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A58229 Reasons for a general indefinite speedy act of oblivion 1690 (1690) Wing R482A; ESTC R14429 6,745 4

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is to magnifie and aggrandize Punishments by Bill which by the standing Laws and common Justice of the Realm could not be inflicted and they urge two Reasons for it 1. Their particular Pardons will otherwise excuse them To that I answer Either they are valid in Law or not if not there 's no need of Bills if they are valid in Law the same Law and Justice of the Land enjoyn their Allowance even the same Law by which the Countryman plows his Land the Gentleman receives his Rent the Trader recovers his Debt and the Senator sits in the House and by the same Reason that these enjoy their Properties the Criminal ought to have his Pardon allowed for one's a Right accrued by the Law as well as the other 2. The common Channel is too smooth Severity is sometimes necessary and that now if ever and therefore the Legislative Authority ought to exert its Power and punish according to Demerit To answer that I say either they are no Offences by Law and there needs a Bill to make them such and inflict Evils upon them as such or else they are Offences but deserve a greater Punishment than a common Court may pronounce now if the first be the Case then I 'm sure 't is rank palpable tyrannical injustice and that 's the plague of living under an Arbitrary Power for none can know what 's not Criminal If they mean the latter as I suppose they do then I ask to what end were Punishments invented in Societies but to restrain Men from doing particular actions through the power and influence of Fear and how could that Consequence be expected when the Penalty was never known before 't is inflicted and to inflict an evil afterwards which was not known before is to make a Man suffer that which he could not fear because he could not know it and this because he did not fear it and the Justice of that is plain too I agree with the Satyrists that there are some Precedents of this last method of proceeding but most of them are repealed I 'll name two that are so the Earl of Strafford's which the very Law it self did enjoin Posterity not to observe or follow or do the like I can't forget one Expression of his to this effect upon the Tryal if there be an Error in a Judge so that he give a Sentence otherwise than a Man of better understanding conceives Reason for there 's no cause the offence should be heightned because he was not so wise a Man as he might have been nor so understanding as another and if that be allowed it will make it more eligible to follow a Plow than serve a Government to dig in a Ditch than bear an Office for all Men stand obnoxious to the Constructions and Passions of succeeding Times There 's one Instance more and that was Sir Thomas Haxey's who was attainted of Treason for bringing in a Bill into the Commons House against the Prerogative though while and as a Member I suppose the Sparks will not much applaud the justice of that Procedure for their own sakes but as I said before that and most others of their Precedents were repealed when a cooler Assembly met upon the next Session and so was Haxey's Cott. abr rec 362 393. But if Vengeance be requisite it ought to be without respect of Persons The Justice of it ought to be impartial true and Catholick and then come in the Pensioners and Surrenderers the Regulators and Promisers the old High Commissioners and the New Creed makers c. and God knows quis non c Nay since the Revolution some more must come in for a snack of Censure too the buyers and sellers of Places the Members that took Offices contrary to their own motion and vote in the Westminster Parliament Cum multis aliis c. To conclude Our Saviour's Rule if observed will be the most infallible Indemnity that can be contrived and that is John 8. c. 7. v. Let him that is without sin amongst you cast the first stone And in truth a Censor of the Manners of others ought himself to be pure clean and innocent in omni re quacunque and if there be no danger but from such I 'm sure there 's no danger at all and that it should be so is the truest Justice in the World quod fuit probandum I 'll not mention the Argument from the Vacancy that the Government was dissolved every thing reduced into its primitive state of Nature all power devolved into individuals and the particulars only to provide for themselves by a new Contract for if so there 's yet no new consent for Punishment of acts done before the Dissolution and consequently Revenge for that is at an end Indemnity therefore ought to be promoted by those who made that Vote for otherwise their truth may be suspected c. Licensed April 7. 1690. POSTSCRIPT SOme perhaps will blame the boldness of this Stile as provocative rather than palliating to which I say Truth ought never to be shamefaced for it will prevail one time or another and if it do not but angers some 't will be only those that were implacale before who if they ha'nt good Nature enough to pardon a bold Stroke or two with a Pen they 'll never consent to an Act of Indemnity and then their Fury is not to be regarded for the want of it will inflame as it hath created our present Divisions and consequently run us at last into a true Confusion from which Good Lords deliver us LONDON Printed for Randall Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1690.
