London hath anciently been commended for and summes it all up in Sir Edward Cooks words who cals it the Chamber of the King the Heart of the Common-wealth the Epitome of the Kingdome All this wee grant and blesse God for onely wee desire that this place which hee cals the heart of the Common-wealth may never bee sick at the heart of those diseases and distempers which such members thereof as himself strive to breed and to cherish in it But now hee comes to prove his Proofes to wit that they enjoy these their Priviledges de Jure as given and bestowed on them not usurped by them and those priviledges hee tels you are these two First To have the power to choose their own chiefe Governour and subordinate Officers among themselves Secondly To have also the power to make such Laws which are or shall bee for their own welfare and best accommodation For proofe of the first of these which is the Cities power in choosing their own chiefe Governour and subordinate Officers among themselves hee produceth many Charters granted in the time of Richard the first King John Edward the second and Henry the eighth as you may see in his book at large I must confesse it is a fine and easie thing to prove what no body denies onely let mee observe thus much from his proofes if the City can prove they have a power by Charter to choose their own chiefe Governour the Lord Major as I do not deny but they may yet ought they by that Charter and are bound when they doe choose to choose a Lord Major indeed and not a Sword-bearer in stead of a Lord Major I say they ought to choose themselves a Lord Major and therefore to grant him the power of a Lord Major to dispose of the Sword that is given him according to his best ability and understanding for the good of the City but not to choose him to bee no more then the City Sword-bearer to lay down his Sword in Common-Counsell when they list and not to take it up againe till they will give him leave as Mr. Bellamy would have it to bee although they should injoyn him to sit all day or all night hee being never so old weak and unable to sit or never so much tyred with impertinences and such frothy speeches as this is or though hee hath never so much necessary occasion to use the same Sword at the same time either in the Court of Aldermen the seat of Justice or else-where for the necessary good and safety of the City The next Priviledge of the City that hee goes about to prove is that they have also the power to make such Laws as shall bee for their own welfare and best accommodation And this hee proves by the Charter of Edward the third in the fifteenth year of his Reigne where indeed hee draws a knife to cut his own throat for I doe not know how hee could have pickt out any Charter which doth invest the Lord Major and Aldermen with a negative voyce and put the power of making Laws into their hands more then this Charter of Edward the third I will relate the Charter it self in Mr. Bellamies own words it runs thus Wee have granted further for us and our Heires and by this our present Charter confirmed to the Major and Aldermen of the City aforesaid That if any Customes in the said City hither to obtained and used bee in any part difficult or defective or any thing in the same newly happening where before there was no remedy ordained and have need of amending the same Major and Aldermen and their Successed with the assent of the Commonalty of the same City may adde 〈◊〉 ordaine a remedy meet faithfull and consonant to Reason for the common prâ—sâ— of the Citizens of the same City as oft and at such time as to them shall bee thought expedient Wee will consider in this Charter but two things First to whom the Charter itselfe is confirmed Secondly how the power of this Charter must bee used First to whom it is confirmed it speaks plainly that it is granted to the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City without so much as naming any interest that the Commons have in the grant of it Whence I conclude that the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London were thought fit by the same King that granted this Charter to bee intrusted with the absolute power of the Charter to use it for the Cities Good even as Counsell is given to the Head to use for the benefit of the whole body Secondly Wee are to observe how the power of this Charter which is the power of making Laws must bee used Read the words of the Charter and they tell you thus The Lord Major Aldermen and their Successors have a power thereby given them to make or mend what Laws they see necessary with the assent of the Commoners From whence it will necessarily follow that the Active power of making Laws nay of proposing Laws otherwise then by way of Counsell rests wholly in the hands of the Lord Major and Aldermen and no more power is left in the Commoners but to assent or to dissent from those Laws that shall seem good to bee made by the Lord Major and Aldermen and by their assent to ratifie or by their dissent to hinder them So that now where lies the Negative voyce If the Commoners in regard of the greatnesse of their number shall out-vote the Lord Major and Aldermen