Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A44836
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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
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Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing H322; ESTC R11626
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18,231
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34
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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