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	year_n	10,409	5	4.7494	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85814	The loyal citizen revived. A speech made by Alderman Garroway, at a common-hall, On Tuesday the 17. of January, 1642 upon occasion of a speech delivered there the Friday before, by Mr. Pym, at the reading of His Majesties Answer to the late petition.	Garraway, Henry, Sir, 1575-1646.	1679 (1679)	Wing G279; ESTC R224613	7,960	4

The Loyal Citizen Revived A SPEECH MADE BY Alderman Garroway AT A COMMON-HALL On Tuesday the 17. of January 1642. Vpon occasion of a Speech delivered there the Friday before by Mr. Pym at the reading of His Majesties Answer to the late Petition BEfore we enter upon the business of the day I must in discharge of my duty speak freely to you of the last days work which lies so heavy upon us that if we find not some way to free our selves of the scandal and dishonour of that day farewel the reputation of this Council and of this City We sent a Petition lately to His Majesty by six worthy Members of this Court if you will believe them they received a very gracious answer back from His Majesty and if you will believe most wise men they brought a very gracious answer back from His Majesty with directions by a Servant of His own that the same should be communicated to the whole City from whom the Petition was presumed to be sent a circumstance as gracious as the matter itself See now how we have requited him His Messenger stays ten days at the least before we can vouchsafe to speak with him whereas ours stayed not an hour for admission to His Majesty and but a day for an answer Upon the receipt of our Petition His Majesty spake very graciously of the City very affectionately of the most considerable part of it when his answer is read an answer I must tell you worth another manner of debate Strangers are admitted to make bitter invective Speeches against it and the King that sent it Whilst no honest Citizen who have only right to speak here durst speak his Conscience for fear of having his Throat cut as he went home Think Gentlemen what an encouragement we have given His Majesty to Treat and Correspond with us whilst he is thus used I am far from undervaluing both or either House of Parliament I have been often a Member of the House of Commons and know well my duty to it but though their Priviledges are infinitely grown and enlarged since that time I hope they have not swallowed up all other mens though they are the great Council and Court of the Kingdom yet there are other Councils and Courts too what do we else here And though they have a great liberty of Language within their own Walls I never heard that they might speak what they list in other places In my time when there was any occasion to use the City as often there was the Lord Mayor or Aldermen or some trusted by them were sent for to attend either House but for Members of either or both Houses to come hither and be present at Our Councils and govern here by Priviledg of Parliament was never heard of till of late you will say t is a great honour to us that those Worthies take the pains to come to us when they might send for us it may be an honour too great for us to bear and truly I believe it hath been so chargeable to us that we ought not to be ambitious of such honour Mr. Pym who hath been a very costly Orator to us told us and his Speech is since Printed for our honour too to shew how tame a people we are that there were many things in that answer of great aspersion upon the proceedings of Parliament and so forth Truly I know no such thing if we Petitioned for Peace we were to expect His Majesty would tell us by what means that Peace came to be disturbed and then prescribe us a means for our reparation If any mans guilt hath made himself concerned in it though he be not named he is his own Accuser He told us that there was no occasion given by any Tumults which might justly cause His Majesties departure and this he said was the opinion of both Houses and his proof was because His Majesty came into the City without a Guard and Dined at the Sheriffs next day after his coming to the House of Commons and returned back again to White-Hall where he stayed some days I am willing to believe both Houses as far as I am able and if they had declared that it had been lawful to beat the King out of Town I must have sate still with wonder but when they declare to us matter of Fact which is equally within our own knowledg and wherein we cannot be deceived they must pardon me if I differ from them If they should declare that they have paid us all the Mony they owe us or that there is no Cross standing in Cheapside could we believe them Why Gentlemen neither of these is better known to us than that there were such Tumults at Westminster as might very well make the King think himself in danger We all well remember what excellent company flocked by White-Hall every day for a week before the King went to the House of Commons and for His coming to the Guild-Hall the next day when he did us so much honour to vouchsafe us so particular satisfaction and came without a Guard to shew how much He trusted in our Duty and Affection I pray God the deceiving that Trust may never rise in Judgment against this City we too well remember the rude carriage of many people to Him as He went to the Sheriffs to Dinner which was not so much as reprehended by any Officer and we all know what passed the night following when an Alarm was given that there was an attempt from White-Hall upon the City and so all men put into sudden Arms and if by the great industry and dexterity of our good Lord Mayor Sir Richard Gurney that Hubbub had not been appeased God knows what might have followed if you will belive some men they will tell you the Design of those who gave that Alarm was no less than to pull down White-Hall There is no question but there was cause enough for His Majesty to remove from White-Hall and how quietly he stayed after at Hampton-Court and at Windsor cannot be forgotten not to speak of the Army by Land and Water which accompanied the Persons Accused to Westminster the next day after His Majesties remove I think the danger of which was so great that no honest man could have wished the King had run the hazard of it by staying His Majesty seems to be sensible that the Government of this City is now submitted to the Arbitrary Power of a few desperate persons to which this Gentleman gave us this Testimony from both Houses that we had in most of the great occasions concerning the Government of the City followed their direction Troth Gentlemen would they had furnished us with a better Answer Have we our Charter by the Grace and Favour of the two Houses or by the Goodness of the King Have we those Priviledges with Foraign Princes by which many here have gotten such Estates by the power of the Houses or by the Protection of the King Why should

