and other vanities imported should not deterre him and his great Councel from attempting when the prevention of the great wast of gold and silver in making lace and habiliments for such as ought not to wear them the vent of our Cloth and other English Manufactures in stead of them suppressing of an universall pride and Sinne which the land groaning under is not able to bear the causing of a greater duty and obedience to superiors which is now too much wanting and the pacifying of Gods wrath and Judgments which are ready to fall upon the Nation for it will abundantly recompence That seeing the Excise of Beer Ale Perry and Sider greatly discontents and lies heavy upon the People and the management and way of gathering it adds to their affliction and makes them repine at the Nobility and Gentry upon a supposition that to ease themselves of that which was surmised to be a burden by Tenures in Capite and by Knight service with the wardships and incidents thereof they have contrived and raised the burden of more then one hundred thousand pounds per annum Excise to be laid upon them whereas the losses and damages of the Nobility and Gentry of England besides what they may sometimes save in their own wardships and by reason of Lands holden of the King in Capite and by Knight Service in the profit and honor of Tenures holden of them by Knight service and of Wardships and other Incidents and their just and legal superiorities and commands over their Tenants which will now be wanting will if rightly estimated amount to as much yearly dammage and inconveniencies as that one hundred thousand pounds per annum or more will come to by that Excise in which their expences may tell them they bear a share likewise with the common people some of the Knights and Gentry loosing as much by the taking away of Tenures in Capite and by Knight service as two hundred pounds per annum communibus annis and some of the Nobility four or five hundred pounds per annum and the least of what every of the Nobility and Gentry doe yearly loose thereby will be more then any particular Brewer or Aleseller can be damnified when as the Beer and Ale and next buyer or expender are sure enough to pay for that and many times more That for the remedying of the great Deceipts and Sophistications used by Brewers of Ale and Beer as their false gaugings and measures not half or not enough boyling it to spare fewel and fire putting in Broom Coriander-seed Wormwood and many other newly devised and noxious ingredients instead of Hops or to make it taste the stronger which may much endanger the lives and health of the people And the abuses of Merchants Wine-Coopers and Vintners in conjuring their Wines as they call it mingling it with Stum Molosse or scum of Sugar Perry Sider Lime Milk Whites of Eggs Elder-berries putting in raw flesh and using so many Adulterations and mixtures as the Taverns and places of retail doe too commonly vent intoxicating and unwholsome drink by the name of wine whereby the Wine-coopers whose Trade was originally and properly only to make and amend vessels for wines are now by a knowledge and taste of wines pertaking of the Merchants evil secrets and doings and bringing some ease and conveniences to them by uttering and taking off their hands great quantities of wines upon long dayes and many moneths of payment given them become as it were the Merchants Masters and the only Merchants and Sellers of wine to the Vintners and Retailers which was formerly forbidden them after they have adulterated unwholsomed and almost poysoned them to the distemper and breeding of sickness in the bodies of men who for a little wine to warm and chear their hearts or stomachs or entertain one another with mutuall refreshments are by such ungodly tricks and devices to purchase to the Merchants Wine-Coopers and Vintners filthy and wicked gain and lucre many times enticed into the confines of death and their own destruction And the many deceipts and abuses of Bakers whose weights of bread and honest gains of their Trade is by the Statutes of Assisa Panis Cervisiae in Anno 51 of King Henry the third to be yearly regulated by the Kings Baker of his Houshold and the bread of his Court according to the several yearly rates and prices of corn and their transgressions contrary thereunto by many other Lawes to be severely punished and the offendors put upon the Pillory Which this last Century or Age by a Non-execution of Lawes have not been so happy to see But the Bakers are now so disused to these antient good Laws and Regulations and so used to a custome and cunning of blinding the Magistrates or such Officers as they entrust therewith or by evading or diminishing their punishments as they can by a custome or necessity of sinning which their deluded consciences do perswade them to be lawfull and warrantable enough make their bread 5 or 6 ounces too light or short of the legal proportions nor assize when corn is very dear and a great deal to light when it is cheaper And to add to their wickedness as if otherwise it would not be enough are suspected to mingle chalk and lime amongst their meal which makes the white bread and do by combination with the Vintners Inn-keepers and Chandlers who are the Belly-Brokers to the poor make their white bread so little as to afford them 16. or 18. to the dozen and if the Mayor and Sheriffs of London or the Magistrates of