lay down or pay their money for it And how ungrateful it will be if they were not Subjects or obliged by the Laws of God Nature and Nations to an obedience reverence retributions and oblations to their Prince to receive a daily and an hourly protection and as many benefits and blessings as their almost alwayes craving necessities and importunities can get or obtain or his munificent and ready heart and hand impart and bestow upon them And yet be so barren in their retorns or thankfulness as when there is not a Family or Kinred in England but hath at one time or other been raised or enriched by the King or his Royall Progenitors or tasted of their favours or mercies and that those who did eat and partake of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and were maintained by them were for the most part their Sons and Daughters or some of their Kinred or Generations to deny him that which was such an antient and unquestionable Right as all the Judges of England did no longer agoe then the third year of the Reign of King James declare it to be a Prerogative of the King at the Common Law and was no less in the Times of our Saxon and British Monarchs and so much in use in the Kingdom of Ireland as it doth yet retain the custome of Pourveyance ad alendum Proregis Familiam for the maintenance of the Lord Lieutenants House and Family as an antiquitus institutum an antient Constitution Jus quoddam Majestatis a part of the Right belonging unto the Sovereign Prince and his Preheminence or Kingly Prerogative And in their Act of Parliament lately made for the Settlement of that tossed and turmoild Kingdom consented that the Lord Chief-Justice of his Majesties Court of King-Bench the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Master of the Rolls or any other of his Majesties Officers of that Kingdom for the time being shall and may have and receive such Port-Corn of the Rectories Impropriations or appropriate Tithes forfeited unto or vested in his Majesty his Heirs and Successors which have been formerly paid or reserved The furnishing of Carriages and Ships for publick uses are in Scotland justly numbred amongst those Regalities which are annexed to the Crown and was by the consent of the Estates there so called allowed to conserve the dignity of that Kingdome the Borrough Mealis where quilibet Burgensis debet domino Regi pro Burgagio quinque denarios annuatìm dicuntur incorporari annexique Fisco Patrimonio Regis every Burgess is to pay five pence per annum for his Mealis which Sir Henry Spelman interprets to be a Farme appropriated to buy Provisions in Regiae mensae apparatum for the Kings Table or Houshold and are said to be incorporate and annexed to the Patrimony of the King and his Exchequer And the right of Pourveyance so little there esteemed to be a grievance as in a Parliament of their King James the 4 th holden in the year 1489. The Lords Spirituall and Temporall and other his Lieges did declare that it was the Kings property for the honourable sustentation of his house according to his Estait and Honour quhilk may not be failized without great derogation of his noble Estait and that his true Lieges suld above all singular and particular profit desire to preserve the noble Estait of his Excellence like as it was in the time of his maist noble Progenitors of gud mynd And is conform unto that rule of reason which other Nations doe measure their Actions by for in France as Renatus Choppinus a learned French Advocat saith it is Dominicum jus primitus sceptris addictum in necessarios Regiae mensae Aulaeque sumptus honorificum ad suum Imperii inclitae decus Majestatis conservandum a part of the Demeasnes belonging and annexed to the Royall Scepter and appropriate to the necessary uses and provisions of the Kings Court and Houshold for the honor and conservation of the Rights of Majesty Our long agoe old and worthy Ancestors the stout hearted Germans did as Tacitus sua sponte ex more viritìm conferre principibus armenta vel fruges quae pro honore accepta necessitatibus subvenirent man by man of their own accord customarily bring or send unto their Princes Herds of Cattle and some of the fruits of the earth as Presents and Oblations which being taken for an Honour due unto them did much conduce unto the defraying of their charges or necessityes the people of Italy and the Princes and Nobility thereof did acknowledge them to be inter Regalia amongst the Regalities of the Emperour and the Law of the Empire formerly of Rome now of Germany doth strongly assert the Praestationes Angariarum Plaustrorum Navium c. Pourveyance of Cart-taking and impresting of Ships Regi competere ratione excellentâ—ae ejus dignitatis quae Regalia dicuntur to belong unto the King by reason of the excellency of his dignity Et multa adjumentaei necessaria ut dominium intus externè tueri valeat and that many ayds and helps are necessary for a Prince to defend his Dominions at home as well as abroad And is as much a Custome of Nations as covering of the head washing the hands wearing of shoes and retiring to rest or sleep in the night so usual as the Barbarians some of whom have not so much good nature as to diswade them from selling their Children like Calves or Cattle at a Market or the savage part of the Heathen who have not attained to so much of reason as to perswade them the use of clothes and apparrel are glad their Kings and Princes will accept of And the Inhabitants of that large Empire of Japan who in many of their Nationall Customes and Actions do delight to be contrary to the people of Europe and most other Nations as to have their Teeth black when others doe desire to have them white doe mount their horses on the right side and not uncover their heads in saluting each other but only unty some part of their Shoes and Sandals and sit down when others do come to salute them are notwithstanding unwilling to come behind other Nations in the Duty of Pourveyance and Honour of their Prince Practised allowed by many approved examples in the sacred Volumes where Melchizedeck King of Salem the Priest of the most high God brought forth bread and wine to Abraham and his houshold Servants in their little Army upon their return from the rescue of the righteous Lot which was saith the great Grotius a Custome then in use amongst the neighbour Nations that of Jesse the Father of David who being commanded by Saul his King when he was not in the Army but enjoyed the blessings of peace to send David his Son unto him laded an Asse with bread and a bottle of wine and a Kid and sent
of England of permitting their Officers and Servants to take what the King pleased out of Forreign Commodities and Merchandize brought into England upon payment of such rates as he pleased which amount unto no small yearly profit for an Exchange and grant by the Merchants Strangers of three pence per pound now called the Petit Customes of all forreign Merchandises imported except Wines for every Sack of Wool forty pence for every 300 Wolfels forty pence and for every last of Leather to be exported half a mark over and above the Duties payable by Denizens were but rightly estimated Or the benefits which the Subiects of England have had and received by the Act of Parliament made in Anno 14 Ed. 3. granting that all Merchants Denizens and Aliens may freely and safely come into the Realme of England which before they could not or durst not adventure to do without speciall licence and safe conduct under the great or some part of the Seal of England with their Goods and Merchandize and safely tarry and return paying the Subsidies and Customes reasonably due together with the ease and benefit but to the great loss and damage of the Crown which the Merchants of England as well as those of forreign Parts have by the loss of Calais since Queen Maries