with desine to suppress the too great power of the Lords in the sixth year of his Reign about a War with France call'd for the Commons Advice and Council with the Lords which had bin don above one hundred years before by Henry the first who in his Reign summon'd them twice at his Coronation and in his eighteenth year The next time after King Iohn that we find them summoned was in the forty ninth year of Henry the thirds Reign whose Summons appears upon Record So that he may be said to have perfected what Henry the first and King Iohn desin'd making the Commons a part of that great Iudicature which they have ever since continu'd and for some time after in one and the same House It was usual in those days to mention in the Writ the Cause of assembling this Council In a Summons of Edward the first a wise just and therefore a fortunate Prince concerning a War with France in the seventh year of his Reign these words are observable Lex justissima providâ circumspectione stabilita ut quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur much better sense than ` Latin Succeding Kings have bin pleased to consult in I arliament of all the high and great Concerns of the State of what nature or kind soever The consulting thus with the wholeBody of the People was first the grace Pollicy of Kings the practise was always succesful to those that us'd it as the contrary prov'd destructive for the Kings having by this course gaind their Subjects Hearts found it easy to command their Purses and their Hands This great representative of the Commonwealth the Parliament consisting of three Estates viz. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons with the King at Head you wil with me easily conclude may do any thing within the reach of Human Power You must pardon me if I wave Anatomizing the distinct Powers of the several parts of this great Body whosoever first attempted that desin'd the overthrow of the best constituted Goverment in the World where the King wants no Ensines of Monarchy or Majesty where the People have not only al the Freedom Liberty and Power that in reason can be wished but more than any of their Neighbors enjoy even than those in the so much more cry'd up but little understood Commonwealth of Holland where they have liberty in name but in reality are very Slaves and beasts of Burden Now whether the way of convening Parliaments might not be alter'd into the this following or som other more equal than the present seems to be I leave to themselves to determin viz. That every Parish Freeholders and others if they please shoud meet and choose Two honest knowing men on whom their power of Electing Members shoud be devolved This don in every Parish the several Two's to meet and choose Two for the Hundred That agreed the respective Two's of every Hundred at the time and place appointed to choose the Members out of such as are resident in the Country both Knights and Burgesses Nor does it seem very reasonable that the later shoud exceed the former especially considering that many of the antient Burrow's are decay'd and yet the number rays'd by the additions of new ones beyond what it was before But by this manner of Election that inconvenience if any will not be considerable To every two Members a sides-man to be chosen who shoud duly attend at the place of Sessions and that he might be prepar'd in the absence of both or either of the Members they shoud make him master of al that pass'd from time to time in the House And that every person Elected might serve the public without privat consideration the Electors or a Iustice of Peace in their presence to administer an Oath fram'd to this Effect That in al proceedings they endeavor to inform themselves fully of the state of the matter and therein Act according to Conscience without particular interest or desine That directly or indirectly on the account of their Vote or serving they shal not receive by themselves or others any Reward or Gratuity whatsoever On breach of this Oath to be lyable to al the Penalties of Perjury It is not to be doubted but the honor of promoting their Countries good That giving a sort of Immortality which al men covet wil invite Gentlemen enow sufficiently qualified to undertake this work on these conditions how hard soever they appear 'T is not reasonable that Parliament Men shoud be maintained or rewarded unless in Praise and Statues at the Countries charge To do it gratis is al the real good they do the Commonwealth in which as privat men their Interest and consequently their Gain is greater than that of the meaner sort The Elections to be by the Ballotting box to avoid heat and secret grudges Nor woud it be useless to ad That al things be carried fairly and openly in the House That the Debate of any thing proposed be adjourned to the next days Meeting For in the time of Rest upon our Bed Our nights sleep does change our Knowledge and qualify the Effect or cause of Passion Inconsideration That every Member by himself or Sides-Man be constantly present under severe penalties to the Public That nothing be put to the vote but in a ful House not of Forty who cannot be the Major part of above Four Hundred and therefore at first was sure a trick but of al the Members nor then carried by Majority til the reasons of every single Dissenter be examined the dissenting person convinc'd and in case of obstinacy after Conviction of which in so wise an Assembly none can be suppos'd guilty expell'd the House The question not to be reassum'd til after the Election of a new Member unless his Sides-Man be of a contrary opinion in the Debate 'T is possible the swaying argument was at first but one Man 's whose credit and authority might prevail upon the rest without examining his Reasons which makes it prudent to weigh the force of what is offered against it By the contrary course they may by this they cannot suffer since Reason or Truth is always one and the same and however disguis'd by the sophistry of Wit it must at last overcom Thus by proving al things and holding fast that which is best they wil acquit themselves to the present and succeeding Ages Such manner of proceeding woud silence al murmurings and clamors That the Parliament is divided into Factions a Court and a Country Party Tho the interest of the one be not directly opposit to that of the other Yet the members for ends of their own Honor or Rewards do make them so of this they are convinc'd by seeing som turn Cat in Pan appearing strongly in one Session for that which in a former they as vigorously oppos'd And by observing others to compass Elections by Faction and Interest by Purchase or covinous Freeholds That contrary to several Acts of Parliament Members living