we then govern the City by direction of both Houses I am not willing to speak slightly of any persons gotten into Authority only we may say there be some amongst us we did not think two years ago to have met here and yet we were wont to see an Alderman coming a dozen year off I cannot tell what you mean by Arbitrary power but I am sure we are governed by nothing we were used to be governed by I have been Lord Mayor my self in a pleasanter time than this and should have some share still in the Government before God I have no more Authority in the City than a Porter not so much as an Aldermanbury Porter If to be Governed by People whose Authority we know not and by Rules which no body ever heard of or can know be a sign of Arbitrary Power we have as much of it as heart can wish To the Kings charge of our Contributing for the maintenance of the Army which had given Him Battel we were told that diverse practices were made against the Parliament before they made any preparation for their defence By practices I think they mean Fears and Jealousies for all the particulars mentioned by Him we know and are understood by all the Boys in the street but we are sure there were Ten thousand men Raised and Armed out of this Town and the Neighbour Counties before the King had seven hundred To the danger that the Kings Person was in at the thought whereof every honest heart trembles the Gentleman told us they were sorry for it I dare not tell you what I think their sorrow was But Masters if you knew how much your Estates and Being depends upon the life and safety of our good King you would no sooner apprehend Him in danger than you would run to His rescue as you would fly from the Plague and Beggery But that reproach of maintaining the Kings Children here I confess made my heart rise I hope it did so to many here Is our good King fallen so low that His Children must be kept for Him it is worth our enquiry who brought Him to that condition We hear Him complain that all his own Revenue is seized and taken from Him Is not His Exchequer Court of Wards Mint here his Customs too are worth somwhat and are His Children kept upon Alms How shall we and our Children prosper if this be not remedied They will by no means endure that His Majesty be obeyed in the apprehension of the Lord Mayor and the other three Gentlemen for it is the sense of both Houses that this demand is against the Priviledg of Parliament and most dishonourable to the City For the first I dare not speak my mind though I must confess my self not able to answer the Kings reasons in many of His Declarations upon that point but for the second under the favour of both Houses whether it be dishonourable for the City whether it be fit be done or no we are the best indeed we are the only Judges I will take the liberty to speak freely my Conscience in this Case as a friend to Justice as a lover of these men and as a Servant to the City and as all these I protest to God if I were now Lord Mayor and the other three were my Father and my Brothers I would satisfie the King in this point Did His Majesty ask to have them put to death meerly upon His Accusation or have them sent bound hand and foot to Oxford where it might be in his power to proceed against them in an extraordinary way it might seem unreasonable but to apprehend them to keep them in safe custody that His Majesty may proceed against them according to the known Laws under which they were born and bred where if guilty they must be left to the Justice of the Law and His Majesties mercy if innocent will receive an honourable acquittal seems to me so just in the King to ask and so necessary for us to yield to that the denying it implies a doubt in us of the Innocence of those whom we will not submit to Justice Here is a way to find out the Kings Evil Counsellors If these men do their part like men of good Consciences submit to the Tryal of the Law which is the only Judg of Guilt and Innocence and are found clear from that heavy charge His Majesty accuses them of how gloriously will these men live hereafter and the King cannot refuse to deliver those up who have wickedly conspired the destruction of honest men but if we shall only cry out that the King is misinformed and dare not trust our selves upon a Tryal we may preserve our safety but we shall lose our reputation Thus much for Justice for the Gentlemens sakes now This way you see a way to honour and safety too if there be innocence but do you think after a months longer enduring the miseries which are now upon us men will not more importunately and impatiently enquire after the causes of their sufferings if they shall find that the denyal to give up four men who it may be are not of any known merit too to be Tryed by the Law being accused of High Treason and conspiring to take away the Kings life incensed our Gracious King against us and kept him from being amongst us whereby our Trade decays and such violences and outrages are every day committed I say can any four men bear the burthen of this envy and malice Will not some stout bold persons incensed and made desperate by their and the common sufferings tear these men in pieces We have been all young men and Apprentices let us remember the spirit was then amongst us would we have suffered all our hopes to have been blasted and destroyed by any four or fourteen men Let us not flatter our selves there is the same courage still in the City which at some time will break out to the ruine of more than these men but I thank that Worthy that told us that it is against the Rules of Justice that any men should be imprisoned upon a general Charge when no particulars are proved against them How insensibly in other mens cases do we accuse our selves why how many of us within these six months have been committed upon a general Charge How many persons of Honor and Reputation are now imprisoned in this Town when particulars are so far from being proved against them that they are not so much as suggested Was ever any Charge so general as to be a Malignant or Cavalier yet you hear all such imprisonments are against the Rules of Justice my opinion is that for Justice sake for the Cities sake for their own sakes these four men should quietly submit themselves to the Tryal of the Law if they refuse that they be delivered up to the hands of Justice Mr. Pym told us there was no proof that my Lord Mayor and the other persons named were countenancers of Brownists