which at all times they easily may and thereupon undertake to make or mend a Law then is the very Charter it self absolutely and apparently broken For it doth not say wee have granted to the Commons that by the consent of the greater part of the Common-Councell nor yet by the consent of the Lord Major and Aldermen much lesse without their consent that they to wit the Commoners shall have power to make or mend a Law But it faith wee have granted to the Lord Major and Aldermen to make the Law by consent of the Commoners So that it must needs follow that the Lord Major and Aldermen must either use their power to the making of a Law or else let the Commons consent what they will though they have a power to consent they have no power by consenting to make a Law And I would faine know whether that Law can bee said truely to bee made by the Lord Major Aldermen and their Successors which is onely carryed by the Plurality of the voyces of the Commoners and thereupon made though contrary to the consent of the Lord Major and Aldermen as Mr. Bellamy would have them to bee and I would fain know whether the proper meaning of this Charter must not needs bee thus that the Lord Major and Aldermen who being chosen by the City are intrusted with the care and charge of the welfare of the same shall have therefore power to make or mend Laws for the Cities good onely
this must bee done with the Commons consent that is the Laws that are proposed by the Lord Major and Aldermen shall not passe without the consent of the major part of the Commonalty which in such cases are alwaies put for the whole And this is all the Priviledge the Commoners can glean out of this Charter I confesse I do not see that wee need any more to prove the negative voyces of the Lord Major and Aldermen that they do of right and necessity belong to them then this very Charter which First is granted to them alone without so much as naming the Commons and secondly placeth the power of making or mending a Law in them onely giving the Commoners no more power then is now granted them which is either to assent or dissent when a Law is proposed as I said before I conclude this first head in Mr. Bellamies own words When I seriously consider what Priviledges are thus granted to this City I know nothing wanting to them if they bee not wanting to themselves to make them happy that is if this power of making or mending Laws thus placed by Charter in the hands of those who are chosen by and intrusted with the care of the City bee still continued in its own proper place But if the Commoners will usurpe this power contrary to Charter into their owne hands and make their head a head of clouts if they then suffer at the present by having such Laws made as shall bee set up by faction not wisdome and if they suffer hereafter by the severity of future Princes which may perhaps deny them the lawfull use of those Charters which they have thus abused they may thank themselves and such instruments of their suffering as Mr. Bellamy is and I therefore pray God give you grace as Mr. Bellamy saith wisely and humbly to make use of them I come now to the second head or to the second thing handled which is this Who are the proper Recipients of those priviledges or to whom the power of using and maintaining those priviledges and favours granted to us by our Royall Kings of England is committed And in this Head hee tells you hee hath two things to speak to 1. To shew to whom these priviledges have been granted 2. To prove by whom these priviledges have been practised And here I must tell you this Argument deales like Hocus Pocus that swallows hurds and spits fire it repeats of the former Charters enough to choake it self but that it spits desperate conclusions from them Desperate conclusions I call them in two respects first because they are contradictory secondly because they are false First I say they are contradictory hee contradicteth himself in them hee tels you p. 9. in these words If you take a Survey of all the Charters granted to this City since the date of that grant of King John to this day which are very many they all run thus or to this effect To the Major Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of London or To the Major and Commonalty of the City of London and yet in the very same page nay the same clause of that sentence reciting the Charter of Edward the second in the twelfth of his Reigne hee tels you That that Charter leaves a certain power in making and amoving Sheriffes and some other City Officers wholly to the pleasure of the Commonalty without any reference to the Major and Aldermen So that you see how plainly hee contradicts himselfe hee tels you first That all Charters that ever were made run thus viz. To the Major Aldermen and Commonalty And yet hee recites a Charter in the very next words where hee labours to exclude both the Major and Aldermen In the next place I am to prove his Conclusions drawn from these Charters are false which I shall do by proving two things First That hee falsely interprets the Charters themselves Secondly Hee argues falsely from his owne Interpretations First Hee falsely