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A69845 The Case of the forfeitures in Ireland fairly stated with the reasons that induced the Protestants there to purchase them. 1700 (1700) Wing C912aA; Wing C1073; ESTC N61326 17,514 56

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Purchasers have not as yet complained of the hardship of a Resuming Act. Have then the Grants of all the Princes since the Reformation created good Titles in Ireland and passed current and free from all Resumptions Yes 't is certain they have and that Author is challenged to shew the contrary This me-thinks shews a custom ancient enough to secure the Grants of His present Majesty to whom we owe more than to all the Kings before him 'T will be ask'd whether there were no such Resumptions before the Reformation if there were why considering the streights we are in shou'd not the same course be taken now to ease the Nation of Taxes In order to give this question a clear and satisfactory answer I shall observe that the Grants made by our Princes have been of two sorts First of Lands that have fallen to the Crown by Rebellion or Conquest Secondly of Lands or Hereditaments that were of the Demesnes or ancient Revenues of the Crown All Estates of the First sort are undoubtedly by our Laws in the gift of the King our constitution does not only allow him to dispose of these but supposes he will do it 'T is so far from being a Crime in any of his Ministers to countenance the Kings doing this that on the contrary should they advise him not to make Grants but to keep his Acquisitions in his own hands they ought to be censur'd for it Because it might prove a thing of ill consequence to our Country for if all the Revenues that fall to the Crown were kept there the King would in time become absolute Possessor and Lord of all and his People must be his Slaves As it is certain then that the King may and for a very good reason ought by our constitution to Grant away such Lands as these so it is as certain that not only since the Reformation but Norman Conquest likewise an Act never has passed to resume Grants of this kind As to the other sort of Grants I mean of the Lands or Hereditaments that were of the Demesnes or Ancient Revenue of the Crown it must be own'd that they in former times have made some noise in this Kingdom All that a late Author has said in a discourse too long for the Argument relates only to such sort of resumptions Therefore his precedents will not touch the Irish Grants though among other things his Book was plainly Calculated for them But since 't is possible many at this time may be induc'd to entertain too harsh and wrong sentiments concerning Grants of this kind since the prejudices of these Men if they should reckon that the Case of the one differs not from the other will reach to forfeitures and suggest to them that a resumption is highly reasonable I will give the plainest and shortest account I can of thosse resumptions I mean of Grants of the Crown Revenues and that taken from what the Author himself says and leave it to all True English Men who love this Government to Judge whether all his noise and clamour and ill-tim'd reflections might not in justice as well as good breeding be spared He tells us pag. 302 that anciently it seemed a fundamental that the Crown-Lands were not alienable To whom did it seem so anciently Not to the Kings themselves for they all along made Grants of the Revenues of the Crown and that so commonly that this Author will be hardly able to name two since the Reign of William I. that have not made Grants of some of the Revenues of the Crown and thus broken in to this fundamental Nor to the Parliament for they never have condemned such Grants never made an Act of Parliament to prohibit them This appears from the Act made 27. Hen. 8 c.11 to secure the Fees belonging to the Clerk of the signet or if the Author will have it so vid. pag. 298 To inforce by a positive Law the ancient steps in passing grants from the Crown Tho' in this he is mistaken in the Judgment of Lawyers mention'd by himself p. 30 who say that these methods are directive not coercive or as Hobart says Hob. Rep. Colt and Glover p. 146 That these kind of Statutes were made to put things in ordinary form and to ease the Sovereign of Labour but not to deprive him of Power But however that be this is certain that to make such Grants as these is what is permitted our Kings even by the Statute Law and the Law never prescribes a rule for doing that which it allows not to be done But does not this Author tell us that 11. Hen. 4. 'T was plainly and directly enacted That all manner of Hereditaments which from thence forward should fall into the Crown should not be alienable but remain to the King This he says is positive unrepeal'd as we know and still as much in force as Magna Charta pag. 303. Here this Gentleman has been guilty of great inadvertency in citing this as a Positive Act and strong as Magna Charta for prohibiting alienations of the Revenues of the Crown I hope he only forgot how he mentioned this Act in the foregoing part of this Book p. 145. I must desire the Reader to turn to the place he quotes the very same year of Henry the IV th and the same Parl. Roll. There he tells us The Commons pray the King That for ever hereafter no Grant might be made of any Hereditaments or other profits of the Crown except Offices and Bailiwicks till the King shall be quite out of Debt and unless there be remaining in his Coffers sufficient for the Provision of his Family The Act as 't is here deliver'd is differing from the Magna Charta the positive Law he mention'd before And yet here he has given the Original a very dextrous turn for the French in the Act is En Temps ensuivants which is no more than for the future but he has render'd it for ever hereafter and so would infer that That which 't is plain was no more than a Petition to the King not to Grant away the Hereditaments of the Crown till he had sufficient for the support of his Family was a positive Law which was to stand for ever like Magna Charta to Guard the Revenues of the Crown and restrain the King from making Grants This Gentleman is mistaken the Wisdom of this Nation never did and I 'm sure never will make such an everlarsting Law as he mentions They foresaw what the Power of the King in time would grow to if there should never be any alienation and that this fundamental would shake the foundation of the Government They know better things My Lord Coke tells us 2 d. Institut pag. 496 497 That the King's Prerogative is part of the Law of England and that this is shewn in his Letters Patents for Lands Tenements and other things Without this Prerogative I can't see how he can Govern and discharge that great duty incumbent upon him What