Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A33904
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The desertion discuss'd in a letter to a country gentleman
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Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing C5249; ESTC R18889
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10,218
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8
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of Ill Administration and that nothing less than subverting the Fundamentals of Government will justify an Opposition Now I am much mistaken if Deposing of Kings is not Resisting them with a Witness But besides his self Contradiction the case is not to his purpose For 1. These Parliaments were called in Tumultuous times when the Subjects were so hardy as to put their Kings under Confinement Now if it is against the Constitution of Parliaments to Menace the Two Houses out of their Liberty of Voting freely then certainly Kings ought not to be overawed by Armies and Prisons These Parliaments therefore are very improper to make Precedents of 2. These Princes were wrought upon so far as to resign their Crowns which each of them did though unwillingly Let this Enquirer produce such a Resignation from His Majesty and he says something 3. He is much mistaken in saying these judgments as he calls them have not been vacated by subsequent Parliaments For all those subsequent Parliaments which declare it Unlawful to take up Arms against the King do by necessary implication condemn these Deposing Precedents for it 's impossible for Subjects to Depose their Princes without Resisting them 2. By Act of Parliament the First of Edw. 4. yet remaining at large upon the Parliament Rolls and for the greater part recited verbatim in the Pleadings in Bagâ—tt's Case in the Year Books Trin. Term. 9. Edw. 4. The Title of Edw. 4. by Descent and Inheritance and is set forth very particularly And that upon the Decease of Rich. 2. the Crown by Law Custom and Conscience Descended and Belonged to Edmund Earl of March under whom King Edw. 4. claimed It is likewise further declared That Hen. 4. against Law Conscience and Custom of the Realm of England Usurped upon the Crown and Lordship thereof and Hen. 5. and Hen. 6. occupied the said Realm by Unrighteous Intrusion and Usurpation and no otherwise And in 39. Hen. 6. Rot. Parl. when Richard Plantagenet Duke of York laid claim to the Crown as belonging to him by right of Succession it was 1. Objected in behalf of Hen. 6. that Hen. 4. took the Crown upon him as next Heir in Blood to Hen. 3. not as Conqueror To this it was Answered That the pretence of Right as next Heir to Hen. 3. was False and only made use of as a Cloak to shadow the violent Usurpations of Hen. 4. 2. It was Objected against the Duke of York That the Crown was by Act of Parliament Entailed upon Hen. 4. and the Heirs of his Body from whom King Hen. 6. did Lineally Descend The which Act say they as it is in the Record is of Authority to defeat any manner of Title To which the Duke of York replied That if King Hen. 4. might have obtained and enjoyed the Crowns of England and France by Title of Inheritance Descent or Succession he neither needed nor would have desired or made them to be granted to him in such wise as they be by the said Act the which takes no Place nor is of any Force or Effect against him that is right Inheritor of the said Crowns as it accordeth with Gods Laws and all Natural Laws Which Claim and Answer of the Duke of York is expressly acknowledged and recognized by this Parliament to be Good True Iust Lawful and Sufficient Cotton's Abridgment Fol. 665 666. From these Recognitions it plainly follows 1. That the Succession cannot be interrupted by an Act of Parliament especially when the Royal Assent is given by a King De Facto and not De Iure 2. The Act 9. of Edw. 4 by declaring the Crown to Descend upon Edmund Earl of March by the Decease of Rich. 2. does evidently imply That the said Richard was rightful King during his Life and consequently that his Deposition was Null and Unlawful If it 's demanded Why his Majesty did not leave Seals and Commissioners to supply his Absence This Question brings me to the Second Point viz. to shew That the leaving sufficient Representatives was impracticable at this Juncture For 1. When the Nation was so much embroiled and the King's Interest reduced to such an unfortunate Ebb it would have been very difficult if not impossible to have found Persons who would have undertaken such a dangerous Charge That Man must have had a Resolution of an extraordinary Size who would venture upon Representing a Prince who had been so much disrespected in his own Person whose Authority had been set aside and his Ambassador clapt up at Windsor when he carried not only an inoffensive but an obliging Letter But granting such a Representation had been ingaged in the Commissions must either have extended to the Calling of Parliaments or not if not they would neither have been Satisfactory noâ— absolutely necessary Not Satisfactory For the want of a Parliament was that which was accounted the great Grievance of the Nation as appears from the Prince of Orange's Declaration Where he says expresly That his Expedition is intended for no other Design but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible Declar. P. 12. Secondly This Expedient was not absolutely Necessary for the Administration of Justice might have proceeded Regularly without any such Deputation by Virtue of those Commissions which the Judges and Justices of the Peace had already from the King. This I shall prove 1. From a parallel Instance King Charles the I. took a Journy into Scotland in 41 during the Session of Parliament at Westminster where though he appointed Five Lords to sign Bills in his Name The Continuation of Bak. Chron. yet the Judges and Justices acted by Virtue of their former Commissions without any new Authority from any Representatives of his Majesty Now Scotland is as much a distinct Kingdom from England as France and France as much his Majesty's Dominions as Scotland And therefore if Commissions will hold in the King's Absence in one Place why not in the other Secondly The present Judges met in Ianuary last at Westminster to dispatch some Business in order to keep the Term but were forbidden to proceed by the Prince of Orange's Secretary So that it is plain it was the Opinion of these Reverend Judges that their Commissions from his Majesty were still in Force But in the next place If his Majesty had deputed any Persons to Represent him in Parliament this Method would have been attended with new and insuperable Difficulties For 1. If they had been Limited they would not have given Satisfaction For it being impossible to foresee the Business and Votes of a Parliament at a distance If they had been restrained to certain Points in all probability they would have wanted Power to have passed all the Bills and so their Deputation would not have Answered the Desire of the Houses and the greatest part of their Grievances might have been counted unredressed If it 's said that the Parliament might have requested an Enlargement of their Commission from his Majesty To this I
