to say that the use of Parliaments is already laid aside For tho His Majesty has owned in so many of His Speeches and Declarations the great danger of the Kingdom and the necessity of the Aid and Counsel of Parliaments he hath nevertheless been prevailed upon to Dissolve four in the space of 26 Months without making provision by their advice suitable to our dangers or wants Nor can we hope the Court will ever love any Parliament better than the first of those four wherein they had so dearly purchased such a number of fast Friends Men who having first sold themselves would not stick to fell any thing after And we may well suspect they mean very ill at Court when their designs shock't such a Parliament For that very Favourite Parliament no sooner began in good earnest to examine what had been done and what was doing but they were sent away in haste and in a fright though the Ministers know they lost thereby a constant Revenue of extraordinary Supplies And are the Ministers at present more innocent than at that time The same interest hath the ascendant at Court still and they have heightned the Resentments of the Nation by repeated affronts and can we believe them that they dare suffer a Parliament now to Sit But we have gain'd at least this one Point by the Declaration that it is own'd to us that Parliaments are the best Method for healing the distempers of the Kingdom and the only means to preserve the Monarchy in credit both at home and abroad Own'd by these very men who have so maliciously rendred many former Parliaments ineffectual and by this Declaration have done their utmost to make those which are to come as fruitless and thereby have confessed that they have no concern for healing the distempers of the Kingdom and preserving the credit of the Monarchy which is in effect to acknowledge themselves to be what the Commons called â—hem Enemies to the King and Kingdom Nothing can be more true than that the Kingdom can never recover its strength and reputation abroad or its ancient Peace and Settlement at home His Majesty can never be relieved from his fears and his domestick wants nor secure from the Affronts which he daily suffers from abroad till he resolves not only to call Parliaments but to Hearken to them when they are called For without that it is not a Declaration it is not repeated promises nay it is not the frequent calling of Parliaments which will convince the world that the use of them is not intended to be laid aside However we rejoyce that his Majesty seems resolved to have frequent Parliaments and hope he will be just to Himself and us by continuing constant to this Resolution Yet we cannot but doubt in some degree when we remember the Speech made 26 Jan. 1679. to both Houses wherein he told them that he was Unalterably of an Opinion that long intervals of Parliaments were absolutely necessary for composing and quieting the minds of the People Therefore which ought we rather to believe the Speech or the Declaration or which is likely to last longest a Resolution or an unalterable opinion is a matter too Nice for any but Court-Criticks to Decide The effectual performance of the last part of the promise will give us assurance of the first When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the D. of York no longer first Minister or rather protector of these Kingdoms and his Creatures no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that Love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a crime at Court no longer a certain forerunner of being Disgrac'd and Remov'd from all Offices and Employments in their Power when the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its old meaning and no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws When we see the Commissions fill'd with hearty Protestants and the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists the Discoverers of the Plot countenanc'd or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence the Courts of Justice steady and not Avowing a Jurisdiction one day which they disown the next no more Grand Juries discharg'd lest they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away lest they should inform Grand Juries when we see no more Instruments from Court labouring to raise Jealousies of Protestants at home and some regard had to Protestants abroad when we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law than barely to put in Execution against Dissenters the Laws made against Papists then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Councels the Extripation of Popery the Redress of Grievances the flourishing of Lawâ— and the perfect Restoring the Monarchy to the Credit which it ought to have but which the Authors of the Declaration confess it wants both at Home and Abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of His Majesties good Subjects and their Hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliament in order to perfect all the good Settlement and Peace wanting in Church and State. But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease Divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make His Majesty the Head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanus lib. 28. says was the notorious folly and occasioned the Destruction of his great Grand Mother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same Differences promoted industriously by the Court which gave the rise and progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion Whilst we see the Popish Interest so plainly Countenanced which was then done with Caution when every pretence of Prerogative is strained to the utmost Height when Parliaments are used with contempt and indignity and their judicature and all their highest Priviledges brought in question in Inferior Courts we have but too good cause to believe that tho every Loyal