matters of Law than for his strictness of Life in those of Religion From the Conquerors time downwards there have bin attempts of this kind almost in every Kings Reign But the Wars and Divisions and consequently Dissolutions that often happend between the Kings their Parliaments somtimes Lords somtimes Commons about the Liberty of the Subject or Prerogative of the Crown not without good reason concluded to have bin set on foot by the crafty Lawyers by this time grown considerable prevented bringing to pass the intended Reformation of the Law I wil not insist upon al the Kings Reigns where this was desin'd nor go farther back than Henry the Eight's time when ingenious Sir Thomas More was by him set on work to fram a Model But the succeeding accidents frustrated that attempt the Troubles and Revolutions that continued during the Reigns of Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth hindred this work which at wise Burleigh's advise was resolved on by the later Queen The learned King Iames determined to finish it and the knowing Sir Francis Bacon was pitched upon to fram a Schem of new Laws or model the old But the discontents about Religion with the greater artifice of the Lawyers then more numerous diverted that glorious Enterprize Some living were Actors others Spectators of the Troubles that have since happen'd which gave way not to a Reformation but Confusion of the Laws and yet the Long Parliament or rather Conventicle knowing their great and good Master purpos'd it resolv'd upon a new Method of Laws But the Idol themselves had set up as a just reward of their Treason prevented this by turning them out of doors with their beloved Magna Charta calling it in Contempt Magna f Too many in other Countries no less than this have wholly lost their Freedom by endeavoring to enlarge it beyond Law and Reason as it has also somtimes befallen ambitious Princes who striving to augment their Power and Dominions beyond the boundaries of Iustice have instead of new Acquists forfeited their antient and lawful possessions The Gardiners Ass in the Apologue desining to mend himself by changing Masters found at a dear-bought experience none so kind as the first The Observation of the Evil of those days has given us reason to believe That wisdom best which is learnt at the cost of others and to remember the Wise mans advice Meddle not with those who are given to change This I speak as to the Fundamental of the Government which can never be alter'd by the Wit of Man but for the worse But the Superstructures of Hay and Stubble are grown so cumbersom and rotten that they are fit for nothing but the Fire Though I am far from giving credit to any prediction or Prophecy but those of Holy Writ yet I can't but remember you of that old Latin one Rex albus c. on which you know our wishes taught us to fix a pleasing interpretation This hint wil bring to your mind what perhaps has not been there almost these thirty Years That both for his Innocence and the accidental Snow that fel on his Herse the late King Charles was that white King who for some time was to be the last in England That afterwards his Son shoud from beyond the Seas return to the possession of his Crown and that in his dayes Religion and Laws shoud be reform'd and setl'd upon the eternal Foundations of Truth and Iustice. The fulfilling of this Prophesie now wil seem as miraculous an Effect of Providence as that of our Soverain's Restauration and wil as much eternize the Wisdom of the Parliament as the other their Loyalty What remains of this undon we might hope to see finisht as old as we are if they woud be pleas'd to espouse it heartily and defend themselves against the noyse wranglings and opposition of the Lawyers and Clergy who are no more to be consulted in this Case than Merchants concerning Exchange c. because as the Wise Syracides observ'd their Interest woud byass them There is saith he that counselleth for himself beware therefore of a Counsellor and know before what need he hath for he wil counsel for himself There was Law before Lawyers there was a time when the Common Customs of the Land were sufficient to secure Meum and Tuum What has made it since so difficult nothing but the Comments of Lawyers confounding the Text and writhing the Laws like a Nose of Wax to what Figure best serves their purpose Thus the great Cook bribed perhaps by Interest or Ambition pronounced that in the Interpretation of Laws the Iudges are to be believed before the Parliament But others and with better Reason affirm That 't is one of the great Ends of the Parliaments Assembling To determin such causes as ordinary Courts of Iustice coud not decide The Laws of England are divided into Common and Sâ—â—ate Law the Common are antient Customes which by the unanimous and continued usage of this Kingdom have worn themselves into Law Statutes are the positive Laws of the Land founded on particular accidents and conveniences not provided for by the Common Law Civil and Canon Law are of no force but as they are incorporated into the body of one or other of these Laws if either may be call'd a body which has neither head nor foot For they lye scatter'd in som few books Bracton Littleton Glanvil Fleta Cook Plouden Dier Crook c. their Commentaries or Reports or rather in the arbitrary Opinion of the Iudges or som celebrated Lawyers For nothing is in this Trade certain or regular what one gives under his hand for Law another gives the direct contrary Iudgments and Decrees reverst as if that coud be just one day that is unjust another and why in England must Law and Equity be two things Since Reason Conscience in all other parts of the World are one and the same and why cannot Laws be so plainly worded as that men of common sence may without an interpreter discover the meaning if they be not so order'd speedy and exact justice wil at best be retarded But you 'l tel me there woud be no need to complain if men woud follow Christ's advice If any man wil sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also the Reason was so plain that it was needless to express it viz. least the Lawyer shoud com between and strip you naked even of your shirt This you see is prudence as wel as Religion as indeed al Christs precepts are in the very affairs of this World Whatsoever was true of the Iewish Lawyers the present practise of some of ours renders them Obnoxious to the censures of the sober the curses of the passionate most men agreeing that to go to Law is like a Lottery or playing at Dice where if the game be obstinatly pursu'd the Box-keeper is commonly the greatest Winner But since som men wil be fools or knaves why shoud not the
it woud be for the advantage of al That the Parliament woud exert its antient Power In regulating the many Abuses crept into inferior Courts Into which if there was ever need of looking there is now at this day when the complaints are loud By which tho perhaps Mole-hills may be made Mountains Yet al this Smoak cannot be without som Fire This I have bin told for certain That their Iudgments are founded as much upon Rules or interpretations of Statutes of their own pleasure introduc'd by the intrest of Lawyers and Officers as upon the strict letter of the Lawes in which your Education tho not your Practice and your long Observation has made it superfluous for me to particularise the many Irregularities in the administration of Iustice which woud fil a larg Volum But to begin with the Courts I think it were convenient that each of the Four at Westminster shoud be reduced to their antient Practice and not suffered to Encroah upon one another to the Subjects great vexation who often quits his Cause rather than follow it thro al the mazes of the several Courts where at last after som years tossing by Writs of Error c. from Post to Pillar if his mony does but hold out to make the Lawyers that sport he may sit down by his loss or have recours to the Arbitriment of two honest Neighbors which at first had bin the speediest and cheapest way of justice In antient days the Kings Bench intermedled only with the Pleas of the Crown But now an Ac Etiam ushered in by a feignd assertion of Force and Arms and by supposing the Defendant to be in Custodia Marescalli or the Plaintiffe