interprets the Charters recited by himselfe as In that Charter of Edward the second which hee saith is made to the Commons onely without reference to the Major and Aldermen his Interpretation there is false for that very Charter cannot but have a reference as well to them as to the Commoners And that appeares by the words of the Charter which are these That the Major and Sheriffes may bee chosen by the Citizens of the said City as Mr. Bellamy relates the Charter in his Book p. 5. the latter end Now it cannot bee denyed but the Major and Aldermen are Citizens of the City of London and the principall of them as Mr. Bellamy confesseth if therefore the power of that Election bee granted in generall termes to the Citizens of London though the Lord Major and Aldermen bee not exprest in that Charter as there was no need they should yet they are necessarily included because they are Citizens and so that very Charter contrary to Mr. Bellamies opinion hath reference to the Major and Aldermen Secondly Hee argues falsely from his own interpretations for Mr. Bellamy from this Charter thus interpreted argues or rather concludes two things in the very next words First That it is cleare that in the City Priviledges the Commoners have an equall share with the Lord Major and Aldermen Secondly That if there bee any difference the advantage is to the Commons Let us see how these will follow If wee should take it for granted that in choosing some City Officers the Lord Major and Aldermen are by Charter excluded which notwithstanding is absolutely false and can never bee proved as I have already shewed yet if it were true a very little Logick will tell us Syllogizari non est ex particulari It is no good Argument that shall conclude that because the Commoners have a right to this Priviledge by Charter which is onely the choosing of the Major Sheriffes and some City Officers that therefore they have a right to all nor will it follow that because the Lord Major and Aldermen have not a negative voyee in the choosing of some City Officers but the Commons have a power in themselves to do it without them that therefore the Lord Major and Aldermen have no negative voyce in the making of Lawes when the Charter of Edward the third plainly gives it them I shall desire you to take a little notice what a grosse slur hee puts upon you here First Hee tels you that all the Charters run thus To the Major Aldermen and Commons Secondly Hee brings you a Charter cleane contrary in the next words which hee takes to bee made only to the Commons without reference to the Major and Aldermen Thirdly Hee grounds from that Charter and all the rest 1. An equality that is between the Major Aldermen and Commons 2. If there bee any difference the advantage is to the Commons First Hee saith the Commons have an equall share with the Lord Major and Aldermen in City Priviledges because all Charters
in the Commons or else there is lesse integrity in the Lord Major and Aldermen to passe such Laws for the Cities good then there is in the Commons Till one or both of these bee prov'd I shall give this Objection no further Answer His second Argument is that by this meanes the City would fall into a remedilesse way of Ruine and hee instanceth in the case of Sir Richard Gurneys standing out against the just desires and commands of the Parliament I shall throw his own Instance at his head and beat him with his last weapon In the case of Sir Richard Gurney I would fain know how the City fell into a remedilesse way of ruine When it was found that Sir Richard Gurney was a man uncordiall and unfaithfull to the Parliaments Service was hee not presently apprehended removed and committed by Authority of the same Parliament and was not the City soon reduced from this remedilesse way of ruine and a faithfull and active Lord Major placed in his roome And doe you not think it would happen so again either in the Lord Major or Aldermen if they should not bee men of that integrity which is expected would the Parliament think you sit still and look on and provide the City no Remedy Away then for shame with such senselesse Arguments See his own book p. 16. l. 17. and let us heare no more of your sitting still and sighing with your fingers in your Eyes and cannot tell what you would have which are Arguments fitter for a childe to begge Plums with then a Common-Councell man Priviledges But next hee tels you what hee hath done all this while what hee hath fully and clearely proved both by Charters and by Practice I shall give it you in his own words They are these That the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons conjunctim and not either alone as separated or dis-junct from the other are the proper recipients of those Grants and Priviledges which our Royall Kings have in their bounty and favour invested this City with And hath hee rais'd all this dust spent all this time and matter to prove this I know no body that offers to deny it him for my part I have already granted and will not now recall that the proper Recipients of the City Priviledges are the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons conjunctim that is