to pass And because the proceedings of matters in Discipline and Doctrine do chiefly concern my Lords the Bishops both for their understanding and Ecclesiastical Function therefore the Queens Highness looketh that they being called together here in Parliament should take the chiefest care to confer and consult of these matters And if in their Conference they found it behooful to have any Temporal Acts made for the amending and reforming of any of these lacks that then they will exhibit it here in Parliament to be considered upon and so Gladius Gladium juvabit as before time hath been used foreseeing always that all Laws and Ordinances for this matter of Doctrine and Discipline be uniform and so one sort throughout the whole Realm And thus much concerning Religion being the first part Now to the second that is matters of Policy And herein first for the good Government of the Subjects at home the lacks and defaults whereof as in Discipline so in this stand altogether in the imperfection of Laws or else the fearfulness slothfulness and corruption of Temporal Officers that ought to see the due Execution of them For the help of the former you are to Examine whether any Laws already made are too sharp or too sore and so over-burthensom for the Subject or whether any of them are too loose or too soft and so over-dangerous to the State for like as the former may put in danger many an Innocent particularly so the second may put in danger both the nocent and innocent and the whole State universally You are also further to Examine the want and superfluity of Laws and whether crafty Covetousness and Malice have devised any means to defraud Laws already made or how to do any injuries for which there is no Law that hath his being to reform it or whether the Common-Weal and State of this Realm by reason of any imperfection or cause is like to fall to any danger or peril for the greater the danger is the greater would the care and consideration be for the remedy of it You are also to Examine whether there are too many Laws for any one thing which breedeth so many doubts that the Subject is sometimes to seek how to observe them and the Chancellor how to give advice concerning them As to the second imperfection which is the want of the due Execution of Laws because I cannot perceive but all the rest and all Laws made and to be made is but a vain matter therefore I have thought oft with my self what might be the best remedy if not to make all Laws perfectly Executed for that I can hardly hope of yet to make them in much better Case than now they be And when I had considered all things I could find no help but this The first by having great care in the choice of those Officers that have the Execution of Laws The second to do as much as may be for the banishing of sloth corruption and fears from them A third way there is which I leave to your judgments this it is there should be a triennial or biennial Visitation in this nature made of all the Temporal Officers and Ministers that by virtue of their Office have in charge to see the Execution of Laws By this I mean that the Queens Majesty should make choice every second or third year of certain expert and approved persons to whom Commission should be granted to try out and examine by all ways and means the offences of all such as have not seen to the due Execution of the Laws according to the offices and charges committed to them by the Prince And the offences so found and certified to be sharply punished without remission or redemption Of effect much like this and to the like end was the Visitation of the Church first devised whereof in the beginning of it came great good doubtless and reason I see none but the like good ought to follow upon like Visitation made amongst Temporal Officers And the old Commission of Oyer tended somewhat to this end I doubt certainly if the Laws and Statutes of this Realm should not indifferently uprightly and diligently be put in Execution as my trust is they shall especially in the great and open Courts of this Realm then my burthen I confess is equal with the greatest and yet for my part I would gladly every year hear of and yield to such a Comptroller Now to the last and greatest which is the defence against the Foreign Enemy abroad and his Confederates brought up and bred amongst us our selves because these matters be by reason now chiefly in hand and that the dealings of the outward Enemy be matters that go to the whole and that this presence you know representeth the whole Therefore in all congruity it seemeth reason that all we for and in the name of the whole consider carefully of this cause and give present assistance for the help of it And to the end you may be more able to give good Counsel and advice therein it hath been thought meet I should summarily and shortly make you privy of these proceedings which shall be the better understood if I begin at the root as I intend This it is The Queens Majesty at her coming to the Crown finding this her Realm in a ragged and torn State and yet in Wars with a mighty Enemy the Chief Fortress of the same lost to the Realms great dishonour and weakning her Frontier Towns not sufficiently fortified the Revenue of the Crown greatly spoiled the Treasure of the Realm not only wasted but the Realm also greatly indebted The Land of Ireland much out of order The Staple and Store of all kind
said several Acts and Ordinances by you our said Subjects the Lords and Commons in this our present Parliament Assembled be fully agreed and consented unto and seem very necessary and profitable for the Commonwealth which nevertheless be not of any force or effect in the Law without our Royal Assent given and put to the same Acts and Ordinances and every of them And forasmuch as for divers great and urgent Causes and Considerations We cannot conveniently at this present be personally in our Royal Person in our Higher House of Parliament being the place accustomed to give our Royal Assent unto such Acts and Ordinances as have been agreed upon by our said Subjects the Lords and Commons We have therefore caused these our Letters Patents to have been made and have signed and caused the same to be Sealed accordingly And by the same do declare and notify as well to you the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons aforesaid as to all and singular other our loving Subjects That we by these Presents do give put our Royal Assent to all and singular the said Acts and Ordinances and to all Articles Clauses and Provisions in them contained and be fully agreed and consented to all and every the said Acts willing that the said Acts and every Article Clause sentence and provision in them contained from henceforth shall be of the same strength force and effect as if we had been personally present in the said Higher House and had openly and publickly in the presence of you all assented to the same Commanding also by these Presents as well our Chancellor of England to seal these our Letters Patents with our great Seal as our Trusty and well-beloved Sir Edmund Anderson Knight our Chief Justice of our Common Pleas to declare and notify this our Royal Assent in our absence in the said Higher House in the presence of you the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of our Parliament 〈◊〉 to be assembled for that purpose and the Clerk of our Parliament to Indorse the said Acts with such Terms and Words in our Name as is requisite and hath been accustomed for the same And also to Inrol these our Letters in the said Parliament Roll and these our Letters Patents shall be to every of them sufficient Warrant in that behalf And finally declare and will that after this our Royal Assent given and passed by these Presents and declared and notified as is aforesaid That then immediately the said Acts and every of them shall be taken accepted and admitted good sufficient and perfect Laws to all intents Constructions and purposes and to be put in due Execution accordingly the Continuance or Dissolution of this our Parliament or any other Use Custom thing or things to the contrary thereof notwithstanding In Witness whereof We have caused those our Letters to be made Patents Witness our self at Westminster the 23 th day of March in the 29 th year of our Reign Per ipsam Reginam Nota That the Clerk of the Parliament having read the said Letters Patents before set down Sir Edmund Anderson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas still supplying the place of Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor delivered other Letters Patents unto the said Clerk openly to be read whereby eight several Commissioners were nominated and authorized to dissolve the Parliament viz. The Archbishop of Canterbury the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury Earl Marshal of England the Earl of Darby Lord Steward the Earl of Kent the Earl of Leicester Master of her Majesties Horse the Lord Howard Lord Admiral of England Lord Hunsdon Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Cobham Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports For doubtless unless a new Commission had come forth by which these before-named Honourable Personages had been de novo nominated to this purpose the three Commissioners at first appointed in the beginning of this Parliament which see at large upon Saturday the 29 th day of October foregoing might without any other new authority though not have Dissolved the Parliament yet have Prorogued it to a further day as they had formerly Adjourned it upon Friday the second day of December foregoing unto Wednesday the 15 th day of February next ensuing which was for ten weeks space at the least but that former Authority being now at an end by these new Letters Patents the manner of their delivery the removal of the new Commissioners in them nominated and the Commission lastly it self are thus verbatim set down in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House Postquam verò Clericus Parliament has Literas palà m perlegisset Edmundus Anderson Miles alias etiam Literas Patentes eidem Clerico Parliamenti publicè legendas tradidit atque hîc notandum est omnes Dominos Commissionarios in Literis patentibus nominatos locis suis relictis in medio banco consedisse dum diclae Literae legerentur Earum autem tenor hic sequitur ELizabetha Dei gratiâ Angliae Franciae Hiberniae Regina fidei Defensor c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Consiliario suo Johanni Cantuarien Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati Metropolitano ac Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Edwino Archiepiscopo Eboracen Angliae Primati Metropolitano ac etiam chavissimis Consanguineis Consiliariis suis Georgio Comiti Salop Comiti Marescallo Angliae Henrico Comiti Darbiae magno Seneschallo necnon charissimo Consanguineo Consiliario suo Henrico Comiti Kantiae ac charissimo Consanguineo Consiliario suo Roberto Comiti Leicestr Magistro Equorum suorum ac etiam praedilectis fidelibus Consiliariis suis Carolo Domino Howard magno Admirallo suo Angliae Henrico Domino de Hunsdon Domino Carmerario suo Willielmo Domino Cohham Domino Gardiano quinque Portuum suorum Salutem Cùm nuper pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis nos statum desensionem Regni nostri Angliae ac Ecclesiae Anglicanae concern praesens hoc Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem nostram Westmonasterii decimo quinto die Octobris ultimo praeterito inchoari teneri ordinaverimus in à quo dic idem Parliamentum nostrum usque ad in vicesimum septimum ejusdem mensis Octobris prorogat fuerat eodémque die idem Parliamentum nostrum usque ad in vicesimum nonum diem dicti mensis Octobris prorogat ' fuerat ac ibid ' tunc tent ' continuat ' fuerat usque ad in secundum diem Decembris tunc proximum sequentem Eódémque die idem Parliamentum nostrum usque ad in decimum quintum diem Februarii tunc prox ' sequent ' adjournat ' fuit Eodémque die idem Parliamentum nostrum tunc ibidem tent ' continuat ' fuerat usque ad in vicesimum tertium diem instantis mensis Martii Sciatis tamen certis urgentibus causis considerationibus nos specialiter moven ' idem Parliamentum nostrum hoc instante vicesimo
same to the Committee again On Monday the 7 th day of December Two Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the second being the Bill for the relief of poor Prisoners in Ludgate was read the first time Mr. Serjeant Harries made Report of the meeting of the Committees in the Bill for the Assurance of the Joynture of the Countess of Sussex who were appointed on Thursday the third day of this instant December foregoing and of some Amendments and a Proviso added by the Committees The Amendments in the Bill with a Proviso touching the Joynture of the Countess of Sussex were twice read and with the Bill Ordered to be ingrossed The Bill for confirmation of the Assurances of the Lands of Sagebury aliàs Sedgebury to Samuel Sandyes Esquire and John Harries Gentleman and their Heirs was read the first time M r Snigg one of the Committees in the three Bills touching Cloths and Clothiers who were appointed on Wednesday the 18 th day of November foregoing declared that by Order and direction of the same Committees he hath reduced and drawn the three said Bills into one Bill reformed in the Abuses committed amongst Clothiers and prayed the reading The Bill for the true making and working of Woollen Cloths was read the first time Mr Doyle one of the Committees in the Bill touching Fairs and Markets not to be kept on the Sunday who were appointed on Friday the 4 th day of this instant December foregoing brought in the Bill with some Amendments added by the Committees The Amendments in the Bill prohibiting Fairs and Markets to be kept on the Sunday were twice read and the Bill was Ordered to be ingrossed The Bill touching the Assize of Fuel was read the second time and committed unto the Knights and Citizens for London Sir Jerom Bowes Sir Robert Wroth and others who were appointed to meet to Morrow in the Court of Wards at two of the Clock in the Afternoon The Bill touching Charitable uses c. was read the second time and committed to the former Committees who were appointed on Saturday the 28 th day of November foregoing and M r Serjeant Harries and others were added unto them who were appointed to meet this Afternoon in the Exchequer Chamber at two of the Clock M r Bacon said I am Mr. Speaker to tender unto this House the fruit of the Committees Labour which tends to the Comfort of the Realm I mean the Merchant which if it quail or fall into a Consumption the State cannot choose but shortly be sick of that disease It is inclining already A certainty of Gain is that which this Law provides for and by policy of Assurance the safety of Goods assured unto the Merchants This is the Loadstone that draws him on to adventure and to stretch even the very punctilio of his Credit The Committees have drawn a new Bill far differing from the old the first limited power to the Chancery this to certain Commissioners by way of Oyer and Terminer The first that it should only be there this that only upon appeal from the Commissioners it should be there finally arbitrated But lest it may be thought for vexation the Party Appellant must lay it in deposito c. and if tryed against him to pay double Costs and Damages We thought this course fittest for two reasons First because a Suit in Chancery is too long a course and the Merchant cannot endure delays Secondly because our Courts have not the knowledge of their Terms neither can they tell what to say upon their Causes which be secret in their Science proceeding out of their experience I refer the Bill both old and new to your considerations wishing good success therein both for the comfort of the Merchants and performance of our duties The Act is Intituled An Act touching Policies of Assurances used amongst Merchants Sir Edward Hobbie said It was the good pleasure of this House to refer the consideration of an Information exhibited against a Member of this House one of the Burgesses for the Town of Leicester viz. Mr. Belgrave the scope and purpose of which Information pretendeth an abuse to be done to the High Court The Gentleman himself was at the Committee and did acknowledge the substance of the suggestion but denied the circumstance Some of the Committees censured it to be an enormous fault to invest himself for so the words of the Information are in a blue Coat but others were of a contrary opinion because they were satisfied upon allegations alledged that it was done ad redimendam vexationem which had been offered to him and so he thought to right himself these wayes Besides I am to inform the House that this Information was put in sedente curiâ and therefore thought by the Committees to be some disgrace to the same And because this Gentleman should not take benefit of this Pardon therefore the Information as I said is now put in sedente curiâ which I wish the House to note And because he should be debar'd of remedy against the party he hath therefore caused the same to be exhibited in M r Attorney Generals name May it please the House because he desireth to be heard and being now here that be may speak himself in that he told the Committees he had some special matter to deliver unto you and if he shall be found culpable he would most willingly abide your censures But because other Statutes were to be read of importance this was refer'd over till some other time Vide December 17 th postea An Act for the continuance of divers Statutes and repeal of some others was read the second time M r Francis Moore desired it might be read as also the Exposition of the Justices upon the Statute of 39 Eliz. of Rogues which if it please the House he thought fit to be annext to that Statute M r Bacon said There were never yet any more than two Articuli the one Articuli super Chartas when the Sword stood in the Commons hands the other Articuli Cleri when the Clergy of the Land bare sway and that done upon deliberation and grave advice I beseech you remember these are done by Judges and privately perhaps in a Chamber and shall we presently without scanning or view Enact them It befits not the gravity of this House And so after a long Speech dasht it The Bill touching payment of Debts upon Shop-Books lately pass'd in this House was sent up to the Lords by M r Comptroller and others After sundry Motions and Arguments made against An Act made 39 Reginae Eliz. touching Lands given to charitable uses it was upon the question Ordered that the said Act should be repealed And upon another question whether the said Act should be repealed in the particular new Bill exhibited this Session of Parliament or else in the general Bill touching repeal of Statutes it was agreed by the House that it should be repealed in the general Bill of