and Good Man does yet the Ministers and Favourites do but little consider the Rise and Progress of the late Troubles and have little desire or care to preserve their Country from a Relapse And who as they never yet shewed regard to Religion Liberty or Property so they would be little concern'd to see the Monarchy shaken off if they might escape the Vengeance of publick Justice due to them for so long a Course of pernicious Counsels and for Crowning all the rest of their faults by thus Reflecting upon that High Court before which we do not doubt but we shall see them one day brought to Judgment Thus have we with an English plainness expressed our thoughts of the late Parliaments and their Proceedings as well as of the Court in Relation to them and hope this Freedom will offend no man. The Ministers who may be concern'd through their appealing unto the People cannot in Justice deny unto any one of them the Liberty of weighing the Reasons which they thought fit to publish in Vindication of their Actions But if it should prove otherwise and these few Sheets be thought as weak and full of Errors as those we endeavour to confute or be held injurious unto them we desire only to know in what we transgress and that the Press may be open for our Justification Let the People to whom the Appeal is made judg then between them and us and let Reason and the Law be the Rules according unto which the Controversy may be decided But if by denying this they shall like Beasts recur to force they will thereby acknowledg that they want the Arms which belong to rational Creatures Whereas if the Liberty of Answering be left us we will give up the Cause and confess that both Reason and Law are wanting unto us if we do not in our Reply satisfy all reasonable and impartial men that nothing is said by us but what is just and necessary to preserve the Interests of the King and his People Nor can there be any thing more to the Honour of His Majesty than to give the Nations round about us to understand that the King of England doth neither Reign over a Base Servile People who hearing themselves Arraign'd and Condemned dare not speak in their own Defence and Vindication nor over so silly foolish and weak a People as that ill designed and worse supported Paper might occasion the World to think but that there are some Persons in his Dominions not only of true English Courage but of greater intellectuals as well as better Morals than the Advisers unto and Penners of the Declaration have manifested themselves to be FINIS 4 Edw. 3. c. 14.36 Ed. 3. c. 10. See the Parliament Roll 2 Ric. 2. num 28. See the Antiq. modo tenend Parliament * See the Declaration prepared by Coleman by the Advice of the French King's Confessor for dissolving the Parliament to prepare for Popery Speech 21. Octob. 1680. Speech 30. Apr. 1679. Speech 26. Dec. 1662. Speech 6. March 1679. Lord Chancellor's Speech 23 May 1678. Address presented 21 Dec. 1680. Address presented 29 Nov. 1680. Rot. Parl. 5 H. 4. Nu. 6. Traitte des droits de la Reine On t cette bien beuâ—euse impuissance de ne pouvoir rieâ— faire contre les Loys de leur Pais Postelius de Rebus Turcicis 1 R. 3. cap. 2. 12 Car. 2. c. 4.4 confirm'd 31 Car. c. 7. 12 Car. 2. c. 23 an 33 14 Car. c. 10. Tacit. Cap. 1. Sect. 2. pag. 9. 36 Ed. 3.10 Rot. Parl. 4 Ed. 3. Nu 6. Rot. Parl. 19 Ed. 3. M. 18. Rot. Parl. 26 Ed. 3. M. 25. Co. 2. Inst. 29.
Parliament then we hope that shame will stop their mouths who have made such a noise against the Commons with this Record First It is evident from the Roll it self with other Records that the Lords did judg those Commoners contrary to the Law of the Land that is at the instance of the King and the Prosecution of their Enemies without the due course of the Law or calling them to make their Defence and for ought appears without legal Testimony Secondly It is evident that they were driven upon this illegal Proceeding by the Power and Authority of the King and some Prosecutors who earnestly pressed the Lords thereunto upon pretence of speedily avenging the Blood of the former King and his Uncle So that the Judgment was given at the Kings Suit in a way not warranted by the Law and Custom of Parliament or any other Law of the Kingdom Surely when the Lords blood was suffered to cool they had reason to desire something might be left upon Record to preserve them for the future from being put upon such shameful Work tho such a case as the Murder of a King should again happen as it seems they did not fear to be pressed in any other so to violate the Laws But Thirdly There is not a word in the Record that imports a restriction of that lawful Jurisdiction which our Constitution placeth in the Lords to try Commoners when their Cases should come before them lawfully at the Suit of the Commons by Impeachment There is no mark of an Intention to change any part of the Ancient Government but to provide against the Violation of it and that the Law might stand as before notwithstanding the unlawful Judgment they had lately given So that the question is still the same Whether by the Law of the Land that is the Law and Custom of Parliament or any other Law the Lords ought to try Commoners Impeached by the Commons in Parliament as if that Record had never been And we cannot think that any man of Sence will from that Record make an argument in this point since it could be no better than to infer that because the Lords are no more to be pressed by the King or at his Suit to give Judgment against Commoners contrary to the Law of the Land when they are not Impeached in Parliament therefore they must give no Judgment against them at the Suit of the Commons in Parliament when they are by them Impeached according to the Laws and Customs of Parliament But if such as delight in these Cavils had searched into all the Records relating unto that of the 4 Ed. 3. they