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	power_n	3,921	5	4.7466	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B05024	Familiar letters. Vol. II. Containing thirty six letters, / by the Right Honourable John, late Earl of Rochester. Printed from his original papers. With letters and speeches, by the late Duke of Buckingham, the Honourable Henry Savile, Esq; Sir George Etherridge, to several persons of honour. And letters by several eminent hands.	Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 1647-1680.; Savile, Henry, 1642-1687.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.; Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 1628-1687.	1699 (1699)	Wing R1748; ESTC R182833	66,393	222

he sent for them again which is a Dismission sine die Now if there were forty ways of dissolving Parliament if I can prove this Parliament has been dissolved by any one of them I suppose there is no great need of the other thirty nine Another thing which they most insist upon is That they have found a Precedent in Q. Elizabeth's Time when the Parliament was once prorogued three Days beyond a Year In which I cannot chuse but observe That it is a very great Confirmation of the Value and Esteem all People have had of the forementioned Acts of Edward the Third since from that time to this there can be but one Precedent found for the Prorogation of a Parliament above a Year and that was but three Days neither Besides my Lords this Precedent is of a very odd kind of Nature for it was in the Time of a very great Plague when every one of a sudden was forc'd to run away one from another and so being in hast had not leisure to calculate well the time of the Prorogation tho' the appointing of it to be within three Days after a Year is an Argument to me that their Design was to keep within the Bounds of the Acts of Parliament and if the Mistake had been taken notice of in Q. Elizabeth's Time I make no question but She would have given a lawful Remedy to it Now I beseech your Lordships what more can be drawn from the producing this Precedent but only because once upon a time a thing was done Illegally therefore your Lordships should do so again Now my Lords under Favour this of ours is a very different Case from theirs for as to this Precedent the Question was never made and all Lawyers will tell you That Precedent that passes sub Silentio is of no Validity at all and will never be admitted in any Judicial Court where it is pleaded Nay Judge Vaughan saith in his Reports That in Cases which depend upon Fundamental Principles from which Demonstrations may be drawn Millions of Precedents are to no purpose O but say they you must think prudentially of the Inconvenience that will follow it for if this be allowed all these Acts which are made in that Session of Parliament will be then void whether that be so or no I shall not now examine But this I will pretend to say That no Man ought to pass for a Prudential Person who only takes notice of the Inconveniences on one side it is the part of a wise Man to examine the Inconveniences on both to weigh which are the greatest and to be sure to avoid them and my Lords to this kind of due Examination I willingly submit this Cause for I presume it will be easie to your Lordships to judge which of these two will be of most dangerous Consequence to the Nation either to allow that the Statutes made in that particular Sessions in Queen Elizabeth's Time are void which may easily be confirm'd at any time by a lawful Parliament as to lay down for a Maxim That the Kings of England by a Titular Order of Theirs have Power to break all the Laws of England when they please And my Lords with all the Duty we owe to His Majesty it is no disrespect to Him to say That His Majesty is bound by the Laws of England for the Great King of Heaven and Earth GOD Almighty Himself is bound by His own Decrees and what is an Act of Parliament but a Decree of the King made in the most solemn manner It is possible for Him to make it that is with the Consent of the Lords and Commons It is plain then in my Opinion that we are no more a Parliament and I humbly conceive your Lordships ought to give GOD thanks for it since it has pleased Him thus by his Providence to take you out of a Condition wherein you must have been intirely useless to his Majesty to your selves and the whole Nation For I beseech your Lordships if nothing of this I have urged were true what honourable Excuse could be found for acting again with this House of Commons except we would pretend to such an exquisite Act of Forgetfulness as to avoid calling to mind all that passed last Sessions and unless we could also have a Faculty of teaching the same Art to the whole Nation What Opinion would they have of us if it should happen that the very same Men that were so earnest the last Sessions for having this House of Commons dissolv'd when there was no question of their lawful Sitting should now be willing to joyn with them again when without question they are