from whence we may rationally conclude the Banisht will amount to very near the forementioned number the more Incorrigible were sometimes destroyed There 's five or six sent that way I warrant you others were either formally Eâ—ecuted by the sentence of a high Court of Justice or dispatched without any more Ceremony the best way for Endeavouring to secure themselves against the Insults of their own Subjects A very moderate computation And here how few Kings are left to end their days in Peace One would think a succession would not be much contended for where a Crown is tendred upon such â—icklish conditions yet he tells us p. 45. they always elected a better man in his Roomâ— sometimes the next of Kin sometimes the Valiant man that had exposed himself so far as to undertake the Expulsion or the Killing of the Tyrant at other times a private Person of good Reputation who possibly least dream't of such an advancement I suppose the next of Kin were seldom so desperate as to venture and therefore they oftener threw their voices away upon some private Person who according to this Authors description might possibly be some honest drunken sleepy fellow that had a Crown dropt into his mouth as he lay yawning But generally the Murtherer was likewise the Thief and the Villain who had dispatched his Prince succeeded him hence there arose a well ordered Government and all men became ambitious of Imitating their new King the meanest Subjects duly weighing the faults of their Superiors in their own breasts the proper Tribunal the Servant soon stabs his cruel Master the Tenant shoots his wasteful Lord and the Son poisons his covetous old Father that having so done they may by the common Law and Justice of the Kingdom succeed in their respective Inheritances Having done with that Government the loss of which he so much complains of we enter upon his account of the present State and find him telling us p. 46 47. that about thirty two years ago at one Instant the face of affairs was changed so that the Kings have ever since been absolute and arbitrary not the least Remnant of Liberty remaining to the Subject the first and principal Article in the Danish law being that the King has the Priviledge reserved to himself to explain the Law nay to alter and change it as he shall find good The consequences of this are excessive Taxes in times of peace little regard being had to the occasion of them Poverty in the Gentry Misery in the Peasants and Partiality in the distribution of Justice The occasion of the Change of Government shall be declared in the next Paragraph in the mean time any one that knows Danmark must confess that the King is absolute but no further so than a Christian King of oâ—r own Protestant Religion may be wherefore amongst other of the obligations which he lies under are the Holy Scriptures and the Confession of Aâ—gsburg as is declared in the beginning of the Danish Law Aâ— for that Law which the Author â—â—livers it is declaratory of the Kings Authority and since it is necessary that a legislative Power should be lodged somewhere shows that it is placed in him Pursuant to this the present King has compiled a Book of Laws the Character of which is given by our Author p. 232 233. That for Justice Brevity and Perspicuity they exceed all in the world That they are grounded upon Equity and are all contain'd in one Quarto Volume written in the Language of the Country with so much plainness that no man who can write and read is so ignorant but he may presently understand his own Case and plead it too if he pleases without the assistance of Councilor Attorney Being thus constituted they are so agreeable and adapted to the Danish Nation that they continue still the same the King having never yet changed nor altered much less explained any part to the Prejudice of any particular Person whatsoever the execution of them throughout the whole Kingdom is with great equality and more eminently in the High Court of Justice in Copenhagen where the King himself is President and sits frequently where Causes are often decided in favour of the meanest Peasant against the greatest Favorites who for wrongs done have been condemned to vast Mulcts and Penalties as might be shown by several instances if it were needful or proper to insert them By this Law every man possesses his own Real or Personal Estate without the least Eâ—croachment from the King 't is true that the Subject pays Taxes but they are such only as Necessity requires for Danmark being surrounded with many potent Neighbours who are all in Arms it must for its own preservation support a Fleet and Army unless it could perswade them to disband their Forces The Taxes being for the common good are laid equally upon all and the Kings Moderation in his Expences both as to himself and the Royal Family being so conspicuous the Subject has the greater satisfaction to see what he contributes laid out only for his own Preservation Notwithstanding these Taxes the People live in Plenty wanting nothing either for Conveniency or Pleasure All this they enjoy although the Government is indeed