Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	able_a	account_n	affair_n	17	3	7.0721	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59752	A discourse of the rise & power of parliaments, of law's, of courts of judicature, of liberty, property, and religion, of the interest of England in reference to the desines of France, of taxes and of trade in a letter from a gentleman in the country to a member in Parliament.	Sheridan, Thomas, 1646-ca. 1688.	1677 (1677)	Wing S3225; ESTC R16270	94,234	304

prohibition 173 22. Several Taxes considered Excise Hearth-Mony c. 174 23. A Tax upon New Buildings a Pole-mony and how to secure it against frauds 178 24. A Tax upon unmarried people 180 25. Of Trade of the value of Labour how the People and Riches may be encreased c. 184 26. That Forreigners are to be Invited and how 190 Many other things for Advance of Trade as Registries or their equivalent on Practisers of Fraud how Work-houses may be Erected all Poor and Beggars provided for and a Nursery for an Army either for Land or Sea-Service to be suddenly raised on any emergency without grievance or pressing of the People c. Errata IN the Title page for Member in read Member of P. 2. to the Reader read unfashionable rigid virtue p. 18. l. 14. r. extravagance p. 21. l. 15. r. destructive p. 28. l. 3. for and policy r. or Policy ibid. l. 13. r. as head p. 63. l. 3. r. actual summons p. 69. l. 4. r. arising p. 82. l. 5. r. End ibid. l. 10. for clearer r. cleaner p. 91. l. 19. r. a Red Sea p. 105. l. 9. r. Sacrament p. 112. l. 22. r. have slay'd p. 113. l. 25. dele til they p. 118. l. 20. r. finesso p. 122. l. 10. for unequal r. uneasy p. 143 l. 15. r. Poynings p. 145. l. 7. r. claim a greater p. 149. last l. for make r. may p. 159. l. last r. Haver p. 176. l. 22. r. Brewers only p. 178. l. 13. r. but also p. 188. l. 23. r. twice stronger p. 191. l. 2. r. many many p. 200. l. 5. r. shal not be p. 207. l. 2. r. representative p. 239. l. 4. r. Bettor The Introduction SIR HAd you only commanded me to have given you an account of the Laws and Customs of another Utopia an Isle of Pines or of O. Brazil tho unfit even for such a Task I wou'd not have disputed it But finding you have impos'd upon me who am neither States-man nor Merchant a necessity of playing the Fool by treating of Englana's Policies and Trade I confess I cou'd not without great reluctance comply with so severe an injunction I have always been averse to discourses of this kind which in Privat men are no farther tolerable than as idle Philosophers to pass away their vacant hours in such otherwise useless speculations And in them too I have heard 'um oftner condemn'd than commended the Authors esteemed foolish and impertinent troublesom or dangerous And som we know by indulging themselves too much in this vanity have straitned if not wholly lost their Liberty and Fortunes We live not in Plato's Commonwealth but in foece Romuli where a ful Reformation of Laws and Manners seems only to be wish'd not to be obtain'd without a Miracle Why then shou'd any especially the unconcern'd busy their heads with what they cannot mend 'T is much more pleasant and safer far to let the World take its course to believe that in the regular stated motion of Nature things are so order'd by Divine Providence that they wil not cannot suffer themselves to be il manag'd Nature if we hearkn'd to her Dictates as well as Religion which we equally despise would convince us it were our Duty I am certain it wou'd be our Interest our Happiness even in this life to submit quietly to the Powers above and their Ordinances because All Powers are of God Thus I acknowledge every privat man ought to think and do But public persons that is to say Law-makers are to consider they were born not only for themselves but for the good of others and therefore are oblig'd to exert that power with which they are intrusted for the joint common good of the People without partial regards or privat ends If they wou'd sincerely mind this and if our hot-braind State-Mountebanks who being but privat men yet quarrel at every thing that is not conformable to the Capricio's of their own wild fancies wou'd cease to intermedddle in their Superiors Province England might be the happpiest Kingdom of the World whereas the contrary Practise rendred her not long fince the Seat of Civil Wars Tyranny and Confusion and has at present so filled Her with Murmurings and Repinings Iealousies and Fears that She which formerly gave Law to others and was a Terror to more than Europe is now in danger to become weak and contemptible in the Eys and Opinions of her Neighbors These and such like were the Considerations that made me so long resist your command to which I had never yielded but to prevent the loss of your Friendship with which you so solemly threatn'd me in your last Take then in the same order you prescribe the best account I am able in so short a time to give to your several following Particulars Of the Rise and Power of Parliaments Of Laws Courts of Iudicature Of Liberty Property and Religion Of the Interest of England in reference to the Desines of France Of Taxes and of Trade But you are to observe That what I write is with as much liberty and little care as people discourse in Coffee houses where we hear the state-State-affairs of all Nations adjusted and from thence guess at the Humor of the People and at the Times