dissolved Nothing can be more dangerous to a King or People than the Laws should be made by an Assembly of which there can be doubt whether they have a Power to make Laws or no and it would be in us so much the more inexcusable if we should overlook this Danger since there is for it so easie a Remedy a Remedy which the Law requires and which all the Nation longs for the Calling a New Parliament It is that can only put his Majesty into a possibility of receiving Supplies that can secure your Lordships the Honour of Sitting in this House of Peers and of being Serviceable to the King and Country and that can restore to all the People of England their undoubted Rights of choosing Men frequently to represent their Grievances in Parliament without this all we can do is in vain the Nation might languish a while but must perish at last we should become a Burthen to Our selves and a Prey to our Neighbours My Motion to your Lordships therefore shall be That we humbly address Our selves to His Majesty and beg of Him for His own Sake as well as for all the People's sake to give us speedily a New Parliament that so we may unanimously before it is too late use Our utmost Endeavours for His Majesty's Service and for the Safety Welfare and Glory of the English Nation THE Emperor of Morocco's LETTER TO CHARLES the Second WHEN these Our Letters shall be so happy as to come to Your Majesty's Sight I wish the Spirit of the Righteous God may so direct Your Mind that You may joyfully embrace the Message I send The Regal Power allotted to Us makes Us first Common Servants to Our Creator then of those People whom we Govern So that observing the Duties we owe to God we deliver Blessings to the World In providing for the Publick Good of Our Estates we magnifie the Honour of God like the Celestial Bodies which tho' they have much Veneration yet serve only to the Benefit of the World It is the Excellency of Our Office to be Instruments whereby Happiness is delivered to Nations Pardon Me Sir this is not to Instruct for I know I speak to One of a more clear and quick Sight than My self but I speak this because God hath pleased to grant me a happy Victory over some part

number or Rhetorick describe Oh Dorinda that I were at your Feet to give you fresh Assurances of the Inviolableness of my Passion whose Greatness was once your Wonder and Delight LETTERS AND SPEECHES ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS By the Late Duke of Buckingham To the Lord Bercley My LORD I Must needs beg your Lordship's Excuse for not waiting upon you next Sunday at Dinner for two Reasons The first is Because Mrs. B refuses to hear me preach which I take to be a kind Slur upon so learned a Divine as I am The other That Sir Robert Cl is to go into the Country upon Monday and has desir'd me to stay within to Morrow about Signing some Papers which must be dispatch'd for the Clearing so much of my Estate as in spite of my own Negligence and the extraordinary Perquisits I have receiv'd from the Court is yet left me I 'm sure your Lordship is too much my Friend not to give me Leave to look after my Temporal Affairs if you do but consider how little I 'm like to get by my Spirituality except Mrs. B be very much in the wrong Pray tell her I am resolv'd hereafter never to to swear by any other than Jo. Ash and if that be a Sin 't is as odd a one as ever she heard of I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and most faithful Servant Buckingham The DUKE ' s Speech in a Conference Gentlemen of the House of Commons I Am commanded by the House of Peers to open to you the Matter of this Conference which is a Task I could wish their Lordships had been pleas'd to lay upon Any-body else both for their own sakes and mine Having observ'd in that little Experience I have made in the World there can be nothing of greater Difficulty than to Unite Men in their Opinions whose Interests seem to disagree This Gentlemen I fear is at present our Case but yet I hope when we have a little better consider'd of it we shall find that a greater Interest does oblige us at this time rather to joyn in the Preservation of both our Priviledges than to differ about the Violation of either We acknowledge it is our Interest to defend the Right of the Commons for should we suffer them to be opprest it would not be long before it might come to be our own Case And I humbly conceive it will also appear to be the Interest of the Commons to uphold the Priviledge of the Lords that so we may be in a condition to stand by and support them All that their Lordships desire of you on this Occasion is That you will proceed with them as usually Friends do when they are in Dispute one with another That you will not be impatient of hearing Arguments urged against your Opinions but examine the Weight of what is said and then impartially consider which of us two are likeliest to be in the wrong If we are in the wrong we and our Predecessors have been so for these many hundred of Years and not only our Predecessors but