on Wednesday the 26 th and secunda vice on Thursday the 27 th of this foresaid April preceding and lastly it had its third reading and passed the House on Friday the 28 th day of the same Month although it were opposed by the Archbishop of York the Marquess of Winchester the Earl of Shrewsbury Viscount Mountague the Bishop of London the Bishop of Ely the Bishop of Worcester the Bishop of Landaff the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield the Bishop of Exeter the Bishop of Chester the Bishop of Carlile the Lord Morley the Lord Stafford the Lord Dudly the Lord Wharton the Lord Rich and the Lord North. In which may there still be observed the obstinacy and boldness of the Popish Bishops who opposed all things that tended but to the least reformation of Idolatry and Superstition or abolishing the usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome it seemeth that the Abbot of Westminster was now absent because his negative voice which was never wanting is not here mentioned Of the temporal Lords the most setled to Popery seem to have been the Viscount Mountague and Earl of Shrewsbury but as for the Marquess of Winchester and these other six Barons they are seldom mentioned to have opposed either the Act for restoring the Supremacy or any other touching Ecclesiastical matters except this only concerning the Book of Common-Prayer the reformation of which being so little differing from the old form as that it hath given and yet doth give occasion of offence and stumbling to many weak ones amongst us it is the more to be marvelled at that so many should oppose it and the rather also because most of the Papists of England did come to our Church and heard Divine Service ordinarily till the eleventh Year of the Queen when the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus enforced not only their wilful and obstinate separation but drew on and necessitated many of those Laws which were afterwards made against them an 13. an 23. an 27 Reg. Eliz. The Bill lastly to continue the Act last made against Rebellious Assemblies was read tertia vice conclusa and delivered to M r Vaughan and the Clerk of the Crown to be carried to the House of Commons The Parliament continued until Monday the first of May at nine of the Clock in the Forenoon Then the Bill for the preservation of Spawn and Fry of Fish The Bill limiting the times of laying on Land Merchandizes from beyond the Seas and touching Custom for Sweet Wines And the Bill for the continuation of certain Statutes were each of them read the second time The Bill lastly to make good Leases Grants of Offices and Copyhold Lands made by Nicholas Ridley late Bishop of London was read tertia vice rejecta Then the Parliament continued till two of the Clock in the Afternoon of the same day about which hour the Lord Keeper with divers other Lords Assembling one Bill of no great moment was read primavice which was for the Garbling of Feathers and Flocks to be sold in Beds and Cushions Then the Parliament continued till next day at nine of the Clock in the Forenoon at which time the Bill for Garbling of Feathers was read the second time Two Bills also had each of them their third reading and passed the House of which one being the Bill for laying on Land Merchandize from beyond the Seas and touching Custom for Sweet Wines was sent down to the House of Commons by Weston Serjeant at Law and the Clerk of the Crown The Bill lastly to annex to the Crown certain Religious Houses c. was read prima vice Six Bills were brought up to the Lords from the House of Commons of which the third being the Bill that the Queens Majesty by Commission may examine the Causes of deprivation of spiritual persons and restore them again And the fifth for continuing the making of Woollen Cloaths in divers Towns in the County of Essex were each of them read prima vice And the sixth and last was the Bill that Timber shall not be felled to make Coals for burning of Iron Then the Parliament continued till Wednesday the 3 d of May at nine of the Clock in the Forenoon at which time five Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the first was the Bill that Timber shall not be felled to make Coals for burning of Iron The second for continuing the making of Woollen Cloths in divers Towns in the County of Essex The third that the Queens Majesty by Commission may examine the deprivation of spiritual persons and restore them again And the last being the Bill to annex to the Crown certain Religious Houses and to reform certain abuses in Chantries were each of them read secunda vice The Parliament continued till Friday May the 5 th at eight of the Clock in the Morning And then the Bill that Timber shall not be felled to make Coals for the burning of Iron The Bill for continuing the making of Woollen Cloth in divers Towns in the County of Essex And the Bill that the Queens Majesty by Commission may examine the Causes of deprivation of spiritual persons and restore them again were each of them read tertia vice conclusae The Bill lastly to annex to the Crown certain Religious Houses and to reform certain abuses in Chantries was read tertia vice una cum tribus provisionibus eidem Billae annexis per Dominos quae prima secunda tertia vice lectae erant conclus dissentientibus Archiepiscopo Eboracen Episcopis Londin Elien Wigorn. Landaven Coven Exon. Cestren Carleol Abbate de Westm. ac Vicecomite Mountagne commiss Magistro Weston Servienti ad Legem Attornato Reginae in Domum Communent deferend Two Bills were brought up to the Lords from the House of Commons of which the first was the Bill for the continuance of certain Statutes with a Proviso added thereunto by the Commons to which the Lords would not agree but sent it down again to be passed by them leaving out the Proviso And the second being the Bill for limiting the times for the laying on Land Merchandize from beyond the Seas and touching Customs for Sweet Wines was returned conclus Then the Parliament continued till the next day at nine of the Clock at which time the Bill for the preservation of the Spawn and Fry of Fish was read tertiâ vice conclus communi omnium Procerum assensu dissentiente Episcopo Elien and it was delivered to Sir Richard Read and the Clerk of the Crown in Domum Communem deferend The Bill also that Timber shall not be felled to make Coals for burning of Iron The Bill for the continuance of certain Statutes And the Bill to annex to the Crown certain Religious Houses and to reform certain abuses in Chantries were returned from the House of Commons conclus On Monday the 8 th day of May the Lord Keeper and divers other Lords both Spiritual and Temporal met
each of them read the third time and passed the House and were with two others sent up to the Lords by Mr. Secretary The Bill for destruction of Crows Rooks c. and other such Vermine was read the second time and Ordered to be ingrossed The Bill also for paving of Kentish-street near Southwark And the Bill that Sanctuary shall not be allowable for Debt were each of them read the third time and passed the House and were sent to the Lords by Mr. Vice-Chamberlain Post Meridiem In the Afternoon a Proviso to the Bill for repairing of Goals and a Proviso to the Bill de Excommunicato capiendo were each of them read the first and second time On Friday the 9 th day of April the Proviso added to the Bill de Excommunicat capiend was read the third time and passed the House The Bill also for destruction of Rooks Crows and Coughs and such other Vermine was read the third time and passed the House and immediately sent up to the Lords by M r Vice-Chamberlain The new Bill for uniting of Churches in Boroughs or Towns being under the value of twenty Marks was read the first time And the Proviso lastly of this House to the Bill for repairing of Goals was read the third time and passed On Saturday the 10 th day of April It was Ordered that M r Pleddall shall have the Copies of such Examinations and Writings as have been certified into this House by the Master of the Rolls and other Committees and also that M r Francis Newdigate may have like Copies And that such Evidence as M r Pleddall hath delivered to the Committees hands may remain under their Seals and M r Pleddall's Seal in the keeping of the Officer of the Rolls that useth to keep the Evidences there Vide concerning this matter on Monday the 22 th day and on Tuesday the 30 th day of March foregoing The Bill for repairing of Goals was sent up to the Lords by M r Vice-Chamberlain The Queens Majesties free and general Pardon Signed with her Graces Hand was brought from the Lords by M r Attorney and M r Sollicitor and immediately read the third time and passed Nota That this Bill touching her Majesties Pardon passed upon the first reading whereas other Bills do never pass till after the third A Proviso sent down to the House of Commons from the Lords touching the Bill of Bankrupts And the addition to the Bill concerning Purveyors were read the first second and third time and passed the House In the Afternoon about three of the Clock the Queens Majesty sitting in her Royal Seat M r Speaker made an Excellent Oration rehearsing divers Laws made by divers Queens of this Realm and requiring the Queen to Assent to the Acts past both Houses and presented to her Majesty the Book of Subsidy and the Book of the general Pardon with most humble thanks for the same And the Lord Keeper by the Queens Commandment gave great thanks unto the Nobility and Commons and earnestly required them severally in their Countries to look that the Laws might be Executed And touching the Succession the Queen Commanded the Lord Keeper to declare her Highness device thereof the effect and conclusion whereof was that for the great weight of the matter her Majesty minded to take further advice Vide plus concerning this matter of Succession on Thursday the 28. day of January and on Tuesday the 16. day of February foregoing Then were the several Titles of the Acts read and thirty one publick Statutes and seventeen private were made Laws by her Majesties Royal Assent And then this Parliament was Prorogued until the second day of October next At which second day of October for that the Plague was great in London and Westminster The Queens Majesties Letters Patents of Commission were directed to the Lord Treasurer of England and other Bishops and Lords of the Upper House to Prorogue this Parliament unto the fifth day of October 1564. which was done accordingly in the presence of the said Lords and a few of the House of Commons Mr. Speaker not being there At which fifth day of October this Parliament was further Prorogued by the Queens Majesties Commission Patent unto the 30. day of April the next ensuing M r Speaker not being there At which 30. day of April It was then further Prorogued unto the 4. day of October then next following M r Speaker not being there At which fourth day of October Anno Domini 1565. Anno Septimo Reginae Elizabeth It was then further Prorogued unto the 7. day of February then next following M r Speaker not being there At which 7. day of Feb. 1565. Anno Elizabethae Reginae Octavo It was then further Prorogued unto the 30. day of Sept. then next following THE JOURNAL OF THE House of LORDS A Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Lords in the Session of Parliament bolden at Westminster An. 8 Regin Eliz. A. D. 1566. which began there after divers Prorogations of the same on Monday the 30 th of September and then and there continued until the Dissolution thereof on Thursday the 2 d day of Jan. Ann. 9 Regin ejusdem THIS Parliament de An. 8 Regin Eliz. being in Law but one and the same with that held in an 5 Reginae ejusdem An. Dom. 1563. although not Assembled till about three Years after was in the mean time never Dissolved but only Prorogued from time to time by six several Prorogations whereof the two first falling out in the said fifth Year of the Queen are there mentioned as most properly belonging to the first Session of this Parliament although the latter of them be entred at large in the Journal-Book de an 8 Regin Eliz. and the four last of the said fix Prorogations do all here follow before the beginning of this Journal of Parliament of the passages of the Upper House being full of excellent and rare matter as necessary matter of preparation unto it being in Law as hath been observed but the second Session of that former Parliament Assembled in An. 5 Regin Eliz. predictae whereof those two former Prorogations as they do at large appear in the end of the Journal of the Upper House of that fifth year of the Queen were the first of them from Saturday the 10 th day of April on which day that said first Session of this Parliament ended in that fifth year aforesaid to the second day of October next ensuing de an 5. Reginae ejusdem and the second Prorogation of those foresaid two former was from the said second day of October in the said fifth Year of the Queen to the 5 th day of October which should be in an 6 Regin Eliz. An. Dom. 1564. upon which foresaid 5 th day of October in an 6 Regin supradictae Annoque Dom. 1564. Prorogatum fuit ulterius praedictum Parliamentum modo forma sequentibus Memorandum quod quinto die Octobris Anno Regni Elizabethae