In this therefore you are not to expect any studied Phrases or Elaborat connexions close neat Transitions c. Your servant whom I conjure you by the strictest ties of Friendship not to discover has neither will nor leisure for such a work which being intended only for your Closet you may be content to take in a plain English dress The great and many Revolutions and Changes which in all Places have attended Human Affairs and the particular Inundations of the Romans Saxons Danes and Normans into this Kingdom together with the ignorance and carelesness of former Ages have left us in so much darkness and uncertainty that I think it not only difficult but morally impossible to trace out exactly the Beginnings of things If it be so then in all affairs we may cease to wonder why men are so much at a loss in their Enquiries into and Debates of the present matter viz. Of the Rise and Power of Parliaments which has received very different formes and shapes according to the Interest and Power of the several contending Parties this makes me think its tru face can never be fully discover'd tho perhaps it may be uncertainly guess'd at by som Lines saint Shadows and stronger Probalities gather'd from the scatter'd Memoires of Monks who cannot well be suppos'd impartial especially in Ecclesiastical nor full in the relations of State-affairs in the Accounts of which they did not hold themselves concern'd But yet they are the best guides we have For from the Ancient Rolls in the Tower one cannot believe there was any exact Diary of things or if he do must conclude many are spoyl'd by the injury of Time omitted thro negligence or made away for privat Ends. However we may

it Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan which say they are Iews and are not for they lye I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and know that I have loved thee Well Sir I am sorry my Tender of peace is so scornfully rejected upon the misapplication of such Texts of Scripture as equally and indifferently serve all Parties or are nothing to the present purpose You must not be angry if I strike the first blow rather than suffer you to take your own opportunity to knock me o th head When the cause comes to be tryed before equal Umpires you will be judg'd out of your own mouth that challeng'd Liberty which you wou'd not grant For you have transgrest the great Rule of Righteousness not to do to others what you wou'd have done unto your self Upon these terms the pretences to Liberty are destroy'd But if the Wisdom of any State shall confine their Indulgencies to Pious Obedient and Charitable Dissenters I cannot perceive the prejudice which difference in speculations and disputable Points can do in Religion or the Power of the Magistrate But at the same time I cannot but admire the admirable Temper and Moderation which is shew'n in the Church and Goverment of England That requires nothing necessary to Salvation but the acknowlegement of the Ancient Creeds That teaches nothing but what is Pious and Charitable Whose Lyturgy is Grave Wise and Holy whose Rites are few and material Whose Laws are full of Candor and Compliance allowing freedom to any Five Dissenters together to worship God in their own way Whose true Sons and Subjects are the greatest Favorers of Christian Liberty which are in the World And I pray God to give all people that disown it Wisdom to understand it THE Publisher to the Reader HAving I must own not without Pleasure read the following Papers and believing they might in several Instances I do not say all give som satisfaction to others and contribute to the Public Good for which I perswade my self even those Notions that seem most od and impracticable were intended I resolved to make them public But was check't again by calling to mind That he from whom I in some sort extorted them oblig'd me not to discover him Nevertheless considering I might do the One without the Other I pursued my former Resolutions yet taking this further care That even the Printer should not know from whence they came And now let me tell you whatever you shall think of this Discourse 'T is the Issu of a sober Brain tho perhaps a little too much inclin'd to Humor and rigid Vertu and not so agreeable or smooth as you would have had it if my Friend had dressed it for the eyes of any other besides my self to whom he sent it Sheet by Sheet and having writ it in less than eight of the last Holy-dayes you may believe had I allowed more time it would have come even to me reviewed As it is I make it yours and assure you what ever Censure you pass upon Him or Me we shall both be unconcern'd As Complesance made it mine so a good Intention of serving my Country makes it yours For my self I do not aim at being Richer or Greater The Patrimony left me satisfyed and invited my unambitious Mind to the Retirements of a privat Life which I have made easie by innocent Recreations Company and Books It was not my own seeking that I am now plac'd in a more public Station wherein tho perhaps I have done no Good yet I am pleas'd I never did any Hurt having alwayes pursu'd without Passion or Interest what ever my Conscience the best Rule and severest Iudge of Men's Actions convinced me was best As to my Friend he is one has read some Books and more Men thanks God he is that which the World calls a Fool a Good-natur'd Man one that heartily loves all Mankind and has