Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	court_n	law_n	1,543	5	4.8094	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44836	Some cautions offered to the consideration of those who are to chuse members to serve in the ensuing Parliament; Cautions to those who are to chuse members to serve in Parliament	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.	1695 (1695)	Wing H322; ESTC R11626	18,231	34

Root as that he might grow up to be Timber without being remov'd If these Young Men had skill enough to pitch upon some Body in the House to whom they might resign their Opinion and upon whose Judgment they might lean without Reserve there might be less Objection But to speak Truth they know as little how to chuse as those did who elected them so that there is no other Expedient left than the letting them alone One may say generally speaking That a young Man being too soon qualifi'd for the serious Business of Parliaments would really be no good Symptom It is a sign of too much Phlegm and too little Fire in the beginning of Age if Men have not a little more heat than is convenient for as they grow older they will run a hazard of not having so much as is necessary The Truth is The vigour of Youth is soften'd and misappli'd when it is not spent either in War or close Studies all other Courses have an idle Mixture that cometh to nothing and maketh them like Trees which for want of Pruning run up to Wood and seldom or never bear any Fruit. To conclude this Head it must be own'd That there is no Age of our Life which doth not carry Arguments along with it to humble us and therefore it would be well for the Business of the World if young Men would stay longer before they went into it and old Men not so long before they went out of it X. Next to these may be rank'd a sort of superfine Gentlemen Carpet-Knights Men whose Heads may be said to be only Appurtenances to their Perukes which intirely ingross all their Care and Application Their Understanding is so strictly appropriated to their Dress that no part of it is upon pain of their utmost Displeasure to be diverted to any other use It is not by this intended to recommend an affected Clown or to make it a necessary Qualification for a Member of Parliament that he must renounce clean Linen or good Manners but surely a too earnest Application to make every thing sit Right about them striketh too deep into their small stock of Thoughts to allow it Furniture for any thing else To do Right to the these fine-spun Gentlemen Business is too course a thing for them which maketh it an unreasonable Hardship upon them to oppress them with it so that in tenderness to them no less than out of care to the Publick it is best to leave them to their Taylors with whom they will live in much better Correspondence when the Danger is prevented of their falling out about Privileges XI Men of Injustice and Violence in their private Dealings are not to be trusted by the People with a Commission to treat for them in Parliament In the 4th of Edw. 3. The King Commandeth in his Writs not to chuse any Knights who had been Guilty of Crime or Maintenance These warm Men seldom fail to run into Maintenance taken in a larger Extent It is an unnatural Sound to come from a Man that is Arbitrary in his Neighbourhood to talk of Laws and Liberties at Westminster he is not a proper Vehicle for such Words which ought never to be prophaned An habitual Breaker of the Laws to be made one of the Law-makers is as if the Benches in Westminster-hall should be filled with Men out of Newgate Those who are of this Temper cannot change their Nature out of respect to their Countrey Quite contrary they will less scruple to do Wrong to a Nation where no Body taketh it to himself than to particular Men to whose Resentments they are more immediately exposed In short they lye under such strong Objections that the over-ballance of better Men cannot altogether purify an Assemby where these unclean Beasts are admitted XII Excessive Spenders and unreasonable Savers are to be Excluded being both greedy from differing Causes They are both of them Diseases of Infection and for that Reason are not to be admitted into publick Assemblies A prodigal Man must be greedy because he thinketh he can never spend enough The Wretch must be so because he will never think he can hoard enough The World first admireth Men's Wisdom for getting Money and then raileth at them if they do not throw it away so that the Prodigal Man is only the less unpopular Extreme he is every jot as well prepared as the Miser to fall out with his Morals when once a good Temptation is offered him to lay them aside On the other side some rich Men are as eager to overtake those that are Richer as a Running-horse is to get to the Race-post before the other that contendeth with him Men often desire to heap rather because others have more than that they know what to do with that which they covet with so much Impatience So that it is plain the Fancy hath as great a share in this imaginary Pleasure of Gathering as it hath in Love Ambition or any other Passion It is pretty sure that as no Man was ever the Richer for having a good Estate if he did not look after it so neither will he be the Honester if he hath never so much Want of Care will always create want of Money so that whether a Man is a Beggar because he never had any Money or because he can never keep any it is all one to those who are to trust him Upon this head of Prodigality it may be no unreasonable Caution to be afraid of those who in former Service have been extravagantly Liberal of the Publick Money Trusting is so hazardous a thing that it should never be done but where it is necessary so that when Trustees are found upon Trial to be very Lavish even without examining into the Causes of it which are generally very suspicious it is a reasonable part of Preventing-Wit to change Hands or else the Chusers will pay the Penalty that belongeth to good Nature so misplaced and the Consequences will be attended with the Aggravation of their not being made Wiser by such a severe and costly warning XIII It would be of very great use to take a general Resolution throughout the Kingdom That none should be chosen for a County but such as have either in Possession or Reversion a considerable Estate in it nor for a Burrough except he be Resiant or that he hath some Estate in the County in present or Expectancy There have been Eminent Men of Law who were of opinion That in the Case of a Burgess of a Town not Resiant the Court is to give Judgment according to the Statute notwithstanding Custom to the contrary But not to insist now upon that the prudential part is Argument enough to set up a Rule to abrogate an ill Custom There is not perhaps a greater Cause of the Corruption of Parliaments than by adopting Members who may be said to have no title by their Births The Juries are by the Law to be Ex vicineto And shall there be less

