Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A91421
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The government of the people of England precedent and present the same.
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Parker, John, Baron of the Court of Exchequer.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing P432; Thomason E594_19; ESTC R206925
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13,181
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20
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opposing the application of such wholsome Medicines as might probably recover the Patient the Common-wealth they must in all justice remove them as the cause thereof or else no hope of recovery Pereat unus ne pereat unitas And that grievance of the Negative Vote if not removed was fatall and would have ruined all as thereby hindering of all applications for recovery which was too much verified and manifested when the last yeare was a Warre very eminently dangerous to the whole Parliament and people here and that by the continuance of the Royall Party Scots and Ormond the Lords then sitting in Parliament in that extremity refused to declare with the Commons that the Scots were enemies to the Kingdome and being then severall times requested to give their concurrence for Counties to arme themselves they then making use of rather abusing their Negative Vote utterly refused which tended to the utter ruine and destruction of Parliament and people And besides many of the grievances to the people issuing from King and Lords could not otherwise be cured then by taking them away the one not regarding his Oath and the other not esteeming the publique good as they ought to have done Especially the Kings of England having all the late Lords called Spirituall at their beck and command then being under their power to place and displace at their pleasure or at least to prefer them and also pretending to have power to make as many Lords of Parliament as they pleased for that therein imitating the policy of the Pope in the late Councell of Trent in making titular Bishops at his pleasure they were thereby as able to carry all things in the House called the Lords touching the Civill State at their pleasure as the Pope was in that Councell to carry on things touching the State Ecclesiasticall And we see that by Act of Parliament made by consent both of King and Temporall Lords this present Parliament the Lords then called Spirituall were secluded from Parliament and their Votes and Sitting in the House then called the Lords were quite taken away And since that time and before the taking away the Vote from the Temporall Lords many Acts of Parliament have beene made and esteemed as well by the Temporall Lords as the Commons and all others to be valid effectuall and of force to binde the people and yet the Spirituall Lords are called one of the three Estates Co. Jurisd 2. And herein is no prejudice to the Publique because the people may now freely and fully act for the publique good without any opposition and that is the principall end of meeting in Parliament Neither is there any prejudice to the Lords for what is there acted for the Publique good must also necessarily extend to them and they be partakers thereof as well as any others Yea if there were some prejudice to the private yet that ought to be endured to accommodate the Publique Publica communis utilitas est praeferenda privatae And if we examine the first and true Constitutions of Parliaments the Lords never had that power of the Negative Vote thereby to frustrate the good Lawes intended for the Publike for anciently the Commons and they sate together as Co. Juris l. 1. tit Parliament and then the number of Lords being but small and inconsiderable in respect of the number of the Commons their Negative could not much harme for that it is probable and to be presumed that the number of the good Zelots for their Countrey both of Lords and Commons would much exceed the opposite number So that in substance touching Parliament affaires there is the same Government at this present as of right it was or ought to have been heretofore And as touching Government in all other things there is no more change betwixt Carolus c. and Custodes libertatis Angliae Authoritate Parliamenti then there was betwixt Elizabetha c. and Jacobus c. for that the Lawes were and are the Governours and not they as hath been plainly demonstrated before And for further proofe that the Government of this Nation is by the Lawes and themselves the late yeares now last past experience doth manifest it during which time King Charles transported with Passion and inraged with fury that the people would not permit him to introduce the Monarchicall Government that is to command and prohibit what and how he pleased was not in fit case to act the part or office of a King of England yet during that time the Law governed the people and onely used his name pro forma in its commands and prohibitions which compared to times of peace before will appeare to be the same or if any difference be it was that in those times of his discontent the Government was more just and beneficiall for the people the Lawes their Governours being then more free from straining misconstruing and perverting then formerly So that from these premises I may safely conclude That the Government of the people of England precedent and present is the same For parum differunt quae Re Concordant Under which popular Government our Ancestors have lived happily hundreds of years which if experience did not testifie here what Bodin saith in his Book De Rep. lib. 6.702 a. himselfe a Frenchman borne bred and employed under a Monarchicall Government as of late times it hath beene used one I dare say will not flatter in this case his words are these Libertus autem illa quam in popularibus Imperiis tantopere vigere putant in eo maxime versatur ut suis quisque bonts uxore liberis tranquille fruatur nec sibi aut suis ulla vis inferatur aut si fuerit illa vindicetur But further to manifest to all the world that neither the precedent Kings here had not or claimed not that Negative Vote lately pretended to by the late King and also the inevitable danger yea ruine of the people if they should have had it and used it I shall instance in some disceases procured by Kings and shall shew you how they have been cured and I shall onely remember such as are probatumâ— in Print and in every mans hands beginning with Magna Châ—rta setting downe the disease by whom procured and how cured following the series of time for my Method King Henry the third entertaining into his grace and favour Peter Bishop of Winchester an evill man and relying on him for the managing the Estate he chooseth unto him a man like himselfe Peter de Rivallis who draw the King into an evill opinion of his people in whose time and by whose meanes Iudicia Committuntur injustis leges exlegibus pax discordantibus justitia injuriosis perswading the King to reject in passion the just Petitions of his Subjects These two being displaced the King entertaineth others as bad as they who exact of whom they please what they please set prices on all Offices rayne the Law within the rule of their owne breasts the Great they