time and the remove of the Staple from thence whither all Goods Exported out of England were to be first brought a Custome Inward the second time paid and for so much which may be believed to be the greatest part as was again from thence Exported into other Countries the Customes a third time paid which made the Customes and Subsidies only for Goods Exported in the later end of the Reign of King Edward the Third and during the Reigns of King Richard the Second Henry the Fourth Henry the Fifth and the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth as appeareth by the Records of the Exchequer to amount unto threescore or threescore and ten thousand pounds per annum which according to the valuation of mony at this day saith Sir John Davies the ounce of Silver being raised from twenty pence unto five shillings would amount unto two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum And the difference betwixt the payment of Customes and Subsidies then paid three times over for one and the same thing and the payment of it but once as is now used with many other great benefits beyond a valuation not here particularized And consider how unworthy it would be for the Natives and People of England after many Knights Fees and Lands freely given and granted by the Kings Royall Progenitors to their Forefathers and their Heirs to be holden by Knight-service and in Capite of which if the sixty thousand Knights Fees and more reckoned by antient Authors should be no greater a number then ten thousand and valued but at twenty pounds per annum as they were reckoned in anno primo Edwardi secundi they would amount unto two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if but at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least â—mprovement would amount unto three Millions per annum besides great quantities of other Lands being twice or thrice as much more in the severall Reigns of his Majesties Royall Progenitors freely granted and given unto otheâ—s of them and their Heirs to be holden in Socage to endeavour to extinguish the right use of them and forget their Obligations to their Prince and Common Parent and his Royall Progenitors And in too many of their Actions and business cozen or beg all they can from him and in stead of saying Domine quid retribuam Lord what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits make it the greatest of their care imployment and business not only to take but keep from him all they can even at the same time when they had obteyned of him an unparralleld Act of Indempnity and Oblivion and to to forget all their evil designes and offences intended or committed against him and his blessed Father and to pardon and give them as much as fifteen or sixteen millions sterling in the Arrears of his own Revenue and two or three hundred millions Sterling at least for the forfeiture of theirs And might have remembred how they promised him their lives and fortunes and to be his Tenants in Corde and with what a Princely and Fatherly affection he told their Representatives that he was sorry to see so many of his good people come to see him at Whitehall and had no meat to feed or entertain them and how ashamed and unwilling they are in their ordinary and daily Actions and Affairs to come behind or be upon the score one to another in their reciprocations retributions and retorns of gratitudes and take it to be a disparagement not to out-vie or undo one another therein how willingly they can part with their money to their children at School to make Oblations or Presents to their School-masters at their Intermissions or Breaking up of School at Christmas Easter or Whitsontyde a course newly invented by School-masters to better their Allowances and Incomes and chargeable enough to the Parents as may appear by the Offerings at a Christmas made unto some Capital School-Masters which have singly amounted unto five or six hundred pounds which with the Beds and Furniture and silver Spoons to be brought thither by the Boarders and left behind them at their departure do make as great or a greater charge to many Parents then what they were ever rated for the Pourveyance And how accustomed and willing an expence all people are desirous to put themselves unto pro honestate domus for the good and content of any Inne Tavern or Alehouse to make them some recompence for but coming into those houses upon any occasion or necessity of business And can notwithstanding so readily finde the way to that unchristian River of Lethe and sinne of unthankfulness which God and all good men do abhorre and the most fierce and savage of the Beasts of the field Fowls of the Ayr do scorn to be guilty of and make it their business to desire the King to foregoe his Pourveyance and take a seeming recompence of fifty thousand pounds per annum for it of the moyty of the Excise to be raised out of the Moans and Laments of the multitude which are the labouring and poorer sort of the people to free richer and better able from their heretofore small Payments or Contributions in Cattle and other Provisions for the Royall Pourveyance now that England enjoyeth a greater plenty then ever it did by some hundred thousand Acres of Fenne Lands drained many Forests and Chases deafforrested mâ—ny Parks converted unto Tillage or Pasture great quantities of other Lands inclosed and as much or more of Abby and Religious Lands retorned into Lay-hands fewer Taxes and publique Assessments by one to ten then are in the Kingdomes and Dominions of Spain France Empire of
fallen upon the Orphans or fatherless Children of that part of the People and their Estates when the Wolves shall be made the Keepers of the Lambs and every indigent or wastfull father in Law shall be a Guardian to those whose Estates he makes it his business to spend and ruine or to transferre upon his own Children and the charge and trouble of Petitions at the Councell Board or more tedious Suits in Chancery to be relieved against them the pay of more Life-guards or a small standing Army to keep the People within the bounds of their duty and secure good Subjects from the mischief intended by the bad frequent Musters of the Trained Bands more then formerly and of an Army to be hired upon an occasion of an Invasion or the transferring the sedem belli or miseries of warre into an Enemies Country much whereof would not have needed to be if the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service those stronger Towers and Forts of our David those Horsemen and Charriots of our Israel and alwayes ready Garrisons composed of the best and worthiest men of our Nation not hirelings taken out of the Vulgus nor unlettered unskilfull and uncivilized nor rude or debauched part of the people but of those who would fight tanquam pro aris focis as they and their worthy Ancestors ever used to do for the good and honour of their King and Country and the preservation of their own Families as being obliged unto it by the strongest tyes and obligations of law and gratitude which ever were or could be laid upon the fortunes Estates Souls and Bodies of men that would have a care but of either of them Or to put in the Ballance against the benefits which they had in the preservation of their Woods recording their discents and titles to their Lands and many a Deed and Evidence which would otherwise have been lost or not easie to be found and the help and ayd which their heirs in their infancies have never failed of in all their Suits and Concernments And the seldome abuses of some naughty Pourveyors and the complaints thereby do not any thing neer amount unto the immense gains of the people of some millions sterling per annum in their vast improvements of their Lands and Estates by the rack and rise of rents enhaunce of Servants and Labourers wages and all commodities