might have found in the 19th of the same King a Writ issued out to suspend the Execution of the Judgment against Matrevers because it had been illegally passed And the chief reason therein given is that he had not been Impeached and suffered to make his Defence But it was never suggested nor imagined that the Lords that judged him had no Jurisdiction over him because he was a Commoner or ought not to have exercised it if he had been Impeached nor was it pretended that by Magna Charta he ought to have been tried only by his Peers the Laws of the Land therein mentioned and the Laws and Customs of Parliaments being better known and more reverenced in these days than to give way to such a mistake They might also have found by another Record of the 26th of the same King that by undoubted Act of Parliament Matrevers was pardon'd and the Judgment is therein agreed by the Lords and Commons to have been illegal and unjustly passed by the violent Prosecution of his Enemies but it is not alledged that it was coram non judice as if the Lords might not have judged him if the proceedings before them had been legal But as the sense and proceedings of all Parliaments have ever been best known by their practice the Objectors might have found by all the Records since the 4 Ed. 3. that Commoners as well as Lords might be and have been Impeached before Lords and judged by them to Capital or other Punishments as appears undeniably to every man that hath read our Histories or Records And verily the concurrent sense and practice of Parliaments for so many Ages will be admitted to be a better interpretation of their own Acts than the sense that these men have lately put upon them to increase our Disorders But to silence the most malicious in this point let the famous Act of the 25 of Ed. 3. be considered which hath ever since limited all inferior Courts in their Jurisdiction unto the Trial of such Treasons only as are therein particularly specified and reserved all other Treasons to the Trial and Judgment of Parliament So that if any such be committed by Commoners they must be so Tried or not at all And if the last should be allowed it will follow that the same fact which in a Peer is Treason and punishable with Death in a Commoner is no Crime and subject to no punishment Nor doth Magna Charta confine all Trials to common Juries for it ordains that they should be tried by the Judgment of Peers or by the Law of the Land. And will any man say the Law of Parliament is not the Law of the Land Nor are these words in Magna Charta superfluous or insignificant for then there would be no Trial before the Constable or Marshal where there is no Jury at all there could be no Trial of a Peer of the Realm upon an Appeal of Murther who according to the Law ought in such cases to be try'd by a common Jury and not by his Peers And since the Records of Parliaments are full of Impeachment of Commons and no instance can be given of the rejection of any such Impeachment it is the Commons who have reason to cite Magna Charta upon this occasion which provides expresly against the denial of Justice And indeed it looks like a denial of Justice when a Court that hath undoubted cognizance of a Cause regularly brought before them shall refuse to hear it but most especially when as in this case the Prosecutors could not be so in any other Court so as a final stop was put to their Suit though the Lords could not judicially know whether any body else would prosecute elsewhere This Proceeding of the Lords looks the more odly because they rejected the Cause before they knew as Judges what it was and referred it to the ordinary course of Law without staying to hear whether it were a matter whereof an inferior Court could take cognizance There are Treasons which can only be adjudged in Parliament and if we may collect the sense of the House of Commons from their Debates they thought there was a mixture of those kind of Treasons in Fitz-Harris's Case And therefore there was little reason for that severe suggestion that the Impeachment was only designed to delay a Trial since a
to a greater degree of Confidence then any that went before them The best of our Princes have with thanks acknowledged the Care and Duty of their Parliaments in telling them of the Corruption and Folly of their Favourites Ed. I. Ed. III. Hen. V. and Q. El. never fail'd to do it and no Names are remembred with greater Honour in the English Annals Whilst the disorderly the Troublesome and Unfortunate Reigns of H. III. Ed. II. R. II. and H. the VI. ought to serve as Land-marks to warn succeeding Kings from preferring secret Councels to the Wisdom of their Parliaments But none of the Proceedings of the House of Commons have been more censured at Court and with less Justice than their Vote about the Anticipation of several Branches of the Revenue An objection which could proceed from nothing but a total ignorance of the Nature of Publick Treasure in our own and all other Nations which was ever esteem'd Sacred Un-alienable All the Acts of resumption in the times of H. IV. H. VI. and other of our Kings were founded upon this Maxim otherwise there could not be conceived any grosser injustice than to declare Alienations to be void which Kings had lawful power to make It was upon this Maxim that the Parliament declar'd the Grant to the Pope of the yearly sum of 1000 marks wherewith K. John had charg'd the Inheritance of the Crown to be Null It was for this cause that in the year 1670. His Majesty procured an Act of Parliament to enable him to sell the Fee Farm Rents and it is the best excuse that can be made for those Ministers who in the year 1672. advised the postponing of all payments to the Bankers out of the Exchequer that they judged all securities by way of Anticipation of the Revenue illegal and void in themselves Resumptions have been frequent in every