privileg'd som other way in that Court robbs the Common Bench whose jurisdiction even by Magna Charta is of al Common Pleas between Party and Party The Common Bench by practice of Atturneys not to be behind hand has likwise of late days introduced an Ac Etiam and several Debts or Promises are suppos'd with intent to bind the Subject to special Bail wheras I am confident it cannot either by Common or Statute Law be evinced that antiently special Bail or a Capias before Summons was in any action required and that therfore it is a meer invention to get mony and to vex and impoverish the Subject The Exchequer was only to hold Plea of such Actions where the Plaintiff was really indebted to the King and perhaps too not able otherwise to pay it or where the Parties were by their Priviledg to plead or to be impleaded in that Court But now by falsly suggesting They are indebted to the King and not able to pay him but out of the thing in demand they are suffered to su in that Court alleadging a Quo minus c. in their Declaration But before such Irregularities were introduced it was not so much Law as Honesty Prudence and skil in Arithmetick that were the necessary Qualifications of the Barons In which Court a Chancery was erected to moderate the Rigor of the Fines and Amerciaments estreated into that Court and to extend to the Kings Debtors those favors which the Barons coud not shew The Causes then remaining for the High Court of Chancery were the Penalties and Forfeitures between man and man which at Common Law were du and al other Causes that for want of Evidence were no where els tryable But such have bin the mighty contrivance of the Practisers in that Court that they have found out a way for the Trial of al Causes there where notwithstanding a mans pretence in his Bil That he wants Witnesses tho that be but a tric to intitle the Court to the action after he has Obliged the Defendant to swear against himself contrary to the Common Law that of Nature Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum which seems to be the possitive intent of Magna Charta he takes out a Commission to Examin Witnesses In the Civil Law the Complainant if required is obliged as wel as the Defendant to swear the Truth of the Bill and sure that is as fitting to be don in the King 's great Court of Equity and Conscience as in the ordinary Courts of Iustice in other Nations Nor woud it be amiss That al Witnesses shoud in that Court as wel as others give their Testimony Viva voce and that there shoud be som unalterable Rules both for the Officers of the Court and the Clients since Conscience and right Reason are alwayes the same and unalterable which woud prevent the Reversing of Decrees a tacit Confession They were unjust and other Inconveniences too many to be recounted only One is so notorious I cannot pass it by The assuming a Power of Impeaching Iudgements at Common-Law which the Statute declares to be Premunire Another Practice as inconvenient as any is The Iudges giving too great an Authority to a former Iudges Report or Opinion It were to be wish'd That in the rest of the Courts the present Practice of the wise Lord Chancellor Finch were observed who considering That a Report is founded upon such Reasons as are not with the Report convey'd to us that only stating in brief the matter of Fact and that the Case is alterable by any one Accident rightly infers That no Report but the Reason of the present Case squared to the Rules of the Law ought to guide his Iudgment To this may be added That in every Court there shoud be a setled Number of Clerks Attorneys Lawyers as wel as Iudges That these how just soever shoud not continu above three Years in any one Court Whatever the Sherifs Power was formerly sure I am That exercised by the Iudges exceeds what now they are possest of and yet the Wisdom of former Ages thought not fit to intrust the former two years together That they shoud be oblig'd to give an Account in public of al their proceedings at the expiration of the said time That they be under a pecuniary Mulct besides an Oath to administer justice impartially in imitation of God who to mind them of their great Duty graces them with his own Title saying Ye are al. Gods and therfore must do as I do ye shal not regard in judgment the Power of the Mighty nor the Distress of the Poor That the Iudges Lawyers Atturneys and Clarks shoud have out of the public Revenu sufficient establisht Salaries To take no Fees or Gratuity whatsoever directly or indirectly It not seeming reasonable that the people shoud pay any thing for Iustice But as that Charge may be included in the public Taxes That no Offices whatsoever be Sold and nothing but Merit to intitle any man For if Offices be purchased by the interest of Friends or Mony it is unreasonable to expect That Iustice too may not be bought and sold And for this Reason it is as fit to make Laws against this practice in others as against Simony in the Clergy No man to have two Offices or to act by Deputy
but on extraordinary occasions That al Causes be determin'd at farthest in six months And that such as thro difficulty or other accidents can't be determin'd within that time the Parliament at next Sessions shoud decide them To oblige the Iudges to proceed exactly according to the strict Rules of the Law made by Parliaments For notwithstanding what the Lord Coke says 'T is their duty only Legem Dicere not Legem dare And therfore where ever any thing comes to be disputed of the meaning of the Statutes or that any Cause happens for which there is not exact and sufficient provision made they are to have recourse to the Parliament whose Power is not only Legem dare but dicere For it appears That in antient times when Iustice was more speedy and Statutes fewer or rather none at al the great business of the Parliament was to give Sentence in al difficult Causes and to correct the miscarriages or sinister Practise of al inferior Courts and Officers and therfore was commonly known by the name of Curia Magna Before the Conquerors time there was no such thing as Courts at Westminster-Hal The manner then of distributing Iustice was both speedy and cheap the County being divided into several Portions there was in every Manner a Court where al the Causes arriving within that Precinct were determined by the Thane and his assistants but if too hard they were removed by Appeal to the higher Court of the Hundred where al the chief and Wise Men within that Territory with the Hundreder or Aldermannus gave Iudgment And if any Cause proved too difficult for this Court then they appeal'd to the County Court where al the several Thanes and Hundreders with the chief of the County call'd Comes and somtimes Vicecomes judged it But such Causes as were too intricat for them were remov'd to the great Court or Parliament then known by several other Names Which jurisdiction was exercized some Ages after the Conquest Whence Sir Edward Coke may be wel suspected a greater Lawyer than an Antiquary or els the liberty they took was the occasion of his exalting the Iudges Power in expounding Statutes above that of the Parliament Having now made it plain That the Parliament has this Power and always had it were to be wished they woud make use of it in strictly regulating the Disorders of al inferior Courts as wel Ecclesiastical as Civil Which perhaps can never be better don than after the manner of the famous Venetian Commonwealth by erecting a new Magistracy or Court