in all parts of the Kingdome before and since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Compositions for the Pourveyance were made and agreed upon may seem but a very small yearly Retribution to the King or his Royall Progenitors for permitting so much as shall be reasonable of it And the People of England might better allow him those small and legall advantages which are and will be as much for publique good as his own then they do themselves in many of their own affairs one with another in many of their particular private ends advantages wherein the will and bequests oâ— the dead their Hospitalls Legacies or Gifts to charitable uses are not nor have been so well managed as they ought to be As may be instanced in those multitudes of charitable Legacies or Gifts in lands originally cut out and proportioned to the maintenance of certain numbers of poor or for some particular uses which by the increase and improvement of Rents before and since the dissolution of the Abbies Religious Houses and Hospitals did very much surmount the proportions which were at the first allowed or intended for them And with more Reason and Justice then the City of London and many of their Guilds and Fraternities do now enjoy divers Lands which were given for Lamps and other superstitious uses for which they compounded by order of the Councell Board with King Edward the Sixth for twenty thousand pounds and more then that which that and many other Cities and Towns do take and receive for Tolls which being many times only granted for years or upon some temporary occasions are since kept and retained as rights besides many Gifts and Charitable Uses since the dissolution of the Abbies and Religious Houses amounting to a very great yearly value which by the improvement and rise of Rents beyond the proportion of the Gifts or the intention of the Givers have been either conveyed by Jâ—yntures or leases to wives or children or much of the overplus which came by the improvement or concealed Charitable Uses converted by the Governours of many a City and Town Corporate to the maintenance of themselves the Worship of the Corporation and many a comfortable Feast and Meeting for the pretended good of the 〈◊〉 people thereof who are but seldome if at all the better for it Some of which not to mention any of greater bulk or value may appear in a few instances instead of a multitude of that kind dispeâ—sed in the Kingdom as two Closes of Land or Meadow Ground lying in the Parish of Shoreditch in the County of Middlesex given by Simon Burton Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London in the year 1579. unto St. Thomas Hospital upon condition that the Governors of the said Hospitall should yearly give unto 30 poor Persons of the said Parish on the 21 22 or 23 dayes of December for ever the summe of eight pence a piece Mr. William Hanbury Citizen and White-baker of London did by a Surrender in the year 1595. give unto Elizabeth Spearing certain Copihold Lands in Stebuâ—heath and Ratcliffe in the said County to pay the Parson and Church-wardens of the said Parish for ever to the use of the poor People there two and fifty shillings yearly which by consent of the Parish is by twelve pence every Wednesday weekly bestowed upon the Poor abroad And Mrs. Alice Hanbury Widow by her will did in the same year give unto Mr. George Spearing a Tenement in the said Parish wherein William Bridges a Taylor then dwelled upon condition that the said George Spearing his Heirs and Assignes should yearly pay to the Churchwardens of the said Parish and their Successors to the use of the poor and impotent People thirteen shillings and four pence And that whether the King be enough recompenced or not at all recompenced for his Pourveyance it would be none of the best bargains for the Subjects of England or their Posterity to exchange or take away so great and nâ—â—â—ssary a part of his Prerogative or support of Majesty as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were which in the Parliament in the 4 th year of the Reign of King James were held to be such an inseperable Adjunct of the Crown and Imperiall dignity as not to be aliened and some few years after believed by that incomparable Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Chancellor of England to be a necessary support of the Kings Table a good help and justly due unto him And the Learned both in Law and Politiquâ—s in other Nations as well as our own have told us that such Sacra
his men wear the same colour of Livery that the Kings servants did Or that it was ill done by the Parliament in the 14 th year of the Reign of that King when they petitioned him that the Prerogative of him and his Crown might be kept and that all things done to the contrary might be redressed Or that the Lords Spirituall and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled in the 16 th year of the said Kings Reign did not well understand the good of the Kingdom when upon a Debate and consideration of the Popes Usurpation and Incroachments upon the Kings Regalities and his Holiness Provisions made for Aliens and Strangers by the benefices of the Church of England they did unanimously declare that they and all the Leige Commons of the Realm would stand with the King and his Crown and Regality in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against him his Crown and Regality in all points to live and to dye Or that our forefathers were not to be imitated in their stout assertions of the Rights of their Kings and their Regalities when in their zeal thereunto Humphry Duke of Glocester when the Pope had wrote Letters in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth in derogation of the King his Regality and the Church-men durst not speak against them he did throw his Letters and Missive into the fire and burn them Or that it can be well done by us to withhold from him that small retribution of Pourveyance which is a Duty established by a fourfold obligation composed of a Right or Duty a very antient Custome backt by the Laws of God Nature and Nations the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and a contract made and continued by the people to their Kings built upon the best and greatest of considerations which the Prophet David in the 15 th Psalm if it had not been as it is beneficiall to the people but to some loss or damage adviseth not to be broken and enforce him for want of it to give over his Housekeeping and deprive him of that Loadstone which might amongst many other of his daily graces and favours attract and draw unto him the love and affections of his people the most iron rusty hearted Clowns or leave our Trajan no wall for his â—erba Parietaria sweet smelling flower to grow upon Or that it can be any honour for our Lords and Ladies who received their honour from the King and his Progenitors and were in the Saxon Times called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords and Ladies from their Hospitalities and giving of bread to see and not seek or help to remedy the greatest dishonour which in the consequence of it was ever put upon the Fountain of honour and a King of England in Solio in his Throne and full possession of his Kingdome and so much the more and without an example because it is not in the Time of a Rebellion but a happy Restauration and in the time of Peace after an end or conclusion of an intestine and barbarous Warre and so notorious as it hath been told in the Streets of Gath and Askalon and stirred up some unmannerly fancies and pictures made by some of our envious Neighbours in reproach of it Or that there can be any reason that those that think it reason that the King should recompence them for their losses and damages susteyned in his service in doing their duty unto him should not be as willing