Kingdom the King of Sweden within these few Months has by the Advice of the States resumed all the Lands which His Predecessors had in many years before granted from the Crown No Country did ever believe the Prince how absolute soever in other things had power to sell or give away the Revenue of the Kingdom and leave his Successor a Beggar All those Acts of the Roman Emperors whereby they wasted the Treasure of the Empire were rescinded by their Successors and Tacitus observes that the first of them that look't upon the publick Treasure as his own was Claudius the weakest and most sottish of them all The present King of France did within these twelve years by the consent of his several Parliaments resume all the Demesness of the Crown which had been Granted away by himself or his Predecessors That haughty Monarch as much power as he pretends to not being asham'd to own that he wanted power to make such Alienations and that Kings had that happy inability that they could do nothing contrary to the Laws of their Countrey This notion seems founded in the reason of mankind since Barbarism it self cannot efface it The Ottoman Emperors dispose Arbitrarily of the Lives and Estates of their Subjects but yet they esteem it the most detestable wickedness to employ the Tributes and Growing Revenues of the Provinces which they call the Sacred blood of the People upon any other than publick occasions And our Kings H. IV. and H. VII understood so well the different power they had in using their private Inheritances and those of the Crown that they took care by Authority of Parliament to separate the Dutchy of Lancaster from the Crown and to keep the descent of it distinct But our present Courtiers are quite of another Opinion who speak of the Revenue of the Crown as if it were a private Patrimony and design'd only for domestick uses and for the Pleasures of the Prince The Revenues of the Crown of England are their own nature approriated to Publick Service therefore cannot without injustice be diverted or Anticipated For either the Publick Revenue is sufficient to answer the necessary Occasions of the Government and then there is no colour for Anticipations or else by some extraordinary accident the K. is reduced to want an extraordinary supply and then he ought to resort to his Parliament Thus wisely did our Ancestors provide that the K. and His People should have frequent need of one another and by having frequent opportunities of mutually relieving one anothers wants be sure ever to preserve a dutiful affection in the Subject and a fartherly tenderness in the Prince When the King had occasion for the Liberality of his People he would be well inclin'd to hear and redress their Grievances and when they wanted ease from Oppressions they would not fail with alacrity to supply the occasions of the Crown And therefore it has ever been esteem'd a crime in Counsellors who perswaded the King to Anticipate his Revenue and a Crime in those who furnisht Money upon such Anticipations in an Extraordinary way however extraordinary the Occasion might be For this cause it was that the Parliament in the 35th of H. 8. did not only discharge all those debts which the K. had contracted but enacted that those Lenders who had been before paid again by the King should refund all those sums into the Exchequer as Judging it a reasonable punishment to make them forfeit the Money they lent since they had gone about to introduce so dangerous a Precedent The true way to put the King out of a possibility of supporting the Government is to let him wast in one year that Money which ought to bear the charge of the Government for seven This is the direct method to destroy the Credit of the Crown both Abroad and at Home If the King resolve never to pay the Money which he Borrows what Faith will be given to Royal Promises and the Honour of the Nation will suffer in that of the Prince if it must be put upon the People to repay it this would be a way to impose a necessity of giving Taxes without end whether they would or no. And therefore as Mercenary as they were the Pensioners would never discharge the Revenue of the Anticipations to the Bankers Now the Commons having the inconvenience of this before their Eyes in so fresh an instance and having their Ears fill'd with the daily cries of so many Widows and Orphans were obliged in duty to give a Public Caution to the People that they should not run agan into the same Error Not only because they judged all Securities of that kind absolutely void but because they knew no future Parliament could without breach of Trust repay that Money which was at first borrowed only to prevent the Sitting of a Parliament and which could never be paid without Countenancing a Method so destructive to our Constitution Nor have former Parliaments been less careful and nice in giving the least allowance to any unusual ways of taking up Money without common Consent having so very often declar'd
could be so ignorant of our Laws none but a French-man could have confidence to declaim against a proceeding so regular and Parliamentary as this Where was the disregard to the Laws Established for the Commons to attempt the abrogating of a Law that is grievous to the Subject and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Is it a suspending Acts of Parliament if they declare a Law to be grievous and dangerous in their Opinion before they set about the Repeal of it And is there any ground to doubt but that a Bill would have pass'd that House pursuant to this Vote had it not been prevented by a Dissolution Nor was there the least direction or signification to the Judges which might give any occasion for the Reflection which follows in the Declaration The due and impartial Execution of the Laws is the unquestionable Duty of the Judges and we hope they will always remember that duty so