Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	burrough_n	county_n	town_n	6,017	4	10.0071	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28585	The continuation of An historicall discourse of the government of England, untill the end of the reigne of Queene Elizabeth with a preface, being a vindication of the ancient way of parliaments in England / by Nath. Bacon of Grais-Inne, Esquire.	Bacon, Nathaniel, 1593-1660.; Bacon, Nathaniel, 1593-1660. Historicall and political discourse of the laws & government of England.	1651 (1651)	Wing B348; ESTC R10585	244,447	342

the Houses its true that sad Presidents have beene of later times in that kinde and so for want of due attendance Parliaments have been inforced to adjourn to prevent a worse inconvenience but these are infirmities better buried in silence then produced as Arguments of power seeing its evident that Kings themselves were no greater gainers thereby then an Angry man is by his passions It is true also that Kings may make Lords and Corporations that may send their Burgesses to the Parliament and thus the King may make as many as he will as the Pope did with the Bishops in the Councill of Trent yet cannot he unmake them when he pleases nor take the Members from the Parliament without attainder and forfeiture according to the knowne Law Neither can all these Instances prove that the Kings of England have the sole and supreame Power over the Parliament Nor did the Parliament in these times allow of any such Authority and therefore proceeded for the reforming of themselves by themselves in many particulars as the Statutes do hold forth And first in the point of Elections for an error in that is like an error in the first Concoction that spoiles the whole Nutriment they ordained that the Election of Knights shall be at the next County Court after the Writ delivered to the Sheriffe That in full Court betweene the houres of eight and nine in the morning Proclamation shall be made of the day and place of the Parliament That the Suters duely summoned and others there Present shall then proceed to the Election notwithstanding any Prayer or Commandement to the contrary That the names of the Persons elected whether present or absent they be shall be returned by Indenture betweene the Sheriffe and the Elizors and that a Clause to that end shall be added to the Writ of Summons This was enough to make the Sheriffe understand but not to obey till a penalty of one hundred pound is by other Lawes imposed upon him and a yeares imprisonment without Baile or Mainprise besides damages for false return in such Cases and the party so unduely returned Fined and deprived of all the wages for his service Thus the manner of Election is reduced but the Persons are more considerable For hitherto any man of English blood promiscuously had right to give or receive a Vote although his residency were over the wide World But the Parliament in the time of Henry the Fifth reduced these also whether they were such as did chuse or were chosen unto their proper Counties or else rendered them uncapable to Vote or serve for any County And the like Order was made for the Burroughs Viz. That no Person must serve for any City or Burrough nor give Vote in Electing such as shall serve for that Towne unlesse they be both Free and Resiants within that City or Burrough A Law no lesse wholsome then seasonable For the times of Henry the Fourth had taught men to know by experience That a King that hath Souldiers scattered over the Kingdome can easily sway the County-Courts and make Parliaments for their owne tooth Yet this was not enough For all Elizors though of the meanest sort yet are still able to doe as much hurt with their Vote as those of the best sort both for wisedome and publique minde can doe good by theirs This made Elections much subject to parties and confusions and rendered the Parliament much lesse considerable A remedy hereunto is provided in the minority of Henry the Sixth Viz. That no man should give his Vote in Elections in the County unlesse he hath forty shillings yearely in Free Lands or Tenements and this is to be testified upon Oath of the Party And more plainly it is ordered within two yeares after that each Elizor shall have Frank Tenement of that vallue within the same County And thus the Freemen yeilded up their liberty of Election to the Free-holders possibly not knowing what they did Neverthelesse the Parliament well knew what they did this change was no lesse good then great For first these times were no times for any great measure of Civility The Preface of the Statute shewes that the meanest held himself as good a man as the greatest in the Countrey and this tended to parties tumults and bloodshed Secondly where the multitude prevaile the meaner sort are upon the upper hand and these generally ignorant cannot judge of Persons nor Times but being for the most part led by Faction or Affection rather then by right Understanding make their Elections and thereby the Generall Councell of this Nation lesse generous and noble Thirdly there is no lesse equity in the change then policy for what can be more reasonable then that those men onely should have their Votes in Election of the Common Councell of the Kingdome whose Estates are chargeable with the publique Taxes and Assessements and with the wages of those persons that are chosen for the publique Service But above all the rest this advancing of the Free-holders in this manner of Election was beneficiall to the Free-men of England although perchance they considered not thereof and this will more clearly appeare in the consideration of these three particulars First it abated the power of the Lords and great men who held the inferiour sort at their Devotion and much of what they had by their Vote Secondly it rendered the body of the people more brave for the advancing of the Free-holder above the Free-man raiseth the spirit of the meaner sort to publique regards and under a kinde of Ambition to aspire unto the degree of a Free-holder that they may be some what in the Common-wealth and thus leaving the meanest rank sifted to the very branne they become lesse considerable and more subject to Coercive power whiles in the mean time the Free-holder now advanced unto the degree of a Yeoman becomes no lesse carefull to maintain correspondency with the Lawes then he was industrious in the attaining of his degree Thirdly by this means now the Law makes a separation of the inferiour Clergy and Cloystered people from this service wherein they might serve particular ends much but Rome much more For nothing appeareth but that these dead Persons in Law were neverthelesse Fsee-men in Fact and lost not the liberty of their Birth-right by entering into Religion to become thereby either Bond or no Free-Members of the people of England Lastly as a binding plaister above the rest First a Negative Law is made that the Persons elected in the County must not be of the degree of a Yeoman but of the most noted Knights Esquires or Gentlemen of the Countrey which tacitely implies that it was too common to advance those of the meaner sort whether by reason of the former wasting times Knights and Esquires were grown scant in number or by reason of their rudenesse in account Or it may be the Yeomanry grew now to feel their strength and meant not to be further