joyntly but not equally as the Lord Major and Aldermen may bee joyned with the Commons in one Commission and yet have a greater power then they by vertue of the same Commission or the Commons may have joynt Right with the Lord Major and Aldermen to the City Charters that is to the benefit that is received by them yet the power of acting and exercising those Charters may bee intrusted in the Lord Major and Aldermen as I have shewed before But here I must tell you what I may well feare lest Mr. Bellamy in this claim made to usurpe the Rights of the Lord Major and Aldermen doe not sin against knowledge My reason is because if you compare but two things what before hee said hee would prove and what here hee saith hee hath proved you will finde hee doth acknowledge a weaknesse in his own Arguments that they cannot make good what hee would have them For Example read p. 9. lin 24. and pag. 11. lin 1. of his book and in those hee tels you hee will make cleare First That the Commons have equall share with the Lord Major and Aldermen in City priviledges Secondly That if there bee any advantage it is to the Commons Thirdly That the Lord Major and Aldermen have no more negative voyce tâ—en the inferiour members of the Court. These things hee undertakes to prove and yet when hee hath brought all the Arguments hee can to prove them hee concludes his Arguments in the last line of the 16. and beginning of the 17. page by telling you that hee hath proved what First Hee doth not say hee hath proved That the Commons have an equall share with the Lord Major and Aldermen in City priviledges Secondly Hee doth not say there that hee hath proved any advantage to the Commons Thirdly Hee doth not say hee hath proved any thing at all to take away the Lord Major and Aldermens negative voyce All that hee saith hee hath proved is that the City priviledges belong to the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons joyntly which is no more then wee grant whence I conclude thus much That Mr. Bellamy at first would have proved those things which hee undertook to prove with all his heart but finding when hee had brought in all his Arguments they were too weak to prove what hee would have though hee said hee would prove them at first yet hee dares not say hee hath proved them at last but faith onely hee hath proved a joynt share that the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons have in City priviledges which for my part never was or shall bee denyed him But for all this though hee dares not say hee hath proved what hee undertook and if hee should say so no wise man would beleeve him yet hee layes as hard claim to the same Priviledges as if hee had proved all before him which makes mee feare hee sins against knowledge for to indevour by violence to gain what a man cannot make good his right unto is a plain sin of covetousnesse and against knowledge And now with a faire glozing conclusion having thus prepared a Pill hee tryes to make it work It is a Linsey-wolsey-conclusion and the last part spoyles the first In the first part hee tells your Lordship hee honours you with your Brethren hee acknowledgeth you to bee the Cities Head and that in eclipsing your Honour they wound themselves I would fain know if any man will beleeve this when First The honour hee gives you is to pull you downe from being so high as your own Rights and Charters have made you and to make your Lordships power in a Common-councell no more then the youngest and meanest Commoner who hath a voyce as well nay as good as your Lordship if your negative voyce bee once taken away Secondly Hee tels you hee acknowledgeth you under his Majesty to bee head of this City and yet the head must not have a negative voyce to whatsoever the members will have done Thirdly Hee tels you that if they should goe about to Eclipse your Honour they would wound themselves when how can hee goe more about to Eclipse your honour nay to destroy it then hee doth by leaving you in a Common-councell but the name of a Lord Major but making you a Commoner onely like himselfe When 1. you shall have no more power of the Sword when you have laid it down you shall not take it up till hee please 2. When you shall have no more power or voyce in Common-councell then the meanest Commoner that sits with you But wee are not yet come to the snake that lies hid in this grasse that appeares in