to give him an ease in his losses by any agreement made with them which proves to be prejudiciall or a damage unto him or that we may not give our selves in assurance that the Baronage of England who in a Parliament in the 20 th year of the Reign of King Henry the Third refused to consent to an Act of Parliament for the legitimation of such children as were botâ— before marriage to Parents afterwards married and clapping their hands upon their swords cryed una voce with one voice nolumus mutare leges Angliae we will never consent to change the laws of England would now if they were living say more and bewail the downfall of the Honor of their King and Country And not only they but all the then hospitable Gentry and Commonalty of England Lament to see so good and gracious a King allied to all the greatest Houses and Princely Families of Christendome by a discent farre beyond the most antient of them and an extraction of blood equalling if not surpassing the greatest of them and as well deserving of his People want the means to support a Magnificence as high and illustrious as any of his Royall Progenitors and not to be able for want of his Pourveyance to give his Servants Diet or Wages and that some of the principall of them as the Treasurer and Comptroller being sworn by the Orders of the House that all things in the Kings House be guided to the Kings most worship and that they search the good old rule worshipfull and profitable of the Kings Court used before time and them to keep and better if they can should have so much cause as they have to weep as the Priests did at the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and complaining that the beauty is departed from the Kings house his Servants are become like Harts that find no Pasture and they that did feed plentifully are desolate in the Streets Wonder what wild Boar out of the Forrest or Fox out of the Wood have so destroyed and laid wast the Vineyards and the Gardens the Beds of Spices the Roses of Sharon and the Lilies of the Vallies that some of our Temples should be gloriously re-edified and our Zion repaired and yet the glory of our Solomon and his housekeeping not restored but his Servants ruined and their names as to their pay and maintenance blotted out of the Registers that the Winter should be past the Rain over and gone the Flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of the Birds come and the voyce of the Turtle heard in our Land and the State and Magnificence of our Solomon and his Royall housekeeping which would have heretofore astonished a Queen of Sheba should be now most needlesly exchanged for a desolation and bear all the marks upon it of a languishing Honour That the Courts and Palace of our most gracious King Charles the Second by a mischance of quitting his Rights of Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them should as to many of its Attendants have all the year turned into an Ember week and be about Noon or Dinner time like the silence and want of Company at Midnight or a representation of the middle Isle of the Cathedrall of St. Pauls in London destitute of all its Walkers or Company but such as had nothing to buy their Dinner withall which heretofore begot the reproachfull adage or saying usually cast upon such men of distress
minxerit in patrios â—ineres as one who had pisssed upon his Fathers or Countries Ashes and as Murderers or Adulterers denyed them the Sanctuary if they sought it of the Church And when the Kings Royal Progenitors have taken so much care to prevent the decay of Tillage as by the Statute of 25 H. 8. cap. 13. to ordain that no man should keep more then two hundred sheep upon any land taken to farme and for the increase of Tillage plenty and cheapness of Corn did by the Statute of 2 Ed. 6. cap. 13. ordain that no Tithes should be paid for wast or Heath ground improved unto Tillage untill seaven years after the improvement by the Statute of 4 Jac. cap. 11. made a Provision for Meadow and Pasture and the necessary maintenance of husbandry and tillage in the Manors Lordships and Parishes of Merden alias Mawerden Boddenham Wellington Sutton St. Michael Sutton St. Nicholas Marton upon Lugg and the Parish of Pipe in the County of Hereford by the Statute of 7 Jac. cap. 11. That none should spoil corn and grain by untimely Hawking and by another Statute in the same Parliament That Seâ—-sands might in Devonshire and Cornwall be fetched from the sea to manure Lands paying reasonable duties for the passage through or by other mens Lands with Boats and Barges And the Assize of Bread throughout the whole Kingdome is by the Statute and Ordinance of 51 H. 8. to be yearly made and regulated by the Baker of the Kings house do take all the care they can that the Bread for his Houshold and Oats and Provender for his horses may be at the dearest rates and a great deal more then any of his Subjects do pay And although he and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors have made the best provisions they could for the breed of Cattle and cheapness of meat by the Statute of 24 H. 8. cap. 9. forbidding the killing of weanling Calves under the age of two years That a milch Cow by the Statute of 2 3 Philip and Mary should be kept for every sixty Sheep and a Calf reared for every 120 Sheep By an Act of Parliament in 8 Eliz. cap. 3. That no Sheep should be transported and by several Acts of Parliament and otherwise encouraged the drayning of huge quantities of Fenne Lands and the imbanking of Marshes and Lands gained from the Sea and his now Majesty hath of late to help the breeders and sellers of Cattle in their reasonable prices thereof prohibited by an Act of Parliament the bringing in of any Cattle which were heretofore usually and yearly brought into England in great heards out of Scotland and Ireland and doth yearly by his Royal Edicts and Proclamations as many of his noble Progenitors Kings and Queens of England have usually done enjoyned the strict observation of the Lent will notwithstanding for want of his Pourveyance or much of his houshold Provisions as they ought to be served in kind constrain him to pay in ready money intollerable dear rates and prices for that which his Officers have occasion to buy for the Provision of his Household Who speed no better when they buy or provide his Fish of those who might have had so much duty and honesty as to afford it cheaper when his Royall Predecessors by the Statutes of 13 E. 1. cap. 47. and 13 R. 2. cap. 19. ordained severe penalties upon those that do take and destroy Salmons Lampries or any other Fish at unseasonable times or destroy the spawn of Fish By the Statute of 22 Ed. 4. cap. 2. That Salmons Herrings and Eâ—les be duly packed By the Statute of 11 H. 7. cap. 23. That Englishmen may import and bring into England Fish taken by Forreigners By the Statute of 2 Ed. 6. cap. 6. that no Officer of the Admiralâ—y should exact any thing of them which travailed for Fish By the Statute of 5 Ellz. cap. 6. Fishermen and Mariners shall not be compelled to serve as Souldiers upon the Land or upon the Sea but as Mariners except in case of Enemies or to subdue Rebellions By the Statute of 13 Eliz. cap. 10. allowed Sea-fish and Herring to be transported in English Ships with cross sails without payment of Customes By the Statute of 39 Eliz. cap. 10. ordained Aliens to pay for salted Fish and salted Herrings to be brought by them into England such Customes as shall be imposed in forreign parts upon the salted Fish and Herrings brought thither by Englishmen And our now gracious Soveraign mainteyns a great Navy to assert and defend his Dominion and his Subjects sole right of Fishing in the British Seas and hath of late in the midst of his own wants for the better encouragement of his People to seek their own good and that