REASONS for a General Indefinite speedy Act of Oblivion THO some may fret and huff and bounce at every thing that 's past as if all their Madness and Rage were founded on a true basis yet it is apparent from Reason and Truth and the First and Second Vidication of the Magistracy and Government of England hath made clear that their Foundation is false and the Law is direct and plain in their teeth and doth and will justifie in most of the particulars at which they foam their Curses and Execrations Reason therefore as well as necessity enjoins a silence as to what is past for otherwise the Kingdom can never have its desired satisfaction for in points justifiable or at least doubtful the justice of inflicting Punishments can never be vindicated did I call them Punishments I beg the Readers pardon for the Impropriety however I 'll not name their proper term but with calmness endeavor to Evince three things 1. That it would be grateful to the Nation in general and every good Man in particular 2. Conducing to the Settlement and Interest of the present Government and lastly That 't is consistent with and promotive of the highest and truest Justice First The Nation did and doth expect it for Revenge is never natural but when freshly pursued and time wears off the sense of Injuries by the Intervention of new ones either real or imaginary which is all one as to this purpose the horror of any Crime or at least the detestation of the Criminal grows faint and languid upon the removal of the Object especially if time interposes with the accession of present fears which as present do more affect us than greater if more distant whether past or future It can never therefore be thought the desire of the People of England to have their Neighbors or Acquaintance harrass'd and persecuted by Fines Confilcations Imprisonments Marks of Disgrace or the like for Actions done in the last or former Reigns about which the World hath been so much divided if lawful or not Besides that this was the general Expectation of the Kingdom on the new Settlement or at least the Coronation of which nature there never was an Instance before this without an Act of Grace And it is mos● plain that none are Adversaries to it but the Republicans and the Jacobites not for that they need it not as I shall shew anon but for different ends each drives at and wishes a Change it matters no● to what for if to the latter the other hopes a Commonwealth will be the more desirable I● the Republican succeeds then the other believe● a Restoration the more easie but both dislike the present and therefore dread a Settlement and consequently dread the Peoples satisfaction and quiet under Their Majesties and consequently dread an Act of Indemnity 't is true the Cry for Vengeance is loud but 't is only from these two corners which leads to the second particular that It will establish and promote the Interest of the present Government for while the popular Bully is full of his Damme's and Menaces there 's certainly danger and where there 's danger there 's fear now fear causes an aversion and aversion begets hatred and the Object of it is that from whence the supposed danger arises which is from the Government irritated by the Venom and Fury of those hot-headed Animals whatsoever hath power and will to hurt a man must and will be abhor'd by that man And though none are immediate actual Patients yet the being possibly obnoxious to it and the want of security for the contrary doth of necessity cool their respect to the present Power under which they are not safe and this tempts them and their Friends upon contrivances and attempts of Danger both to themselves and the Publick and danger by the attempt is no discouragement where the like danger attends their forbearance and this is of weight unless Cromwell's Politicks be thought Christian to cherish and promote a Plot as of advantage to Settlement if seasonably discover'd and subtilly manag'd but however 't is as true that Enemies who are desperate ought never to be thought inconsiderable tho so in themselves for they may shake and batter what they can't destroy they may do mischief though they can't work ruin to their Adversaries upon which account the temptation of continual impending Danger is fit to be removed Besides The want of Security and the fear of Danger making Men uneasie in their thoughts replenishes them with Complaints and Murmurs at every awkard Action or supposed miscarriage of the Government feared it makes them Mutineers at publick Taxes and Impositions partly because they think it strengthens and increases the power of hurting them and partly because it sponges and bleeds them of that which they fear an occasion of themselves to bribe Blackrods Sergeants at Arms and other Goalers with and in a conjuncture when extraordinary Aids are indispensibly requisite no temptation to complaint is deserving of Countenance besides that it cramps Trade and discourages Projects for Publick Good c. but further It s the living not the dead the happy contented and chearful and free not the oppressed miserable forlorn or imprisoned Subject that doth Service to the Crown and the Publick It hinders all such as are thought to be so obnoxious from any bold Essays for the use of the present Government for that if success be the atten +dant of such their attempt they continue unsafe notwithstanding for no man in his Wits will adventure an hazard to secure that Authority which he is not sure will make him safe if he doth undertake the present Adventure and escapes that danger and performs the Service so that Self-preservation renders it their Policy to unhinge themselves from or to shy of the present Power of which a considerable number might prove useful Friends whice are now Newters at least if not Enemies It s observable in all foreign Policies either to work a total Extirpation of the whole Party or an universal Indemnity after so grand a Revolution as this was the former is not to be practis'd here for two Reasons 1. Because we want People and can spare none 2. Many of our Friends must be banish'd too for divers of the supposed Criminals were instrumental to the present Change c. Ergo the latter only is and can be most adviseable for once I 'll suppose their numbers but small in comparison to the Saints and Innocents if any such there are in the Nation yet under our present Circumstances all are to be oblig'd as Friends that possibly may but if the thirteen Heads with the Surrenderers Clause and all its and their Subdivisions had been reduced into a Law in the designed Act of Attainder one third at least of the Nation had been involved who with their disobliged Relatives and Dependants are not so contemptible a Flock tho but of Sheep for the slaughter Besides It 's impolitick as well as unjust