absolute and they with all willingness and due obedience submit themselves to this Government because they are sufficiently satisfied that this absolute Power was not given to his Majesty of Danmark till the necessity for it was unavoidable The Nobility was that part of the Danish Constitution which first broke in upon the Symmetry of the whole in several Ages and by insensible degrees they encroached upon the Kings Prerogative but all along made larger progresses towards the enslaving of the Commonalty insomuch that all burthens and publick Taxes were imposed upon them alone After the War with Sweden the Commons found themselves unable longer to live under such oppressions they had bravely defended their Country with the hazard of their Lives and would have done so with their Fortunes if they had had any remaining but these were wholly swallowed up by the Nobility who yet would contribute nothing toward the maintaining of a just War against foreign Enemy and Invader Danmark being upon the brink of Ruine the Commons in these circumstances as the weaker and more oppresâ—ed part fly to their Head for succour Neither the King alone nor the Commons alone nor both King and Commons joyntly could controul the Nobility so far as to make them pay Taxes therefore it was necessary that all three should consent to a new Government so the Commons proposed it to the Lords and both Lords and Commons offer the King to make him absolute which offer if he had not accepted of neither himself nor the Commons could have supported the State Supplies were of necessity to be raised the Commonalty could not raise them without assistance and there was no other way but this to make the Nobility in some equal measure bear their proportion After this alteration
he tells us with great pomp p. 43. that Poland alone has preserved its Parliament whereas every one must acknowlege it would be a happy Country if it had the oppertunity to lose it As for all other Countries whatsoever except that and our own he tell us ib. they have lost their Parliaments within this last age This cannot be true for though Danmark has lost its Diet yet Sweden retains it still and such a one was summoned but the last year Spain and Portugal have the same sort of Government they have had this several hundred years how can he then say that all Kingdoms in this last age have lost their Parliaments Besides as for Bohemia Hungary and the rest of the Emperors Hereditary Provinces although the Government is pretty absolute on the Princes side yet there is every where a Convocation of the States of the Country But I would fain know of him whether he believes there is such a place as Ratisbone and whether he thinks the Germans send their Deputies thither for nothing England had indeed been happy if this Gentlemans opinion had been true that its Parliaments had met with no Interruption in thâ—â— last age but whatever his thoughts may be our Parliament was properly lost for several years together from before the Death of King Charles the first till the Restoration of his Son for 't is impossible in nature to have that assembly in its true perfection without a King in his full Prerogative and Splendor Danmark has some years since upon very important considerations laid aside the Assembly of the States and given their King a greater extent of Power in that particular than his Predecessors formerly enjoyed Not but that the King did before enjoy very signal prerogatives and throughout all the Northern Histories it is easy to show that strict Obedience and an entire Submission to their Prince hath been reigning there from immemorial times nor hath it ever so much as been known what a Republick was There has indeed a controversy been started by Historians whether in remote ages the Kingdom of Danmark has been hereditary or elective there are weighty Reasons for the Inheritance at least if custom and prescription be such seeing Successors of the Royal Family have come always to the Crown insomuch that if we look back as far as Saxo's fabulous times we shall always find the Son succeeding his Father or if the Son has been wanting another of the same race has been made King Upon the Death of a Prince the Estates constantly met together but it was with their Voices to confirm the next Heir and not to elect another of any other Family whatsoever for there cannot be one Instance given through all the Danish History where the Royal Family was excluded and a private man though endowed with never so many excellent qualities exalted to the Throne the example of Hiarne recorded by Saxo does not argue for those times being fabulous the story cannot be much relyed on and it is likewise to be observed that it was even then supposed that the Prince and Heir was killed in Russia Besides it is more improbable because they say he was made King for his Poetry Poets being persons that seldom arrive at such Riches and Preferments It is not to be denied but that the Danes sometimes may have renounced their Allegiance to their King or rebelled against him but those instances are extreamly few in comparison of such