Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	kingdom_n	law_n	3,513	5	4.8070	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46502	A letter from N.J. to E.T. Esq., his representative in Parliament	N. J.; E. T.	1690 (1690)	Wing J23; ESTC R15519	7,314	8

Foreign than Domestick growth And since it is the happiness of this Island that all those Wares which are imported from abroad conduce only for our Ease not our Support and all our Domestick Commodities are necessary to our Being or well being It follows that the two Rules laid down before do in this Nation fall into one and carry only a double reason with them for one and the same Action Money being undoubtedly the measure of Wealth it is therefore clear there is nothing can immediately improve the Riches of the Nation but what encreases the Coin of it Now our Iron Tin Corn Wool Leather and other the intrinsick Commodities of this Nation add so much to our Riches as the outward Trade over-ballances the inward and no more and the cheaper the Exports of this Nation can be sold the Vent is the quicker and the Trade more certain This is so plain a Proposition that it may be proved by a thousand obvious Instances which need not be mentioned since the truth of it depends on this Axiome That a Trading Nation that sells more than it buys is a Gainer and that buys more than it sells is a Loser Now can there be a greater stupidity in any Nation than to lay a Tax on the Manufactures of our own Product and in a time when we have need of the greatest support to Seeth the Kid in its Mother's Milk and Prey upon our Subsistance Most of our Ancient wholesome Laws were made for the improvement of Domestick Manufactures many Corporations that Now retain nothing of their former Wealth and Grandeur but their Mace and Gowns the Signs or rather Shadows of their Ancient Riches were erected for that End and flourished by it And if in the late Reigns the neglect or dis-encouragement of Home-Trade exposed it to decay there is nothing wanting but this last fatal Blow to subject it to ruin If Sir there was no other Reason against a Home-Excise this would be a strong one with me That it defeats all the great and signal Blessings which this Most Happy Reign has brought upon us for Liberty is an excellent thing when joyn'd with Property but is a sound only and a very Metaphysical and a Speculative Happiness without it The outmost Nations of the North have always been the freest People in the World as those which could not allure or support a Tyrant and therefore constantly enjoyed a Liberty of acting and starving as they pleased Liberty is that which secures our Property and the one is no more worth after the loss of the other than the preservation of the Case after the Shipwrack of the Jewel and we may easily bid adieu to the Prosperity of the Nation when a Tax is once establish'd upon that which at first created its Wealth and at present supports it and however Legal the Proceedings and however Mild the Methods in it may be it is certainly the same thing when the Vitals are endangered whether they are violently devoured or gently consumed whether the Radical Moisture be at once exhausted or gradually suck'd out Much more Sir might be said against the Home-Excise if I did not hasten to answer what is pleaded for it and that is Necessity a Word that has no Law and silences all Reason And it is to be observed That the same Word was guilty of Ship-money in Charles the First 's Reign and a Dispensing Power in King James the Second's Time which is brought to introduce a Home-Excise in the most prosperous and most glorious Reign of his present most gracious Majesty I must confess therefore I have no great respect for Necessity as that which has occasioned very hard things when true and real and many ill things when false and pretended But since this is a violent Storm of the Consequences of which we judge better at a distance let us a little examine the Necessity in the late Times by which we may the better judge of it for the future Was it of Necessity that English-men should be disgraced and turned out of their Employments and Foreigners French Irish and others put in their Places Was not this accounted a plain Demonstration That the English should not be trusted And where there is no Confidence there is the less Obligation Was it of Necessity That a mean-born haughty parasitical designing Black-coat the then Famed Father Petre's I mean should manage Affairs of State over-rule our Ancient Nobility oppress the Famous Universities and Favour all those that acted against them patronize all the Schismaticks and Sectaries bring our worthy and venerable Prelates to ruine for adhering to the Law of the Land and the Dictates of their Conscience and seize upon their Revenues himself contrary to the known Law of the Kingdom enjoying those of the Arch-Bishoprick of York and persuade the King That he could reconcile his Subjects to him who was himself the greatest Cause of Grievance and the very Nusance of the Kingdom Was it of Necessity That the Hereditary Revenues of our Nation should be exhausted in Pensions to flattering Minions and Men generally of no Sence but always of no Principle Was it of Necessity That Parliament-Men should be bribed to betray their Countrey and securely lay a Tax upon our Nation in which their Poverty exempts them from being Sharers Was it of Necessity That the Ancient Church of England which had as good a Right to its Revenues as the King to his Crown should be subjected to Men of no Mercy Honour or Truth who never did nor will do a good Act unless in betraying their unjust Benefactors If this was Necessity I have another Quarrel to it as that which takes different Shapes and Appearances and is at the same time as evident at Court as an Earthquake or Inundation but as invisible in the Countrey as Money after a Tax Now a Publick Necessity unseen is the same thing as an unperceivable Whirldwind as Thunder that cannot be heard and a Tempest that cannot be felt It was nicely distinguish'd by a Judge in the Case of Ship money That there is a Necessity of preventing a Necessity and by the same Rule there is a Necessity of preventing that Necessity that may bring on Necessity But if the Matter should prove that there is little Necessity of giving and a greter Necessity of keeping the little we have and the greatest of all of not giving what we have not then I suppose that one Necessity may ballance another and so Necessity may be wholly out of the Case Now to bring the Matter home to our present Circumstances there is a Necessity of keeping a Navy for without it we export nothing of our own Growth and bring in no Money in lieu of it and get nothing as our Neighbours do by being Carriers to Europe and therefore the Wealth of the Nation cannot increase and consequently must necessarily decay There is likewise a Necessity of maintaining Men of War because generally Privateers observe no Rules of Property