Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	time_n	5,928	5	3.4202	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88872	A remonstrance humbly presented to the High and Honourable Court of Parliament: touching the insupportable miseries of the poore of the land, especially at this time, and in this great city of London, within the line of communication, and bill of mortality; and the causes thereof. Together with the cure and remedy; and the great care which the princes of other nations, states, countries and cities have taken therein. / By Leonard Lee, Gent.	Lee, Leonard.	1645 (1645)	Wing L844; Thomason E273_8; ESTC R212173	8,130	20

A REMONSTRANCE Humbly presented To the High and Honourable COURT OF PARLIAMENT Touching the insupportable miseries of the poore of the Land especially at this time and in this great City of London within the Line of Communication and Bill of mortality and the causes thereof Together with the Cure and remedy and the great care which the Princes of other Nations States Countries and Cities have taken therein BY LEONARD LEE Gent. LONDON Printed by E. G. for John Rothwell and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls Church-yard 1644. TO THE HIGH AND HONOURABLE Court of PARLIAMENT AMongst the many and miserable pressures in this Kingdome especially in this renowned City of London idlenesse and want of imployment hath been the destruction of many and as a pestilent malady it daily encreases For prevention whereof at the speciall instance and importunity of some Noble and Reverend friends I heretofore presented some propositions to the Kings most Excellent Majesty for setting the poore aworke throughout the Kingdome whereby all sorts of people men women and children aged and impotent might be imployed and relieved Which His Majesty together with the Lords of His Privy Councell commiserated and ordered a speedy prosecution thereof But by reason of the weighty and troublesome affaires of the State at that time all such publique businesses were neglected And now again upon the like importunity and in a desire of the good of the Kingdome and of this City seeing the poore and their miseries encreasing together in these disasterous and tradelesse times I have here presumed humbly to present some propositions and reasons conducing to the reliefe imployment of the poore which if they finde acceptance to execution it will bring a blessing to your selves a benefit to the people a reliefe to the distressed and an honour to the Nation which is the petition and prayer of Your Honours Orator and Servant Leonard Lee. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE the Lord Major of the City of London the Right Worshipfull the Aldermen and the rest of the Common-Councell THe Character set upon our English Nation by Strangers is To have excellent Lawes but no execution like Pictures curiously drawne well faced and lim'd but want life and motion They say likewise we have good materialls but bad orders little care and abundance of idle and lewd people few Cities and those ruinous basely built thin of Inhabitants and most of them poore and all caused through idlenesse and want of imployment And now since these unnaturall Wars begun the miseries of the poore doe much more abound wherefore upon the earnest desire of some Charitable and wel affected friends I have here presented some Propositions to the high Court of Parliament and likewise here unto you in whose power the promoting of so wonderfull necessary a worke doth lie It is a saving of the Soules and lives of many thousands which through want of imployment fall to lewdnesse and so perish for there is no vice villany murther or mischiefe drunkenesse and disorder but Idlenesse doth contract it nor is there any way to cure it but by imployment It is a worke never yet paralleled nor begun by any your predecessors and will render you famous to posterity It is pleasing to God an honour and benefit to the City and will be a patterne for the whole Kingdome nay for all the Kings Dominions to follow which is the great desire of Your friend and servant LEONARD LEE To the Charitable and Tender-hearted Reader Good friend SVch is the commiseration of the great Chancellors and Judges of this Land that if a poore man have sute at Law in any Court those Judges assignes learned councell to plead and able Atturnies to prosecute their cause without money And such councell are soonest heard upon any motion first for their poore Clients and afterwards for themselves which otherwise might waite longer Here then is the greatest suite in the Christian World that ever was presented to the power of Magistracy in forma pauperis It is the bleeding condition of the insupportable miseries of many thousand poore hunger-bit almost starved creatures Therefore as you have already received and hope for the continuance of mercies from the great Iudge of all the World who in a moment can blow an emptinesse upon your Estates and make you as miserable as any have pity upon these distressed ones be all counsellors advise plead and prosecute their now depending sute with your Heads Hearts Purses Paines doe all you can to promote it thereby you will finde some contentment in your minds that you have been instruments of any good a benefit to your purses to be eased of collections security to your estates to have lewd persons well imployed and the loynes of the poore will blesse you besides your reward from Heaven Farewell A REMONSTRANCE of the sufferings of the Kingdome by reason of the poore and lend people and of their miserie how the same is caused and how cured MAny things there are which doe tend to the good and flourishing of a Kingdome and many things to the ruine and destruction thereof Amongst which idlenesse and want of imployment is one of the greatest for what vice and villany is there committed or liksome poverty indured that is not generally occasioned thereby and such persons as live idly out of any calling 〈◊〉 ulcers in a Common-wealth oppressors of a State and impoverishers of a Kingdome And herein is this great City mightily oppressed for many yeeres since the number of the poore was exceeding great and now of late especially since these unnaturall warres began there are multitudes of poore lately sprung up whose miseries are many therfore the things that I shall here tender to your great judgements are onely these five To shew 1. Who these poore are To shew 2. Wherein the evill doth consist To shew 3. The causes thereof To shew 4. The cure and remedy To shew 5. And chiefly bow this cure is to be applyed And first who these poore are THey are the indigent distressed and helplesse creatures such as have not meanes to supply their present wants whereby they endure much in their persons and often endanger soules bodies lives and all to get it And therefore it is that Plato cals poverty theevish filthy sacrilegious wicked and dangerous for it makes many that would live honestly to cheat lie steale kill turne Turk or any thing According to that saying of the Wise-man Because of poverty the Land hath sinned And for the additionall poore lately sprung up these are of divers sorts 1. All such whose trades and imployment by reason of these troublesome times are wholly taken away 2. Such as are stript out of their estates in severall Countries here in England and likewise in Ireland and fled to this great City for refuge 3. Such whose husbands are slaine in these wars and left destitute with many children unprovided for 4. Such maimed and lame Souldiers as are