of Inspection public Censors men of great Candor and Integrity whose Power shoud extend to the Cognizance of al manner of Actions in Courts great and smal Of the demeanor of al Officers of the State of what degree or quality soever who taking care thus of the Execution of the Laws shoud be oblig'd from time to time to give a ful and impartial Information to the Parliament in whose Power alone it shoud be upon Conviction of the Criminal to Suspend Degrade or otherwise Punish according to the Provisions they themselves make in such cases That it may be lawful for all Persons to address themselves immediately to these Censors whose Information shall by them be fully Examined and neither their Informers nor themselves lyable to any Actions or Sutes upon account of their Proceedings to be accountable to the grand and supreme Court of Iudicature That their Number be such as may serve to go Circuits round the Kingdom These as the other Iudges to be altered every 3 Years And because nothing does more conduce to the good of man-kind next to wholsom Laws and the practice of piety than the Knowledge of things past not any thing being truer then that What is has bin and there 's nothing new under the Sun a perfect relation of which begets a great Understanding and deep Iudgment the sence whereof made a Wise King say None were so faithful Counsellors as the Dead That therefore the Parliament woud appoint two of the most learned of those Censors acquainted with al the most secret affairs of state which if not as Counsellors yet as Hearers under the same obligation of secrecy as Secretaries or Clarks of the Counsel they may understand to write especially the matters of fact of al affairs and occurrences The Annals not to be made public til the Writers and al concern'd were gon off the Stage The fear of Offending and the advantage of Flattery being remov'd future ages woud in the truth of History find that great Rule of Iudgment and Prudence the World has hitherto been deprived of There being a man may safely say no tru profane History in the World save that of the Wise Chineses who have observ'd this practice for several Thousands of Years keeping the Records as an Arcanum for their Princes who by these means have gain'd a steddy judgment in their own state-affairs which is the reason given for the long and prosperous continuance of that great Monarchy When the Laws and Execution of them are thus established every Man will be sufficiently secur'd in the Enjoyment of his Liberty and Property which tho commonly taken for two are in reality one and the same thing I understand by the first that Power Man has reserv'd to himself when he enter'd into Society that is a Liberty of doing any thing except what the Law forbids or of living conformably to the Laws not of speaking contemptuously of the Rulers of the People nor of doing what he please tho the Law restrain it By Property I conceive meant the right of Enjoying peaceably privat Possessions as bounded by Law Liberty then respects the Person and Property the Estate These two I perceive you have joyn'd with Religion as the three great Abstracts of Human Concerns For I presume you consider Religion as it is part of that Policy by which the State is govern'd and as such I shal chiefly take notice of it leaving it as it refers to the Soul and a future Life to Divines whose proper Office it is Taking it then for granted That every wise Man will study that which neerest concerns him and That the Interest of the Soul and eternal Life do's far exceed the valu of this our transitory Being That all Human Laws are therefore binding because agreeable to Nature or Reason that is to the Signatures of the Divine Will That true Religion was the Law of God and its end the Happiness of Man in this Life as well as in that which is to Come That it was divided into two Parts Duty to God and to One another which later to the thinking Man resolves into Love of himself who must find that his Happiness consisting in the Enjoyment of himself cannot be without the mutual Offices and Endearments of Love which obliges him in spite of all his Passions when he fully considers things To do to all Men as he would be don unto This then being Human Happiness and the
in regard the Annual Rent is not a Fourth of the real Valu and yet may be ordered equally advantageous to the Tenants as the Fines now make them woud complete this Work Thus converting the Patrimony of the Church woud be no Sacriledg the Pious Use is carryed on to the good of Al and perhaps as first desin'd by the Donors when Provision for Wives and Children not in being coud not be thought of the Care of whom distract many from their Duty and dis-able them from keeping in decent Repair the antient Monuments of Piety built by our Ancestors But all these things to be don without the least prejudice to the present Incumbents When Education is thus setled the Duty and Interest of Church-men and their Care of Wives and Children removed Plurality of Livings and Simony prevented as wel that of Friendship of the Smock marrying of Cousens Neeces crooked Sisters or Ladie 's Women as that of the Purse al which in themselves are equally Criminous none but good Men wil undertake the Charge And then the Objections wil vanish which loose Education has infused into the wild and foolish viz. That Religion is a Cheat a tric of State that the Parson follows Christ for the Loaves speaks as does the Lawyer in his Trade not that there 's any Truth in 't but because he has bosin lingua c. To do this is neither so strange nor so difficult as was the greater alteration made by Henry the Eighth who had not in story bin so infamous tho he had seized on the whole temporalities of the Church had he but thus disposed of som part And by the way you may take notice that the house of Commons in this point had been Cromwels in the sixth and eleventh Years of Henry the Fourth who upon their advice had seized the Churches Patrimony had they not by friends and mony prevented the blow and that de facto several Bishoprics and livings were injoy'd by som of his predecessors which appears not onely from History but from printed Acts of Parliament That it wil be no hard Matter from Graunts Observations and the Bils of Mortality to make a Computation of the Numbers necessary to be sent Yearly to the Universities for Divinity Law and Physic The last of which ought so to be regulated as not to suffer any to Kil rather than Cure which is daily don in London and other parts of the Kingdom to the prejudice and scandal of that honorable and somtimes useful Profession to the loss of the peoples Mony and Lives to the maintaining of many idle and ignorant Mountebancs and impostors who to the greater advantage of the Common-wealth might be employed in more safe and beneficial Trades or ways of Living This Course wil also prevent such evil consequences in Church and State as formerly attended the Superfaetations of the Clergy and the breeding up of Servitors and poor Scholars as they wel cal them in the Universities who being generally of mean Birth and no less mean Parts and the attendance upon their Masters not suffering them so wel to attend their Studies and their subsistance by Service failing them after they had staied at the University no longer than to incapacitat and unfit them for any other way of Living and yet not to qualify them for turning Preachers However having chopt a little Logic and disputed of Ens Rationis and so