so particular a Zeal for the good of his Country that I believe he would sacrifice his Life to serve it But almost despairing That ever Things will be better than they are and finding by what he has seen abroad That a Man may live more happily in England than in any part of Europe and now grown old by Temper more than Years he has resolv'd chiefly to mind himself whom to enjoy more fully he has bid adieu to all Thoughts of Business to which having never been bred by any Calling he has had the more Opportunities of considering all of improving himself and observing most sorts of Men and as a speculative Philosopher to the Entertainment of Himself and Friends he passes very free Remarks on all Actions and Things he judges amiss and being byass'd by no manner of Interest I am perswaded he speaks his Conscience And he has the good Fortune to make others often conclude He do's not only speak a great deal of Truth but also further satisfies them That it is much easier to find Faults than mend them That there ever were and ever will be Disorders in all Human Societies That there are fewer in that of England than in any other and that they are there more curable Thus much I thought fit to tell you to prevent any Misapprehensions concerning the Persons who are the occasion of this Trouble or Diversion call it what you please The CONTENTS 1. STate Affairs not fit to be discoursed by privat men Page 7 2. Of the Rise of Parliaments 11 3. Origin of Government with a brief account of Laws Revenues Trade and Natural Religion 12 4. A new Method of Electing Members Objections against this Present Parliament and their Answers 29 5. Of Lawes c. 37 6. Of better restraint of Offences than Punishment by death 48 7. Of Courts of Iudicature 60 8. Of Liberty Property and Religion 73 9. Differences in the last nor hurtful nor restrainable 81 10. How Toleration may be safely granted 92 11. How to prevent Divisions among Christians and to make all really not nominaly such 99 12. To Regulate and Reform the abuses of the Press the inconveniencies of Printing as now managed 104 13. The Intrest of England in Reference to France 116 14. Reasons why the King did not declare War against that Crown 119 15. The King's Care of Ireland to prevent French Designs 140 16. Of an Union between England and Ireland or the Repealing Poynings Act. 143 17. Of Taxes to make them great and perpetual most for the Peoples ease and common good 148 18. That 100 l. formerly was in Real value equivalent to 300 l. now and in use to 3000 l. With the reasons of the disparity 161 19. The dangers of not perpetuating apportioning and applying the Revenue to the particular charge and uses of the Crown or State and the advantage of doing so 166 20. The Objections against perpetuating the Revenue considered and removed 167 21. That French or any other Commodities are better Restrained by height of Duty than absolute

in regard the Annual Rent is not a Fourth of the real Valu and yet may be ordered equally advantageous to the Tenants as the Fines now make them woud complete this Work Thus converting the Patrimony of the Church woud be no Sacriledg the Pious Use is carryed on to the good of Al and perhaps as first desin'd by the Donors when Provision for Wives and Children not in being coud not be thought of the Care of whom distract many from their Duty and dis-able them from keeping in decent Repair the antient Monuments of Piety built by our Ancestors But all these things to be don without the least prejudice to the present Incumbents When Education is thus setled the Duty and Interest of Church-men and their Care of Wives and Children removed Plurality of Livings and Simony prevented as wel that of Friendship of the Smock marrying of Cousens Neeces crooked Sisters or Ladie 's Women as that of the Purse al which in themselves are equally Criminous none but good Men wil undertake the Charge And then the Objections wil vanish which loose Education has infused into the wild and foolish viz. That Religion is a Cheat a tric of State that the Parson follows Christ for the Loaves speaks as does the Lawyer in his Trade not that there 's any Truth in 't but because he has bosin lingua c. To do this is neither so strange nor so difficult as was the greater alteration made by Henry the Eighth who had not in story bin so infamous tho he had seized on the whole temporalities of the Church had he but thus disposed of som part And by the way you may take notice that the house of Commons in this point had been Cromwels in the sixth and eleventh Years of Henry the Fourth who upon their advice had seized the Churches Patrimony had they not by friends and mony prevented the blow and that de facto several Bishoprics and livings were injoy'd by som of his predecessors which appears not onely from History but from printed Acts of Parliament That it wil be no hard Matter from Graunts Observations and the Bils of Mortality to make a Computation of the Numbers necessary to be sent Yearly to the Universities for Divinity Law and Physic The last of which ought so to be regulated as not to suffer any to Kil rather than Cure which is daily don in London and other parts of the Kingdom to the prejudice and scandal of that honorable and somtimes useful Profession to the loss of the peoples Mony and Lives to the maintaining of many idle and ignorant Mountebancs and impostors who to the greater advantage