and Plimouth had already disposed of themselves and the Tower of London was demanded for the City so that there was none but Portsmouth remaining And as for the Revenues it 's to be feared the Northern Collections would have been almost as Slender as those in the West And now one would think our Father began to relent For he owns That some Things which the Prince of Orange proposed may be called hard viz. his demanding that the Laws against Papists which were in Imployment might be executed But the Enquirer is much mistaken if he thinks the Prince of Orange insisted upon no more than the bare Execution of the Law in this point For the Disbanding of all Papists which was part of his Proposals is much more than what the Law requires by which the Papists are only excluded from Offices of Command and Trust. But neither the Test-Acts nor any others bar the King from Listing them as common Souldiers And lastly to deliver up his best Magazine and the Strength of his Capital City To be obliged to pay a Foreign Army which came over to enable his Subjects to drive him out of his Dominions were very extraordinary Demands and looked as if there was a Design to reduce him as low in is Honor as in his Fortune To forgive a Man who endeavoured to Ruin me is great Christian Charity but to Article away my Estate to him because he has Injured me is such a Mortification as no Religion obliges us to This is in effect to Betray our Innocence and Sign away the Justice of our Cause and own that we have deserved all that hand Usage which has been put upon us so that it 's easie to imagine what an unconquerable Aversion the Spirit of Princes must needs have to such an Unnatural Penance In short when the Forts and Revenue were thus disposed of when the Papists were to be Disbanded and the Protestants could not be trusted when the Nation was under such general and violent Dissatisfactions when the King in case of a Rupture which was not unlikely had nothing upon the Matter but his single Person to oppose against the Prince's Arms and those of his own Subjects when his Mortal Enemies and those were under the highest Forfeitures to his Majesty were to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity if no farther when Affairs were in this Tempestuous Condition To say that a Free and Indifferent Parliament might be Chosen with relation to the King 's Right â—s well as the Peoples and that His Majesty had no just visible Cause to apprehend himsâ—lf in Danger is to out-face the Sun and to trample upon the Understandings and almost upon the Senses of the whole Nation 2. It 's not improper to examine what doughty Reasons the Eâ—quirer advances to prove the Kings coming from Feversham to White-hall to be no return to his People The reason of his affirming this is apparent He is sensible what singular usage his Majesty met with and therefore he would fain unking Him that it might the better suit with his Character But pray what had the King done to incur a Forfeiture by his First Retirement Had he quitted the Realm If that was material it cannot be alleadged for his Majesty was no farther off than the Coast of Kent Did he refuse to take Care of his People any longer when the Lords went down to Visit him to White-hall No If he had he would not have come back when he was at his Liberty His return after some Assurances of fair Treatment is a plain discovery of the Motives of his withdrawing and that he came up with an intention to Govern For I believe few People imagine that his Majesty would take such a Journy only to have Dutch Guards clap'd upon him to be hurried out of his Palace and carried Prisoner down the Thames at Noon Day But the Seals nâ—ver appeared What time was there for them in 24 Hours Besides there was an Order of Council with his Majesty at the Head of it for suppressing the Mobile Dated Decemb. 18. which was the next Day after his Majesty's return And when he was sent back to Rochester he might plainly perceive his Government was at an End for the present For the Tower was Garrison'd by Foreign Forces The Lords published an Order by their own Authority to oblige the Papists to depart the Town The City made an Address to the Prince of Orange which was a Virtual acknowledgment of his Power and Associations came up to that purpose out of the Country Cambridge-shire Address not to omit that his Majesty was denyed a small Sum of his own Gold to Heal with As if they had rather poor People should Perish with Boyles and Ulcers than shew common Justice and Humanity to their King. From all these remarkable Circumstances his Majesty might easily guess how they intended to dispose of him For no Man in his Senses who has treated a Prince so Contemptuously in his own Kingdom will ever permit him either Power or Liberty for fear he should remember his former Usage From what has been said it 's most evident that his Majesty had all imaginable reason to provide for his own Security in some other Country And since his Majesty had sufficient reasons to withdraw these can be no pretence for an Abdication For we are to observe that to Abdicate an Office always supposes the Consent of him whom Quits it That this is the signification of the Word Abdico appears from Tully Salust and Livie to which I shall only add the Learned Grotius De jure Belli c. Libr. 1. Cap. 4. Sect. 9. Where he makes Abdicating the Government and plainly Giving it op to be Terms of the same importance And to prevent unreasonable Cavils he adds that a Neglect or Omission in the Administration of Government is by no means to be interpreted a Renunciation of it We have but two Instances with us which looks like an Abdication since the Conquest which are in the Reign of Edward II. and Richard II. both which were unjustly Deposed by their Subjects However they did not renounce their Allegiance and declare the Throne void till they had a formal Resignation under the Hands of both those unfortunate Princes And hence it appears how unlucky our Enquirer is at citing the Laws For Pag. 12. He tells us That since these Two Princes have been judged in Parliament for their Male Administration and since these Iudgments have never been vacated by any subsequent Parliaments these Proceedings are part of our Law. From hence I observe 1. That our Author contradicts himself For here he owns that Male Administration is sufficient to warrant Deposition and Resistance But in his Enquiry into the Measures of Submission c. For both these Papers are generally supposed to come from the same Hand Pag. 5. Par. 14. He is much kinder to the Crown for there he asserts That it is not Lawful to resist the King upon any pretence