fancying they coud Build Castles in the Aire they assume the confidence to conclude they cannot Miss of Habitations on the earth and so from the Lowest of the People getting to be put into the Priests Office for a peece of Bread they becom a great cause of as wel as they are in Effect The contempt of the Clergy And those for want of Knowledg lay their foundations in Erroneous Doctrines in which Nevertheless they coud not succeed but by pretending an extraordinary mesure of Saint-ship or Holiness Railing at the sins and abuses of the times which themselves have occasion'd Thus they creep into houses and first lead silly Women and then their Husbands Captive as Adam by Eves perswasion eating the forbidden fruit til he Surfited and died so these ignorant Zelots not content in King Iames his time and the beginning of King Charles the first to rob the Kingdom of many Families til at last they made themselves the boutefeus of the late horrid Rebellion which tho it may be said to have been principally occasion'd by such as these yet not without som Episcopal mens having a Finger in the Pie For to say truth I know not whether the too great Stifness in the one for their Old or in the other against those Formes was most blameable But This I know that by the Collision of both parties as of Flints a Fire was kindled not unlike that in the Tayles of Samsons Foxes which proved as Destructive of the Expectations of profit each had of their own crop as the other did to the Philistines corn Yet had the evil of that not extended to any others but those of the Pulpit we might now have talk'd on 't without much regret What ever such violent disputes have formerly been able to do 't is my duty to wish and Yours to endeavor that England be no more the Stage of such Tragedies Refraine not Counsel when it may do good and be not backward in advising that Toleration is the First step and Education the next that perfectly leads the way to peace and happiness This Cours being taken we shal have no cause to dispair but that Religion wil again resume its Naked Truth That the Doctrines of men wil be judged better or worse as they more or less incline to holiness of living and thus being reduced to a Calmness within our selves we need not fear the Designes of Forrainers Of whom none but France can be supposed to have any upon England and if that be granted why may it not be prevented by observing stil the same Rules of Policy which this Crown formerly practised that was so holding the Ballance between the then two contending Powers of Spain and France that neither shoud be able to obtain their Aims The universal Monarchy of the West But now the Case is alter'd in that Spain being much weakned by the accession of the West-Indies and grasping more than it coud wel hold in other Countries has quitted the Field and left France without a Rival So that the present Interest of England seems to be the same with that of al Europe viz. to oppose by al possible means the growing Greatness of France and reduce that Crown to such a condition as may not leave it in his Power to hurt his Neighbors By what they have already compassed one may guess they wil ere long bring about if not timely stopt their long design'd Ambitious Purposes In the prosecution of which they were in the late times of Usurpation the under-hand Instrument of the War with Holland as they were of the
vicissitudes of human affairs to make him afterwards appear more glorious vail'd him in Clouds of misfortunes What can be hop'd from him who contriv'd that never to be forgotten affront of burning our ships at Chattam and who is said to have had no smal hand in the firing of London Who tho stil'd the most Christian declares as an unalterable Maxim no Treaty binding longer than it consists with his Interest not founded on Religion or Reason but on Glory The very Heathens were anciently and the Turks at this day are more punctual to their Oaths and Promises The falsifying of any thing confirm'd by the Adiuration of their Gods or Mahomet was and is accounted infamous But what Treaties or Capitulations can be reckon'd which the French Ministers have not violated Have they not broken the famous Pyrenean Treaty confirmd by Oaths and Sacraments And contrary to a solemn Renunciation and the double Ties of Blood and Marriage before a breach complain'd of or a War declar'd invaded the Territoryes of an Infant King Have not they by address and Cunning by Bribes and Rewards endeavored to corrupt most of the Ministers of Europe Such practises amongst privat Christians woud be abominable and much more so between any Kings not stil'd the most Christian. Do they not publicly abet the proceedings of the Rebels in Hungary against their lawful Prince And whatever the Pope may be induc'd to beleive not for the Propagation of the Romish Religion for they are Protestants but to serve his own ambitious purposes of enslaving the World of which rather than fail he has decreed to bring in the Turk in whose Courts also he has found Arts to make his Coyn current Nor is the Infallible Man whom he has already Pillard to scape him at least as to the Temporal part of his Power for not thinking that affront great enuff and concluding he has not as he ought imploy'd it for the French Interest he is said to have privatly vow'd not only the lessening but the abrogating of that great Authority in which his Predecessors Pepin and Charlemain's Charity had vested him Nor is his Countenanceing the Iansenists a Sect more dangerous to the See of Rome than that of Luther or Calvin a smal Argument that he intends to pul down his spiritual Grandeur by fixing it in a Gallican Patriarch But to com nearer home have not the French had a main hand in our Civil Wars and were they not since the secret Instruments of spilling the Blood of many thousands of our fellow Subjects To som of whom tho now they pretend civility 't is not to give them a share in their Glory so much as to hazard their Lives making them steps to the Throne of an unjust Empire in order to which they have expos'd them on all occasions in hopes by weakning us to remove out of their way the greatest block which has already given them check and wil now I hope stop their Carreir and mate them And is it not time think you that all the Princes in Christendom for their common safety shoud unite not only to Chase the French King out of his new Conquests but confine him to his ancient Dominion and manner of Government If this be not speedily put in Execution I may without the spirit of Prophecy foretel som of the Princes of Germany and Italy who now seem unconcern'd wil when 't is too late repent the oversight The fire is already kindled in their Neighborhood and if they do not help to quench the flame they wil quicly see their own dwellings laid in Dust and Ashes Every new acquist and accession of Power inlarges our desires and makes the ambitious man think that which before seem'd not only difficult but impossible to be very plain and feasible The success of the French has already made them think no enterprise too hard and and stil prompts them to push on their good Fortune which nothing can withstand but a general opposition of other Princes You see then 't is not so much honor nor friendship nor a desire of succorring the injur'd and oppressed that invites the rest of Europe to the assistance of the Netherlands but the care and preservation of their Laws and Liberties their Glory and their Fortunes And tho I am apt