other Cities or great Towns doe sometimes goe about to trie and weigh their bread and find any Basket or small parcel of bread to be faulty which by the Serjeants and under Officers too often giving notice over night or before hand what day or way the scrutiny goes makes their care and diligence to be most commonly ineffectuall or to little purpose or may be easily prevented by some bread honestly made when all the rest doe want waight laid in their passage and seised and sent to prisons the next dayes or weeks bread shall be sure to be made the lighter to recompence the loss of the former And lesser Corporations being most commonly governed by retailing Tradesmen and such as have a fellow feeling of one anothers mysteries or that which they suppose to be their Callings but are usually attended with fraud and cheatings doe take no care at all to obstruct discover or punish one anothers knaveries by which the poor and their wives and children whose daily hard labours can scarcely bring them to other diet then brown bread and skummed cheese and a cup of good beer when they can get it are daily and very much oppressed and their poverties made to encrease the riches of those who are so farre from relieving their miseries hardships as they are a great part of the cause and increase of it by which great and
in his houshold expences as formerly now that his Pourveyance is taken away looseth two hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annum by the loss of his Tenures and Pourveyance is at eighty thousand pounds per annum charge for the maintenance of the Garrison of Dunkirk above five hundred thousand pounds per annum for the Navy and Land forces hath to procure a publick quiet paid many hundred thousand pounds of the Arrears of the Navy and Army employed against himself and left in Arrears by his Enemies must be ten times a giver if he should grant every ones Petition to one that he shall be a gainer or receiver discontents himself to content others and forgetting that old rule and practice of the world sibi proximus is enforced to provide for others and not for himself and in the midst of his own necessities is to be the rewarder of virtue and still as well as he can the raging waves of the multitude is the Asylum or refuge of all that are distressed and bears or lessens their burdens out of his own Revenues And when Neighbour Princes are not usually without ambitions and taking all opportunities to enlarge their power and Dominions by the weaknesse of others or to weaken and oppress any of their Neighbours and make advantages of their troubles and necessities doe seldome want pretences of titles or revenging Injuries done to them or their people by Kings or their people and can lay aside their sworn Leagues and Confederacies as soon as their Interest or Designs shall invite them thereunto when the French King hath by computation an ordinary yearly Revenue of above twenty millions of Crowns which makes above five millions sterling per annum besides his extraordinaries which by Taxes and Tallages in the late warres being now by a habit and custome grown something easie and familiar to them may be raised to vast yearly sums of money and more then treble the ordinary when the King of Spain aboundeth in his Revenues in his Dominions in Christendom besides his extraordinary Aids Assesments and vast treasures and supplies from the West Indies which is a ready or rich pawn or credit for borrowing of monies upon all extraordinary emergencies occasions or necessities of State affairs The City of Venice with her Territories hath above a million sterling per annum in her yearly Income besides extraordinaries and a treasure of money enough to pay six Kings ransomes with Jewels and Plate unvaluable And the Dutch have one million and two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum yearly ordinary Revenue out of Amsterdam besides what they have yearly out of all other Cities Towns and Places by their huge Excises and Assessments upon all the seven United Provinces And the King of England who was wont to be Arbiter totius Europae hold and keep the Ballance of Christendom even and if he do not it cannot be either safe or well for his own Kingdomes and People and their Trade and Commerce must pine and wither away languish and groan under so great expences and necessities whilest he is to preserve himself and people in peace plenty and safety and hath so little to doe it withall when at home all men do seem to love and serve him very many doe ask and get what they can from him and too many deceive him And as that prudent and great Statesman Cecil Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer of England observed to the Parliament in the Reign of King James it is a certain rule that all Princes are poor and unsafe who are not rich and so potent as to defend themselves upon any sodain offence and invasion or help their Allies and Neighbours Hath a small Revenue to govern an unruly People one part of them ready to runne mad with mistaken opinions in Religion and too many of the residue overgrown with vice and luxury a burden of burdens laid upon him the burdens of his people and the burdens of his Ancestors by their bounties expence and necessities and are by so much greater or heavier then theirs as his Revenues are consideratis considerandis a great deal lesser CHAP. I. The Remedies WHich a small