Divide impera divide and rule I grant it is their maxime but I conceive it is meant rather of such a Division as hee goes now about to make in the City by setting the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons together by the ears under pretence of Charters Priviledges and I know not what such a Division as this will make for the enemies advantage and not an orderly Division of the City into head and members Hee tels you that the God of unity the Charters of the City and constitution of the Court of Common-councell makes you one Still I answer it is one Body not one Head And now hee saith hee wants words to expresse his sorrow hee might have added as hee wants Arguments to make good his claime Hee tels you the Commons stand ready with stretcht out armes to embrace you and therefore you must afford them like mutuall embraces What 's meant by that The Commons stretch out their armes would have you rise from your seats of distinction and order and come and incorporate your selves into them and bee no greater or rather lower then they this hee meanes by their embraces and you on the other hand must doe so and that is his mutuall embraces And now hee Conjures you in the Apostles words If therefore there bee any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies in you What then that you would grant their just desires That is doe them Justice right or wrong secondly In love and peace to settle and estate them in their Rights and Dues and under that pretence settle and estate them in your Rights and Dues and lastly to bee of the same minde with them hee meanes to give away your own Rights and Priviledges because they would have it so and then Oh quam bonum jucundum Oh how good and pleasant a thing is it for Brethren thus to live together in unity And here hee brings a fresh supply of Arguments which hee hath all this while kept in reserve I must tell him it is high time to bring them out if not too late for his other are quite routed First That as you are the head and Governours of this City What of that you therefore ought to continue so and not misplace the Government committed to your charge in the hands of others Secondly As you are bound by severall sacred Oaths viz. You shall maintain the Customes of the City which you cannot doe by letting goe your Negative voyces Thirdly As you tender the welfare and Liberties of your posterity which bindes you not to give from them what you cannot give to them again that is the very life and glory of the City which is their Priviledges But hee forbeares and so will I and joyn issue with him in closing up all with the same City History upon Record which hee himself relates beseeching you to consider seriously of it and to make such application of it as wisdome it selfe shall dictate to you The Story is this In the yeere 1389. William Vennor Major and John Walcut and John Lony Sheriffes with the then Aldermen who all by name stand blemisht upon Record that for the errors defects and misprisions in their Government they were fined at 3000 marks and the City Liberties seised on by the King can you imagine that ever any water or Aqua fortis will wash and weare off this obloquy and reproach from them no nor the like obloquy and reproach or a greater from you when for a worse fault then mis-government I mean for not government at all but resigning your own power and trust into the hands of others it shall fall heavy upon you Consider on the other hand what the wisest of Kings will tell you that a good name is better then oyntment better then the daubing flatteries of Mr. Bellamy But suffer mee to give you notice that this good name will scarce belong or bee given to you If for your lasting fame but lasting shame it shall stand upon Record to after ages when wee are dead and gone That in Anno 1645. when the Right Honourable Thomas Atkin was Lord Major the Right Worshipfull William Gibbs and Richard Chambers were Sheriffes and that learned and able Lawyer and Patriot of his Countries Libertie John Glynn was Recorder and such and such worthy Knights and Gentlemen all which men will very hardly beleeve you to bee by such an action were Aldermen that then as Diogenes prophecyed of the world the City was turned upside down the head was laid lower then the feet The Antipodes of Government was placed in the Commoners and then by your assistance and consent London I say the Commonalty of London was not restored but invested not to their but with your for ever lost Liberties and Priviledges Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Dare you deny that there wants either so much wisdome in the Lord Major and Aldermen that they know not when the Court is full of necessary businesse and so requires their stay or when the Court is burdened with Impertinent long-winded senselesse Arguments and is therefore fit to bee dissolved or adjourned Or will you tye the Lord Major and Aldermen though never so weary by reason of their great age and perhaps other bodily infirmities not to rise from Common-Counsell till you will give him leave unlesse you will doe this your Arguments may indeed make good that it is fit the Lord Major should see necessary businesse effected for the Cities good in convenient time but can never prove that hee must therefore sit as long as you would have him I come now to the last Observation which in the third place I must speak unto and that is this What reason Mr. Bellamy had that because this his first unreasonable motion took no effect hee should thereupon indevour to presse a second of farre worse consequence then the former Which was as I conceive just none at all that because my Lord Major denyed him this motion hee must therefore in the next presse for more Me thinks Mr. Bellamy it had been enough for you to have said My Lord Major was to blame that would not hearken to so wise a man and a motion so like himselfe nor throw the City Charters