to believe on Englands entring into the League the French King woud gladly conclude a Peace Yet I can't but think the doing so woud be against the common interest on any other Terms than quitting all his new Acquisitions and even then the Confederats wil be out in Policy if they do not stil continue in a posture of defence both by Sea and Land The Dutch paid dear for the contrary practise and their sufferings in 1672 wil convince them and others that so long as Lewis the fourteenth lives his Neighbors must not expect to sleep in quiet they cannot prudently hope his future Practises wil be more just than his former he that has already broke thro so many Obligations of Oaths and Treatyes is likely to do so agen whoever cannot be kept within bounds by the sense of Reason and Iustice wil despise the weaker tyes of forced Oaths For he that avows Power to be the Rule and strength the Law of Iustice wil not stick to say This Peace was an imposition an unjust restraint of the lawful pursuit of his Greatness And therefore as soon as he gives his wearyed Armies a breathing time and sees the Confederates dispers'd and their Troops disbanded he wil like an unexpected Torrent break-in upon som of his Neighbors The Common Inscription of his Cannons Ratio ultima Regum is by him inverted to a contrary sense and made a public Warning to Mankind that he desines as God did of old to give Law to the World in Thunder and Lightening to scatter by the Flames of his Artillery al those Clouds of the Confederat Forces that intercept and eclipse the Rayes of his Glory He makes the Power of his Arms his first and last Reason He do's not only pursu but commonly wounds his Adversary before he declares him such or gives him leisure to draw First invades a Prince's Territories and after sets up his Title and Cause of the War is not concern'd that all the World observes the Pretence is false and trifling vain and unjust warranted by no other Reason than that of absolute and unbounded Wil That he wil do so because he wil which is the Foundation and Conclusion of all his Actions and Wars abroad as wel as of his Laws and Edicts at Home express'd in these imperious Words Tel est nostre plaisir He do's not only tread in the Steps but out-go one of his Predecessors who in a Quarrel with his Holiness sent him word That what he coud not justify by Cannon-Law he woud by the Law of the Cannon His Device the Sun in its Meridian with his Motto Non pluribus impar sufficiently shews his Intentions for the Universal Monarchy and the
Trade as Fishing or Cloathing c. The first as an unexpected Gift wil be very grateful to the People and the other wil not be less benificial because it must encrease their Riches and be a fond without new Taxes for any future Emergencies That perpetuating the Revenu is most easy for the People and most convenient for Public Ends wil farther appear from these following Considerations That an equal Tax tho greater than is needful so the Money be not hoarded up to hinder Trade but issued as fast as it comes in for necessaries within the Country however it may for the present make som Alterations in particular Families do's not impoverish the Whole For Riches as Power consisting in comparison All equally retrenching som part of their Expences remain as Rich as they were before This Retrenchment may at first seem unpleasant and stomacful to those who think what they have little enuff for their privat Expence But such ought to consider if they refuse to part with som they wil infallibly lose all That instead of being a free People they may becom Slaves and wil not then have it in their Power to keep ought of what they cal their own have no Liberty or Property but at the pleasure of their conquering Tryumphant Lord and Master That then they wil be dealt with like Beasts now they have the Liberty of Rational Men i. e. of choosing with the wise Merchant in a Storm to throw som of his Goods over-board to secure his Life and the rest of his Fortune When by prudent Rules of Oeconomy and Temperance they have par'd off those great Extravagancies men are now given to in Cloaths in Meat and Drink c. to the decay of their Healths and shortning of their Lives and have proportion'd their Layings-out to their Comings-in what for the present seems so hard wil becom very easy and be hereafter no more felt than the payment of Tythes now which without doubt wrought the same Effect at first as this may be suppos'd to do But what is yet much better they wil make us Rich for I am Convinced that the great Taxes in the united Netherlands have bin the chiefest Cause of their great Wealth and tho this be no smal Paradox and perhaps a new one I am fully perswaded it contains a great Truth for their great Taxes necessitated great Industry and Frugality and these becoming Habitual coud not but produce Wealth especially considering that the Product of Labor is more valuable to the Kingdom than the Land and all other Personal Estate which I wil shew under the particular of Trade When the Taxes are less than serve or to last but for a time those who do not make their Expences short of their In-comes but think they may without prejudice make both Ends meet or if they exceed so soon as that Proportion which now goes to the Public comes in it wil make things even again do not consider how difficult it is to fal and that in the mean time an Accident may happen that not only requires the continuance of the Temporary but also of imposing new and greater Taxes Then when perhaps it 's too late they cry out They are ruin'd and undon and indeed the Case seems hard yet can't be avoided Therefore to answer our present Needs and prevent for the future such great Evils the Taxes are to be made perpetual So we being under a necessity of adjusting our Privat Affairs accordingly a little time wil make them Habitual to us and insensible to our Posterity For that if they be not perpetual but to determin at certain or uncertain Periods of Time they do not only becom uneasy to the Subject but inconvenient for the Publick Security which may suffer much at Home and Abroad in the interval before new Supplies can be legally rais'd I do not doubt but You and your Fellow-Members have it in yout Thoughts that all the Customs and half the Excise cease upon the death of our Soverain for whose long Life every good Subject is bound by interest no less than duty heartily to Pray but is it not to be remembred that the Period of humane Life is uncertain tho that of our evil which may thereupon insue be not the occasions of our expence continuing tho the means of supporting them fail That before a Parliament can be conven'd those others may be increas'd because in the mean time the Merchants wil fil the Kingdom with goods and sel them at the same rates they now do reckoning that a lucky hit and so anticipate the Markets for two three or more years with all manner of Staple Commodities Linnen Silk Salt c. which they have near at hand and with what perishable Commodityes they can procure for as long a term as they wil last and perhaps covetously and foolishly for a longer Thus the People wil pay and lose and yet the State grow poor as wel for the present as future while the Merchants only the overhasty and immature wil have the profit And tho they talk loudest the consumptioner stil pays the Duty and that with Interest In proportioning of Taxes we must have recourse to the necessities of the Charge which in my sence of things ought to extend