or ordinary repair will not help but requires new and more sollid and lasting foundations endeavoured seriously and attempted by King James about the seventh year of his Reign by the advice of his Parliament and Privy Council but not then or any time since brought to perfection And may in a legall and well pleasing way to the people without the unwelcome raising of the Tenths of the Abbie and religions Lands to the present yearly value which may be of dangerous consequence and the Tenths and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy of England who have been over much pared already or a Resumption of the Crown Lands which unless it be of such wherein the King or his Father have been grossely deceived and the first money paid for the purchase upon an account of the mesne profits and interest satisfied will hugely disturb the Interest and House-gods of too many of the Nobility Gentry and rich men of the Kingdome and without any new or forreign devices or Talliages to raise monies and Fricasser or tear in pieces the already too much impaired estates of a Tax-bearing tired people which that Monarch of virtues and blessed Martyr King Charles the first did so abhorre as he caused Mr. Selden Mr. Oliver St. John to be imprisoned in the Tower of London a bill to be exhibted in Star-chamber against them and the Earl of Clare and others for having only in their custody and divulging a Manuscript or writing of certain Italian projects proposed to him by Sir Robert Dudley a Titulado Duke in Tuscanie and with out the gawling grating and most commonly unsuccesfull way of Projects which if set up will be thrown down again by the after Complaints and discontents of the people or hunting and vexing them with informations or calling their Lands and Estates in question to the ruine of them and their Families upon defective Titles or by Monopolies or a trebling abuses by pretending to reform them or Essayes of new wayes of profit framed or found out by such as designe more to themselves then for the good either of King or People and either know not or cannot or will not foresee the many evills and sad consequences which may as effects from causes fatally and unavoidably follow such or the like attempts which the necessities of Kings or want of competent revenues may either put them or their servants and followers upon Be as is humbly conceived prevented by severall Acts of Parliament to be made upon the propositions following which will not only encrease the Kings Revenues but encourage and make the People very willing and well contented therewith when as what they shall for the present loose thereby shall at the same time by enacting of some good Laws for them be abundantly repenced By a generall inclosure of
Exchequer all Fines Issues Amerciaments imposed and forfeited That upon all manufactures made beyond the Seas and all things to be imported tending to excess and luxury as Tobacco Silks c. there be an Imposition more then ordinary which the wisdom of Neighbor Nations have ever thought expedient and was in the Reign of King James the prudent advice in Parliament of the Lord Treasurer Salisbury That in the deplorable Cases of wreck at Sea the Masters or Owners of such Ships not being Pirates or Robbers whether there be any living thing remaining or not in the Ship all and every part of the lading Tackle and Ship which shall be saved from the fury of the Sea or found on shore notwithstanding any detestable custome to the contrary may according to the Ancient Equitable Laws of Oleron be saved and preserved for the right Owners coming within a year and a day to claim the same and tendring such just charges and recompence as by two of the next Justices of Peace not interessed shall be found to be reasonable for those that were Instrumental in the preservation thereof that so the inhumane and unchristian customes of too many who live upon the Sea Coasts being in a Shipwrack as pittiless and cruel as the Winds and Seas taking away that which they left and rejoycing in the disasters and miseries of those that are afflicted may be abolished That Champerty and maintenance being now crept through the care and severity of all our former good Laws and Statutes made to prevent it into such a general practice and profit as in the confidence of dark contrivances and the impossibility or difficulty of discovery of them Some of our Gentlemen of the Gyges ring or invisible Estates in a way which they have found out to live aswell without a Revenue or other lawful means and professions as with them can like Nimrods or mighty Hunters by shares gained in the driving of Causes support an idle Gallantry by the spoil and oppression of others some women more wily then good can be Agitators or Retrivers of causes not concerning them for a part of the hoped for Booty and many Citizens and Tradesmen do buy pretended Titles and Interests and ingage and furnish money for no small parts to be had upon the success of Suites in Law and too many Attornyes Sollicitors and others can make it the best of their employments to deal in gross and by whole sale and will not as the Law enjoyns them make Bills or Tickets to their Clyents of their just and allowed Fees and disbursments Some good Laws and powerful restrictions may be made to prevent or punish those grand abuses and that if either the Plaintiff or Defendant in any Action shall require