yours too This being the first time that ever an Appeal was made in point of Judicature from the Lords House to the house of Commons Nay those very Commons which turn'd the Lords out of this House tho' they took from them many other of their Privileges yet left them the constant Practice of this till the very last day of their Sitting And this will be made appear by several Precedents these Noble Lords will lay before you much better than I can pretend to do Since this Business has been in Agitation their Lordships have been a little more curious than ordinary to inform themselves of the true nature of these Matters now in Question before Us which I shall endeavour to explain to you as far as my small Ability and my Aversion to hard Words will give me leave For howsoever the Law to make it a Mystery and a Trade may be wrapt up in Terms of Art yet it is founded in Reason and is obvious to common Sence The Power of Judicature does naturally descend and not ascend that is no Inferiour Court can have any Power which is not deriv'd to it from some Power above it The King is by the Laws of this Land Supreme Judge in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil And so there is no Court High or Low can Act but in Subordination to Him and tho' they do not all Issue out their Writs in the King's Name yet they can Issue out none but by Vertue of some Power they have received from Him Now every particular Court has such particular Power as the King has given it and for that reason has it Bounds But the Highest Court in which the King can possible Sit that is His Supreme Court of Lords in Parliament has in it all Judicial Power and consequently no Bounds I mean no Bounds of Jurisdiction for the Highest Court is to Govern according to the Laws as well as the Lowest I suppose none will make a Question but that every Man and every Cause is to be tried according to Magna Charta that is by Peers or according to the Laws of the Land And he that is tried by the Ecclesiastical Courts the Court of Admiralty or the High Court of Lords in Parliament is tried as much by the Laws of the Land as he that is tried by the King's-Bench or Common-Pleas When these Inferior Courts happen to wrangle among themselves which they must often do by reason of their being bound up to particular Causes and their having all equally and earnestly a Desire to try all Causes themselves then the Supreme Court is forc'd to hear their Complaints because there is no other way of deciding them And this under favour is an Original Cause of Courts tho' not of Men. Now these Original Causes of Courts must also of necessity induce Men for saving of Charges and Dispatch sake to bring their Cause originally before the Supreme Court But then the Court is not obliged to receive them but proceeds by Rules of Prudence in either retaining or dismissing them as they think fit This is under Favour the sum of all that your Precedents can shew us which is nothing but what we practise every day That is that very often because we would not be molested with hearing too many particular Cases we refer them back to other Courts And all the Argument you can possibly draw from hence will not in any kind lessen our Power but only shew an Unwillingness we have to trouble our selves often with Matters of this Nature Nor will this appear strange if you consider the Constitution of our House it being made up partly of such whose Employments will not give them leisure to attend the Hearing of Private Causes and entirely of those that can receive no Profit by it And the truth is the Dispute at present is not between the House of Lords and the House of Commons but between Us and

with and to paint a Sound Who can act Hunger without an Appetite Or long Scene of Fury and Anger without being pefectly heated But if you are so severe to think that my first Pretences were all Fiction yet Madam pray consider that Liars often tell Stories of their own Invention so long till at last they themselves believe 'em true And as the Roman in Martial counterfeited the Gout till he had it in earnest so supposing my Vows at first but feign'd they must by this time be ripen'd into Truth by your Influence like the Dew drops of Heaven into Precious Stones by the heat of the Eastern Sun and so become Sacred as all things addressed to you must be Madam But if I lov'd not Eugenia with the greatest and most sincere Passion that ever Man lov'd a Woman I know not what Reason what Interest or what Design I cou'd have to pretend it since I 'm not so vain to expect any other Benefit of it than her Laughter and in that my Trouble However Madam I have this Satisfaction in my own Mind that I love the best and finest of her Sex tho' a Mother who like a Taper has not suffer'd the least Diminution of her own Lustre by the lighting others into the World but still preserves her Original Light so firmly as to enslave all that behold her as well as Madam Your Eternal Slave Lysander By the Same MADAM NO desperate Wretch guilty of the most