to all that relate to us as single persons in matters of right or wrong as Law c. as wel as to what concerns us with reference to the whole in our public occasions as of Peace or War forrein or Domestic For I hold it altogether as reasonable that the Public shoud pay all those Officers who promote and distribute Iustice as wel as those others now paid by the State In proportion to which I hope our Governors wil consider what wil suffice for the management of all Affairs that any way conduce to the joynt good of the whole Body Politic and when that is known and fixt leave the rest to our own particular disposal But in this proportioning of Taxes we must rather look forward than backward Our home occasions are easily judged but those abroad must be taken by other measures the former use of Mony compar'd with its present the ancient demeans of the Crown with what they are now and the strength and power of our Neighbours especially the French concerning whom we are not to forget That that Crown is much more potent than it was heretofore by the accession of large Territories which when Englands gave it great Aid and Assistance in their War That the expence of one years War in this Age is greater than of twenty in former times That then two pence a day woud go further than twenty pence now That six or ten thousand men were as considerable an Army as forty or fifty thousand now Then a smal Castle Moat or ordinary Ditch was a good Fortification But mighty Bastians large Curteines doubly fortified with Faussbrais Counterscarps half Moons Redoubts and great variety of other Out-works according to the Nature and Situation
already many Discourses publishtâ— som of them woud be worth their view and did they Sit constantly many would bring their Remarks and I my self shoud be able to give som Notions on this Subject which for want of time I cannot now give you The two great Principles of Riches are Land and Labor as the later increases the other grows dear which is no otherwise don than by a greater Confluence of industrious People For where many are coop'd into a narrow Spot of Ground they are under a necessity of Laboring because in such Circumstances they cannot live upon the Products of Nature and having so many Eyes upon them they are not suffer'd to steal Whatever they save of the Effects of their Labor over and above their Consumption is call'd Riches and the bartering or commuting those Products with others is call'd Trade Whence it follows that not only the greatness of Trade or Riches depends upon the Numbers of People but also the Deerness or Cheapness of Land upon their Labor and Thrift Now if Trade be driven so that the Imports exceed in valu the Exports the People must of necessity grow poor i. e. consume the Fundamental Stock viz. Land and Labor both falling in their price The contrary Course makes a Kingdom Rich. The Consequence is That to better the Trade of England the People which wil force Labor must be increas'd and Thrift incouraged For to hope for a vast Trade where People are wanting is not only to expect Bric can be made without Straw but without Hands The great Advantage a Country gains by being fully peopled you may find by the following Observation viz. That the valu of the Labor is more than the Rent of the Land and the Profit of all the Personal Estates of the Kingdom which thus appears Suppose the People of England to be six Millions their annual Expence at twenty Nobles or six Pound thirteen and four Pence a Head at a Medium for Rich and Poor Young and Old wil amount to forty Millions and if wel consider'd cannot be estimated much less The Land of England and Wales contain about twenty four Millions of Acres worth one with another about six and eight Pence per Acre or third part of a Pound consequently the Rent of the Land is eight Millions per annum The yearly Profit of all the Peoples personal Estate is not computed above eight Millions more both together make sixteen Millions per annum this taken out of the forty Millions yearly Expence there wil remain twenty-four Millions to be supply'd by the Labor of the People Whence follows that each Person Man Woman and Child must Earn four Pound a Year and an Adult laboring Person double that Sum because a third part or 2 Millions are Children and Earn nothing and a sixth part or one Million by reason of their Estates Qualities Callings or Idleness Earn little so that not above half the People working must gain one with another eight Pound per annum a peece and at twenty Years Purchase wil be worth Eighty Ponnd per Head For tho an Individuum of Mankind be recon'd but about eight Years Purchase the Species is as valuable as Land being in its own nature perhaps as durable and as improveable too if not more increasing stil faster by Generation than decaying by Death it being very evident that there are much more yearly Born than Dye Whence you may plainly perceive how much it is the Interest of the State and therefore ought to be their care and study to fil the Country with People the Profit woud not be greater in point of Riches than in Strength and Power for 't is too obvious to be insisted on that a City of one Miles circumference and ten Thousand Men is four times stronger and easier defended than one of four Miles with double the Number Now there are but two ordinary wayes of increasing the People that of Generation and that of drawing them from other Countries The first is a Work of Time and tho it wil not presently do our Business yet is not to be neglected I have shewn how it may be hasten'd by obliging to Marriage and more might be added by erecting Hospitals for Foundlings after the manner now used in other Countries and practised with great Advantage in Paris by the Name of L'hostel pour les enfants trouves where there are now reckon'd no less than Four Thousand This in all parts of England especially London woud prevent the many Murders and contrived Abortions now used not only to the prejudice of their Souls Health but that of their Bodies also and to the general Dammage of the Public This woud likewise be an Encouragment to the poorer sort to Marry who now abstain to prevent the Charge of Children Strangers are no otherwise to be invited than by allowing greater advantages than they have at home and this they may with more ease receive in England than in any part of Europe where natural Riches do much abound viz. Corn Flesh Fish Wool Mines c. and which Nature has bless'd with a temporature of heathful Air exceeding al Northern and not inferior to most Southern Countries has given it commodious Ports fair Rivers and safe Channels with possibilities of more for water carriage these with what follows woud soon make England the Richest and most powerful Country of the World Naturalization without Charge plain Laws and speedy Iustice Freedom in all Corporations Immunities from Taxes and Tols for seven Years and lastly Liberty of Conscience the Restraint of which has been the greatest Cause at first of unpeopling England and of it s not being since repeopled This drove Shoals away in Queen Maries King Iames and King Charles the First 's Dayes it has lost the Wealth of England many Millions and bin the occasion of spilling the Blood of many Thousands of its People 'T is a sad Consideration that Christians shoud be thus fool'd by obstinat Religionists in whom too much Stiffness on one side and Folly and Perversness on the other shoud have bin equally Condem'd being indeed the Effects of Pride Passion or privat Interest and altogether Forrein to the Bus'ness of Religion which as I have already told you consists not in a Belief of disputable things of which if either part be tru neither are to us necessary but in the plain Practice of Piety which is not incompatible with Errors in Iudgment I see not therefore why the Clergy shoud be wholly heark'nd to in this Affair since 't is really impertinent to the Truth of Religion and I dare appeal to all the sober understanding and considerative Men of the Church of England Whether the Opposition of this be not wholy founded upon Interest which being but of particular Men ought not nor wil not I hope weigh more with the Parliament than that of the Public which is so highly concern'd in this matter And tho it may be objected That as Affairs of Religion now stand