at your feet to bee mended he was an obstinate perverse untoward man to maintain his and the City Priviledges when Mr. Bellamy had mov'd to have them given away But for you upon the deny all of your first motion presently to fall upon a second farre more desperate it savours nothing in mine eye but a thirst of revenge that because my Lord Major would not give you his Sword to keep by you as long as you pleased you would therefore take it from him and cut out his tongue with it by denying him and his Brethren those negative voyces which is indeed their Right and the Cities Glory and because hee would not make your will Law you would finde out a Law to take away his will and force the head onely to act at the discretion of the members as appears by your claime to an absolute power which the Commoners themselves you say are invested with of making City Laws and choosing City Officers whether the Lord Major and Aldermen will or no if you bee more per poll then they the which you undertake in your Plea for the Commonalty of London fully to maintain and which I am now undertaking as fully as I can to Answer A FVLL ANSVVER TO THE Plea for the Commonalty of LONDON THis snarling Pamphlet Cerberus-like barks with three heads Hee tels you p. 2. that hee will for methods sake deliver what in this hee hath to speak under three heads and they are these First That this City by those favours and bounties which wee and our Predecessors have received from sundry royall Kings of England is now invested with many excellent immunities franchises and priviledges Secondly Who are the proper recipients of those favours or to whom the power of using and maintaining those favours and Priviledges granted to us by our royall Kings of England is committed Thirdly The Reasons or Arguments wherefore those persons unto whom this power is committed should carefully and conscionably maintain and use those priviledges with which they are intrusted In the first of these hee spends much time and words and hath hard travell in Records to prove what no body denies and is at last delivered of nothing but winde He speaks no more but what wee know and acknowledge and thankfully I hope imbrace as wee ought to do And truely I should not spend any time to examine this foundation there is so little in it that hee can build any thing upon onely I remember what is taught mee by the wisest of Kings * Prov. 26.5 for which cause I shall trace him step by step to shew what unjustly hee doth and what justly I may pick out of these priviledges Hee tels you for proofe of his first head Hee hath a large and pleasant field to walk in I grant it is a large and pleasant field enough if men could think it so that walk in it but it appears it is not large enough for him which makes him at this time throw up Inclosures and by intrenching upon the Rights of the Lord Major and Aldermen strive to make it larger but I shall desire him to remember Cursed is hee that removeth his Neighbours Land-mark And now hee complements out these Priviledges both with the Princes that have conferred them and the City that injoyes them not knowing saith hee whether more to magnifie the favour of the one or the happinesse of the other But here hee tels you * Men do not doe in a large field as they do in a curious garden having so large a field to walk in hee must doe men use to doe in a curious garden pluck here a flower and there an herbe which is an old cast simile threed bare in his great grand-Fathers dayes and when hee hath done the best hee can hee must leave many behinde him for want of time and skill which I confesse I much wonder at that want of time and skill should make him leave his gathering of flowers who in so bad a time and with so little skill hath notwithstanding ventured to binde up such a bundle of weeds as hee hath in this fardell And these flowers hee saith hee must leave behinde him for some more able hand to gather them I scarce beleeve hee thinks there is an abler hand in England then his own though hee would have you bear him witnesse here of a great deale of modesty that hee doth confesse it Hee tels you hee can no way east his eye but hee beholds many witnesses of the great Priviledges of this City as first that they may sit in the capacity of a Common-Counsell which is a great Priviledge I confesse but not big enough for him unlesse hee and his Brethren the Commoners alone may sit in the capacity of an absolute Court not at all regarding the presence of a Lord Major and Aldermen or at best placing them but for Cyphers there Hee acknowledgeth also the Sword that Emblem of Authority which is carryed before the Lord Major is another Argument to prove the power of the Lord Major and therein the power of the City but I must make bold here to put him in minde that if the power of the City subsist in the power of the Lord Major then to take away the power of a Negative voyce in Common-Counsell as also the power of taking up the Sword when hee shall see time from the Lord Major is even to take away the power of the City which by his own confession is placed in the head thereof the Lord Major Hee shews you next what