which our British Seas will plentifully afford them given all his Customes inward and outward for any the retorns to be made by the sale of Fish in France Denmark and the Baltick Seas for seaven years from the first entrance into the intended Trade of Fishing And when the Mayor of Kingstone upon Hull or his Officers can at the same time obteyn of them better penyworths and according to the directions of the Statute of 33 H. 8. cap. 33. have so good a Pourveyance allowed them as they can take of all Fishermen priviledged for every last of Herring xxd. for every hundred of salt Fish iiii d. for every Last of Sprats viii d. of every person not priviledged for every Last of Herring iâ— s. iiii d. for every hundred of Salt-fish iiii d. and for every Last of Sprats viii d. as they did before the making of the said Statute And when our Laws which have their life and being from the King and his Royall Progenitors have by the Statutes of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. cap. 22. and 2 and 3 Philip and Mary cap. 5. provided that the prices of Butter and Cheese be not enhaunced nor any transported without licence That the prices of Ale and Beer shall bâ—â—he Statute of 23 H. 8. be assessed at reasonable rates and the Barrels and Kilderkins gauged That Spices and Grocery Ware shall by the Statute of 1 Jac. cap. 19. be garbled and not mingled That Woods by the Statute of 35 H cap. 17. 13 Eliz. cap. 5. shall not be converted into Tillage or Pasture And by the Statutes of 7 Ed. 6. cap. 7. 47. cap. 14. that an Assize shall be kept as to the measures only of Coal Tallwood Billeâ—s and Faggots And some of our Princes have given by their Charters many great Liberties Immunities to the Companies of Brewers and Woodmongers And King James did in or about the 11 th year of hâ—s Râ—ign upon his granting of some priviledges to the Town and Colleries of Nâ—wcastle upon Tyne cause the Host-men or Oast-men of Newcastle to covenant to and with the King which they have seldome or never at all observed yearly to serve the City of London and places adjacent with Sea-coals
the Prince should often appear unto his People in Majesty and that the Courtiers should keep good houses And if they will do no more to do but as much as the Beasts and Birds being irrational creatures do by their bodies natural make it their greatest care to protect and preserve the Head of our Body Politique and the honor and dignity of it and keep it above water And now that by his gracious Government and return to us like the Sun to dispel the cold and uncomfortableness which the Winter of his absence had almost for ever fastned upon us Cum fixa manet reverentia patrum Firmatur seâ—ium juris priscamquè resumunt Canitiem leges when our Parliaments and our just and ancient Laws are again restored Claustrisque solutis Tristibus exsanguâ—s andent procedere leges and released from their former affrights and terrors Not endeavour to abridge or endanger the hopes of our future happiness by being to sparing unto him that was not so unto us Jam captae vindex patriae Ut sese pariter diffudit in omnia regni Membra vigor vivusquè redit color urbibus aegris and redeemed our happiness from its Captivity But rather imitate the Clergie of the Bishopricks of Gloucester Chester Oxford Peterborough and Bristol who in the fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth finding those Bishopricks to be much impoverished by the Earl of Leicester and some other who in their vacancies had gotten away a great part of the Revenues thereof did by their Benevolences for some years after enable the Bishops thereof in some tolerable degree to maintain their Hospitalities And our long ago departed Ancestors who took it ill in the Reign of King John with whom they had so much and more then they should contended for their Liberties that Hubert Arch-bishop of Canterbury should keep a better House and Feast at Easter then the King And that Cardinal Woolsey in the Reign of King Henry the Eight should keep as great a state at Court as the King exercise as great an Authority in the Country for Pourveyance as the King and forbid Pourveyance to be made in his own Jurisdictions which made an addition to the Articles of High Treason or great Misdemeanors charged upon him by the Commons in Parliament brought up to the House of Peers by Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert afterward a learned Judge of the Court of Common pleas So that our King may not for want of his antient rights of Pourveyance or an Allowance or Compositions for them the later of which as a means to make so unquestionable a right and priviledge of the Crown of England to be alwayes gratefull and welcome to them was fiâ—st designed set on foot contrived by Sir David Brook Serjeant at Law unto King Henry the Eighth and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the Reign of Queen Mary and happily effected or brought to perfection in or about the 4 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth be necessitated to retrench or lay down his Royal Housekeeping and Hospitalities or deprived of his means of Charity and Magnificence which Jacob Almansor the learned Arabian King who lived in Anno 654. and conquered Spain was in his swarthy Dominions so carefull to preserve as after that he had given audience unto Suitors which were some dayes in every week he usually caused a publique cry to be made that all of them as well rich as poor should stay and take their refections and to that end furnished Tables for them with such abundance of provisions as became the house of so mighty a King And that if any forreign King or Prince should as Cecily Sister to the King of Sweden and Wife to the Marquess of Baden did by a far a long Voyage come from the North into England to visit our Queen Elizabeth and see the splendour of her Court which as to her Charity splendour and Hospitality though so over-sparing in other things and so unwilling to draw monyes out of her Subjects purses as she lost the fair hopes and opportunity of regaining Calais which was so much desired by her was very plentifully and magnificent and with the allowance of many more Tables then have been in the times of her Successors they may return into their Country as that Princess did with a wonder at it and not be constrained to say as was once said of the glory of the Temple of Jerusalem Who is left amongst you that saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now and that returning into the former good wayes manners and custome of England we may not be damnati fatâ— populi but virtute renati And that to that end we shall do well to leave ouâ— new and untrodded By-wayes of Error made by the Raiser of Taxes and the Filchers of the Peoples Liberties in the Glory of anothers Kingdome now we have so wofully seen felt heard and understood so very many mischiefs and inconveniences already happened and if not speedily prevented are like to be a great deal more and hearken unto the voyce and dictates of the Laws of God and Nature the Laws of the Land and Nations Reason and Gratitude and let our Posterity know that the honor of our King and Country is dear unto us and that whatever becomes of our own Hospitalities we shall never be willing to let the Vestaâ— Fire of the British and English Hospitalities although most of our own are either extinguished or sunk into the Embers go out or be extinct in our King Palaces or to abjure or turn out of its course so great part of the Genius of the Nation but that we shall continue the duties of Praeemption and Pourveyance which are as old as the first Generations of Mankind and as antient as the duty of reverence of Children to their Parents Dent Fata Recessum FINIS Accompts inter Evidentia Comitis Oxon. Stows Survey of London Sieur Colberts Remonstrance of the benefit of the Trade to be driven by the French in the East-Indies Lessius de Just. Jur. lib. 2. cap. 21. n. 148. Cokes 4. part Institutes 12 Ed. 4. c. 8. 25 H. 8. cap. 2. Epist. Rom. 6. Speed Hist. of England Heylin hist. Ecclesiae Anglicanae domes reformatae Waler Max. lib. 8. cap. 5. Cicero in oratione pro Muroena Gervasius Tilburiensis Assisa panis cervisiae and a Statute for punishing the breach thereof by Pillory and Tumbrell Anno 51 H. 3. Rot. Fin. 11 E. 2. Cokes 1. part Institutes 70 Rot. parl 25 â— 3. m. 56. Inter Recorda in Recept Scaccarii inter Fines de tempore H. 3. Speed Hist. of Great Britain M. S. in custodia Gulielmi Dugdale Spelman Annotat. ad Concilia decreta leges Ecclesiastica 349. Asser Menevensis de gestis Alfredi 19. 23. Henry Huntingdon and William Malmesbury de gestis regum Angliae Speed History of England Stows Survey