think or believe it wil so suddenly or to that height as is said raise the Rents and Valu of Lands To this it can contribute but by accident as it invites Strangers into the Kingdom for I have already told you that the greater or smaller number of People is the only tru cause of the dearness or cheapness of Land and of Labor or Trade yet even this it cannot do without abolishing the Law disabling Aliens to purchase and hold before Naturalization necessary without dispute to be immediatly taken away Nor woud it a little contribute to the general good that all Merchants and Tradesmen breaking shoud be made guilty of Felony their goods to the Creditors if they did not plainly make appear by their true Books their losses and discover what ever they have left and without the unjust and cunning Artifices of composition give way for an equal Divident among the Creditors And that the many abuses of the Kings Bench Prison be reform'd which as now manag'd is made a Santuary and place of Refuge and Privilege for all Knaves that desine their own privat Interest to the ruin of others whose confinement is no narrower than from the East to the West Indies That all Bonds and Bills obligatory statute Merchants and of the staple Recognisances Iudgments c. be enacted transferable and by Indorsement to pass as current as Bills of Exchange and made recoverable by a shorter course of of Law than now practis'd That is to say that upon actual proof of the perfecting and last assigning of the Deed Iudgment and Execution be obtaind This wou'd wonderfully enliven trade make a new species of Coyn lower interest secure in a great measure dealers from breaking and find mony to carry on the trades of Fishing Linnen Woollen c. That til the propos'd regulation of the Laws can be effected to avoid the trouble and charge of Iuries in many cases and other unjust vexations the meets and bounds of the denominations of all Lands Mannors Parishes Commons Hundreds and Countyes all prescriptions usages and customs and the Iurisdictions of all inferiour Courts be fully inquir'd into and truely registred in one Book or Books copies to be Printed and the Original to be and remain of Record as the Doomsday book in the Exchequer By which all disputes concerning the premises may be speedily and cheaply decided There are but two Objections against this public good and were they unanswerable yet since they are but particular and selfish considerations they ought not to take place The first is That the useful and laudable Calling of the Lawyers wil be prejudic'd The next that the many who now live upon Credit wil be undon As to the first by this work the present Lawyers wil be so far from suffering that for ten years to com rather than lessen it wil increase their business which according to the ordinary computation of mens Lives or their hopes of being promoted wil be a greater advantage to them than if things continu'd as they are and for those who propose to themselves this way of living there wil be stil grounds enuff for the Practtise of som and many new imployments for others So that if these Gentlemens present great Practise woud give them leave to look forwards they woud find they are more Scar'd than hurt As to the second sort who likewise believe they may be damnifi'd that fancy wil also vanish if it be consider'd That it wil enlarge rather than destroy Credit For we wil suppose that a young Merchant or Tradesman who has 500. pound stock does not trade for less than 2000. pound the Merchant that sells him the Commoditys upon the belief of his being honest industrions prudent and sober gives him Credit and takes his Bond payable at a certain day this Person that he may be able duly to discharge his obligation in like manner trusts another whom he supposes able and honest for all receive credit as they really are or appear such as soon as his bond becomes du he takes up his own and gives that he receav'd to his creditor who perhaps gives it to another to whom he is indebted At last the mony is call'd for from the Country Gentleman the Country Gentleman gives him an assignment on his tenant who either is or is not indebted if the tenant owes the Mony he payes it in specie or assignes him upon som Merchant for the valu of commodities sold him the fond enabling him to pay his Land-lords Rent and thus perhaps by a Circulation of traffic for all Men from the highest to the lowest are one way or other Merchants or Traders the first man is pay'd with his own paper If the tenant does not ow the Land-lord the Mony and therefore wil not pay the Land-lord is immediately necessitated to sel or Morgage som part of his estate which if he refuse the Law forces him and the Credits of the rest are secur'd The Consequences are plainly these That Men must be careful with whom they deal That they must be punctual thrifty lest they first lose their Credit and afterwards becom Beggars For he that rightly considers wil be convinc'd That every Man in a Society or Common-wealth even from the King to the Pesant is a Merchant and therefore under a necessity of taking care of his Reputation not seldom a better Patrimony than what descends to us from our Parent 's Care That by this Practice the Kingdom wil gain an inexhaustible Treasure and tho there were not a hundredth part of the Mony be able to drive ten times a greater Trade than now it does A Man thus enabl'd to Live and Trade without Mony wil be in no need of running-out his principal in Interest by which too many for want of Consideration are insensibly undon involving many more in their Ruin Without these or som other new Courses you may be assur'd That our Trade consequently our Power wil every Day decay and in a few Years com to nothing But som imagin that we need not trouble our selves in this Matter it wil shortly fal in of Course to our Country for that as Learning took its Circuit thro several parts of the World beginning at the East so must Trade too but who-ever believes this wil com to pass without Human Means Labor and Art entertains wrong Notions of Providence I do believe the great Wheel is always in Motion and tho there be a constant Circumgyration of things yet 't is idle to fancy that any thing but Troubles or War Oppression or Injustice Wit or Industry makes Trade or Learning shift their Places in the same Country or alter their abode from that to any other If we look into Histories we shal find these have bin the Causes of their Migration and that Trade and Learning usually go hand in hand together Having already asserted that Trade and Commerce are to be improv'd and carry'd on the more vigorously by how much the more