Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	9,166	5	4.4099	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38371	England must pay the piper being a seasonable discourse about raising of money this session : in a letter to a member of the honourable House of Commons.		1691 (1691)	Wing E2935; ESTC R27351	9,757	9

ENGLAND Must Pay the Piper BEING A SEASONABLE DISCOURSE ABOUT Raising of Money this SESSION In a Letter to a Member of the Honourable House of Commons SIR ACcording to your commands I waited upon Sir R. W. at his return from the Country and discoursed him concerning the matter you gave me in charge about raising of mony this Session of Parliament and found him so prepared to give me satisfaction therein that he had Writ a small Tract on that Subject which he was so Obliging to lend to me to Transcribe which I here send you without any Alteration he having designed it for a member of Parliament and it is as followeth Sir I Think it past Dispute that there is not one man of an hundred who would in any manner have contributed to this Revolution if they could have foreseen that thereby we should have been engaged in so durable expensive and destructive a War in Defence of the Dutch and other Confederates not only to the eternal Scandal of our Loyalty Religion Honesty Justice Honour and Morality but to the Waste and Consumption of our Stores of Arms and Ammunition the Loss of our Ships and Men the Inundation of Foreign Force to the very enslaving the Nation to their Interest Councils and Conduct and the utter beggering of our selves by the Decay of Traffick and insupportable Taxes Yet all this might have been more patiently born if we had found a sincere and cordial Prosecution of the glorious Ends which were pretended of a full Enjoyment of our Christian and Civil Liberties and Properties as true free-born Englishmen which were suggested as things invaded in the late Reign to be taken special care of How far we have been disappointed in these particulars may be the subject of another Discourse resolving at present to confine my self onely to the Question about raising of Money Since my going into the Countrey I have sadly experienced to what Indigences the Farmers and Tenants are reduced by the Decay of Trade the Lowness of the Markets in Corn Cattel and Wool the Squeezing of their Purses to the utmost Mite by successive and redoubled Polls and Taxes the Haraffing the whole Militia of the Kingdom to the Expence of more than two Poll-bills more when the Council knew full well that the French Fleet had no Land-men on board to make a descent to which may be added the universal Pressing of Labourers and Servants whereby necessary Hands were wanting for Tillage and Harvest From hence it is that we can neither get our Rents nor the Countrey men Money for their necessary subsistence In this their deplorable Condition they are almost sunk into despair at the Intelligence given them of a Debt of four or five Millions yet remaining after the six Millions paid by them or raised out of the Revenue and that this must necessarily be advanced this Session besides a Fund of three Millions more the next Spring for the ensuing Campaign You very well know that it was the expectation of the Commonalty of the Kingdom that at the last Meeting of the Parliament they would have perfected the Bill of Commission of Enquiry for the Money already given how it had been expended Your Fellow Commoners challenge at your hands a satisfaction in this particular before you give a farther Supply and this with the strictest Examination And since we are so inclinable to pursue Dutch Councils and espouse their Interest it is but reasonable we should likewise imitate their Constitution especially in this particular of Raising Money not to determine it before the Commons as their States do in the Affairs of greatest Moment consult and obtain the Approbation of all the Counties Cities and Burroughs which if ever at this Juncture is most requisite and would be the greatest Instance of the People's true Liberty that ever had been granted by any of our Kings in confirmations of our Magna Charta This they judge the more reasonable and just because it is every where bruited that the Officers both at Sea and Land especially the English are nine or eleven Months in Arrears of Pay I have it from a Captain who served in Ireland under all the Hardships of Duke Schomberg's Campaign that when they arrived at Dublin they had but three Months Pay of thirteen then owing to them with a Complement that they should stay there to spend it Besides this we are told of the vast Summs owing for Money taken up at Bankrupts Interest and for Provisions also of Ammunition taken up on Credit at excessive Rates and farther I am told that if we had not seized the Swedish Ships laden with Masts Pitch Tar and Materials for Cordage we could not out of our exhausted Stores have rigged out our Fleet at this Season when it was well known how infinitely provided it was two years since Farthermore the Common Soldiers make a general Complaint that they scarcely have had subsistence Money whereby they have been necessitated either to take free quarter or rob and pilfer or over-awe their Hosts to take what they would please to give them though some are so good natured as to pawn their Coats and Hats for Bread and Drink All which conduceth to the farther impoverishing of the Countrey It must indeed be owned that it may be thro' a politic Design the Officers are thus treated whereby they may be kept in a stricter dependence on the Government for fear lest if they should quit the Service they might lose their Arrears and many dying by Sickness or Battel will save the publick so much as is owing to them for I believe you can find few Instances that any Heirs or Executors Widows or Orphans were better for the Legacies of Arrears either left by Officers or Common Soldiers or Seamen Upon the whole I find that many inquisitive and judicious Persons calculating the Income of the Exchequer and the Expence are of opinion that there is no reason for such Arrears but think it demonstrable that either there is some secret Agreement which must be concealed from the Nation to furnish the Confederates with Summs of Money from hence or that the foreign Troops are better paid than the English or that by Combination Treasures are hoarded up by our Ministers of State for a comfortable Subsistence against a Storm It hath ever been the care as it is the Duty of the House of Commons to supply the publick Wants of the Government with Money proportionable to the necessities of Affairs But withall they have been carefull in all Kings Reigns to see that the Money so given was truly expended for those ends for which it was given And they have stifly denied Supplies till they were satisfied in the necessity and with the publick Emolument which was like to accrew to the Common-wealth by such Expence and have been allways carefull to avoid foreign Councils and Forces from having Influence over the Government And when upon weighty Considerations they have thought it expedient to give Money