Customes and a Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage The Customes he saith are the Kings inheritance and due to him by the Common Law and therefore the first Statute that mentions Customes 14 E. 3. he saith doth not grant any thing but abridges the Kings power that he shall not take more than half a mark for a Sack of Wooll and half a mark for a last of Leather But the Subsidy is a Tax assessed by Parliament and Granted to the King by the Commons for his life onely for defence of the Seas The one is Inheritance the other is a Grant but to define and describe what kinde of Grant and in what manner granted whether by one or both Houses with all the circumstances of it was certainly not at all in that Reverend Judges thought This then is no such Judicial determination of the Question as they would make it From thence they come to the Provisoes in the Bill of 1 H. 8. in which as in the Bill it self and their conclusion upon it viz. That they are of no force unless it be against the Lords there is certainly a great mistake They say that by the Lords Journal the Case is this That the Bill did not pass till the 3 of H. 8. That the Lords assented to it the 43d day of the Parliament That the 45th day two provisoes came in one touching the Merchants of the Hans Towns the other touching the Merchants of the Staple at Calais both signed by the King And that the Chancellor and Bishop of Winton did declare that the signing of those Provisoes by the Kings own hand was enough without the consent of either House Then they give reasons why they prove nothing 1. For that they were signed by the King 2. For that they were brought in against all course of Parliaments after the Bill passed 3. That the Provisoes were nothing but a saving of former rights 4. That the Journal declares that the King without those Provisoes might have done the same thing by his Prerogative This is the Narrative which they gave us The truth is this In the first place the Lords did not cite nor insist upon two Provisoes but onely upon one that which concerned the Merchants of the Staple which Proviso was added then by the House of Lords who meddled not with that which concerned the Hans Towns which was a Proviso sent up with the Bill from the House of Commons The progress of this Bill was thus all of it in the Parliament of 1 H. 8. for that which was said at the Conference that the Bill it self passed not till the 3 H. 8. is a gross mistake That was another Bill of Subsidy which was given that Parliament 3 H. 8. and it is true wee find in the Journal that the 45th day of that Parliament of 3 tio the Chancellor and Bishop of Winchester did declare such a thing concerning the Merchants of the Hans Towns in these words Et dictum decretum est per Dominum Cancellarium Episcopum Winton quoad Provis pro Mercatoribus de Hansa quod Provis pro ipsis per ipsum Regem signatum sufficiet eis absque assensu Dominorum Domus Communis These were strangers with whom the Parliament had nothing to doe so such a Declaration might be concerning them But the Provisoe insisted upon by the Lords was concerning the Merchants of the Staple natural borne Subjects And besides that which the House of Commons went upon at the Conference was clean another thing a Provisoe relating to an other Bill and passed in an other Parliament For 1 H. 8. 23d day of the Parliament and 16th of Febr. upon a Saturday this Bill which is now in question came up to the Lords from the House of Commons cum Proviso pro Mercatoribus de la Hansa Theutonicorum at the head of this Proviso are these words Soit baille aux Seigneurs and at the foot these Les Seigneurs ont assentus Then the 27th day of the Parliament which was Thursday the 21 of Febr. the Lords passed the Provisoe for the Merchants of the Staple which had begun in their House the words are Item Proviso pro Mercatoribus Stapule de Calais lecta est secundo tertio missa in Domum inferiorem per Clericum Coronae and these words at the top of it Soit baille aux Communs and at the foot these A Cette provision les Côes sont assentus Then the 29th day which was the last day of the Parliament the Bill with the two Provisoes annexed were delivered to Sir Thomas Lovel at the Bar Actus Subsidii cum duabus Provis annex liberati Thomae Lovel militi cum Sociis ad Barram saith the Journal This bare relation justifies enough the Lords citing of that Proviso by which the Merchants of Calais are excepted from their being lyable to any of the payments imposed by that Bill of Subsidy of 1 mo H 8. To say it was but a Saving of former rights signifies nothing for no question the Lords would not have done it without good cause for it nor will they at any time make any abatement but for good cause but still they saved to the Merchants of England their right which the Commons had taken away And then here was nothing against the course of Parliaments the Proviso regularly added by the Lords and sent down to the House of Commons in due manner and afterwards passed by the King with the Bill Then for the Kings signing it which the Manager of the Conference made to be so great a matter if he would have perused the Records of H. 8. he would have seen