as may be found in the English or other Histories When these Facts have been committed they have been so far from being justified afterwards that the Danes have ever looked upon them as their greatest misfortunes And nothing can more evidently demonstrate to an English-man that Faith which the Danes naturally bear to their Prince than the Hatred they have expressed against the villanous Act of the Regicides who commited the horrid Murther of King Charles the first The book called Englands Black Tribunal being translated into their Tongue has by several editions given them such a sufficient account of it as makes them universally detest it In the alliance between the two Crowns February 13 1660. It was agreed in the 5th Article that if any of those Regicides were found either in Danmark or Norway they should presently be delivered up to the King of England Nay if a Dane would pretend to fix any Crime upon the English it is thâ—s you have killed your King And as all Nations have some word or other of Reproach their highest passion can give an English-man no worse than that of Rump But to come yet nigher to our Authot let us consider what rebellious sort of People he would make the Danes and in order to this let us wait upon one of our Danish Kings from his Election to the Scaffold It seems when a former Prince was murthered a King was presently chosen by the People of all sorts even the Boors had their voices p. 43. They were to elect such a Person as to them appeared personable valiant affable c. and adorn'd with all other virtues A very peculiar method The Boors undoubtedly were made Judges of his Civility and Breeding and the Citizens Wives were brought in to consider his Person as to his inward qualifications it was impossible for the Mob to look into them on the sudden and if the former were admitted these were thrown into the bargain Regard was generally had to the family of the preceeding Kings and sometimes they pleased to choose the Eldest Son because the greatness of his Paternal Estate might enable him in some degree to support his Office So that if the Father dyed in debt the Son was sure to be disinherited but if we had kept his Estate together then the young man might possibly get into the Throne and having a tolerable fortune of his own with that together with some few perquisites of the Crown he might pay his Tradesmen and as this Author says of the King p. 46. might live like one of our Modern Noblemen upon the Revenues of his own Estate After the good fortune of his Promotion if they found themselves mistaken in their choice and that they had advanced a cruel vicious tyrannical covetuous or wastful Person they frequently deposed him oftentimes banished sometimes destroyed him and this either formally by making him answer before the representative body of the People or if by ill practices levying of Souldiers contracting of Alliances to support himself in oppoâ—â—tion to the Peoples Rights he was grown too powerful to be legally contended with they dispatched him without any more Ceremony the best way they could p. 44 45. We see here that there were five Crimes for which the Kings of Danmarkâ— by this Authors Laws were to stand corrected deposing being but a slight punishment that was made use of frequently therefore we will suppose ten or a dozen gone that way Banishment he puts in the next degree and that he says they were Sentenced to oftentimes
assurances from the Mufti that any Rebellion shall be raised there speedily Come we now to the grand Query Whither matters are like to last at the same rate they are now at in Danmark p. 264. Our Author would willingly have it resolv'd in the Negative and gives important reasons why it should be so And more important why it should not be so Let us see his self-encounter at pro and con and the mighty tumults and bustles raised in our Authors fallacious Judgment p. 264. First That natural Love of Liberty eminent in the antient Goths and Vandals perswade him to think of a change ib. But alas the Love of Liberty which was that of Knight â—rrantry and Rambling to seek their Fortunes in foreign Countries being now quite extinct in the North they find sufficient conveniencies at home where Obedience to their Prince secures their Ease and is preferr'd by them before those brisk Traverses as he calls them which commotions would occasion p. 267. So Love of Liberty might do something but that Duty prevails Well but again may not the freshness and newness of this alteration of their condition produce an alteration in the Government p. 265. Why truly no because he finds it to have little or no influence upon the people who are wonderfully well pleas'd both with one and t'other So that if the Father should propose any methods of change to his Son he would not be heard by him with patience pâ— 268. Buâ—â— however to try again What should hinder the Swedes who have their Eye upon Danmark from introducing Liberty p. 266. Why truly they use their own Subjects so ill and there is such a â—â—â—t hatred betwixt these two Nations that the Danes are resolv'd to keep them out as