recovered of their wounds but not of their limbs able to go abroad but not to worke whereby to maintaine their families or themselves with their labour 5. The great number of Souldiers and others of the enemies party which have been taken in the warres and are now in prison and have not meanes to subsist of themselves but are maintained by the State All which together with the former sort of poore will make the number almost innumerable yet all these must be provided for The second thing is wherein the evill doth consist IF we looke to the event of things we shall finde the miseries of the poore the sufferings of the Kingdome but chiefly in this City to be wonderfull great and all occasioned through idlenesse which as Lycurgus in Plutarch cals it morbus reipublicae the evils of a Common-wealth the mother of mischiefe the nurse of all naughtinesse the causer of drunkennesse begetter of all vice and villany of thieves rogues robberies murthers and the roote from whence the multitudes of beggers doe proceed and spring We may truely say of them as Aristotle speaks of melancholy they are commune malum a generall evill And these are of three sorts The 1. Insolent The 2. Impudent The 3. Indigent First the insolent and sturdy sort of poore such as have no calling or profession nor scarce any constant place of abode like the Apodes a Bird in India of whom Juvenall speakes that hath no feet to rest on but is alway flying so these have no setled habitation or imployment to be maintained by but live by cheating theeving cut-pursing and such like villanies lurking and shifting up and downe in secret places of which there are multitudes Secondly the impudent poore And such are the common beggers common private lewd persons and prostitutes and common street night-walkers all which like so many plague-sores infect and poyson this City yet all these are maintained not by their owne labours or any livelihood of their owne nor their illegitimate children put to nurse or maintained by any parishes for then this great wise and religious City would long since have sought for redresse Thirdly the indigent miserable and distressed poore which rise up early sit up late and eate the bread of carefulnesse when they can get it moyle and toyle at the basest and sordids● worke doe any thing endure any thing and all for a small reward which will scarce hold life and soule together and their greatest sorrow is their wives and chidren lie at home idly full of misery and have no imployment but forced to commit almost any villany to keepe them from perishing Yet let these complaine they want worke and bewaile their distresses and as Solomon saies speake with prayers they are not regarded nor imployed And were it possibe that an estimat could be given of the number of all these insolent impudent and indigent creatures men women and children together with such as are of late increased and such as are in all the prisons about the Towne we should finde the number inconceivable For heretofore upon this occasion about imployment for the poore upon enquiry it was found that St. Olaves Parish in Southwarke had above eight and twenty hundred families which never paid Subsidy or taxations besides Lodgers and other lewd people And in each Family there could be no lesse then three or foure persons which amounts to ten thousand poore people at the least in that Parish yet suppose there should be but foure thousand poore in that Parish the totall number within the Line of Communication and bills of Mortality would amount to more then forty thousand poore And for the charges to maintaine all these wee may well reckon for House-rent Cloathes Victualls Firing and good Ale which many of them full dearely love and other necessaries to be no lesse then righteen pence a week foure pound a year for each person which amounts to one hundred threescore thousand pounds per annum which these people wast and consume and use no imployment toward the getting of any part thereof but meerely exhaust it from the State Nay if all these should spend but one hundred thousand pound per unnum it is more I believe then this City would willingly spare to be consumed in Idlenesse Drunkennesse and Villany And to all these may be added the additionall poore lately sprung up which makes the charges and the oppression to be far greater Where as if all these people were forced to get their owne livings lesse villany would be daily committed and more English wares made to supply the Kingdome to further exportations and abate importations to the advance of the State and reliefe of the poore To shew the cause of all this evill and misery THe cause in a word is idlenesse want of imployment which as one observes is the Malus genius of a Nation for if the subject should be prohibited from their imployment but one quarter of a yeare many thousands that now live well would beg and as many starve and perish which doth infallibly and unanswerably shew that the imployment of the subject is both the supporting of a Kingdom and the supplying of mens present wants For what causeth a decay of all Arts Trades Mysteries Professions and what bringeth poverty beggery and misery but idlenesse What 's the reason that this Metropolitan City and the Suburbs are the onely nests and harbours for Cut-purses and capitall offenders and the grand Nursery for lewd persons and illegitimate children but idlenesse that all commodities and provision is inhanced in the City but that many thousands of idle people like Catter-pillers in a Common-Wealth eate up the fruits and labours of others And Taphouses so abundantly frequented whereby thousands of quarters of malt is spent in excesse and Drunkennesse all which would exceedingly refresh the poore and bring down the prices of Corne and Bread What 's the cause that our Kingdome affords not as brave Cities Townes and Villages as France Italy the Low-Countries and other places because as some writers say in those parts they are more politick circumspect and industrious and as Polydore reports of us here in England that our Cities and Towns are small ruinous basely built thin of Inhabitants and the greatest part of those poore and all through want of imployment What 's the cause that our Gaoles are so full and every yeare so many hundred of people condemned and Executed and others for small matters of theft imprisoned a long time the Houses of correction so pestered so much abuse and disorder dayly committed is it not want of imployment they can get no work What a most pitious thing is it to see a poore man cast in prison and in danger to be hanged for stealing a sheep a lambe or such like thing of small value which a lawlesse necessity constrained him to doe to get food for his poore hunger-bitten Family his Wife and Children ready to starve and perish for want of work