though the Original be imbezelled to which this House had made an Addition and a Proviso for the Heir of the Earl of Kent and were sent up to the Lords by M r Chancellor of the Dutchy The Bill also for repairing of Sea-Marks Marriners and Watermen was read the third time and passed upon the question The Bill for the Subsidy of the Clergy of Canterbury was read the third time and passed upon the question The Bill for engraving of Alneagers Seals by the Graver of the Mint in the Tower of London was read the third time and two other Bills had each of them their second and third reading of which the first was the Bill for the avoiding of excess in Apparel but no mention is made that they passed the House The Bill that Hexamshire shall be of the County of Northumberland and parcel of the Bishoprick of Durham was read the third time and passed upon the Question Three Bills also had each of them one reading of which the first being the Bill for buying of Woolls out of Caermarthen Cardigan and Pembroke and the third for keeping the Assizes in Lancaster were each of them read the second time and dashed upon the question The Bill against carrying over Sea of Rams Lambs or Sheep alive The Bill against carrying over of Pelts or Tann'd-Leather And the Bill for the Market of Battell to be kept at Battell were each of them read the second time and Ordered to be ingrossed The General Bill to avoid Fairs and Markets on Sunday to the next work-day following was read the first and second time The House being moved with a Commission for Execution of penal Laws Dated the third day of December last appointed divers Committees whose names through the Clerks great negligence are wholly omitted in the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons to move the Lords to be a means for the revoking of the said Commission to which their Lordships agreed conceiving with the Commons that Edmond Matthew John Elliot and Robert Reynold the Commissioners nominated and authorized in the said Commission were not fit persons for the Execution of the same On Monday the 23 th day of December Four Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the third being the Bill against carrying over Sea of Rams Lambs and Sheep alive was read the third time and passed upon the question The Bill for the Clothing Town of Wonersh in Surrey was read the third time but as yet passed not the House The Bill for helping of Havens and Ports of the Sea was read the second time Seven Bills with three others were sent up to the Lords by M r Vice-Chamberlain of which one was the Bill for the making of White and Bay Salt and another for the Subsidy of the Clergy of Canterbury Report being made upon the Bill for Apparel it was upon the question dashed The Bill for continuance of divers Acts of Parliament with Addition for transporting of Grain was read the second time A Report was made upon the Bill for Cloth-making in the Town of Wonersh in the County of Surrey and a Proviso being read the first second and third time thereunto added by the House the Bill was upon the question dashed The Bill for the Queens Majesties Pardon and the Bill for Tonnage-Wares with some words added unto them were brought from the Lords by M r Attorney which said Bill touching Tonnage-Wares to put out Wines c. was read the first time and dashed upon the Question On Tuesday the 24 th day of December the Bill for the Queens Majesties general and beneficial Pardon unto the 26 th day of December in the eighth year of her Highness Reign was read the first time and accepted by the Commons The Bill for continuance of divers penal Statutes was read the third time and passed upon the question and was sent up to the Lords by M r Chancellor of the Dutchy The Bill for the Alneagers Seals to be graved in the Tower was read the fourth time or rather as it should seem some Additions or Amendments thereunto annexed and dashed upon the question The Bill touching Sheriffs Under-Sheriffs and Bailiffs of Liberties to take Oaths was read the third time and upon the Question dashed The Bill for continuance of Statutes was brought from the Lords to take away all the Provisoes and Articles besides only the continuance of the Acts was upon the question and division of the House dashed viz. with the Bill sixty one and against it ninety seven M r Attorney and M r D r Lewis brought word from the Lords that their Lordships had Adjourned their House until Monday next Whereupon M r Speaker with the advice of this House Adjourned the Parliament until Saturday next and then it was Ordered that the House should then be called to see and consider the defaults On Saturday the 28 th of December the House was called and Adjourned until Monday then next following On Monday the 30 th day of December the House was called again and Adjourned further till Thursday next following because the Lords above had so Adjourned their said House On Thursday the second day of January the Defaulters were called and twelve allowed by the House to make default D r Huicke sent in word from the Lord Keeper that the Lords had Adjourned their House until one of the Clock in the Afternoon The Almes given this day by the House for relief of the Poor amounted to the sum of nineteen pound ten shillings to be paid by M r Henry Knolles Sen. and M r Grimston two Members of the said House Post Meridiem In the Afternoon about three of the Clock the Queens Majesty sitting in the Upper House of Parliament the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons with Richard Onslow their Speaker having had notice thereof repaired thither where the said Speaker made an Excellent Oration of above one hours length tending to the expression of the great goodness of Almighty God shewed unto this Realm by the quiet Government of the Queens Majesty and shewed also the strength of Laws And after thanks to the Queens Majesty for her Gracious Pardon offered the Subsidy and the Pardon And when the Lord Keeper had made a short Answer to the special points of the Oration of the Speaker and that the Queens Majesty had given her Royal Assent to thirty four Acts viz. nineteen publick Acts and fifteen private immediatly it pleased her said Majesty to declare in a most Excellent Phrase of Speech and Sentence that she seemed not pleased with the doings of the House of Commons for busying themselves in this Session with matters which did not appertain at this time unto them intimating doubtless thereby their too violent and eager prosecution of those two great businesses touching her Marriage and Declaration of a Successor in default of Issue of her own Body but in the end of her said Speech she concluded with
hard for amongst many other ways there is one plain evident and easie and that is where offences do abound in any Country contrary to the Laws which the Justices should so reform and there be nothing done by them for the Reformation of those offences I do not see but this makes a full charge of their uncarefulness and negligence whereby they are well worthy upon Certificate made as is aforesaid to be removed of all Governance to their perpetual ignominy and to the Commendation of all those that remain as good Officers And besides to set forth other pains upon them as by Law may be justified if this were once or twice done I doubt not but the Examples following of the doing of it would cause greater diligence to be used in the Execution of Laws than now there is And the better to understand which be those Justices that do offend why might there not be order taken that the name of every Justice that hath not prosecuted any Offender for any offence committed contrary to any Law which by the Commission that he is in he is authorized to see punished might be entred into some Rolls and also how often and how many of those kind of offences he hath also prosecuted for a declaration of his diligence whereby it might appear when such Visitation should come who hath been careful and who hath been negligent to the end that the slothful drowzy Drones might be severed from the diligent and careful Bees And like as I could wish this to be done concerning Offices of mean degree so do I desire that the same course might be taken with the great and greatest for so it should be Equable But if there be nothing done therein but things left as they have been then must you look to have your Laws Executed as they have been if not worse for words will not reform these matters as I have seen by proof And this is the sum of what I have to say at this time concerning the Execution of Laws This Speech of the Lord Keepers being thus transcribed out of the before-mentioned Copy thereof now follows the manner of her Majesties giving her Royal Assent to such Acts as passed as it is set down in the end of the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House in an 39 Reg. Eliz. although it be omitted in that of this present Parliament The Title of the Bill of Subsidy being read after the publick and private Acts the Clerk of the said House standing up did read the Queens Answer in manner and form following La Roigne remercie ses Loyaulx subjects accepte lour benevolence ainst le veult The said Clerk having read the Queens acceptance and thanks for the Subsidy given as aforesaid did then upon the reading of the Title of her Majesties Pardon pronounce in these French words following the thanks of the Lords and Commons for the same Les Prelats Seigneurs Communes en ce present Parliament Assembles au nom de touts vos autres subjects remercient tres humblement vostre Majesty prient à Dieu qu' il vous done santé bone vie longe To every one of the publick Acts allowed by the Queen the Clerk of the Parliament read these French words following La Roigne le veult To every private Act that passed the said Clerk read the Queens Answer in these French words following Soit fait come il est desiré These two last Answers to the publick and private Acts that passed are to be written by the said Clerk at the end of every Act. To such Acts as her Majesty doth forbear to allow the Clerk of the Parliament reads these French words following viz. La Roigne s' advisera Her Majesty finally having given her Royal Assent to twenty eight publick Acts and thirteen private Dissolved the Parliament which is Entred in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper-House in manner and form following viz. Dominus Custos magni Sigilli ex mandato Dominae Reginae Dissolvit praesens Parliamentum THE JOURNAL OF THE House of COMMONS A Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Commons in the Parliament bolden at Westminster An. 13 Reg. Eliz. A. D. 1571 which began there on Monday the 2 d day of April and then and there continued until the Dissolution thereof on Tuesday the 29 th day of May ensuing THIS present Journal of the House of Commons de an 13 Regin Eliz. is not only plentifully stored with all usual Passages touching the Orders and Priviledges of the House but is most worthy to be had in Eternal Remembrance in respect of the long agitation and judicious debatement of matters of Religion and Ecclesiastical Government for the Reformation of which the said House did express a great deal of earnest zeal and care although all in the issue came to nothing out of that old Principle inculcated into her Majesty by some politick Head and misapplyed by her viz. that nothing must be innovated in matters of Religion All which matters with those also less extraordinary are more largely set down in the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons than was usual in the former Journals of her Majesties Reign by reason that Fulk Onslow Esq did as may be guessed succeed in the place of Clerk of the said House unto ..... Seymour Esq somewhat before the beginning of this Parliament Which said Journal is also much perfected out of an imperfect Journal of the same House I had by me taken by some Anonymous Member of the said House at this Parliament in which to avoid confusion whatsoever is here inserted out of the said imperfect Journal is distinguished by some Animadversion The third Parliament of Queen Elizabeth held in the Thirteenth Year of her Majesties most happy and prosperous Reign begun at the City of Westminster upon Monday the second day of April and during the time that her Majesty was at the Sermon at Westminster Church whither she had repaired about ten of the Clock in the Forenoon of the said Monday the Lord Clinton High Admiral of England accompanied with divers of her Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council that is to say Sir Francis Knolles K t Treasurer of her Highness most Honourable Houshold Sir James Crofts K t Comptroller of the same Sir Ralph Sadler K t Chancellor of her Majesties Dutchy of Lancaster Sir Walter Mildmay K t Chancellor of her Highness Court of Exchequer and Sir Thomas Smith Knight repaired into the Lower House of Parliament And there in the presence and hearing of a great number of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the same Parliament Assembled the said Lord Clinton signified that the Queens Majesty had called and appointed him to be the Steward of her Highness most Honourable Houshold to continue during her Majesties pleasure which being likewise affirmed and testified by the said other of her Highness most Honourable Privy-Council the said Lord Steward then further declared that he did then and there name Constitute
it be utterly unlawful or in some sort to be tolerated it is a question and until it be determined for the common Commodity and maintenance let it be as hitherto it hath been used And for the common sort of Bargains of Corn for Cloth Silk for Land c. what they be whether Usury or no we know not That all should be well it is to be wished that all may be done well among men it is beyond hope for we are no Saints we are not of perfection to follow the Letter of the Gospel Who so striketh the one Cheek c. and this Text date nihil inde sperantes These are no express Commandments For the first the Law of nature doth direct and for the other also the same Law in effect maketh defence surely there can be no sin where there can be no breach of Charity To do that therefore to another which we would to our selves the state circumstance and case to our selves considered is commendable or not to be reproved if we our selves be to borrow who is it that would not in extremity give a little to save much money It is said the Usurer doth or may grow rich Who hath disliked in a Common-Wealth that there should be homines boni srugi they may be considered and may be good more than for one purpose He further stood on this that God did not absolutely forbid Usury which surely if it had been utterly ill he would have done And he added that the Common Laws were Cruel in their censures and wished that they should be no more remembred than they are followed Serjeant Lovelace argued to this effect that Usury was of money only protesting that he hated all kind of Usury but yet the greater the ill was the more and more greatly did he hate the same But to prohibit it with so sharp and extream a Law as to lose all he thought it would be the ground of greater Covetousness withal he added to prohibit the ill of Covetousness in generality were rash void and frivolous since that the Speech and the Act it self is indefinite comprehending all our actions and doings and therefore as utterly vain to prohibit it in vain words of generality To prohibit Drunkenness Pride Envy Surfeiting c. were somewhat in some particular sort to do it in generality albeit that we know that it is every way damnable by the direct and written word of God it were but folly Of these great Evils to the which man of his nature is born and made prone and too apt when we may not reach to the best furthest and uttermost we must do as we may say by degrees As to say there shall be no deceit or sleight in making of this or that kind of Wares that the Husband-man shall till his Arable Land and that he shall not keep above such a number of Sheep that there shall be no forestalling regrating c. and this in particularity whereas otherwise generally amongst sinful men to prohibit this sin or that sin utterly on a pain it may not be but thus rather he that shall so sin shall suffer or lose so much whereupon he concluded that there should be degrees in punishing of Usury as he that should take so much to lose or be punished thus he that shall take more more deeply M r Flectwood shewed that all these Arguments long since with great skill and very often have been opened in this place He said it was Ingenui pudoris sateri per quem profeceris M r Check he said argued and so far forth explained this matter as the Learner was thereby sufficiently informed and the Learned fully satisfied His Papers of his Speech he said he had not lost and therefore could shew as much cunning as the cunningest which had bent or endeavoured himself thereunto He said he had read the Civil Law and of the Common Law somewhat but how well he did understand it he would not promise ought What Usury was he said he was not to learn call it if we list Proxima homicidio or how else by a description he forced not much for if there were not Civil Law it were not much to be accounted of for any certainty in this Case thereby to be had and the most ancient Laws of this Realm have taught us thereof somewhat as the Laws of ..... do make to us mention of Usury So do the Laws made in Lucius his time and those of Athelred whereby it was ordained that Witches and Usurers should be banished King Edward the Saint reserreth and appointeth the Offenders herein to suffer ordalium Then was there a great kind of Usury known which was called Torus and a lesser known by the name of ..... Glanvile in the Book de legibus antiquis maketh mention of an inquiry of Christian Usurers In the Tower he said he had seen a Commission awarded to the Master of the Courts he named not what Courts to enquire of Usurers and the punishment of them he said was whipping he said further by Scripture he knew it was damnable and therefore whether it was good or not good it was no good Question For the matter of Implication whether by the pretence of the Law it might be intended that it was in any sort allowed he said it might be construed and compared there with the Statute of Tiths where it is said that till for seven years after Heath ground broken up no Tith shall be paid the Construction hereupon is clear He shewed also that Usury was malum in se for that of some other transgressions her Majesty may dispence afore with but for Usury or to grant that Usury may be used she possibly cannot He further said that the words of an Act of Parliament are not ever to be followed for that sometimes the construction is more contrary to what is written as in the Statute of Magna Charta nisi prius homagium fecerit And some Statutes are winked at by non-observation or otherwise so that they seem to be no Laws even in those things which we practise most as the Statute of Gloc. for the Oath to be taken in Debt and Damages M r Dalton endeavoured to prove that M r Fleetwood mistook the Bill but in fancy he mistook his Arguments M r Norton shewed that all Usury is biting as in the word Steal is contained all kind of injurious taking away of a mans goods and as slanderizing is said to be murthering or homicide so is Usury justly ever to be said biting they being both so correlated or knit together that the one may not be without the other He concluded that since it is doubtful what is good we should be mindful of the old saying Quod dubitas ne feceris and for that Quod non ex fide est peccatum est therefore he wished that no allowance should be of it After these Arguments being transcribed out of the often before-cited Anonymous Journal were ended there is no other