long as they are able p. 2â—8 The last hope then is in the numerousness of the Royal Family for there being four Princes it will be rare if Concord be maintained among them all p. 266. And thence something in favour of Liberty might arise 'T is a thousand pities that matters should not be brought to this pass But such is the Wickedness of this cursed Soil that those Jealousies which use to reign in the Families of Princes are not so common nor fatal in these parts as elsewhere p. 270. Besides there is a terrible thing call'd Unity of Religion p. 268. which spoils all manner of hopes and cuts away the very root of Sedition So then the sum of the grand controversy amounts to this That the Government of Danmark might be shaken were it not supported by a firm security from foreign attempts by a mutual concord in the Royal Family by the Ease Content Loyalty and Religion of the Subject in a word by all the Blessings and Cements which make Governments happy and consequently will render this of Danmark fixt and durable Since nothing hitherto will do the work what if this Author could get his Account translated into the Danish Tongue might not that when publisht have so blessed an effect as to occasion a change not only in their Condition but also in their Masters Why truly whatever his aim may have been nearer home and though it has been printed in English yet he has not perswaded his Countrymen to endeavour an alteration in either of theirs So that if the present State of both Kingdoms be fixt and durable then his Book poor Gentleman has lost its design and he his labour FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Tho Bennet at the Half Moon in St. Pauls Church-yard FOLIO's Athenae Oxonienses Or an exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the University of Oxford from 1500. to the end of 1690. Representing the Birth Fortunes Preferments and Death of all those Authors and Prelates the great Accidents of their Lives with the Fate and Character of their Writings The Work being so Compleat that no Writer of Note of this Nation for near two hundred years past is omitted In Two Volumes A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam by Monsieur de la Loubere Envoy Extraordinary from the French King to the King of Siam in the Years 1687 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of their Natural History as also of their Arithmetick and other Mathematick Learningâ— In two Tomes Illustrated with Sculptures Done out of French By A. P. Fellow of the Royal Society The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley The Eighth Edition To which is added The Cutter of Colemanstreer Never before Printed in any Edition of his Works Sir William D'avenants Works Dr. Pocock's Commentary on the Prophets Joel Micah Malachi and Hosea Voyages and Adventures of Ferdinand Pinto who was five times Shipwrakt sixteen times sold and thirteen times made a Slave in AEthiopia China c. Written by himself The Second Edition 1693. Quarto's A Critical History of the Text and Versions of the New Testament wherein is firmly Established the Truth of those Acts on which the Foundation of Christian Religion is laid In Two Parts By Father Simon of the Oâ—atory Together with a â—â—â—uâ—ation of such Passages as seem contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England The Works of the Learned Or an Historical Account and Impartial Judgment of the Books newly Printed both Foreign and Domestick Together with the State of Learning in the World By J. de la Crose a late Author of the Universal Bibliotheques The first Volume is finished with compleat Indexes A Sermon before the King and Queen By the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Worcester The Bishop of Châ—â—ter's Charge to his Clergy at at his Primary Visitution May 5. 1691. and his Sermon before the King and Queen 1694. Five Sermons before the King and Queen By Dr. Mâ—ggot Dean of Winchester Two Sermons One before the Honourable House of Commons on a Thanksgiving in November 1691â— The other before the King and Queen in November 1692. By Dr. Jane Dean of Gloucester Three Sermons One on a Thanksgiving the two others before the King and Queen By Dr. Talbot Dean of Worcester Mr. Atterbury's Sermon before the Queen at White-â—all May 29. 1693. Dr. Resbury's three Sermons before the Queen A Discourse â—ent to the Late King James to perswade â—â—â— to embrace the Protestant Religion By Sam. Parker late Lord Bishop of Oxon. To which are perfixed two Letters the first from Sir Lionel Jenkins on the same Subject the second from the said Bishop with the Discourse All Printed from the Original Manuscripts The Plagiary Exposed or an old Answer to a newly revived Calumny against the Memory of King Charles the first under the Title of Colonel Ludlows Letter By Mr. Butler Author of Hudibras Never brfore Printed A short Defence of the Orders of the Church of England By Mr. Luke Milbourn The first Book of Virgill's AEneis Made English by Mr. Luke Milbourn The Reasons of Mr. Bayes's Changing his Religion In Three Parts By Mr. Tho. Brown Novus Reformator