is to the lofty Sound of an Organ Men of this Size are in no degree suited to the business of redressing Grievances and making Laws There is a Parliament-Wit to be distinguish'd from all other kinds those who have it do not stuff their heads only with Cavils and Objections They have a deliberate and an observing Wit a Head turned to Publick things Men who place a greater pleasure in mending a Fault than in finding it out Their Understanding directeth them to object in the right place and not like those who go by no other Rule than to conclude That must be the best Counsel which was not taken These Whole-sale Judges shew such a gross and peevish Ignorance that it appeareth so openly in all they say or do That they give loud warning to all considering Men not to chuse them VIII The dislike of slight Airy Men must not go so far as to recommend heaviness in opposition to it especially where men are convicted of it by Experience in former Sessions As a lively Coxcomb will seldom fail to lay in his claim for Wit so a Blockhead is apt to pretend That his heaviness is a proof of his Judgment Some have an universal Lethargy spread upon their Understanding without exception others have an Insufficiency quo ad hoc as in some Cases men have quo ad hanc These last can never so turn their thoughts to publick Business as to give the attention that is necessary to comprehend it There are those who have such a thick Shell upon their Brains that their Ignorance is impenetrable and maketh such a stout resistance against Common Sense that it will never be subdu'd by it True Heart of Oak Ignorance that will never yield let Reason beat never so hard upon it and though their kind Neighbours have at several Elections sent them up to School again they have still return'd the same incurable Dunces There is a false Gravity that is a very ill symptom and it may be said That as Rivers which run very slowly have always the most Mud at the bottom so a solid stiffness in the constant course of a man's Life is a sign of a thick bed of Mud at the bottom of his Brain A dull Man is so near a dead Man that he is hardly to be ranked in the List of the Living and as he is not to be buri'd whilst he is half alive so he is as little to be imploy'd whilst he is half dead Parliaments are now grown to be quite other things than they were formerly In Ancient Times they were little more than Great Assizes A Roll of Grievances Magna Charta confirmed Privileges of Holy Church preserved so many Sacks of Wool given and away Now there are Traps and Gins laid for the well-meaning Countrey-Gentlemen he is to grapple with the Cunning of Men in Town which is not a little improv'd by being rewarded and encourag'd So that men whose good Intentions are not seconded and supported by some degree of Ability are as much the more dangerous as they are less criminal than Cunning Knaves Their honest Mistakes for want of distinguishing either give a Countenance to or at least lessen the Scandal of the injurious things that are done to the Publick and with leave ask'd for so odd an expression Their Innocent Guilt is as mischievous to the Laws and Liberties as the most deliberate Malice of those that would destroy them IX There is an Abuse which daily increaseth of sending such to Parliament as are scarce old enough to be sent to the University I would not in this restrain the Definition of these Boys to the Age of Twenty One If my Opinion might take place I should wish that none might be chosen into the House of Commons under Thirty and to make some Equality I should from the same Motives think it convenient That no Lord should have a Vote in Judicature under that Age. But to leave this Digression I cannot see why the Chusers should not at least make it a Rule among themselves Not to send any Man to Represent them under the Age of Twenty five which is the time of Majority in most other places of the world Surely it is not that we are Earlier Plants than our Neighbours Such supposition could neither be justifi'd by our Climate nor by the degree of Latitude in which we are placed I must therefore attribute it to the haste our Ancestors had and not without reason to free themselves from the Severity of Wardships But whether this or any thing else was the cause of our earlier stepping into Man's Estate so it is now that according to our Laws Twenty one is the Age of Discretion and the Young Man is then vested with a Legal how defective soever he may be in his Natural Understanding With all this there ought to be a difference made between coming out of Pupilage and leaping into Legislatorship It is perhaps inconvenient enough that a man should be so soon let loose to destroy his own Estate but it is yet worse that he should then have a Power of giving away other men's The Law must make General Rules to which there always will be some Objections If there were Tryers appointed to judge when Leading-Strings should be left off many would wear them a very great while and some perhaps with their Gray Hairs there being no small number of Old Boys in all times and especially in this It is necessary therefore to make Exceptions to this General Rule where the Case so much requireth it as it doth in the matter in question The ground of sending these Minors to Parliament ought not to recommend the Continuance of it to those who are Lovers of Liberty since it was by the Authority and Influence of Great Men that their Stripling Sons were first receiv'd by the humble depending Boroughs or the complying Counties They called it as many do still the best School for Young Men. Now Experience hath shew'd us that it is like a School only in this respect That these Youngsters when they are admitted deserve to be whipp'd in it If the House of Commons is a School it must be for Men of riper Age these are too young to learn there and being elevated by a mistaken smattering in small Politicks they grow too supercilious to learn any where else so that instead of improving young promising Plants they are destroy'd by being misplac'd If then they do themselves hurt by it it is surer yet that they do the House no good by coming into it They were not Green Geese that are said to have sav'd the Capitol they were certainly of full Age or else their Cackling could not have been heard so as to give warning Indeed it look'd of late when the Fashion was to have long continu'd Parliaments as if we might plant a Boy in the House with a Prospect that he might continue there till he had Grey Hairs And that the same Sapling might have such a