of his burdens as he and his Royal Progenitors have done unto them in any of the complained of burdens of them and their Forefathers by many times laying to sleep some good Laws Constitutions which though at the making thereof they were most just and rationall would now by the rise of silver two to one more then formerly the change of Times and Customes be very prejudiciall and burdensome unto them As King Henry the First did by no Law or Act of Parliament but his own good will and promise calculated only for that present Age or Reign but since observed by all his Successors in the change of his rent provisions into Rents of money many of which being now and ever since paid in small quit-rents made that part of the People very great gainers and that King and his Heirs and Successors to be loosers more then Fifty thousand pounds per annum or the greatest extent of the Nations yearly charge for the Royall Pourveyance or Compositions for them did ever amount unto And as the Asise of Bread Bear and Ale in 51 H. tertii which holds no proportion with the now Assize or rules for Bakers and Brewers but very much differs from it and exceeds it was not for many ages past and in some plentifull years in our memory kept when Corn Wheat and Malt did fall within the virge or direction of that Act of Parliament or Ordinance rather of the King without an Act of Parliament Nor did hold those kind of Trades to the Assize made and appointed by King Henry the 7 th nor by any Act of Parliament or otherwise restrain the Shoemakers to the prices appointed by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. repealed in the 5 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when there was an allowed transportation of Leather and scarcely half so many Cattle bred in England and brought from Ireland and Scotland nor any Leather at all imported from Russia as it is now in great quantities when they do now by their own and the Tanners knaveries and enhaunces take for a pair of shoes which in the Reign of King Edward the 2 d. might be bought for the use of a good Knight or Gentleman for a groat and in Yorkshire for some of the best Gentry of that County in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but for little more where also a pair of shoes for a Lady of a good Extraction and Quality were in the begining of the Reign of King James sold for sixteen pence and a pair of shoes for a man in the memory of middle aged men were made and sold in London for two shillings six pence and eight groats a pair no less then four shillings eight pence at the lowest and many times five shillings and six pence or six shillings a pair which as Mr. Richard Ferrour hath judiciously and ingeniously observed doth yearly cheat and cozen the people besides the inconveniences by ill wrought and half tanned Leather six or seaven hundred thousand pounds or a Million Sterling per annum which might well have been spared or better employed And be as willing to ease his burdens and grievances as Queen Elizabeth that mirrour of Women and Princes was in theirs by the repealing of so much of the Statute for limiting the wages of labourers in the 25 th year of the Reign of King Edward the Third when Churches Castles and Abbies weâ—e wont to be built as concerned the wages of Labouâ—ers that Master Masons Carpenters and Tylers should take but three pence a day and others of that Trade but two pence a day a Tylers boy a peny per diem that none other should take above a penny for a days work for mowing five pence for reaping of Corn in the first week of August two pence and in the second week and unto the end of that moneth not above three pence And by the making of an Act of Parliament that the wages of Artificers and Labourers then six times more then they were at the time of the making of the said Act of Parliament in the 25 th year of the Reign of King Edward the Third should be yearly assessed by the Justices of the Peace and Magistrates in every County City and Town corporate at their Quarter-Sessions with respect unto the plenty and scarcity of the time and other circumstances necessary to be considered for that as the praeamble thereof declared the wages and allowances limited and rated in former Statutes were in divers places too small and not answerable to that time respecting the advancement of the prices of all things belonging unto Artificers and Labourers that the Law could not conveniently without the great grief and burden of the poor Labourers and hired men be put in execution and to the end that there might be a convenient proportion of wages in the times of scarcity and plenty Which was the cause that King James by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of his Reign upon compleynt that their wages were not rated and proportioned according to the plenty necessity and scarcity and respect of the time as was politiquely intended by the said Queen Elizabeth did amongst other provisions give a further power authority to the Justices of Peace in every County at their Quarter Sessions from time to time to limit and regulate the wages and hire of Labourers and Artificers although their wages and hire were then much encreased and are since very excessive and immoderate which by an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martir being continued untill the end of the first Session of the then next Parliament is for want of continuance expired and did repeal as Queen Elizabeth and other of our Kings also did many an Act of Parliament in regard of Inconveniences or damages arising to the people or because they did not answer the expectations of the makers thereof And may as little grudge the King his Pourveyance or Compositions for them though the richer part of the people who are only contributory to the Pourveyance or Compositions for them may by their own excessive raysing of all manner of prices of houshold provisions and their unreasonable gains by it seem to be something more then formerly burdened with it as they did the late King Charles the Martyr his indulgence to them and dispensing with a Decree made in the Starre-Chamber in the 11 th year of his Reign by the Lords of his Privy Councel and other the Judges of that Court after consultation had with Judge Hutton and Judge Croke who were well known to be very great well-wishers to the peoples just and legall liberties and the other reverend Judges and divers Justices of the peace of the Kingdom confirmed by the Kings Letters Patents under the great Seal of England which did forbid the Vintners to dress any meat for their Guests or Strangers and limited the Inkeepers of London and