against untrue Demeanors of Tellors Receivors Treasurers and Collectors with a new Proviso and the Bill for severance of Sheriffs in sundry Counties Surrey and Sussex being left out The Bill for Councellors Fees was read the third time M r Doctor Huick and M r Doctor Vaughan brought from the Lords the Bill for the River of Lee with some Additions and Amendments Sir Walter Mildmay Sir Thomas Smith Sir John Thynne M r Wilson Master of the Requests M r Heneage M r Recorder M r Mounson M r Yelverton and M r Bembrick were appointed to meet here in the Chamber to Morrow in the Morning at seven of the Clock to consider of the Bill for Councellors Fees On Tuesday the 29 th day of May M r Serjeant Barham and M r Doctor Huick brought from the Lords the Bill of the Queens Majesties General and free Pardon The Committees for Examination of Fees or Rewards taken for Voices in the House reported That they cannot learn of any that hath sold his Voice in this House or any way dealt unlawfully or indirectly in that behalf and thereupon M r Norton declaring that he heard that some had him in suspition justified himself and was upon the question purged by the Voice of the whole House and their good opinion of him and of his honest and dutiful dealing and great pains taking in the service of this House were in very good and acceptable part declared and affirmed by the like Voice of the whole House The Bill for shooting in Hand-Guns and Harquebuses was read the third time and passed the House And the Bill also for the Queens Majesties most gracious and free Pardon was read Post Meridiem In the Afternoon the Bill for Councellors Fees the third reading being yesterday accomplished was now passed upon the Question All the Bills passed were sent up to the Lords by M r Treasurer and others After which the manner of the Conclusion of the Parliament is Entred in the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons Verbatim as followeth About four of the Clock this Afternoon the Queens Majesty being set in her Royal Seat in the Upper House M r Speaker made his Oration presented unto her Highness the Book of the Subsidy and in the name of the whole House gave her Majesty most humble thanks for her Highness General and free Pardon And prayed her Majesties Royal Assent unto such Acts and Laws as had passed both the Houses in this Sessions Whereupon her Highness gave her Royal Assent unto forty one Acts and so Dissolved this present Parliament THE JOURNAL OF THE House of LORDS The Journal of the Passages of the House of Lords in the Parliament bolden at Westminster An. 14 Reginae Eliz. A. D. 1572 which began there on Thursday the 8 th Day of May and then and there continued until the Adjournment thereof on Monday the 30 th and last Day of June next ensuing THIS Session of Parliament held in An. 14 Reginae Eliz. although it lasted no long time yet it containeth in it a great deal of extraordinary matter touching the Proceeding of the House in the business of the Scottish Queen and towards the Conclusion thereof touching the Priviledge of the Members of the same and that which doth yet somewhat the more enlarge and beautifie it is the Addition of Sir Nicholas Bacon's Speech being the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal on the first day of this Session But howsoever this said Session were in it self short in Continuance yet considering the two other following Sessions which with it made but one and the same Parliament and that the longest of any in this Queens time it will not prove unworthy although the aforesaid extraordinary passages wanted of a careful and methodical setting down For the second Session being held in An. 18 Regin Eliz. and the third and last Session in An. 23 Regin ejusdem it was continued by many Adjournments and Prorogations although the House sate but a part of the time until the final Dissolution thereof upon the 19 th day of April in An. 25 Reginae praedictae after it had lasted about the space of eleven years On Thursday the 8 th day of May according to the Writ of Summons that had been sent forth dated at Greenwich the 5 th day of May in the fourteenth year of the Queen the Parliament held Nota That the Writ of Summons is set down in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House to have born date the 5 th day of May in this fourteenth year and the Parliament to have begun on the 8 th day of May in the same year of the Queen but three days after the Writ of Summons it self which is impossible and it is plain that the day of the beginning of the Parliament cannot be mistaken because according to that all the other days through the whole Journal-Book do follow in due form and order and therefore it is very probable that the date of the Writ is set down contrary to the Originals themselves which were dated the 5 th day of March and that the Clerk might mistake This is likewise very conjecturable in respect that the name of the Month being set down and perhaps abbreviated it was easily written May for March and so this incongruity is only the slip and error of the Clerk The Queens Majesty was doubtless present her self this day in the Upper House and was attended by Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and divers Lords Spiritual and Temporal but in the Journal-Book of the Upper House there is no mention made who were present this day only it may be guessed by the names of such as the said Original Journal-Book setteth down to have been present on Monday the 12 th day of this instant May following which is the first day on which the presence of any Lords is marked according to the usual form by the Clerk of the Parliament Neither can it possibly be collected or gathered by the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House or House of Commons whether her Majesty was present or no. For as concerning the Journal of the House of Commons it appeareth only that divers of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the said House of Commons did this day take the Oath in that Case accustomed And therefore the chief ground I had to conclude that her Majesty was this day personally in the Upper House was a Copy I had by me of the Lord Keepers Speech made there this day in the publick Assembly of both Houses in the end of which he gives direction to the House of Commons to Elect their Speaker which shews also that the said Speech in divers Copies thereof is falsly attributed to the eighteenth Year of her Majesty which was but the second Session of this Parliament and no Speaker Elected in it and therefore this Error seemeth only to have grown through the fault of Transcribers and the ignorance of such as suffered so groundless
by the Lords before it was thus immediately returned a thing very observable and extraordinary within a short time after the Lords themselves had received it It appeareth also in the said Journal-Book that one Bill more concerning the good Government of the City of Westminster was sent up with certain amendments to the Lords from the House of Commons and that two other Bills whereof this very Bill concerning the City of Westminster was one and the Bill for the keeping of the County-Court at Morpeth and the Town of Anwicke in the County of Northumberland was the other had been this day sent down to the House of Commons from the Lords by Serjeant Rodes and M r Powle who thereupon did presently read them prima secunda tertia vice as the Lords it should seem led by their Example did the two Bills above-mentioned this same Morning afterwards and with some small alteration sent them up to the Lords All which matter is by the negligence of M r Mason at this time Clerk of the Upper House omitted in the said Original Journal-Book of that House and supplied out of the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons pag. 166 167. Collected by M r Fulk Onslow at this time Clerk of the said House On Saturday the 27 th day of March the Bill for the maintenance of the Pier and Cobb of Lime-Regis in the County of Dorsett was read tertia vice conclusa The Petition also of the Lord Marquess of Winchester against M r Oughtred concerning certain Accompts by him to be made was this day read before the Lords Vide concerning this matter on Monday the 29 th day of this instant March following On Monday the 29 th day of March to which day the Parliament had been on Saturday last continued a Proviso to the Bill concerning the Pier and Cobb of Lime Regis added by the Lords was read tertia vice and then sent down to the House of Commons by M r Serjeant Rodes and M r Powle M r Oughtred appeared before the Lords The Lord Chancellor by the advice and consent of the said Lords asked the said Oughtred whether he meant to take the benefit of a Release heretofore mentioned The said Oughtred 〈◊〉 before the said Lords that he would 〈◊〉 advantage of any Release concerning 〈◊〉 sum of twelve thousand pound and more 〈◊〉 further that the said Release extended 〈◊〉 the said sum but to other accompts before 〈◊〉 time of his Executorship The Lord Chancellor demanded further of the said Oughtred 〈◊〉 would be contented that his said Speeches should be entred by the Clerk in the Journals of the House The said Oughtred Answered that he was very well pleased therewith Whereupon the Lord Chancellor Commanded that his said Speeches should be Registred Nota That this matter was formerly debated on Tuesday the 7 th day of March in the last Parliament de Anno 23 Reginae Eliz. and before also in this present Parliament on Tuesday the 9 th day of February last past and on Tuesday the 4 th day and on Saturday the 27 th day of this instant March foregoing and Committees were likewise appointed about it on the foresaid 9 th day of February being Tuesday Dominus Cancellarius continuavit praesens Parliamentum usque in horam secundam post meridiem About which hour the Lords meeting the Bill for the Queens Majesties most Gracious general and free Pardon lecta est quae commum omnium Proccrum assensu conclusa est data Servienti Rodes in Domum Communem deferend ' unà cum subsidio Temporalitatis Nota That the general Pardon passeth here upon the first reading There was also brought from the House of Commons two Bills of which the first was the Bill for the preservation of the Pier or Cobb of Lime Regis in the County of Dorset and the second being an Act for the preservation of Pheasants and Partridges with amendments was rejected for that they of the House of Commons had with their amendments taken away the principal intent of the Bill This Afternoon her Majesty Accompanied with the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor the Lord Burleigh Lord Treasurer of England the Lord Marquess of Winchester the Earl of Oxford and divers other Lords Spiritual and Temporal were personally present in the Parliament Chamber commonly called the Upper House who being all set in their Parliamentary Robes and the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons having notice thereof repaired thither with John Puckering Serjeant at Law their Speaker who being placed at the Rail or Bar at the lower end of the said Upper House after his humble reverence made and some expressions of his thankfulness to her Majesty he proceeded according to the usual course to desire her Majesty to give Life to such Laws by adding her Gracious Allowance unto them as had passed either House and remained as yet but as a dead Letter and withal gave her Majesty knowledge of the free gift of the House of Commons of one Subsidy and two Fifteenths and Tenths To which Speech of the said Prolocutors the Lord Chancellor by her Majesties commandment answered That she did graciously accept of the said gift of her Commons and was come thither to give her Royal assent to divers of those Laws which had passed the two Houses Then were the Titles of all the Acts read and first the Bill of Subsidy to which the Clerk of the Parliament standing up did read the Queens Majesties Answer in manner and form following La Royne remercie ses loyaulx Subjects accepte leur benevolence ainsi le veult The Clerk of the Parliament having read the Queens acceptance and thanks for the Subsidy given as aforesaid did then upon the reading of the Pardon pronounce in these French words following the thanks of the Lords and Commons for the same Les Prelates Seigneurs Communes en se present Parliment assembles au nom de touts vous autres Subjects remercient treshumblement vostre Majesty prient a Dieu que il vous done en sante bone vie longue Nota That her Majesties Answer to these two Acts of the Subsidy and Pardon do differ from all the rest to any other Bills because in the first is expressed her Majesties thanks to the Subjects and in the second the Subjects humble acknowledgment of her said Majesties Pardon as an act of her own free grace and goodness To every publick Act allowed by the Queen the Clerk of the Parliament reads in these French words following La Royne le veult To every private Act that passeth the said Clerk of the Parliament reads the Queens Answer in these French words following Soit fait come il est desire These two last Answers to the publick and private Acts that pass are to be written by the Clerk of the Parliament at the end of every Act. To such Acts as her Majesty doth forbear
John Puckering Serjeant at Law their Speaker who being placed at the Rail or Bar at the lower end of the said Upper House did according to the usual form humbly crave her Majesties most Royal Assent to such good Laws as had passed the two Houses Whereupon her Majesty having by her Assent given Life to thirty publick Acts and nineteen private the Parliament was Prorogued unto the 20 th day of May next ensuing and at last after five other Prorogations it was Dissolved upon Wednesday the 15 th day of September Anno 28 Regin Eliz. Anno Domini 1586. THE JOURNAL OF THE House of LORDS An Exact and perfect Journal of the Passages of the Upper House in the Parliament holden at Westminster Anno 28 Reginae Eliz. Anno Domini 1586. which began there on Saturday the 29 th Day of October after two Several Prorogations thereof and then and there continued until it was at length Dissolved on Thursday the 23 th Day of March Anno 29 Reginae ejusdem THE Journal of this Parliament both in respect of the greatness of the matter handled in it being the business of Mary Queen of Scots as also of the many rare Precedents which happened in the Carriage of it the Queens Person being represented and the Lord Chancellors place supplied by others with the Adjournment and re-assembling again of the same somewhat extraordinary is and ought to be esteemed most worthy of observation And it is most plain that this Parliament was at the first beyond the Queens own expectation summoned and afterwards Assembled upon no other cause or ground than the timely and strange discovery of that bloody and merciless Treason Plotted by Babington and others for the violent cutting off her Majesties life of which Mary Queen of Scots had been first by a most Just and Honourable Tryal fully Convicted and afterwards Judicially pronounced to have been in a high nature guilty But yet her Majesty not satisfied with her so just a Tryal and Attainder assembled the Parliament on purpose that so all those former proceedings how just so ever might be further Committed and referred to the impartial examination and final Judgment of the whole Realm And that this great Council of the Kingdom was merely called together at this time about this business is most plain because the last Prorogation of ths former Parliament holden in Anno 27 Regin Eliz. Anno Dom. 1584. was from the 26 th day of April Anno 28 Regin Eliz. Anno Dom. 1586. unto the 14 th day of November then next ensuing But long before the said day the former Conspiracy being discovered about the latter end of July in Anno eodem the former Parliament was dissolved on Wednesday the fourteenth day of September following in the 28 th year of her Majesty And this new one Assembled on Saturday the 29 th day of October immediately after ensuing At which time the Queen came not to the Upper House in Person but was represented by three Commissioners not as her Majesty afterward professed because she feared the Violence of any Assassinte but because she abhorred to be an hearer of so foul and unnatural a conspiracy plotted against her by the Scottish Queen a Kinswoman so near to her Highness Yet by this means her absence doubtless drew on the greater safety and her Loving and Loyal Subjects did the more clearly perceive in how great and unavoidable danger she stood as long as that Queen lived and were therefore doubtless stirred up to consult in this so important a Cause with the greater Zeal and earnestness for the preservation of Religion the Security of her Majesties Life and the safety of these Realms Which matters the Lords of the Upper House did so seriously intend as that in this first meeting in this present Parliament which lasted from the foresaid 29 th day of October being Saturday unto the second day of December next following being Friday it appeareth not in the Original Journal-Book of the Upper House that any one Bill publick or private was read or so much as once treated of This Parliament was summoned to have begun on Saturday the 15 th day of October Anno 28 Regin Eliz. at which said day her Highness for great and weighty causes and Considerations her thereunto especially moving did prolong and adjourn the said Parliament unto Thursday being the 27 th day of the said Month of October by vertue of a Writ under the Great Seal dated the eighth day of this present October whereupon on the said 15 th day of October the Archbishop of Canterbury with divers other Lords and Councellors repaired to the Parliament Chamber commonly called the Upper House and there in presence of divers Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Knights Citizens and Burgesses summoned to the same Parliament did declare her Highnesses pleasure to Prorogue the same Parliament from this first summoned day until the 27 th of the said Month and thereupon the Writ for the said Prorogation was publickly read by the Clerk of the Upper House Upon the said 27 th day of October Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor of England and divers Lords with a good number of the House of Commons met again in the Parliament Chamber and did again Prorogue this present Parliament after the usual and accustomed form unto the Saturday next following being the 29 th day of this present October On which said 29 th day of October the Parliament held accordingly and the Lords in the Afternoon repaired to the Upper House and there placed themselves according to their several Degrees Upon which the Knights Citizens and Burgesses having notice that the Lords expected their presence repaired to the said House and being let in as many as could conveniently Sir Thomas Bromley the Lord Chancellor declared unto the whole Assembly that her Majesty was so hindred by great and urgent occasions as she could not be present yet had notwithstanding given full Authority to Three Members of the Upper House in her Majesties name and stead to begin the said Parliament Whose names are entred in the Original Journal-Book of this Parliament in manner and form following Regina representata per Commissionarios viz. Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem Dominum Burleigh Thesaurarium Comitem Darbiae Magnum Seneschallum All the Lords then present were these following Archiepiscopus Cantuarien Thomas Bromley Miles Dominus Cancellarius Archiepiscopus Eboracen Dominus Burleigh Dominus Thesaurarius Angliae Comites Comes Oxon Magnus Camerarius Comes Kantiae Comes Darbiae Magnus Seneschallus Comes Wigorn. Comes Rutland Comes Cumberland Comes Sussex Comes Pembrook Comes Hartford Comes Lincoln Vicecomes Mountague Episcopi Episcopus London Episcopus Dunelmen Episcopus Winton Episcopus Bathon Wellen. Episcopus Sarisburien Episcopus Roffen Episcopus Exon. Episcopus Cestren Barones Dominus Howard Admirallus Dominus Aburgavenny Dominus Zouch Dominus Barkley Dominus Morley Dominus Dacres Dominus Cobham Dominus Stafford Dominus Grey de Wilton Dominus Lumley Dominus
that she hath right not to succeed but to enjoy your Crown in possession and therefore as she is a most impatient Competitor acquainted with blood so will she not spare any means that may take you from us being the only Lett that she enjoyeth not her desire She is hardned in malice against your Royal Person notwithstanding that you have done her all favour mercy and kindness as well in preserving her Kingdom as saving her Life and Honour And therefore there is no place for mercy where there is no hope of amendment or that she will desist from most wicked Attempts The rather for that her malice appeareth such as that she maketh as it were her Testament of the same to be executed after her death and appointeth her Executors to perform the same She affirmeth it lawful to move Invasion therefore as of Invasion Victory may ensue and of Victory the death of the vanquished so doth she not obscurely profess it lawful to destroy you She holds it not only lawful but honourable also and meritorious to take your life c. being deprived of your Crown by her holy Father and therefore she will as she hath continually done seek it by all means whatsoever She is greedy of your death and preferreth it before her own life for in her late direction to some of her Complices she willed whatsoever became of her the Tragical Execution should be performed on you There is by so much the more danger to your Person since the Sentence than before by how much it behoveth them that would preserve her or advance her to hasten your death now or never before Execution done upon her as knowing that you and none else can give direction for her death and that by your death the Sentence hath lost the force of Execution and otherwise they should come too late if they take not the present opportunity to help her Her Friends hold Invasion unprofitable while you live and therefore in their opinion your death is first and principally to be sought as the most compendious way to ruine the Realm by Invasion Some of the eldest and wisest Papists set it down for a special good drift to occupy you with conceit that the preservation of her Life is the safety of your own and therefore you may be assured that they verily think that her life will be your death and destruction Secondly Forasmuch as concerns Religion It is most perillous to spare her that hath continually breathed the overthrow and suppression of the same being poysoned with Popery from her tender Youth and at her Age joyning in that false termed Holy League and ever since and now a professed Enemy of the Truth She resteth wholly upon Popish hopes to be delivered and advanced and is so devoted and doted in that profession that she will as well for satisfaction of others as feeding her own humor supplant the Gospel where and whensoever she may Which evil is so much the greater and the more to be avoided as that it slayeth the Soul and will spread it self not only over England and Scotland but also into all parts beyond the Seas where the Gospel of God is maintained the which cannot but be exceedingly weakened if defection should be in these two most valiant Kingdoms Thirdly For as much as concerns the happy Estate of this Realm The Lydians say Unum Regem agnoscunt Lydii duos autem tolerare non possunt So we say Unam Reginam Elizabetham agnoscunt Angli duas autem tolerare non possunt And therefore since she saith that she is Queen here and we neither can nor will acknowledge any other but you to be our Queen It will follow if she prevail she will rather make us slaves than take us for Children and therefore the Realm sigheth and groaneth under fear of such a Step-Mother She hath already provided us a Foster-Father and a Nurse the Pope and the King of Spain into whose hands if it should mis-happen us to fall what can we else look for but ruine destruction and utter extirpation of goods lands lives honour and all Whilst she shall live the enemies of the State will hope and gape after your death By your death they trust to make Invasion profitable for them which cannot be but the same should be most lamentable for us and therefore it is meet to cut off the head of that hope As she hath already by her poysoned baits brought to destruction more Noble men and their Houses and a great multitude of Subjects during her being here than she would have done if she had been in possession of her own Country and armed in the field against us so will she still be continually cause of the like spoil to the greater loss and peril of this Estate and therefore this Realm neither can or may endure her Her Sectaries do write and print that we be at our wits end worlds end if she over-live your Majesty meaning thereby that the end of our world is the beginning of theirs and therefore take her away and their world will be at an end before it begin Since the sparing of her in the 14 th year of your Reign Popish Traytors and Recusants have multiplied exceedingly And if you spare her now again they will grow both innumerable and invincible also And therefore now in the 4 th place Mercy in this case would in the end prove cruelty against us all Nam est quaedam crudelis misericordia And therefore to spare her is to spill us She is only a Cousin to you in a remote degree but we be Sons and Children of this land whereof you be not only the natural Mother but also the Wedded Spouse And therefore much more is due from you to us all than to her alone It would exceedingly grieve and wound the hearts of your loving Subjects if they should see so horrible Vice not condignly punished if any be wavering it will win them to the worser part and many will seek to make their own peace Wherefore as well for the comfort of the one as stay of the other and retaining of all It is most needful that Justice be done upon her Thousands of your loving Subjects of all degrees which have for special zeal of your safety made Oath before God to pursue to death by all forcible and possible means such as she is by just sentence found to be cannot save their Oaths if you keep her alive for then either we must take her life from her without direction which will be to our extream danger by the offence of your Law or else we must suffer her to live against our express Oath which will be to the uttermost peril of our own Souls wherewith no Act of Parliament nor power of man whatsoever can in any wise dispense And therefore seeing it resteth wholly in you by a most worthy and just execution of this sentence to keep us upright and free us in both we most humbly and earnestly
Souldiers as shall be found to have most need thereof The like whereof the Commons Assembled in this Parliament have Ordered For all the Members of that House that are absent and have not paid are to contribute in double manner Which Order is thought very just considering the Lords and others who have been absent and have been at no charge to come up and give their Attendance may very reasonably and with a great saving to their Charges contribute to this Order And if any Lord Spiritual or Temporal shall refuse or forbear thus to do which is hoped in Honour none will do there shall be ordinary means used to levy the same On Friday the 6 th day of April to which day the Parliament had been last continued four Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the second being the Bill for avoiding deceits used in sale of twice laid Cordage for the better preservation of the Navy of this Realm was read tertia vice conclusa Eight Bills were sent up to the Lords from the House of Commons of which the last was the Bill to make void the Spiritual Livings of those that have forsaken the Realm and do cleave to the Pope and his Religion On Saturday the 7 th day of April Two Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the first being the Bill for rating of the Wages of Spinners and Weavers and to reform the falsities of Regrators of Woollen Yarn was read primâ vice On Monday the 9 th day of April to which day the Parliament had been last continued three Bills were each of them read secundà tertiâ vice and so expedited of which the second was the Bill for the bringing of fresh Water to the Town of Stonehouse in the County of Devon Eight Bills also this Morning were sent up to the Lords from the House of Commons of which the first being the Bill for the Naturalizing of Justice Dormer and George Sheppy being born beyond the Seas of English Parents and to put them in the nature of meer English was read primâ secundâ vice But it doth not appear whether this Bill were committed or no which did not only happen in this place by the negligence of M r Anthony Mason at this time Clerk of the Upper House but also through the whole Original Journal Book of the said House this Parliament in all which although divers Bills are said to be read the second time yet it is not at all expressed whether they were thereupon Ordered to be ingrossed or further to be considered of by some select Committees of the House one of which of necessity must be put in Execution upon the said second reading of a Bill both in the Upper House and that of the House of Commons unless the Bill have its third reading also at the same time and pass the House or else be dasht upon the question and so cast out of it This Morning finally Whereas a Bill Intituled An Act touching Power and Liberty to repeal certain uses of a Deed Tripartite herein mentioned of and in certain Lands Mannors and Tenements of Anthony Cooke of Romford in the County of Essex Esquire hath been heretofore three times read and assented unto by the Lords in the which Bill there is no Saving to the Queens Majesty or any other person or persons of their lawful Estates or Titles This day there was a Saving drawn for her Majesty and all others which was offered to this House and some question and ambiguity did grow whether the Saving should be now added to the Bill And in the end it was resolved that the Saving should be added to the Bill for that it is usual and requisite to have some Saving in every Bill and for that there was nothing in the Saving contrary to any matter in the Bill and that her Majesties Right and all other be saved thereby Nevertheless upon weighty considerations the Lords have Ordered that this shall not hereafter be drawn to make any Precedent On Tuesday the 10 th day of April in the Morning were two Bills read of which the second being the Bill for the Queens most gracious and general free Pardon was read primâ vice and so passed upon the question Nota That the Bill or Act for the Queens general Pardon passeth each House upon the first reading Whereas other Bills cannot be expedited without being read three times both by the Lords and the Commons The Queens Majesty came not till the Afternoon and therefore in this place through the negligence of the Clerk the continuing of the Parliament until some hour in the Afternoon is omitted which should have been inserted in these words viz. Dominus Custos magni Sigilli continnavit praesens Parliamentum usque in horam c. à Meridie Between five and six of the Clock in the Afternoon this present Tuesday being the tenth day of April the Queens Majesty accompanied with her Officers and daily Attendants came to the Upper House and as soon as her Majesty with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the rest that have place there were set the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons having notice thereof came up with their Speaker bringing with them the Bill of Subsidy The said Speaker being placed at the Bar at the lower end of the Upper House and as many of the House of Commons as could conveniently being let in after Humble Reverence done to her Majesty spake as followeth THE High Court of Parliament most High and Mighty Prince is the greatest and most ancient Court within this your Realm For before the Conquest in the High places of the West-Saxons we read of a Parliament holden and since the Conquest they have been holden by all your Noble Predecessors Kings of England In the time of the West-Saxons a Parliament was holden by the Noble King Ina by these words I Ina King of the West-Saxons have caused all my Fatherhood Aldermen and wisest Commons with the Godly men of my Kingdom to consult of weighty matters c. Which words do plainly shew all the parts of this High Court still observed to this day For by King Ina is your Majesties most Royal Person represented The Fatherhood in Ancient time were these which we call Bishops and still we call them Reverend Fathers an Ancient and chief part of our State By Aldermen were meant your Noblemen For so honourable was the word Alderman in Ancient time that the Nobility only were called Aldermen By Wisest Commons is meant and signified Knights and Burgesses and so is your Majesties Writ de discretioribus magis sufficientibus By Godliest men is meant your Convocation-House It consisteth of such as are devoted to Religion And as Godliest men do consult of weightest matters so is your Highness Writ at this day pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis nos Statum defensionem Regni nostri