it an Oath or Oaths may be given at the Tryal or Hearing of such Suites or Causes to any who may discover such Champerties or Maintenance and if any shall be found offending therein either by disbursing of money to have any share or part of the thing inquestion on or by any pre-contract or other ingagement the Verdict may not be taken nor Judgement entered or if it shall be discovered and proved after the Verdict taken and Judgement entred before the end of the Term wherein such Judgement shall be entred the said Judgement be by the Judges of that Court arrested or made void and whether it be discovered and proved before Judgement entred or after the parties offending as well those that committed the Champerty and Maintenance as all their Abettors may every one of them forfeit and pay to the King and his Heirs and Successors the sum of one hundred pounds and be imprisoned without Bail or Maineprise untill they shall have paid the same and also forfeit and pay to the party greived his double Costs and Damage together with the moyety or half of the matter in question That there be no pardon or reversal of any Outlary in Civil aswell as Criminal Causes or Actions without five Marks first paid to the King in discharge of his Contempt and a Charter of Pardon as was anciently used first sued out under the Great Seal of England That all Sheriffs under-Sheriffs and their Deputies do at the entrance or admission into their Offices take an Oath not to imbrace any Juror or Juries or for any Fee or Reward or otherwise to nominate any at the request either of the Plaintiffs or Defendants or of any on their behalf and that they shall not make out or deliver or willingly or wittingly permit to be made in their names any Blanck Warrant or Precept to Arrest any person without a Writ under the Seal of the Court wherein such Action is laid or to be tryed first had and delivered unto them and that no Sheriff or under-Sheriff do crave allowance or respit for any debts of the Kings but upon just cause That every Juror if the Plaintiff or Defendant or their Attorneys shall before they besworn require it do also take an Oath that he hath not received any Instructions or Evidence before hand from the Plantiff or Defendant or their Attornyes or any on their behalf That all English Merchants trading into Foreign parts may be ordained to bring into England at or in their return a certain and reasonable quantity of Bullion or coin of Gold or Silver to be yearly certified and Registred in the Exchequer and that such as shall be brought in may not as it is now be bought and Registred in the name and for the use of the East Indian Company and that the East Indian Company to prevent any disguise which may be made use of betwixt them and the Merchants may also be ordered yearly to Register and Certifie into the Exchequer all such Gold and Silver Bullion or coin thereof as shall be imported by the said East Indian Company That all Foreign Merchants Trading into England or any the Dominions thereof be ordained to export at their returns English Manufactures and Commodities to the value of what they imported and not to make their returns in money or by Bills of Exchange as the Jews in great numbers trading hither are known now to do And that all Merchants Alien if they be not such as have houses and habitations here or if they have do at their first beginning to Trade enter into Recognizances of great penalties in Chancery not to Transport or cause to be Transported out of England as was in part provided for by the Statute of 2 H. 6. chap. 6. Or returned by Bills of Exchange any more then the sum of five pounds for their necessary charges upon pain of forseiting treble the value thereof That the many more then formerly used deceipts in the Shearing Tentering hot Pressing and false Dying of our English Clothes which do much or more endamage our Trade of Cloathing then the Transportation of Fullers Earth Sheeps Pelts with the Wool upon them or the Clothes in the Whites may
be by some good Laws restrained and suppressed and that the Aulnage aswell of Cloth as Stuffs may according to sundry Acts of Parliament and other provisions be better looked unto and put in execution That the great and many Deceipts Abuses and Adulterations now used in most or too many Trades and Manufactures surpassing all the Cheats and Tricks of Hocus Pocus or which the Pillories the Court of Star Chamber heretofore punished ingrossings of Commodities or carrying them beyond the Seas on purpose to make a scarcity and bring them in again at double or greater Rates unlawful confederacies to make the Manufactures so slight or evil wrought as they may the sooner be worn out or by a small price paid to the Workmen get the greater Rate in the Retail Bonds or Securities enforced from Workmen not to make or sell at that rate to any other Combinations to inhaunce Prices and so many more ungodly Artifices imployed as Tricks and Trades are now grown to be Termes convertible and the Divels Registers have not precedents enough for them whereby not onely numberless great oppressions are daily exercised upon the people to the impoverishing of many of them by those that like Pikes in the Fish Ponds do live only better then others by devouring and undoing the smaller Frye and industriously imploy themselves therein and at the same time cry out of injustice and oppression where