well as not to necessitate a H. of Commons to do theirs by calling them to account for making private Instructions the Rule of their Judgments and acting as men who have more regard to their Places than their Oaths 'T is too well known who it is that sollicites and manages in favour of Judges when a H. of Commons does demand Justice against them for breaking their Oaths And therefore the Publishers of this Declaration had said something well if when they tell us the Judges ought not to break their Oaths in Reverence to the Votes of either H. they had been pleased to add not in respect of any Command from the K. or Favorites Then we should have no more Letters from Secretaries of State to Judges sitting upon the Bench. Then we should have no more Proclamations like that of the 14th Oct. 1662. forbidding the Execution of the Laws concerning High-ways Nor that of the 10th of May 1672. dispensing with divers Clauses in the Acts of Parliament for increase of Shipping Nor any more Declarations like that of the 15. of March 1672. suspending the Penal Laws in matters Ecclesiastical But the Judges are sworn to execute all Laws yet there is no obligation upon any man to inform against another And therefore though the Ministers prevented the Repeal of those Laws 't is to be hop'd that this Vote will restrain every Englishman from prosecuting Protestants when so wise and great a body have declared the pernicious effects of such a Prosecution 'T is most true that in England no Law is abrogated by desuetude but it is no less true that there are many Laws still unrepeal'd which are never Executed nor can be without publick detriment The Judges know of many such dormant Laws and yet they do not quicken the People to put them in Execution nor think themselves Guilty of Perjury that they do not such are the Laws for wearing Caps for keeping Lent those concerning Bowes and Arrows about killing Calves and Lambs and many others And those who vex men by Information on such antiquated Laws have been ever lookt upon as Infamous and Disturbers of the publick quiet Hence it is that there are no Names remembred with greater detestation than those of Empson and Dudley the whole Kingdom abhorr'd them as Monsters in the time of H. VII and they were punish'd as Traitors in the Reign of his Son. The alteration of the circumstances whereupon a Law was made or if it be against the genius of the People or have effects contrary to the intent of the Makers will soon cause any Law to be disused and after a little disuse the reviving of it will be thought Oppression Especially if experience has shewn that by the non-execution the quiet the safety and Trade of the Nation have been promoted of all which the Commons who are sent from every part of the Kingdom are able to make the clearest Judgment Therefore after they have declared their Opinions of the Inconvenience of reviving the Execution of these Laws which have lain asleep for divers years tho' the Judges must proceed if any forward Informers should give them the trouble yet they would not act wisely or honestly if they should Encourage Informers or quicken Juries by strict and severe charges Especially if it be considered that the Lords also were preparing Bills in favor of Dissenters and that the King has wish'd often it was in his power to ease them So that tho' there be no Act of Repeal formerly passed we have the consent and desire of all who have any share in making Acts. But let this Vote have what consequence it will yet sure the Ministers had forgot that the Black Rod was at the door of the House to require them to attend His Majesty at the very time when it was made otherwise they would not have numbred it amongst the causes which occasioned the King to part with that Parliament And those that knew His Majesty was putting on his Robes before that Vote passed might imagine a Dissolution thus foreseen might occasion it but cannot be brought to believe that the Vote which was not in being could occasion the Dissolution These are the proceedings which the Ministers judg unwarrantable in the Parliament at Westminster and for which they prevailed with His Majesty to part with it But since it is evident upon Examination that the principles of our Constitution the method of Parliaments and the precedents of every Age were their Guide and Warrant in all those things surely the K. must needs be alike offended with the Men about him for perswading him to Dissolve that Parliament without any cause and for setting forth in his Name a Declaration of such pretended cause as every man almost sees through and contrived only to cover those Reasons which they durst not own But with what face can they object to the House of Commons their strange Illegal Votes declaring divers Eminent Persons to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom when at the same time they arrogate to themselves an unheard of Authority to Arraign one of the three Estates in the face of the World for usurping power over the Laws Imprisoning their fellow Subjects Arbitrarily exposing the Kingdom to the greatest dangers and endeavouring to deprive the King of all possibility of supporting the Government and all this without any order or process of Law without hearing of their defence and as much without any reason as Precedent We have had Ministers heretofore so bold yet ever with ill success as to accuse a pretended Factious party in the House but never did any go so high as openly to Represent the whole H. of Commons as a Faction much less to cause them to be denounced in all the Churches of the Kingdom that so the People might look upon it as a kind of Excommunication But if they erred in the things they judged rightly in the choice of the Persons who were to publish it Blind Obedience was requisite where such unjustifiable things were imposed and that could be no where so