tryal But it cannot be proved so ancient as the manner of tryals by accusations For in John the Adulterous Woman being brought to Christ he asked who were her Accusers And for that manner of Accusation the Lawyers themselves speak against it for one saith of it Ut libere fatear quod sentiam nunquam mihi placebat For Subscription the Statute alledged is meant but a Subscription to certain Articles in Religion and not a Subscription in this form And because it is allowed in Geneva so to allow it here that is no reason For in Geneva there be many things allowed which the party speaking would I dare say be loth to have used here As to Absolution there is no such Oath to be required therein in our Writ de Excommunicato capiendo as was said So I think the Bill very worthy and fit to be read Then Sir Robert Cecill Spake and said I am unwilling to speak yea I speak against my Will and to answer Speeches well studied and premeditated upon the sudden it is hard for me What the Bill containeth I am ignorant of and whether to allow of it or not I will suspend my opinion To say the truth the man that offered it was learned and wise and one whom I love yet a Bill to be offered and inforced in this sort being of such effect I know not how to allow of it For her Majesty had straitly forbidden to meddle in such Cases yet not forgetting the Cause she had in her Excellent wisdom cared and pretended that a redress should be had of things that are amiss To which end her Majesty before the Parliament summoned had directed her Letters to the Archbishops to certifie her Now her Highness Care for our good shall be prevented by our hasty speaking of these things before our time Sure it is not fit and her Majesty cannot but be offended at it For the Bill I protest I know it not but it seemed to contain things needful Wherefore it were fittest it should be commended to her Majesty and so recommended unto us And if I may do this Office and Service for the House I will in all dutiful Loves and Service do it But if the other course be taken I fear the things sought will be denied for the violence used in it Then M r Speaker said In favour and free love above my merits or desert you have Elected me which should bind me to do all my best Service and to be faithful toward you This Bill delivered me is long and containeth important matters of great weight and such matters as cannot be expressed in four words It hath many parts and if you put me presently to open it I cannot so readily understand it and do it as I should For indeed it is a matter far above my ordinary practice and to deliver a thing before I conceive it I could not Wherefore if it would please you to give me leave to consider of it I protest I will be faithful and keep it with all Secrecy Hereupon the House was in question whether it should be committed to the Speaker only or to the Privy-Council and him but it was holden to be against the Order of the House that any Bill should be committed before it was read Therefore upon a Motion made by M r Wroth it was agreed that M r Speaker should have it This Afternoon at two of the Clock M r Speaker was sent for to the Court where the Queen her self gave him Commandment to deliver unto the House ..... and so the matter abruptly breaks off in the said Anonymous Journal mentioned more particularly in the beginning of this present Journal out of which all these aforesaid Speeches are inserted But that which should here follow can be no more but only that her Majesty did Command him to deliver a certain Message to the House the day following which he did then perform accordingly Vt vide postea in fine diei sequentis Finally the last business of this Forenoon was the reading and committing of an ordinary Bill which is inserted out of the Original Journal-Book it self The Bill lastly that a Bar at large may be pleaded in an Ejectione firmae was upon the second reading committed unto M r Edgecombe Sir Henry Knivet and the Serjeants at Law that are Members of the House Mr. Attorney of the Wards and others who were appointed to meet upon Thursday next at two of the Clock in the Afternoon at Serjeants-Inn in Flectstreet On Wednesday the 28 th day of February the Bill for reducing of disloyal Subjects to their due Obedience was read the second time Nota That before this Bill was committed divers spake unto it which being omitted in the Original Journal-Book after the mentioning of the second reading thereof I thought good to supply the said Speeches out of that Anonymous Journal so often before-mentioned and the rather because this Bill being against Popish Recusants the said Speeches do contain matter of much weight in them Mr. Cradock after the said Bill against Recusants had been opened by Mr. Speaker upon the second reading thereof spake as followeth There is no man as I think so irreligious towards God so unloyal towards her Majesty so careless of the common Statutes but thinks the Bill to be good and the Law very necessary before it be Enacted Yet it were fit every part of it were considered of and reformed The thing to be reformed is this The words of the Act being Every person that shall receive a Recusant c. And thus the Purvey being General the good Subject may be grieved by this Law and he that shall have but a Recusant in his Custody shall be within the letter of the Law for receiving a Recusant into his House Things to be considered are first Whether it be good to deprive them of all their goods for so we shall leave them no means of living Secondly Whether the Parties that be now Recusants being reconciled if they fall into relapse and afterwards be newly reconciled again shall be enabled to take benefit of their Lands and goods for'tis hard if after their repenting they be not restored Then Mr. Philips Answering all Objections against the Bill affirmed it sufficient in all points and that neither the sence nor the letter could be prejudicial to the good Subject Only he could have wisht it were provided that the Recusant should not use this Law to his benefit by procuring Commons to be their Friends and take Leases of their own Lands answering the Queens Title Mr. Finch made this Question Whether those that came not to Church by reason of the mislike they had of the Church Government shall be in like Case as a Recusant Papist Mr. Tichburn said he could have provided that the Father should not disinherit the Son nor have power so to do for being made conformable by him that should have the bringing of him up Then Mr. Nathanael Bacon spake and said The Children
should be ill for London for the Riches and Renown of the City cometh by entertaining of Strangers and giving liberty unto them Antwerp and Venice could never have been so rich and famous but by entertaining of Strangers and by that means have gained all the intercourse of the World M r Fuller spake next against Alien Retaylors and said The Exclamations of the City are exceeding pitiful and great against these Strangers nay had not these latter quiet times in their own Countries and our troubles made many of them retire home the Citizens would have been in uproar against them The which if the Government of the City repress not they will be apt enough to it It is no Charity to have this pity on them to our own utter undoing for of them there ought none to be sworn a Denizen but he should first swear he is not worth five pound This is to be noted in these Strangers they will not converse with us they will not marry with us they will not buy any thing of our Country-men Their retailing is the cause that all things be at that price with us For they make Lawns Velvets Rashes Taffaraes Linnen-Cloth and all this they sell to us also Now whosoever maketh a thing and selleth a thing raiseth the price of it The Retailing Stranger buyeth nothing of our Country Commodities but all he layeth out he buyeth from beyond the Seas The Searchers have sometimes taken seven thousand pound of theirs at a time Sir Edward Dymock speaking for the Strangers said The Beggery of our home Retaylors comes not by the Strangers Retailing but by our home ingrossers so that if our Retaylors might be at the first hand they might sell as good cheap as the Strangers But this Bill is thrust into the House by our home Ingrossers of Policy that their beggering of our Retaylors might be imputed to the Strangers Retailing The Strangers here purchase dear And beyond the Seas it is lawful for the Strangers in the places of the best Traffick to trade in any thing In Venice any Stranger may buy sell or purchase House or Lands and dispose thereof by his Will or otherwise at his pleasure as freely as any Citizen And this may we do then in some sort The Strangers are not they that transport our Coin but it is our Merchants For it is to be seen in all the Low-Countries where her Majesty uttereth much Treasure there is not so much English Coin to be had as in the same Towns where the Merchants trade And of my own Experience I know a Town in the Low-Countries where a Contract of twenty pound was made by an English Merchant and he agreed to pay it all in English Angels M r Dalton against the Strangers said That ingrossing ought to be suffered amongst Merchants because otherwise the Commodities lying to be sold in parcels would be consumed in Expences before the Ship were discharged Therefore for Merchandise sake this is to be suffered He imputed the Beggery of the City to Strangers and said that in some one Parish there were a thousand lived by Begging M r Finch spake for the Strangers and said We ought not to be uncharitable but this must be the Rule None must so relieve Strangers as by it to begger themselves But for their riches it groweth chiefly by Parsimony and where they dwell I see not that the Nation is so much grieved at them as here in London for they contribute to all Scots and Lots as we do Though they be a Church by themselves their Example is profitable amongst us for their Children are no sooner able to go but they are taught to serve God and to flee idleness for the least of them earneth his meat by his labour Our Nation is sure more blessed for their sakes Wherefore as the Scripture saith Let us not grieve the Soul of the stranger If this Stranger be both a Merchant and a Retaylor there 's a Law against him 15 Eliz. c. 2. But as I am for the Strangers of the Church so not against any Law that should be made against such Strangers as be not of the Church but here only for Merchandize and those who have for Conscience sake only may again the fire being quenched safely return into their own Countries In 6 R. 2. An Act was made what Wares strangers should retayle and what not but what is understood by this word retailing or how far it is stretched I know not If Retayling stretch to sell that which they make here as well as that which is brought from beyond Seas this is too hard a Construction In the days of Queen Mary when our Cause was as theirs is now those Countries did allow us that liberty which now we seek to deuy them They are strangers now we may be strangers hereafter So let us do as we would be done unto Serjeant Drew said There is no reason we should be without respect to Strangers yet our Charity must be done with a feeling of our Countrymens grief And although I think it not fit that the Law should look back to have old men long inhabiting here now to become Apprentices yet that all things should be at liberty to all strangers as it is that were not convenient Wherefore I could wish there might be a Law for those that should come hereafter only and the strangers that be now might be restrained to their Retayling of some Wares especially My Motion therefore is That the House would continue the Committee of the Bill until a further day that it may receive Motion from their deliberation Thus far out of the aforesaid Anonymous Journal the residue of this days passages that follow and part of the next are transcribed out of the Original Journal-Book it self After the aforesaid Speeches and Arguments the said Bill against Aliens selling by Retail was upon the question recommitted unto the former Committees who had been appointed on Tuesday the 6 th day of this Instant March foregoing to meet again about the same Bill in the Afternoon of this present day and the Bill was also delivered to M r Dalton one of the same Committees Sir William Bevel Knight one of the Knights returned for the County of Cornwal in respect of his Wises extream sickness is by M r Speaker licensed to depart Thomas Maylard one of the Burgesses for Hertford is for his necessary business at the Assizes licensed by M r Speaker to depart On Thursday the 22 d day of March the Bill for the Grant of three intire Subsidies and six Fifteenths and Tenths was read the third time and passed upon the question Nota That this Bill of the Subsidy in respect of the greatness of the sum passed the House of Commons with very great difficulty as may appear by those several days upon which it was agitated 〈◊〉 on Monday the 25 th day of February and on Friday the second day Saturday the third day Tuesday the 6 th day Wednesday the
accordingly the same persons who before had been sent to demand satisfaction But being come into the House and having placed themselves at the lower end of the said room as at other times they accustomed except the Lord Keeper and the rest of the Lords would come from their places and meet them at the Bar to deliver them Answer the Lord Keeper moved them to come nearer to receive Answer And when they perceived that the Lords were resolved not to come from their places to the Bar they protested by the Mouth of Sir William Knolles that they had no Commission to receive Answer in that form And so refusing to receive any Answer departed The question and difference thus remaining betwixt the Houses it was afterwards upon a Motion sent down from the Lords to the House of Commons agreed on both parts that a Conference should be had and that the aforesaid selected persons of the said House of Commons or so many of them as should be needful should meet with divers of the Lords of the Upper House being nominated by the House for that purpose in the outward great Chamber before the Chamber of Parliament presence to debate the matter and bring it to a conclusion Which Meeting and Conference being assented unto and afterwards accordingly there performed on the .... of January and the Questions debated and the reasons and observation of former time for the aforesaid Order and Custom of the House being alledged by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Burleigh Lord Treasurer the Earl of Nottingham Lord Admiral the Lord North and the Lord Buckhurst that had been present in many Parliaments and especially by the Lord Treasurer the most ancient Parliament Man it was found and observed that the Order and Custom of the House was as is before written videlicet that when any Bills or Messages are brought from the House of Commons to be presented to the Upper House the Lord Keeper and the rest of the Lords are to arise from their places and to go down to the Bar there to meet such as come from the House of Commons and from them to receive in that place their Messages or Bills But contrariwise when any Answer is to be delivered by the Lord Keeper in the name and behalf of the House to such Knights and Burgesses as come from the House of Commons the said Knights and Burgesses are to receive the same standing towards the lower end of the said Upper house without the Bar and the Lord Keeper is to deliver the same sitting in his place with his Head covered and all the Lords keeping their places And thereupon the House of Commons was satisfied and the same form was afterwards kept accordingly On Friday the 20 th day of January the Answer that came yesterday from the House of Commons to the Objections taken by their Lordships to some points of the Bill Intituled An Act for the encrease of people for the service and defence of the Realm was by the Order of the House referr'd and delivered to the Lords Committees formerly appointed upon that Bill on Tuesday the 20 th day of December foregoing who were required to consider thereof and to make their Report of their Opinions concerning the same The Bill for punishment of Rogues Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars was read primâ vice A former Bill of that nature having been rejected in the House of Commons The Bill for the maintenance of Husbandry and Tillage was read tertiâ vice and the Amendments and Proviso were thrice read together with the Bill and were sent down to the House of Commons for their consideration of the Amendments and Proviso by M r Attorney General and M r D r Stanhop The Bill for reforming of sundry abuses committed by Souldiers and others in her Majesties Services concerning the Wars was read primâ vice A former Bill of this nature having been considered of by the Committees was by them refused for many defects found therein and this preferr'd to the House instead thereof The House having not time to hear the Councel Learned on the behalf of George Ognell and those that follow the Bill for the Hospital of Warwick as was formerly appointed a new time was appointed for the hearing of the same viz. on Monday Morning next being the 23 th day of this instant January Four Bills were brought up to the Lords from the House of Commons by Sir William Knolles and others of which the first being the Bill to reform deceit and breaches of Trust touching Lands given to Charitable uses was read primâ vice On Saturday the 21 th day of January Four Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the second being the Bill for repealing of a branch of a Statute made in the thirty fourth year of Hen. 8. Intituled the Ordinance of Wales was read secunda vice and committed unto the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Marshall the Earl of Shrewsbury the Earl of Worcester the Bishop of Worcester the Bishop of Landaff the Bishop of Chester the Lord La Ware the Lord Rich the Lord Chandois and the Lord Compton and the Lord Chief Baron and M r Baron Evers to attend their Lordships Vide concerning this Attendance of the Judges upon the Lords Committees on Monday the 7 th day of November foregoing The parties on both sides concerning the Bill of Edward Mollineux were openly heard by their Councel and thereupon the said Bill was referr'd to Committees c. Vide touching this Bill on Tuesday the 13 th day and on Saturday the 17 th day of December foregoing On Monday the 23 th day of January to which day the Parliament had been last continued on Saturday foregoing Three Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the first being the Bill for establishing a Jointure to Anne Lady Wentworth was read primâ vice Five Bills were brought up to the Lords from the House of Commons of which the first being the Bill for Naturalizing of certain Englishmens Children and others born beyond the Seas was returned with the allowance of the Amendments expedited And the third for repressing of offences that are of the nature of stealth and are not Felonies by the Laws of the Realm was likewise returned with allowance of the Amendments expedited Committees were appointed to confer with a competent number of the House of Commons concerning the Bill Intituled An Act for the encrease of people for the service and defence of the Realm and the meeting desired to be to Morrow Morning the 24 th day of this instant January before the House sit which the House of Commons Assented unto viz. the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lord Viscount Bindon and others The Committees that were appointed for Conference the 12 th day of December foregoing upon the Bill concerning Tellors Receivors c. were now appointed to meet adding unto them the Earl Marshal to Morrow c. the meeting also assented