of the Common-wealth might be employed in more safe and beneficial Trades or ways of Living This Course wil also prevent such evil consequences in Church and State as formerly attended the Superfaetations of the Clergy and the breeding up of Servitors and poor Scholars as they wel cal them in the Universities who being generally of mean Birth and no less mean Parts and the attendance upon their Masters not suffering them so wel to attend their Studies and their subsistance by Service failing them after they had staied at the University no longer than to incapacitat and unfit them for any other way of Living and yet not to qualify them for turning Preachers However having chopt a little Logic and disputed of Ens Rationis and so fancying they coud Build Castles in the Aire they assume the confidence to conclude they cannot Miss of Habitations on the earth and so from the Lowest of the People getting to be put into the Priests Office for a peece of Bread they becom a great cause of as wel as they are in Effect The contempt of the Clergy And those for want of Knowledg lay their foundations in Erroneous Doctrines in which Nevertheless they coud not succeed but by pretending an extraordinary mesure of Saint-ship or Holiness Railing at the sins and abuses of the times which themselves have occasion'd Thus they creep into houses and first lead silly Women and then their Husbands Captive as Adam by Eves perswasion eating the forbidden fruit til he Surfited and died so these ignorant Zelots not content in King Iames his time and the beginning of King Charles the first to rob the Kingdom of many Families til at last they made themselves the boutefeus of the late horrid Rebellion which tho it may be said to have been principally occasion'd by such as these yet not without som Episcopal mens having a Finger in the Pie For to say truth I know not whether the too great Stifness in the one for their Old or in the other against those Formes was most blameable But This I know that by the Collision of both parties as of Flints a Fire was kindled not unlike that in the Tayles of Samsons Foxes which proved as Destructive of the Expectations of profit each had of their own crop as the other did to the Philistines corn Yet had the evil of that not extended to any others but those of the Pulpit we might now have talk'd on 't without much regret What ever such violent disputes have formerly been able to do 't is my duty to wish and Yours to endeavor that England be no more the Stage of such Tragedies Refraine not Counsel when it may do good and be not backward in advising that Toleration is the First step and Education the next that perfectly leads the way to peace and happiness This Cours being taken we shal have no cause to dispair but that Religion wil again resume its Naked Truth That the Doctrines of men wil be judged better or worse as they more or less incline to holiness of living and thus being reduced to a Calmness within our selves we need not fear the Designes of Forrainers Of whom none but France can be supposed to have any upon England and if that be granted why may it not be prevented by observing stil the same Rules of Policy which this Crown formerly practised that was so holding the Ballance between the then two contending Powers of Spain and France that neither shoud be able to obtain their Aims The universal Monarchy of the West But now the Case is alter'd in that Spain being much weakned by the accession of the West-Indies and grasping more than it coud wel hold in other Countries has quitted the Field and left France without a Rival So that the present Interest of England seems to be the same with that of al Europe viz. to oppose by al possible means the growing Greatness of France and reduce that Crown to such a condition as may not leave it in his Power to hurt his Neighbors By what they have already compassed one may guess they wil ere long bring about if not timely stopt their long design'd Ambitious Purposes In the prosecution of which they were in the late times of Usurpation the under-hand Instrument of the War with Holland as they were of the

already many Discourses publisht● som of them woud be worth their view and did they Sit constantly many would bring their Remarks and I my self shoud be able to give som Notions on this Subject which for want of time I cannot now give you The two great Principles of Riches are Land and Labor as the later increases the other grows dear which is no otherwise don than by a greater Confluence of industrious People For where many are coop'd into a narrow Spot of Ground they are under a necessity of Laboring because in such Circumstances they cannot live upon the Products of Nature and having so many Eyes upon them they are not suffer'd to steal Whatever they save of the Effects of their Labor over and above their Consumption is call'd Riches and the bartering or commuting those Products with others is call'd Trade Whence it follows that not only the greatness of Trade or Riches depends upon the Numbers of People but also the Deerness or Cheapness of Land upon their Labor and Thrift Now if Trade be driven so that the Imports exceed in valu the Exports the People must of necessity grow poor i. e. consume the Fundamental Stock viz. Land and Labor both falling in their price The contrary Course makes a Kingdom Rich. The Consequence is That to better the Trade of