execrable Murders had ever that Trouble that Agony of Mind that I have endur'd since the Receipt of Your last in which you discovered so severe and cruel a Resentment of a Crime I was not guilty of If I have ever offended You I ask Your Ladiship ten thousand thousand Pardons Ah! Madam if my Love were not as lasting as my Life and so were as inseparable as Soul and Body Nay were there any Prospect any Possibility of my ever loving You less I shou'd not need to be thus troublesom to Your Ladiship to beg You not to use the Extent of Your Power over me to punish me for a Crime I was never guilty of Yet whether I 'm guilty or not so much so extravagantly I love You that if You yet convict me I shall stand condemned even in my own Opinion Nay if You Madam will positively accuse me of all the the Ills in the World I 'll own 'em for it shall never be said That for the sake of my own Happiness Interest or Honour I ever contradicted the Assertion of her I profess'd the greatest and most generous Passion for that ever unhappy Man experienc'd But Madam had I been guilty of any little Error consider it as coming from a Man almost distracted Distracted Madam for the Love of you for I 'm sure I appear so to all that visit me yet tho' most guess the Cause the Person is only known to the wounded Heart of Madam Your Constant Slave Lysander Ah! Madam don't use a Passion so tender as mine with so much Tyranny since the Power you have is but what I give and it is not generous enough for Eugenia to turn against its Original tho' he 's incapable of with-holding it By the Same MADAM HOw can the Unfortunate Lysander ever hope for his Divine Eugenia's Pardon thus daily to torment her with his Impertinence if she were not the best and most generous Woman living As for the Character of a Beau which you 're pleas'd to honour me with I pretty well guess whence you had it a very honest good-humour'd Lady as lives I mean Mrs S who Din'd with me once at my Lodging where Night nor Day you were not forgot I need not tell you that Mrs S is as good a Woman as lives since all that you recommend must be so Whenever she 's a mind to oblige me most and render her House most agreeable she tells me many think her like Eugenia But cou'd she make me believe so too she had done her Business For as I told her that was the way to make her House my Prison for had Eugenia been Mistress of it I cou'd with Pleasure have been confin'd to it for ever If you would do an Act of Charity as Widows you know are good for nothing else you would come up to Town and help marry me to some old rich Woman that would be sure to die quickly in order to the marrying a young one at least you wou'd speak a good Word for me to my Lady whom if ever I was to marry my Lord D should give her as you should me I hope fair Widow after this long Silence your Pen will venture on some other Subject besides Business If your Letters were sometimes dash'd with Love c. 't were but a Venial Sin and what I weekly pardon to some young Women in the Mal of your Acquaintance from whom by my Soul I 've as good Letters as those celebrated Nuns Letters My two Mistresses Valeria and Belinda I serve under the Name of Polydorus but would be ten times more proud and happy to serve your Ladiship under any Title or Name whereby I might merit the Character so long since engraven in the Heart of Madam Your Humble Slave Lysander By the Same MADAM THis Day 's Post made me the happiest Man living in receiving the Honour of a most obliging Letter from my dear Eugenia who can never do any thing that is otherwise However did I not know your Modesty was so extream as to look on the smallest Encomiums as Flatteries tho' your real Merit keeps the greatest from being so I confess it would be a real Trouble to me that one whom I so cordially honour shou'd mis-interpret the unfeign'd Dictates of my Soul for Compliments A Devotion so justly grounded on Merit can never be judg'd counterfeit for the Glory of the Sun and the Benefits Mankind reap'd from his Beams were allow'd as sufficient Arguments to justifie the Persians Adoration of him Your generous Invitation of me into is so much to my own Advantage that a dying Man when he knows there are but two ways to go wou'd sooner refuse an Invitation to Heaven I beg you Madam make an Experiment of your Dominion over me in imposing some Commands that you judge the most Rigorous and that may appear as Difficult as this is pleasing I wou'd fain see how Ill-natur'd you can be as well as give a Proof of my Pride in obeying you As for London every thing that is worth a Visit there will be gone the very Minute you leave it And therefore till your Return I declare for an Abdication of it and will here like another Timon of Athens live retir'd and in hatred of all Mankind for your Sexes sake But now Fair Widow you must give me my Revenge and let me give you Advice in Return of what I have receiv'd from you tho' mine I promise you shall be more conscionable than yours was For you advise me to marry an Old Woman