committed unto Sir Robert Carie the Burgesses of Newcastle Barwick Northampton and Lincoln M r Francis Moore and others who were appointed to meet upon Tuesday next at two of the Clock in the Afternoon in the Exchequer Chamber Mr. Serjeant Drew and Mr. Dr. Stanhop do bring from the Lords the Bill Entituled An Act for establishing of the new Colledge of the Poor at Cobham in the County of Kent The said Mr. Serjeant Drew and Mr. Doctor Stanhop do bring word from the Lords that their Lordships do desire that some half a score of this House may be presently sent to confer with their Lordships in the Chamber near unto the Upper House touching an Act lately passed this House and sent up to their Lordships Intituled An Act for the Repeal of a Statute made in the twenty third year of her Majesties Reign Intituled An Act for the increase of Mariners and for the maintenance of Navigation Whereupon Mr. Comptroller Sir Robert Wroth and others were sent unto their Lordships for that purpose accordingly The Bill for Husbandry and Tillage was upon the second reading committed unto Mr. Francis Bacon Mr. Yelverton Mr. Tasbrough the Citizens of all Cities Mr. Green and others who were appointed to meet here upon Tuesday next at two of the Clock in the Afternoon in this House Mr. Comptroller and the residue returning from the Lords he did signifie unto the House that their Lordships do think it very dishonourable that any Act should be intended to pass in the time of her Majesties Reign for repealing of any Law bearing such a title as that is being An Act for the repeal of a Statute made in the time of her Majesties Reign for increase of Mariners and maintenance of Navigation And therefore their Lordships do wish this House would alter the said Title of the said Act if they shall so think good And to that end their Lordships have sent unto this House by them a Note in Paper containing two several Titles either of which are more apt and fit in their opinions to be by this House set down for the title of the said Act The first of which Titles is An Act made for the increase of Mariners and for maintenance of Navigation repealing a former Act made in the twenty third year of her Majesties Reign bearing the same title And the second is for the increase of Mariners and for the maintenance of Navigation Both which Titles being read by the Clerk choice was made by the House to have the first of the said two titles to be set down by this House for the title of the said Act. Which said first title being three times read by the Clerk was resolved upon the Question so to be set down for the title of the said Act accordingly On Monday the 28 th day of November Two Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the second being the Bill for the City of Bristol was upon the second reading committed unto Mr. Dr. James Mr. Francis Moore the Citizens of Bristol Gloucester Bath and Wells Mr. Snagg Mr. Green and others And the Bill was delivered to Mr. Green who with the rest was appointed to meet this Afternoon at two of the Clock in the Middle-Temple Hall Mr. William Bowyer shewed that being a Member of this House he was this day served with a Subpoena to appear in the Chancery by one James Biddell and so moved for priviledge shewing further that he did signifie unto the said James Biddell that he was a Member of this House and therefore willed him to forbear the serving of the same Process being against the liberty of this House who answered he would do it notwithstanding any such liberties or priviledge of this House whatsoever Mr. Combes and Mr. Henry Powle being likewise Members of this House do shew that they were this day served with a Subpoena ad testificandum in the Star-Chamber by one Anne the Wife of one Thomas Wye Gentleman and so in like manner moving for priviledge the Serjeant of this House was thereupon charged by this House to bring in the said James Biddel and the said Anne the Wife of the said Thomas to appear in this House and answer the said Contempt Sir Thomas Cecill shewed the great impoverishment of many her Majesties Subjects in the Isle of Ely and in the Counties of Cambridge Huntington Northampton Lincoln and Norfolk by surrounding of many Wastes Marsh and Watery grounds there and wishing some redress thereof offereth a Bill to the House for that purpose and prayeth the reading thereof Whereupon the same was then read for the first reading thereof accordingly Intituled The Bill concerning watery and surrounded grounds in the Isle of Ely and in the Counties of Cambridge Huntington Northampton Lincoln and Norfolk Mr. Baker one of the Committees in the Bill concerning the Wages of Spinners and Weavers who were appointed on Thursday the 10 th day of this instant November foregoing shewed the meeting and travel of the Committees and the making of a new Bill and so delivereth in both the old Bill and also the new Bill Mr. Attorney General and Mr. Doctor Carew do bring from the Lords the Bill lately passed this House and sent up to their Lordships Intituled An Act for the Repeal of a Statute made in the twenty third year of her Majesties Reign Intituled An Act for increase of Mariners and for the maintenance of the Navigation with certain Amendments by their Lordships in the same Bill Which being afterwards reported unto the House by Mr. Speaker the same Amendments were three times read by the Clerk and so passed upon the question accordingly Roger Dodswell servant to M r Blowmer one of the Middle-Temple having entred into this House and being no Member of the same and brought to the Bar by the Serjeant of this House was committed to the Serjeants Ward and was further referred to be examined this Afternoon by M r Edward Barker and M r Hext and to be by them afterwards reported to this House M r Winch one of the Committees for Sir John Spencer who were appointed on Friday the 25 th day of this instant November foregoing shewed the meting and proceeding of the Committees to some Amendments in the said Bill and so delivering in the Bill and the same Amendments being twice read by the Clerk of this House the same Bill upon the question was ordered to be ingrossed The Bill for increase of people for the strength and defence of the Realm was upon the second reading after many Speeches all tending to the good liking and furtherance of the said Bill Ordered to be committed to the said former Committees in the Bill for Tillage who were appointed on saturday the 26 th day of this instant November foregoing And so both the Bills with a Note of the Committees names were delivered to Mr. Comptroller M r Attorney General and M r Doctor Stanhop do bring from the Lords a Bill
the Lord Keeper to tell us that she hoped we would not hereafter meddle in Cases of this nature so nearly touching her Prerogative Royal. Mr. Martin spake to this effect I agree with one that said Learning should have her Reward but I say more that our Souls should have their Spiritual Food And I do wish that Divines may have promotion not only with good convenience but also with good abundance Though I be Zealous yet I hope to refrain and restrain my self from that heat which the heat of my Zeal and love of my Country drew me into very lately for which I do not only acknowledge my self guilty in your Censures but also crave Pardon of every particular Member of this House that heard me but most especially of him I offended But touching this Bill Mr. Speaker and so he spake to the Bill c. After this Speech an old Doctor of the Civil Law spake but because he was too long and spake too low the House hawk'd and spat and kept a great coil to make him make an end Which Speech finished Sir Francis Hastings stood up and said My Masters I utterly dislike this strange kind of course in the House it is the antient usage that every man here should speak his Conscience and that both freely and with attention yea though he speak never so absurdly I beseech you therefore that this may be amended and this troubling of any man in his Speech no more used But to the matter Mr. Speaker I protest that which I shall speak I will utter to you all out of the Conscience of a Christian Loyalty of a Subject and heart of an Englishman I know that Distributio Parochiarum est ex jure humano non Divino But he that said so much give me leave to tell him that Distributio verbi Divini est ex jure Divino humano If then by the distributing and severing of Benefices to divers learned men the Word may be the better distributed unto the people and preached as God be thanked it hath been these forty three years under her Majesties happy Government the point of whose dayes I beseech the Almighty may be prolonged I see no reason Mr. Speaker why we should doubt of the goodness of this Bill or make any question of the committing thereof c. Mr. Roger Owen after particular Answers to divers particular Objections by Doctors shewed that a Statute was but privatio communis Juris And this Act will make no Innovation because it repeals only the Proviso and not the Body Whereas it was said by a Doctor that Honos alit artes and much more to that purpose And if you take away the honour and reward then you take away the Study it self For Answer thereunto Mr. Speaker I say under favour that this Statute takes away no Benefices from the Clergy but doth only better order the distribution of Benefices among the Clergy For another Doctor that alledged a Canon confirmed under the Great Seal of England I say under favour that they of the Clergy and not we of the Laity are bound thereby for they are as it were By-Laws to them but not to us Then the Speaker stood up and put it to the question for the Commitment Whereupon it was Ordered by the more Voices that it should be Committed But the Committees Names being omitted in the private Journal they are supplied out of the Original Journal-Book it self and were as followeth viz. All the Queens Privy Council and all the Learned Councel being Members of this House Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Francis Hastings Sir Carew Reignolds Mr. Francis Bacon and divers others who were appointed to meet upon Friday next in the Exchequer Chamber at two of the Clock in the Afternoon Mr. Speaker did lastly this Forenoon move the House to resolve whether they would sit to Morrow or no it being the day of her Majesties most Blessed and Hereditary Succession to the Crown of England To which after a little Speech had It was agreed by the House that after the Sermon was done at Westminster which would be ended by ten of the Clock they would sit the residue of the Forenoon And this was affirmed to be the antient Custom On Tuesday the 17 th day of November Three Bills of no great moment had each of them one reading of which the first being the Bill for the enabling of Edward Nevill of Berling in the County of Kent and Sir Henry Nevill Knight his Son and Heir Apparent to dispose of certain Copy-hold Lands c. was read the first time And the third being the Bill against unlawful Hunting of Deer or Conies in the Night time was read the second time and upon the question of ingrossing was rejected Heyward Townsend of Lincolns-Inn Esq delivered in a Bill to Mr. Speaker Intituled An Act to prevent Perjury and Subornation of Perjury and unnecessary expences in Suits of Law Upon the delivery whereof he said Mr. Speaker I take every man bound in Conscience to remove a little mischief from the Common-Wealth before it take Head and grow to a great inconvenience This mischief is ordinary and general and therefore though but small to be considered and provided for And if a Heathen Philosopher could admonish us obstare principiis I see no reason but men indued with Christianity should be sensible of the least hurt or sore growing in his Country either regardless or respectless For which purpose a Gentleman well experienced having found this grief common to the poorer sort like a good Subject tendring all the parts of this Common-Wealth engaged me at my coming into the House this Morning to offer unto all your considerations this Bill which it may please you to entertain with that willingness it is offered I doubt not but this inonvenience will quickly be redressed And thereupon the Bill according to the desire of the said Mr. Townsend had its first reading The Bill for Confirmation of Letters Patents made by King Edward the Sixth unto Sir Edward Seymour Knight was upon the second reading committed unto the Queens Learned Councel Members of this House the Masters of Request Sir Robert Wroth Sir Maurice Barkley and others who were appointed to meet in the Committee Chamber of this House upon Friday Morning next The Bill for the strengthening of the Grant made for the maintenance and Government of the House of the Poor called S t Bartholomews Hospital of the Foundation of King Henry the Eighth was read the second time and committed unto all the Queens Learned Councel being Members of this House Mr. Doctor Caesar Sir Edward Hobbie Sir Robert Wroth Mr. Dr. Bennet and others who were appointed to meet upon Saturday next at Lincolns-Inn Hall at two of the Clock in the Afternoon The remainder of this days Passages follows out of the private Journal An Act to suppress the Sin of Adultery was read the first time The substance whereof was that if a Woman or Man or both were