it was not and busied themselves about Religion and Gospel Purity when they never intended nor could not afford to practice it whereby all our English Trade and Manufactures are disparaged and brought into a slight esteem and made to be unsaleable or at very low rates in the parts beyond the Seas and to give place to the Commodities and Manufactures of other Nations more honestly made and if not speedily remedied will render all his Majesties cares of reviving and promoting the English Trade and Merchandise of no avail as long as that Canker or a principal cause of the decay and ruine of it shall be permitted may by some good Laws be restrained and suppressed That the many good propositions heretofore made by Mr. Henry Robinson and some others concerning the Regulation or bettering of the ways of Trade and Merchandise may now after a Committee of Trade in the times of Usurpation and Confusion sleeping too much over it and doing nothing whilst Trade it self came to be almost ruined be taken into a more serious consideration and some good Laws enacted in pursuance of them That the Manufacture of Linnen Cloth the importation whereof from Flanders and other Foreign parts expends the Nation little less then 100000 l per annum by reason that too many of our Wives in England have exchanged their good Housewisfery for Gallantry and Spinning for spending may be more incouraged in England by Injoyning six Acres in every hundred Acres of errable Land in England and Wales to be yearly sowed with Hemp Flex and that there be an Aulnage of Linnen Cloth as well as of Stuffs and Woollen Cloth That our Laws be not as too many of them use to be Still Born or expiring by that time they can be read or recorded or Starved at Nurse but that some good Laws may be made to prevent or cure their Swouning or Convulsion fits and bring them up to the good ends or purposes for which they were ordained and put them in execution That our Paths being restored we may rejoyce in our Laws and Constitutions and abhor those wandring after Dark Lanthorns or the ignis fatuus of newlights which have lead us into many great miseries and confusions That the Excise of Ale Beer Perry and Syder and the charges affliction and troubles which it brings upon the people which before our times of misery would have brought death and ruine any private contriver and was at the first created by Oliver and his Impes to maintain a cursed Rebellion and set up a destroying and detestable Anarchy may be abolished and taken away and the Nation restored to the freedom and quiet which they formerly enjoyed under this our ancicent and excellently composed Monarchy That his Majesties Ancient and just Rights of Royal Pourveyances upon a due Regulation of any evils or oppressions which may be proved to have been committed in the manner of taking of them may be restored to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and that very great Consumption of his Estate occasioned by an enhaunce and trebling of the Rates and prices of Provision for his Houshould which hath laid heavy burdens upon his too small and overmuch impoverished Revenues multiplyed his wants and necessities disturbed and disparaged the order and honor of his house and produced very many great Inconveniences worthy to be remedied by the Parliament and the care which they usnally take for the support of his Imperial Crown and Dignity may be cured And when a long and generall observation and experience can tell every man who is not a stranger to his own affairs or of other men how hard a thing it is for one that is behind hand to overcome his Povertie and get before hand how impossible it will be for a private man to live out of Debt when his yearly and necessary expences and disbursements shall far surmount his Receipts and Revenues how necessary a Treasury Banke or overplus of money which is Robur belli fundamentum ac firmamentum pacis is for a King in times of War and its many chargeable occasions and the power and reputation of it in times of Peace to preserve it and that all Kingdoms and people never were or could think themselves safe without it That in order to publick good and to consolidate the hoped for happiness of King and People which the pretended Parliaments of our late Times of Usurpation busying themselves in laying Burdens and Taxes upon the People for the maintenance of a War and an Arbitrary power and Tyranny and the continuance of their miseries could never find the way or leisure to establish A Royal and Princely yearly Revenue may be settled upon his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and to the end to make the Plaister or the Tent proportionable to the wound and to the cure intended and not make the repaires of his Revenues to be insufficient or more chargeable and burdensome by doing it by parcels or at several times whereby it may ruine before it can be repaired or suddainly after and for the better satisfaction of some of the Purchasers who were the cause of their own and his Majesties troubles and miseries and of the Kings Loyal Party who suffered with him in it The highest monethly Assessement or Tax which in our late times of confusion was One hundred and twenty thousand pounds per mensem may by Assessement or Subsidies or some other way proportionable unto it for the next two years if the Parliament shall think fit be assented unto and yearly collected