that in those times the King still signed all the Bills he passed and all the Provisoes annexed he signed likewise with his own hand only Bills of Subsidy he signed not But the Provisoes annexed to Bills of Subsidy which were to ease and discharge any persons those he also signed and therefore the other Provisoe concerning the Hans-Towns which was annexed to the Bill when it came up from the House of Commons was likewise signed by the King So as the Kings signing this Provisoe concerning the Merchants of Calais cited by the Lords alters not the Case and makes nothing against its proving an inherent Power and Authority to be in the House of Peers of adding such Provisoes or making abatements in Bills of Subsidy whensoever they see cause for it As they did 1 Eliz. when they gave respite to the Counties of Wales and the County Palatine of Chester for paying the Subsidy given that Parliament a year after all the rest of the Kingdom which was an easing of them for that time And for what is said of the Grant 1 H. 8. that it was of the Commons alone it was as many other Grants then were The Commons by the assent of the Lords c. which expression is sometimes used as signifying the same thing with the other We the Lords and Commons do grant c.
Lords joyning and so declaring it likewise It becomes here a Law that is a Declaratory Law of a thing which was before not a Creating Law of a new thing 4. For it appears to have been a thing formerly so setled in regard it is here declared to be the manner and forme accustomed for the Speaker of the House of Commons to be the Person from whom the King must receive the notice of such a Grant and to be he that must present it which shews that the House of Commons hath something proper and peculiar unto them in this Grant since it must be received from their hand for it is their act the presenting of it and their Speaker is but the Conduit-pipe to convey it from them And this can only be that they are to have the beginning of it to be the first Movers and Proposers of all such Grants But all things else concerning those Grants as the preparing and modelling and fitting them in all circumstances and reducing the sums to a just and due measure if there be cause for it and then the giving them to the King that is making a Law whereby they are given to him and that which was before part of the Estate of the Subject to be now transferred to the King and made to be his Right and his proper goods and he impowered to levy it this wee say to be still the joynt-work of both Houses and equally in the one as in the other For in the fifth place it is manifest hence likewise that the Lords have their share in the Grant and that they have power to make such alteration in it as may fit it for their assent for that Act of Parliament saith 1. That they shall debate it and confer of it among themselves 2. They may then so alter it and frame it as that they may assent to it which is the end of their debating it 3. They must assent to it before the Speaker of the House of Commons can present it 4. The King is to give thanks for it to them as well as to the Commons And it cannot be thought that he will thank them for nothing that is for a thing in which they have power to do nothing 5. And lastly The King by this Act provides for the preservation of the Priviledge and Liberty of the House of Lords in those Grants unto him as well as of the House of Commons which had been infringed And what was this Liberty but freedom of debate not to be locked up any more with a previous Vote as they were then upon the King 's propounding the matter to them and they coming to a present resolution in the Kings presence and accordingly is the Act intituled Indemnitee des Seignours et Communes But may it not still be objected that by what hath been hitherto said the Lords may adde to as well as abate and take from the charge Not at all For it hath been said they cannot be the first movers and beginners of any charge upon the People And then they cannot adde any thing For so much as they adde to any Sum proposed by the Commons they do for so much begin a new charge therefore in all their communings and debatings the result can be only to moderate and abate the charge if there be cause for it not to augment it As in 4 R. 2. n. 11 12. A great Sum having been demanded by the King and the great Officers and Councel having delivered in a Schedule containing divers particular charges amounting to 150000 l. The Commons come before the Lords and desire of them a moderation of that Sum and that it would please them to consider how it might be levied So certainly it was then the opinion of the House of Commons that the Lords had power to consider of and lessen the charge of the People and to moderate demands for they desire them to exercise that power But it will be said This was demanded onely by the King but the House of Commons had not imposed that Summe for then their Lordships could not have medled with lessening it This doth not at all alter the Case being it was in order to a Bill to be passed for laying such a Tax upon the People But to prove that they have abated of a Summe imposed by the House of Commons