England the People which wil force Labor must be increas'd and Thrift incouraged For to hope for a vast Trade where People are wanting is not only to expect Bric can be made without Straw but without Hands The great Advantage a Country gains by being fully peopled you may find by the following Observation viz. That the valu of the Labor is more than the Rent of the Land and the Profit of all the Personal Estates of the Kingdom which thus appears Suppose the People of England to be six Millions their annual Expence at twenty Nobles or six Pound thirteen and four Pence a Head at a Medium for Rich and Poor Young and Old wil amount to forty Millions and if wel consider'd cannot be estimated much less The Land of England and Wales contain about twenty four Millions of Acres worth one with another about six and eight Pence per Acre or third part of a Pound consequently the Rent of the Land is eight Millions per annum The yearly Profit of all the Peoples personal Estate is not computed above eight Millions more both together make sixteen Millions per annum this taken out of the forty Millions yearly Expence there wil remain twenty-four Millions to be supply'd by the Labor of the People Whence follows that each Person Man Woman and Child must Earn four Pound a Year and an Adult laboring Person double that Sum because a third part or 2 Millions are Children and Earn nothing and a sixth part or one Million by reason of their Estates Qualities Callings or Idleness Earn little so that not above half the People working must gain one with another eight Pound per annum a peece and at twenty Years Purchase wil be worth Eighty Ponnd per Head For tho an Individuum of Mankind be recon'd but about eight Years Purchase the Species is as valuable as Land being in its own nature perhaps as durable and as improveable too if not more increasing stil faster by Generation than decaying by Death it being very evident that there are much more yearly Born than Dye Whence you may plainly perceive how much it is the Interest of the State and therefore ought to be their care and study to fil the Country with People the Profit woud not be greater in point of Riches than in Strength and Power for 't is too obvious to be insisted on that a City of one Miles circumference and ten Thousand Men is four times stronger and easier defended than one of four Miles with double the Number Now there are but two ordinary wayes of increasing the People that of Generation and that of drawing them from other Countries The first is a Work of Time and tho it wil not presently do our Business yet is not to be neglected I have shewn how it may be hasten'd by obliging to Marriage and more might be added by erecting Hospitals for Foundlings after the manner now used in other Countries and practised with great Advantage in Paris by the Name of L'hostel pour les enfants trouves where there are now reckon'd no less than Four Thousand This in all parts of England especially London woud prevent the many Murders and contrived Abortions now used not only to the prejudice of their Souls Health but that of their Bodies also and to the general Dammage of the Public This woud likewise be an Encouragment to the poorer sort to Marry who now abstain to prevent the Charge of Children Strangers are no otherwise to be invited than by allowing greater advantages than they have at home and this they may with more ease receive in England than in any part of Europe where natural Riches do much abound viz. Corn Flesh Fish Wool Mines c. and which Nature has bless'd with a temporature of heathful Air exceeding al Northern and not inferior to most Southern Countries has given it commodious Ports fair Rivers and safe Channels with possibilities of more for water carriage these with what follows woud soon make England the Richest and most powerful Country of the World Naturalization without Charge plain Laws and speedy Iustice Freedom in all Corporations Immunities from Taxes and Tols for seven Years and lastly Liberty of Conscience the Restraint of which has been the greatest Cause at first of unpeopling England and of it s not being since repeopled This drove Shoals away in Queen Maries King Iames and King Charles the First 's Dayes it has lost the Wealth of England many Millions and bin the occasion of spilling the Blood of many Thousands of its People 'T is a sad Consideration that Christians shoud be thus fool'd by obstinat Religionists in whom too much Stiffness on one side and Folly and Perversness on the other shoud have bin equally Condem'd being indeed the Effects of Pride Passion or privat Interest and altogether Forrein to the Bus'ness of Religion which as I have already told you consists not in a Belief of disputable things of which if either part be tru neither are to us necessary but in the plain Practice of Piety which is not incompatible with Errors in Iudgment I see not therefore why the Clergy shoud be wholly heark'nd to in this Affair since 't is really impertinent to the Truth of Religion and I dare appeal to all the sober understanding and considerative Men of the Church of England Whether the Opposition of this be not wholy founded upon Interest which being but of particular Men ought not nor wil not I hope weigh more with the Parliament than that of the Public which is so highly concern'd in this matter And tho it may be objected That as Affairs of Religion now stand