his Crown Lands turned from small and easie old-fashion'd Reserved Rents upon Leases for Lives or years into Estates of Inheritance and very many Liberties as Fishings Free-Warrens Court-Leets Court-Barons Eschetes Felons Fugitives and Outlaws Goods Deodands Forfeitures Waiss Estraies Fines Amerciaments retorn and execution of Writs and in some Manors a liberty of receiving to their own use Fines for licenses of concord or agreement upon the making of Conveyances and Post-Fines upon Fines leavied in the Kings Courts Profits of the year day and wast and all Fines Issues Amerciaments returned set or imposed upon any of their Tenants in any of the Kings Courts or by any Justices of Assize or of the Peace With many other Franchises Liberties and Participations of his Regality which they do now enjoy tanquam Reguli as little Kings in their several Estates and Dominions in many of them more by claim and prescription allowed by the favour and indulgence of the King and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors Kings and Queens of of this Nation unto them and their Posterities then by any any Grants they can shew for it very much exceeding in yearly profit and conâ—ent the small charges which they have used to have been at for the Pourveyance or Provisions for the Kings Houshold Take his Fee-farme Rents which do amount unto above threescore thousand pounds per annum but according to their first and primitive small reservation though the Lands thereof be now improved and raised in some a ten and in others a twelve to one moâ—e then they were then accompted to be either in the intentions of the Donors or Donees and many other his Fee-Farmes of some casuall Profits and Revenues granted to Cities and Corporations which do now ten to one exceed what they were when they were first granted Grant and confirme to the Vulgus or Common people many great immunities and Priviledges as Assart Lands and permit them to enjoy in his own Lands and Revenue large Common of Pasture and Common of Estovers and Turbary in his Forrests and Chaces and protect from oppression in that which are holden of their Mesne Lords their Copihold Lands Customes and Estates which being at first but temporarily permitted and allowed patientia charitate in quoddam jus transierunt are now by an accustomed and continued charity taken to be a kind of Tenant Right and Inheritance Grants and permits many Charters of Liberties Privileges and Freedoms to the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England and Wales and to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of London all Issues Fines and Amerciaments retâ—rned and imposed upon them in any of the Kings Cours freedome from payment of Tolls and Lastage in their way of an universall and diffused Trade in all places of England and for a small Fee Farme Rent of Fifty pounds per annum for the Kings Tolls at Queen-Hithe Billingsgate and other places in the City of London accepted in the Reign of King Henry the Third suffers them to have and receive in specie or mony towards their own Pourveyance as much as would goe a good way in his Allows the Tenants in antient Demesn their Exemptions from the payment of Toll for their Houshold Provisions which in the opinion of Sir Edward Coke was at the first in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings houshold Provisions and suffers the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colleges and Halls therein Colleges of Winchester and Eaton and the Reâ—ients in the Cinque Ports and Rumney Marsh to enjoy a Freedom from Subsidies Who together with all the people of England may by the Accompt of benefits received by and from him and his Royall Progenitors and Predecessors know better how to value them if they had not received them and if he should but retire himself into himself and withdraw his bounties from us Or take his Customes and Imposts inward and outward Reliefs Ayds Subsidies Fifteens Tenths and First-fruits Profits of his Seals Pâ—ae-fines Post-fines Licences and Pardons for alienation of Lands Fines upon Foâ—medons and reall Actions at the full value and rate which the Law will allow and the rise of money might perswade him unto or take all occasions to invade or clip the peoples Liberties and Privileges as they do his Or seise and take advantage of the forfeitures of our sufficiently misused Fairs and Markets which without the many inconveniences of Barrage Billets peages or Tolls taken at many places as they pass thither as the people of France and our Fashion makers are tormented with do yield and save the people yearly in that which otherwise would be lost some hundred of thousands pounds per annum or should withdraw his favours and countenance from the Trade which our Merchants have into forreign Parts since the Reign of Queen Mary by the benefits and blessings of the Leagues and Alliances of him his Royall Progenitors made with forreign Princes continued with a great yearly charge of Embassadours Ordinary and Extraordinary sent and received and render it to be no no more then it was in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the difference of the gain of forreign Trade and Merchandize betwixt the little which was then and that which is now by reason of the East-Indie Turkie Muscovie Ligorne and East-land Trades and our many flourishing American Plantations would appear to be some millions sterling money in a year And were notwithstanding never so gratefull to our King for it as the English Merchants of Calais were whilst King Edward the Third caused the Staple of Wool to be kept there who so ordered the matter as the King spent nothing upon Souldiers in defence of the Town which was wont to cost him eight thousand pounds per annum and the Mayor of that Town could in Anno 51 of the Reign of that King furnish the Captain of the Town upon any Rode to be made with one hundred Bill-men and two hundred Archers of Merchants and their Servants without any wages Or if the Peoples Liberties acquired by the munificence and Indulgence of our Kings since the making and confirming of our Magna Charta in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Third now 437 years ago when they took it to be for their good as well as the Kings to give him a Fifteenth part of all their Moveables not by a conniving and unequall but a more real and impartiall Taxation in recompence and as a thankfull Retribution for their Liberties then granted and confirmed which are now as many again or do farre exâ—ed them were buâ— justly valueâ— or if the benefits accrewed unto forreign Merchants or those of our own Nation by the Charâ—a Mercatoria granted by King Edward the First in the 31 year of his Reign to the Meâ—chants Strangers and confirmed by Act of Paâ—liament in Anno 27 Ed. 3. for the releasing of an antient Custome and Duty to the Kings
Germany and other Kingdomes and Principalities of Christendome the Republique of Venice and that Corporation of Kings the States of Holland and the united Provinces greater Improvements of Lands and prices for the fruits of the Earth then former ages ever saw or attained unto ten to one more Cattel Sheep Swine and Poultry fed and sold in England then formerly a freedome from the Popes and Romes former and many daily heavy Taxations carrying away much of the Revenues thereof the universality of the people 10 or 20 times richer in moveables and household Furniture then ever their Forefathers were every man of 10 or 20 l. Land per annum now having one if not many pieces of Plate in his house heretofore not to be found but in the houses of the Nobility or persons of great quality many Alehouse-keepers a piece of Plate if not as many as his occasions call for instead of Black poâ—s every Artizan a piece or more of Plate and many of the richer sort of Citizens Merchants and Retayloâ—s do take themselves to be disparaged the Sons of contempt if they have not half and others almost all their Table-service in Silver Plate their Dyning Rooms and Lodging Chambers richly hung with Tapestry of 30 40 or 60 l. a suit too many of their Wives hung with Pearl Neck-laces Diamond Lockets