Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,231	5	4.6713	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49824	Honesty is the best policy	Lawton, Charlwood, 1660-1721.	1689 (1689)	Wing L739A; ESTC R43362	10,685	6

HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY by Mr Laughton of the Temple THO Men are so transported yet nevertheless I will at this Juncture endeavour to shew every Party what infinite Hazards they have run what great Losses they have sustained by partial Notions unreasonable Aversions and Bigottries and because I would yet heal and compose all our Differences I shall avoid all Sarcasm and Levity of Expression and likewise because I rather consider the Dispute between the King and his People than between Him and the P. of Orange For I believe no unbyassed wise Man can even now in his Conscience think the Prince has dealt Honourably or Religiously by his Wives Father and his own Uncle unless the Cameronian Reflector where he talks of the Difference betwixt Kingdoms and Families had proved it more lawful to steal Crowns than Trifles or rob so near Relations than other Men The King and Mankind must forgive me if Justice command infandum renovare dolorem to look a little into the Causes of the late Civil Wars I am the farthest Man alive from justifying the execrable Murther of King Charles the First but on the other hand I cannot say the People began that War without great Provocations from the Ministers of those days I believe the Laws of England make the Kings of it unaccountable in their own Persons But the Monopolies the Loans the Ship-money and illegal Imprisonments e. were real Grievances How fatal that War was both to the King 's and Parliament Party how horrid in the Issue of it in relation to the Royal Blood may be read in our Histories and is felt in our Constitution But whence originally came all those Misfortunes If any Man tells me long Stories of the Religious Contentions I must confess I blame them and I allow they had their weight but I take the Root of those great Evils to proceed from Defects in our Civil Constitution I will point out the Defects but I neither have Authority nor Genius to propose the Remedies Ever since King Henry the Seventh's time the Nature and Element of the English Government have been altered All Regular Governments call them and let the Titles of their Magistracy be what you please partake of all the three several Sorts but there are in all Climates ebbings and flowings of the Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical Particles of the Composure and all the Counsels of State must be proportioned to those Alterations Take a view of our Government before Henry the Seventh's time and you find a Monarch whose Basis is Aristocracy but if you will reflect solidly how he has stood since it is upon the Foot of the People Queen Elizabeth understood this and govern'd happily and her Ministers Cecil Essex Rawleigh Walsingham c. were less her Minions than they were the Favourites of the People Tho her Title was disputable Protestancy but new Spain powerful and ambitious by persuing large Measures and taking beloved Men into her Counsels and by suffering them to Advise honestly she was too hard for all the Difficulties she met with and after a long Reign lay'd down her Head in Peace I think Princes may learn Lessons out of her Life Yet I will not be her Panygerist for I think she was sometimes Arbitrary but herein I think she Excelled to wit That when any thing began to be generally misliked she soon heard the Voice of the People and gave way to the impetuosity of National Discontents and so was a greater Mistress of Crown-craft than most of her Predecessors or those that succeeded her K. Charles the I. tho a Prince of many Royal Virtues was a little too tenatious of his Purposes and thought himself a greater Judg of National Exigencies than a House of Commons think any King ought to be and after all the Schemes of the Schools and the Advices of Flatterers no King of these Kingdoms can sit sure that is not well with Parliaments There are Propensities to which all Constitutions of State must be adjusted and the Bodies of Men will every where be too hard for all Speculations A thirst after Liberty expell'd the Kings of Rome and there were Indications of almost absolute Monarchical Dispositions in the Factions of Marius Scylla and Catiline before Cesar's perpetual Dictatorship The Revolt of the Low Countries from the Spanish Government when in all its height and strength shews no Armies can be too hard for Universal Resolutions and is a Memento to all Crowned Heads That where a Monarch will strain the bonds of Government in despight of the People they will break them When the Barons were able to make War upon slight Pretences if the Kings kept fair with the Barons they were safe but the Crown the Barons and the greater Gentry since the Barons could sell their Lands and the Court of Wards has been taken away and the Crown has disposed of its Lands can govern no longer Securely than they have Reputation with the People Government must follow in a great measure the Nature of the Tenures and there must be an Agrarian Law for Power where the Lands are so distributed You see I have started many bold Hints but I am not willing to draw them out at length nor to write over closely where I may endanger the good Opinion of all Sides But I will conclude upon this point That since the Princes have had an Inclination to greater Power than the People will comply with and the People a stronger Lust after Liberty than our Kings were willing to satisfie That the one has mistaken Prerogative and the other as much their Privileges it would be well if a New Magna Charta was made to explain and assert each This would be a happy Conclusion of our Troubles This would turn our Swords into Plow shares and has been heretofore the more warrantable product of those Stirs that Male-administrations occasioned Thus our Parliaments could not be corrupted nor our judicial Proceedings precarious Englishmen have now an Opportunity to secure these good Things For since Providence has it self been pleased so to order it that the King has been defeated in Ireland and the French have received so great a Loss at Sea we have no longer reason to dread a French or an Irish Conquest and the King cannot but now know That he can never come to wear the Crowns of these Nations unless he will make such Condesentions as are proper for our Circumstances as are necessary to secure both our Religion and our Property I have been with him since his Exile and the last Words he said to me were That he sent me home to make a BARGAIN with his People But I did not meet with People whose Minds were prepared to propose just and equitable Expedients He knows I would not make ill Conditions for my Country I have been suspected of being over nice and zealous for it I confess I am more concerned for its Welfare than for all my own nearest and dearest Interests yet I