Raleigh blusht Dice Starch and the like they are because Monopolies I must confess very burtful though not all alike hurtful I know there is a great difference in them And I think if the abuses in this Monopoly of Salt were particularized this would walk in the fore rank Now seeing we are come to the means of redress let us see that it be so mannerly and handsomely handled that after a Commitment it may have good passage M r Lawrence Hide I confess M r Speaker that I owe duty to God and Loyalty to my Prince And for the Bill it self I made it and I think I understand it And far be it from this heart of mine to think this tongue to speak or this hand to write any thing either in prejudice or derogation of her Majesties Prerogative Royal and the State But because you shall know that this course is no new Invention but long since digested in the Age of our Fore-fathers above three hundred Years ago I will offer to your considerations one Precedent 10 Ed. 3. At what time one John Peach was Arraigned at this Bar in Parliament for that he had obtained of the King a Monopoly for Sweet Wines The Patent after great advice and dispute adjudged void and before his face in open Parliament Cancelled because he had exacted three shillings and four pence for every Tun of Wine himself adjudged to Prison until he had made restitution of all that ever he had recovered and not to be delivered till after a Fine of five hundred pounds paid to the King This is a Precedent worthy of observation but I dare not presume to say worthy the following And M r Speaker as I think it is no derogation to the Omnipotence of God to say he can do all but evil So I think it is no derogation to the Majesty or Person of the Queen to say the like in some proportion Yet M r Speaker because two Eyes may see more than one I humbly pray that there might be a Commitment had of this Bill lest something may be therein which may prove the bane and overthrow thereof at the time of the passing M r Speaker quoth Serjeant Harris for ought I see the House moveth to have this Bill in the nature of a Petition It must then begin with more humiliation And truly Sir the Bill is good of it self but the penning of it is somewhat out of course M r Mountague said The matter is good and honest and I like this manner of proceeding by Bill well enough in this matter The grievances are great and I would note only unto you thus much that the last Parliament we proceeded by way of Petition which had no successful effect M r Francis Moore said M r Speaker I know the Queens Prerogative is a thing curious to be dealt withal yet all grievances are not comparable I cannot utter with my tongue or conceive with my heart the great grievances that the Town and Country for which I serve suffereth by some of these Monopolies It bringeth the general profit into a private hand and the end of all is Beggery and Bondage to the Subjects We have a Law for the true and faithful currying of Leather There is a Patent sets all at liberty notwithstanding that Statute And to what purpose is it to do any thing by Act of Parliament when the Queen will undo the same by her Prerogative Out of the spirit of humiliation M r Speaker I do speak it there is no Act of hers that hath been or is more derogatory to her own Majesty more odious to the Subject more dangerous to the Common-Wealth than the granting of these Monopolies M r Martin said I do Speak for a Town that grieves and pines for a Countrey that groaneth and languisheth under the burthen of monstrous and unconscionable Substitutes to the Monopolitans of Starch Tinn Fish Cloth Oyl Vinegar Salt and I know not what nay what not The principallest commodities both of my Town and Country are ingrossed into the hand of those blood-suckers of the Common-Wealth If a body M r Speaker being let blood be left still languishing without any remedy how can the good estate of that body long remain Such is the State of my Town and Country the Traffick is taken away the inward and private Commodities are taken away and dare not be used without the Licence of these Monopolitans If these blood-suckers be still let alone to suck up the best and principallest commodities which the earth there hath given us what shall become of us from whom the fruits of our own Soil and the commodities of our own labour which with the sweat of our brows even up to the knees in Mire and Dirt we have laboured for shall be taken by Warrant of Supream Authority which the poor Subjects dare not gainsay M r George Moore said I make no question but that this bill offereth good matter And I do wish that the matter may in some sort be prosecuted and the Bill rejected Many grievances have been laid open touching the Monopolics of Salt but if we add thereunto peter then we had hit the grief aright with which my Country is perplexed There be three persons her Majesty the Patentee and the Subject her Majesty the head the Patentee the hand and the Subject the soot Now here 's our Case the head gives power to the hands the hand oppresseth the foot the foot riseth against the head We know the power of her Majesty cannot be restrained by any Act why therefore should we thus talk Admit we should make this Statute with a Non objtante yet the Queen may grant a Patent with a Non objtante to cross this Non obstante I think therfore it agreeth more with the gravity and wisdom of this House to proceed with all humbleness by Petition than Bill M r Wingfield said I would but put the House in mind of the proceeding we had in this matter the last Parliament in the end whereof our Speaker moved her Majesty by way of Petition that the griefs touching these Monopolies might be respected and the grievances coming of them might be redressed Her Majesty answered by the Lord Keeper that she would take care of these Monopolies and our griefs should be redressed if not she would give us free liberty to proceed in making a Law the next Parliament The grief M r Speaker is still bleeding and we green under the sore and are still without remedy It was my hap the last Parliament to encounter with the word Prerogative but as then so now I do it with all humility and wish all happiness both unto it and to her Majesty I am indifferent touching our proceeding either by Bill or Petition so that therein our grievances may follow whereby her Majesty may specially understand them Sir Walter Raleigh said I am urged to speak in two respects the one because I find my self touched in particular the other in that I take
Bacon M r Francis Moore M r Serjeant Harris and others who were appointed to meet upon Monday next in the House at two of the Clock in the Afternoon after a question first had whether it should be sitten upon in Committee this Afternoon and was upon the division of the House upon the difference of forty six persons viz. with the Yea for this day ninety five and with the No for Monday a hundred sixty one Ordered to be sitten in Committee on Monday next as aforesaid Thus far out of the Original Journal-Book of the House of Commons the residue which fell out in the Afternoon at the Committee for Monopolies or Patents of Priviledge whose names see before on Yesterday foregoing is supplied out of the private Journal Sir Edward Hobbie informed the House of the great abuse of the Patentee for Salt in his Country That betwixt Michaelmas and S t Andrews Tide where Salt before the Patent was wont to be sold for sixteen pence a Bushel it is now sold for fourteen or fifteen shillings a Bushel But after the Lord President had understanding thereof he committed the Patentee and caused it to be sold for sixteen pence as before This Patent was granted to Sir Thomas Wilkes and after to one Smith To Lyme there is brought every Year above three thousand Wey of Salt and every Wey of Salt is since the Patent enhaunced to twenty shillings and where the Bushel was wont to be eight pence it is now sixteen pence And I dare boldly say it if this Patent were called in there might well three thousand pound a year be saved in the Ports of Lyme Boston and Hull I speak of white Salt M r Francis Bacon said The Bill is very injurious and ridiculous injurious in that it taketh or rather sweepeth away her Majesties Prerogative and ridiculous in that there is a Proviso that this Statute shall not extend to Grants made to Corporations that is a Gull to sweeten the Bill withal it is only to make Fools fain All men of the Law know that a Bill which is only expository to expound the Common Law doth enact nothing neither is any promise of good therein And therefore the Proviso in the Statute of 34 Hen. 8. of Wills which is but a Statute expository of the Statute of 32 Hen. 8. of Wills touching Sir John Gainsfords Will was adjudged void Therefore I think the Bill very unfit and our Proceedings to be by Petition M r Sollicitor Flemming said I will briefly give account of all things touching these Monopolies Her Majesty in her Provident Care gave Charge unto M r Attorney and my Self that speedy and special Order may be taken for these Patents this was in the beginning of Hillary Term last but you all know the danger of that time and what great affairs of importance happened to prevent these businesses and since that time nothing could be done for want of leisure Sir Robert Wroth said I would but note M r Sollicitor that you were charged to take Order in Hillary Term last why not before there was time enough ever since the last Parliament I speak it and I speak it boldly these Patentees are worse than ever they were And I have heard a Gentleman affirm in this House that there is a Clause of Revocation in these Patents if so what needed this stir of Scire facias Quo Warranto and I know not what when it is but only to send for the Patentees and cause a redelivery There have been divers Patents granted since the last Parliament these are now in being viz. The Patents for Currants Iron Powder Cards Ox-shin Bones Train Oyl Transportation of Leather Lists of Cloth Ashes Anniseeds Vinegar Sea-Coals Steel Aquavitae Brushes Pots Salt-Peter Lead Accidences Oyl Calamint Stone Oyl of Blubber Fumathoes or dryed Piltchers in the Smoak and divers others Upon the reading of the Patents aforesaid M r Hackwell of Lincolns-Inn stood up and asked thus Is not Bread there Bread quoth one Bread quoth another this Voice seems strange quoth another this Voice seems strange quoth a third No quoth M r Hackwell if Order be not taken for these Bread will be there before the next Parliament M r Heyward Townesend of Lincoln's-Inn said I seeing the disagreement of the Committee and that they would agree upon nothing made a Motion to this effect first to put them in mind of a Petition made the last Parliament which though it took no effect yet we should much wrong her Majesty and forget our selves if we should think to speed no better now in the like Case because then there was a Commitment for this purpose and the Committees drew a Speech which was delivered by the Speaker word for word at the end of the Parliament but now we might help that by sending our Speaker presently after such a Committee and Speech made with humble Suit not only to repeal all Monopolies grievous to the Subject but also that it would please her Majesty to give us leave to make an Act that they might be of no more force validity or effect than they are at the Common Law without the strength of her Prerogative Which though we might now do and the Act being so reasonable we might assure our selves her Majesty would not delay the passing thereof yet we her loving Subjects c. would not offer without her privity or consent the Cause so nearly touching her Prerogative or go about to do any such Act. And also that at the Committee which should make this Speech every Member of this House which either found himself his Town or Country grieved might put in in fair writing such Exceptions against Monopolies as he would justifie to be true And that the Speaker might deliver them with his own hands because many obstacles and hindrances might happen M r Francis Bacon after a long Speech concluded thus in the end Why you have the readiest course that possibly can be devised I would wish no further Order be taken but to prefer the wise and discreet Speech made by the Young Gentleman even the Youngest in this Assembly that last spake I will tell you that even ex ore Infantium lactantium the true and most certain course is propounded unto us So the House as it should seem agreed thereunto and appointed to meet on Monday next post Meridiem at which time all the aforesaid matters past On Monday the 23 th day of November Three Bills had each of them one reading of which the first being the Bill for Confirmation of the Grant of the Hospitals of Christ Bridewell and S t Thomas the Apostle was read the second time and committed to the former Committees who were appointed on Tuesday the 17 th day of this instant November foregoing and Sir George Moore M r Paule M r Edward Moore and M r Barnham were added to the former Committees who were appointed to meet upon Wednesday next in the Exchequer Chamber at two of
the Clock in the Afternoon M r Symnell one of the Committees in the Bill touching M r Markham shewed the mind of the Committees to be and also delivered sundry reasons that it is a Bill fit to rest and not to be any further dealt in by this House The Bill that Sir Anthony Mayney Knight and Anthony Mayney his Son may be enabled to dispose of his Lands c. was upon the second reading committed unto Sir Robert Wroth Sir Edward Hobbie Sir George Moore Sir William Wray Sir Moyle Finch Sir Michaell Sandes and others who were appointed to meet to Morrow in the Afternoon in the Middle-Temple Hall at two of the Clock The Bill to reform the abuse of Taintering Cloth was read the second time and upon the question Ordered not to be committed and upon another question rejected The Bill of Monopolies was read to which M r Spicer spake and said M r Speaker I think it were good this Bill were committed I am no Apostate but I stick to the former faith and opinion that I was of that by way of Petition will be our safest course for it is to no purpose to offer to tie her hands by Act of Parliament when she may loosen her self at her pleasure I think it were a Course nec gratum nec tutum And therefore the best way is to have a Committee to consider what course shall be proceeded in for I doubt not but we be all agreed of the reformation though not of the manner M r Davies said God hath given that power to absolute Princes which he attributeth to himself Dixi quod Dii estis And as Attributes unto them he hath given Majesty Justice and Mercy Majesty in respect of the Honour that the Subject sheweth to his Prince Justice in respect he can do no wrong therefore the Law is 1 Hen. 7. that the King cannot commit a disseizin Mercy in respect he giveth leave to Subjects to right themselves by Law And therefore in 43 Assis. an Indictment was brought against Bakers and Brewers for that by colour of Licence they had broken the Assize wherefore according to that Precedent I think it most fit to proceed by Bill not by Petition M r Secretary Cecill said if there had not been some mistaking or some confusion in the Committee I would not now have spoken The question was of the most convenient way to reform these grievances of Monopoly But after disputation of the labour we have not received the expected fruit If every man shall take leave to speak for the common Subject I am afraid in these vast powers of our mind we shall dispute the project and reformation quite out of doors This dispute draws two great things in question First the Princes power Secondly the freedom of Englishmen I am born an Englishman and am a Fellow-Member of this House I would desire to live no day in which I should detract from either I am servant unto the Queen and before I would speak or give consent to a Case that should debase her Prerogative or abridge it I would wish my tongue cut out of my head I am sure there were Law-makers before there were Laws One Gentleman went about to possess us with the Execution of the Law in an Antient Record of 5 o or 7 o Edwardi 3. Likely enough to be true in that time when the King was afraid of the Subject Though this Precedent be a substance yet it is not the whole substance of the Parliament For in former times all sate together as well King as Subject and then it was no prejudice to his Prerogative to have such a Monopoly examined If you stand upon Law and dispute of the Prerogative heark ye what Bracton saith Praerogativam Nostram nemo audeat disputare And for my own part I like not these courses should be taken And you M r Speaker should perform the charge her Majesty gave unto you in the beginning of this Parliament not to receive Bills of this nature for her Majesties ears be open to all grievances and her hand stretcht out to every mans Petitions For the matter of access I like it well so it be first moved and the way prepared I had rather all the Patents were destroyed than her Majesty should lose the hearts of so many Subjects as is pretended I will tell you what I think of these Monopolies I take them to be of three natures some of a free nature and good some void of themselves some both good and void For the first when the Prince dispenses with a penal Law that is left to the alteration of Sovereignty I think it powerful and irrevocable For the second as to grant that which taketh from the Subject his Birthright such men as desire these kind of Patents I account them misdoers and wilful and wicked offenders Of the third sort is the Licence for the matter of Cards c. And therefore I think it were fit to have a new Commitment to consider what her Majesty may grant what not what course we shall take and upon what points M r Doctor Stanhop and D r Hone were sent from the Lords with a Bill intituled An Act for the Uniting of Eye and Dunsden to the Mannor of Sunning M r Mountague said I am loth to speak what I know lest perhaps I should displease The Prerogative Royal is that which is now in question and which the Laws of the Land have ever allowed and maintained Then my motion shall be but this That we may be Suitors unto her Majesty that the Patentees shall have no other remedies than by the Laws of the Realm they may have and that our Act may be accordingly M r Martin said I think the Common grievance and the Queens Prerogative have inspired this Gentleman that last spake whom for reverence sake I must needs name M r Mountague to make that motion which he hath done And because the House seems greatly to applaud it may it please you M r Speaker to put it to the question whether that shall be determined of at the Committee Now the Committees were all the Privy Council being Members of this House and the Queens Learned Councel Members likewise of this House all the Knights of the Shires Sir George Moore M r D r Bennet M r Hide M r Winch Sir Charles Cavendish Sir Percival Hart M r Thinn Mr. Downhalt Mr. Martm and divers others together with the Knights and Citizens for London the Barons of the Ports M r Lieutenant of the Tower and M r Doctor Caesar who were appointed to meet this Afternoon in this House at two of the Clock to have Conference and to agree upon some course to be taken touching Patents of Priviledges and to report unto this House of their resolutions therein accordingly The Bill against Pluralities of Benefices had its first reading All the Bills committed touching Cloths are appointed to be dealt in to Morrow in the Afternoon in the Middle-Temple Hall M