THE Government of the People of ENGLAND precedent and present the same Ad Subscribentes Confirmandum Dubitantes Informanduus Opponentes Convincendune Multa videntur quae non sunt Multa sunt quae non videntur Ut uniamur Vis unita fortior Concordia parvae res crescunt Discordia dilabuntur London Printed for Iohn Wright at the Kings Head in the Old-Baily 1650. The Government of the people of England precedent and present the same THe Government of the people of England precedent and present is the same and therefore the Subscription now made or required is just and lawfull For the manifesting of which truth it will be necessary to know what Government is Now Imperium est jubendi prohibendique potestas Government is a power to command or prohibit others which command or prohibition they ought to obey or for disobedience to he punished This Government the Civilians divide into Summum liberum merum imperium mixtum the chiefe free and meere command and mixt Now of the chiefe free and meer command there are no bounds for that where that power is it may appoint decree ordain act doe or command above contrary or besides the Lawes it onely and alone maketh abrogateth interpreteth and confirmeth Lawes which from the beginning and of ancient time resideth in the people onely as saith Tholosanus l. 47. c. 20. S. 8. and Daneus l. 1. polit c. 4. saith Populus suo Magistratu prior est tempore natura dignitate quia populus magistratum constituit quia populus sine Magistratu esse potest sed Magistratus sine populo non potest esse i. e. The people are first in time nature and dignity before their Magistrate because the people make the Magistrate and because the people can be without a Magistrate but a Magistrate cannot bee without a people and Stephanus Brutius vindiciae contra Tyrannos quaest 3. saith Reges sunt à populo sunt constituis causa populi Kings or Governours are from the people and are appointed for the peoples sakes And the same Tholosanus lib. 47. c. 20. s 9. setteth downe how the same was transferred from the people where hee saith Regia lex de imperio lata est per quam potestas à populo in principens translata est that is to say the Kingly Law of the Empire viz. the Romane Empire was that by which the power of the people was transferred to the Prince Which Law hee supposeth to have beene made when the people granted all their power to Augustus Caesar and citeth Zonarus to that purpose and saith further Plena fuit illa lex sine aliqua reservatione i. e. That Law was absolute and full without any reservation to the people Which Law never extended it selfe to the Government of England neither was England ever governed by the will and pleasure of any one man let us therefore examine who commandeth and forbiddeth here in England clearly the Lawes which Government Aristotle lib. 3. polit c. 7. preferreth afore all other saying Nihil ita ratum firmum esse ut leges rectae salutares lex sine affectu regit but goeth on penes eum qui praeest sive sit unus sive pluret iis de rebus statuendi arbitrium volo de quibus leges cumulate accurate loqui non possunt Which is the very Government here in England for the power of commanding and forbidding the people of England is in the lawes onely and none other and that appeareth plainely by the daily practise amongst the people as well before these times in the times of those called Kings and Queens as at present All the commands or prohibitions that then came or now do come to the people were and are appointed directed and set downe by the Lawes of England so that if any King or Queen did command or prohibit any thing Co. M. c. p. 186.187.206 or in any other manner then the Laws directed it was void and the people were not bound to obey yea if they did obey it and thereby there were any prejudice damage or offence done to the publike Government or to any private person they were to be punished for that no King or Queen could alter the Lawes without consent of the people and so doe our Law-Books plentifully testifie nay they could not alter the forme and therefore if they varied but from the forme prescribed by Law the command or prohibition did not oblige or binde the people to obey the same a great part of which forme is prescribed and particularly set downe in an ancient Book called The Register of Writs but indeed is the Register of the commands and prohibitions the Lawes of this Nation according to the severall cases causes and complaints of the people Other parts of the Commands not therein comprised given and appointed by the Lawes are by the Common Lawes and Statutes also particularly directed and the King Ex merito Justitae debitae ought to grant award and issue those Commands or Prohibitions to the people for their reliefe Co. Magna Charta 269. And to prevent a defect of Justice for want of a particular command or prohibition according to the peoples varying cases by the Statute of Westm 2 cap. 24. it is provided Et quotiescunque de caetero evenerit in cancellar quod in uno casu reperitur breve in consimili casu cadente sub codem jure simili indigente remedio non reperitur concordent clerici de cancellaria in brevi faciondo vel atterminent querentes in prox Parliamentum scribantur casus in quibus concordari non possunt referant eos ad prox Parliamentum de consensu jurisperitorum fiat breve ne contingat de caetero quod antea Domini Regis deficiat conquerentibus in justitia perquirenda idonea And whensoever from henceforth it shall fortune in the Chancery that in one case a Writ is found and in like case falling under like Law and requiring like remedy is found none the Clerks of the Chancery shall agree in making the Writ or the Plaintifs may adjourne it untill the next Parliament and let the case be written in which they cannot agree and let them referre themselves untill the next Parliament by consent of men learned in the Law a Writ shall be made lest it might happen after that the Court should faile to minister Justice unto Complainants But it must be in the like case for if it be otherwise it must be framed and provided by the people themselves by their Representatives in Parliament whereupon Bracton sayes lib. 1. cap. 2. Si aliqua nova inconsueta emerserit quae nunquam prius evenerunt obscurum difficile sit corum Judicium tunc ponantur Judicia in respectu usque ad magnam curjam ut ibi pet consilium curiae terminet So that these severall supplies of learned Clerkes of Chancery and of the wise and learned men of Parliament