Wee will goe no further then this very Parliament in the 14th year of the King in the Bill for enlarging and repairing of common High-wayes for which purpose the House of Commons had agreed upon a Rate of 12 d. in the Pound to be levied upon the Inhabitants of Parishes contributory to those Repairs the Lords brought it down to 6 d. And the House of Commons agreed to it But perhaps they will say That this is not to the purpose for that the Point in controversie is not concerning the Abatement of any charge that should be laid in general upon the Subject but only for that which is imposed upon Merchandize As if the one did not necessarily follow the other For if the Lords can abate Taxes at large laid upon the People with much stronger reason may they abate an Imposition upon Merchandize exported or Imported And if they have not power to abate in this which concerns only Merchants much less can it be thought they should doe it in the other which concerns the whole Kingdome Which the House of Commons did well foresee and therefore it is that they are so Positive in their Assertion that It is their fundamental right to impose all charge upon Merchandize for Matter Measure and Time unalterably as to the Lords which how they doe make good and maintaine by their Presidents and Arguments wee will now in few words examine though by what hath been already said the contrary seems to have been sufficiently proved It is true that at the former Conference the Lords were told That the House of Commons had narrowed the ground and reduced the Question to this single point of laying rates and impositions upon Merehandize only and not upon the Subject in general Wherein the Lords conceive themselves very kindly dealt with That the House of Commons hath been pleased to make choice of that to be disputed by them whereto their Lordships have the clearest right to be at least Joynt-tennants with them and they the least pretensions to challenge it wholly to themselves For in charging the People the House of Commons will perhaps say they ought to be the sole Arbiters in regard they take upon them to be their sole Representatives and to be Trustees for them and trusted by them with all their concerns which yet will not be granted that they represent all the People for how many thousands are there in every County whom they doe not Represent and who have no voice in their Elections and so confer no trust upon them but they cannot have any the least pretensions to be sole in laying burthens upon Trade and Rates upon
Merchandize which even for our Home-Commodities and where the naturall borne Subject is concerned is much depending upon and regulated by Treaties and Agreements and Negotiations with other Princes and States over which the House of Commons will not pretend to have any authority either for governance or inspection so cannot easily judge what is fit or not fit to be imposed But then for Merchants Strangers and their Goods what colour what shaddow of reason can the House of Commons have to pretend any power to lay a charge upon them and dispose of their Estates The whole Parliament indeed hath power over them as it hath upon whatsoever comes within the Kings Dominions whether Persons or Goods though never so forreign All which while here owe a local Subiection to the Government and Laws of this Kingdom but to either House singly none at all being only subject and bound to submit to what is imposed upon them by the whole State making it a Law but cannot be supposed to be within the disposition and gift of the House of Commons alone Yet they say They have been possessed of this power in all Ages and sind not one grant of Tunnage and Poundage that is not barely the gift of the Commons And well is it proved by the Statute of 3 E. 1. as hath been shewed already by reading Communitas concesserunt and leaving out the principal word Mercatorum which shews it to have been a Grant of the Merchants not of the House of Commons as they would understand it And the several Presidents cited by the Lords When the two Houses did confer and advise together about granting of Aides to the King by which the Lords did prove the power exercised by their Ancestors of delivering their advice and opinions and giving their Votes in point of Subsidies and Taxes they would evade by drawing a contrary inference That is All Aydes said they must begin with the Commons for else the Lords needed not to have conferred but have sent down a Bill So being begun by the Commons the Lords can neither alter nor diminish else why adjust matters by private Conference before-hand if they might have reformed it afterwards The first part of this is acknowledged and the ground-work is good That the Grants must begin with the Commons but the superstructure upon it is very false and deceitful For cleane contrary It is therefore good to adjust the matter beforehand and then make but one worke of it because else the Lords if they be unsatisfied will alter what the House of Commons had taken a great deal of pains to compleat and finish which will be a new business take up more time and cause more trouble Whereas if the Lords had not power to change any thing it were to no purpose to confer and satisfie them before-hand for satisfied or not satisfied they could alter nothing but must sit down and pass whatever the House of Commons had sent up to them This was the true reason of those previous Conferences which sometimes were propounded by the King sometimes desired by the Commons but still to expedite and facilitate the business and only for that end Which makes good all those Presidents viz. 14th 22th 29th 47th and 51th E. 3. the 4th and 6th R. 2. and the 7th of King James which were cited by the Lords concerning those Conferences between the two Houses about matters of Money whether for raising or for disposing of them and leaves them strong evidences and unshaken proofs of that Right and Power and Interest which the House of Lords hath in all such matters whether of Aides given to the King or Moneys raised upon the People for the present defense of the Kingdom and immediately ordered to be applyed to that purpose And this acknowledged even by the House of Commons themselves as appears by their often Addresses to the Lords desiring their help and assistance in it As for the Case of 14 E. 3. it was made use of by the Lords only to prove that there had been Grand trete et parlance entre les Grantz et les Cōes great treating and conferring between them As for what was said after of the Nones being then granted or having been granted before to be then appointed to be sold for the present raising of Money which was mentioned at the Conference as if the Lords had committed some mistake in their citing of this President alters not the Case The Conference about the present raising of Money in that way and the Commons of themselves not able to doe it without the Conjunction of the Lords is a President undeniable of the Lords Power and Interest in matters of that nature Yet who reads the Record thorough will find that there was 40 s. upon the Sack of Wool granted for Custome and 20000 Sacks of Wool to be taken up for the King in whose hands soever found and the price set one mark upon a Sack less than was agreed at Nottingham the Owners to be reimbursed out of the Nones of the second year And this was a proposition made by the Lords and assented to by the Commons Then their observation upon the 22 E. 3. n. 3. must not be passed by They will have it to prove expresly that the Commons granted 3 Fifteens as if they had done it alone without the Lords which how impossible it is need not be said it speaks it self for it cannot be imagined that one House alone could make an Act of Parliament But this was meerly a proposition of the House of Commons in Answer to what they had received in command from the King as appears by the Record it self The words are Sur ce fut commande as Chinalers des Contees et autres des Communes qils se deueroient treter ensemble et prendre bon anys c. Et de se qils ent sentirent le deveroient monstrer a nostre Seigneur le Roy et a les Grants c. Then after some dayes debating it among themselves they came up to the House of Lords and sirst make great complaints of their many pressures then make several requests and declare certain conditions which conditions observed their requests granted they then say they give three fifteens Let any man now judge if this was any more than a bare proposition of the House of Commons which they made to the King and the House of Lords And if this could be the Granting of a Subsidy But indeed the King and Lords consenting and joyning in it It was then a perfect grant setled by a Law To say the truth of this Parliament no great formality was observed in it It was very short by reason of the Plague as was declared at the opening of the next Parliament which was 25. n. 5. in these words Cest assaver l'an de son Regne vintisme second il sist sommondre son Parlement a Westminster lequel sembla puis a luy et a son Conseil que
Robbed and Plundered And all the other Acts of Parliament run so yet sure no body can think it was only their House of Commons that made those Laws but such was then the form and stile in the making of all their Laws All the rest of the Presidents cited by him in the times of H. 8. E. 6. Qu. M. Qu. Eliz. Car. 1. and Car. 2. are by his own confession still with the assent of the Lords and how little that makes for his purpose needs not that any more be said to it As for that of 1 Qu. Eliz. when the Lords did respite the payment of the Subsidy for some time as to Cheshire and Wales which is an undeniable President of their easing the Subject upon occasion it doth not at all alter the Case what was said of their address to the Queene and of the Entry in the Journall Booke of her pleasure signified for it For that was but a civill respect to her that they would not diminish her profit in any thing without acquainting her with it and the having her leave But still it was done by their authority and it was an Act of that House And the power to doe it was then well knowne as appears by the Petition of all the Inhabitants of Wales and Cheshire presented to the Lords for that purpose by the hands of the Knights and Burgesses serving for them in the House of Commons that Parliament nor would they else have Petitioned the Lords nor durst the Members of the House of Gommons that represented them in that House have delivered it But admit there were no Presidents of the Lords giving ease to the People and making abatements of a Change laide by the House of Commons whether upon Merchandize or any thing else and that noe complaint had ever beene and so no alteration or amendment ever made It doth not follow that therefore they have not power to doe it when there is cause for it and that there are complaints of Excesse or Inequality in a Tax as now there were complaints sufficient by all sorts of People who dealt in those Commodities upon which the Impositions had beene laide Planters Merchants and Tradesmen Therefore the Lords say they insist and rely more upon the Rationality and intruth Necessity of the thing for the good of the King and Kingdome then upon any President that can be for it And yet Presidents wee see there are several ones However they say it were enough for their justification if there be none against it and there could be but of one of these two kinds either that the Lords have of themselves disclaimed such a power or that it hath beene denyed them when they have claimed it and whoever sheweth one of either Erit mihi magnus Apollo By what hath beene said appears how little reason the Manager had to brag of a 300 years uninterrupted possession of this Priviledge claimed by the House of Commons to be the sole absolute and uncontrouled Taxers of the People not only in their Commerce and Trading but in all Money matters For to that large extent hath he now stretched the question which he narrowed in the beginning And so the Lords must not in any case interpose to give relief and ease to the People if there be never so much cause But either they must not joyne to give any Aide to the King and so the King be unsupplied or they must be made Instruments against their Judgements and against their certaine knowledge to oppress the People which all unequal Taxes doe So if they deny passage to the Bill the King suffers If they give it passage and make it a Law it wrings the People Yet this must be or else saith the Manager The Lords doe what in them lyes to put an end to all further Transactions betweene the Houses in matter of Money he might as well have said in all matters of Parliament for that must be the consequence And he is desired to consider where the fault will lye and who demands unreasonable things such as Nahash did of the men of Jabesh Gilead to thrust out their right eyes So would this even thrust out one of the eyes of the Parliament make the House of Lords to be nothing an insignificant thing of no use no advantage to the Kingdome Therefore it is hoped the consideration will be taken on the other side though an Item be given to the Lords to consider of it implying that since It may put an end to all transactions betweene the Houses in matter of Money the Lords should apprehend that the House of Commons might perhaps admit of no more Conferences in any business of this nature but would doe it of themselves without communicating it to them who then could not so much as take notice that such a thing was in agitation But there are Presidents that the Lords have of themselves uncalled taken notice of and interposed in debates of that nature which have beene in the House of Commons And when contests and differences have risen there and that the House of Commons could not come to any resolution among themselves they have composed and setled the business and have directed and appointed what should be done As 3 H. 6. The Commons with the Lords assent had granted a Subsidy of 33 s. 4 d. upon every Sack of Wool as much upon every 240 Woolfells 3 s. upon a Tun of Wine and upon all other Merchandize 12 d. in the pound under the condition saith the Record That every Merchant stranger coming into the Kingdome should within 15 dayes be under Hoost and within 40 dayes after his being so under Hoost should sell off all his Merchandize and what after that remained unsold should be forfeited to the King and likewise should pay forty three shillings four pence that was 10 s. more than the English upon every Sack of Wool and every 240 Woolfells And if these conditions were not observed the whole grant of Tunnage and Poundage of the English Merchant to be void and of no value These Conditions it seems were not observed and great stir there was about it in the House of Commons the next Parliament which was 4 H. 6. as appears by the Record which saith thus Item pro eo qd inter Cōes Parlamenti praedicti diversae opiniones de super concessione levatione Subsidii Tonagii Pondagii Domino Regi in Parlamento suo ultimo tento concessi motae fuerunt ut dicebatur subortae visa tandem diligenter examinata forma concessionis Subsidii praedicti in praesenti Parlamento habita quoque inde Justiciar aliorum Legis peritorum deliberatione matura consideratum fuit plenius declaratum per magnificum Principem Ducem Bedeord Commissarium Domini Regis ac faeteros Dominos Spirituales Temporales in eodem praesenti Parlamento existentes qd Subsidium praedictum ad opus praefati Domini Regis omnino esset solvendum levandum aliquibus