and the most costly sort of Jewels and little Tablets of their Husbands Pictures richly enameld or set in gold at the charge of 25 or 20 l. a piece to hang at the outside of their hearts and some of the retailing part of them think they come to farre behind their betters if they have not a kind of Sâ—ate or Carpets to spread within their Chambers or Apartments or shall not be enough talked of or looked upon if they have not an Indian Foot-boy with a Coller of Silver about his neck to attend them and their delicacies and wantonness better attended then the afterwards destroyed and vagabond Jews ever had when the Almighty sent his Prophets to preach and inveigh against their excessive pride and wickedness a greater by many degrees more then heretofore increase of Trade untill our long and accursed Rebellion spoyled it more money put by Countrymen and such as were not Traders to Interest and Usury which may shew how great an overplus many have beyond their necessary expences then former ages were acquainted with as much Wood and Timber sold in our late times of prodigality as would have bought the Fee-simple and Inheritance of all or the greatest part of the Lands of the Kingdome many Rivers made navigable and Havens repaired the loss of Cattle and damage by Inundations and some unruly Rivers prevented by several Statutes oâ— Commissions of Sewers Depopulations prohibited many an unjust Title in concealed Lands made good after sixty years quiet possession Interest for money lent reduced to a lower rate then formerly and Brocage forbidden divers Statutes restraining Aliens not being denâ—zend to Trade or keep Shops the bringing of silver Bullion into England by our Merchants encouraged transportation of Gold and Silver prohibited Merchants of Ireland and Aliens ordained to employ their moneys received in England upon the Commodities thereof many great Factories and Trades erected and encouraged the Lands of Wales greatly improved and freedome formerly denyed had of Trade and Commerce with them the Marches of Wales secured from the Incursions of the Welch and the Northern Counties from those of the Scots abundance of Markets and Fairs granted more then formerly great store of Cattle brought in yearly from Ireland and Scotland and many a good and beneficiall Law and Act of Parliament made to remedy the peoples grievances and better enabling them to performe those very ancient and legall duties of Pourveyances or Compositions for them Which may with us be understood to be the more reasonable when the Pourveyance or Compositions for them in England if they did yearly charge the people or amount unto as they did not fifty or sixty five thousand pounds per annum or thereabouts did not yearly draw out of their Puâ—ses or Estates so much as that which is yearly laid out in their buying of Babies Hobby-horses and Toyes for their Children to spoyl as well as to play withall or in the yearly charge of the Counties in the amending of the High-wayes Treatments given to Harvest folk Expences of an Harvest Goose or Seed-Cake given to their Plowmen and keeping a Wake or Parish Feast every year or the monies which the good women in every Parish and County do gladly rid themselves of in their Gossipings at the Birth of their Neighbours Children and many other most triviall chearfull and pleasing disbursements and nothing near so much as this last years excess in the wearing of Perrukes or Periwigs some at three pounds others at five or ten pounds price which Clerks and the smallest size of Tradesmen and Journymen Apprentices Baâ—beâ—s and Vintners boys must of necessity have to hide their heads and little wit is Or in the womens long needless Trains or unreasonable length of their Gowns every Lady or Gentlewoman or many ridiculous proud Citizens Wives being certainly not Dutchesses or Countesses or allowed to have their Trains carried up to shew the length of their vanities and informe the Common people who do with abhorrence behold them how much better it would be to bestow that ten or twenty pounds per annum so foolishly expended upon the Poor in charity and almes deeds then to make their tails the Beesoms or Deputy-Scavengers of the streets or places where they walk or the mony which hath been lately expended in altering or putting too many of the Common people into the low crowned little Hats or flat Caps to cover the folly of every Absalom or Inhabitant in a hideous bush of hair or Periwig or their adorning them with as many Ribbons as the vanities they are guilty of or in the yearly or never murmured at charges or expences of almost all sorts of people as well in the Countries as Cities in the exchanging or following of Fashions as if they were to make all the hast possible they could to purchase them lest there should not be fools enough in the Nation or that the ridiculous French Ape should not have enough to be of his Livery or Retinue And as to the severall kinds of all those severall particulars would make the foot of the Accompt to be a great deal more then that of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which was so easie and petit as in most of the Counties of England it was many times not singly rated or assessed but was joyned with some other Assesse And in Kent where ten or twenty times more being gained by the Kings residence at Westminster more was paid then in any one County of England was so little felt and regarded as a Tenant paying One hundred pounds rent per annum for his Land did not think it worth his care
those that adhaered unto him and having destroyed the Sheep can now as if they were innocent appear in Sheeps clothing enforce those that rebelled against him and his Royall Father to compound as King H. 3. did his Rebellious People all but the unhappy Robert Ferrers Earl of Derby the Heirs of Simon de Mountfort Earl of Leicester and some few others for their pardons or redemption of their forfeited Lands by his Commission or dictum de Kenelworth according to the nature of their several Delinquencies so as the greatest Fines should not exceed five years and the lowest not be less then two years of the then true yearly value of their Lands and Estates Neither as the late pretended Parliament and Oliverian Tormentors of all that were good did in a more severe manner when they forfeited and would not permit many of the Loyall Party at all to compound and constrained the rest to compound for a supposed fighting against the King when it was well known that they did really fight and suffer for him made them to pay great and excessive Fines some according to a third and others a half of the full yearly value of their Lands and Estates and others in what arbitrary way they pleased for their personal Estates and moneyes due unto them And after they had proceeded so farre in the ruining of them and granted them a slender Act of Oblivion choaked with a great many of Provisos did upon the loyall Attempts of some of them to recall their King and Liberties Decimate and make those also that had not therein offended their Masterships of Sin and Rebellion to pay and compound for a Tenth of their Estates as if Loyalty had been a sin and like that of Adam the first Inhabitant in the world been to be punished in all the loyall Party and their Generations squeese their Estates or require any Contributions or Summes of money of them more then of all the Loyall Party towards the payment of many hundred thousand pounds sterling in Arrear to themselves and the Souldiers which had been before imployed to ruine him when after his most happy Restauration he was contented for the quiet and welfare of the Nation to pay it out of his own Revenues the publick and generall Contributions Nor did in his Act of Parliament for a generall Pardon and Indempnity insert any Proviso for their good adhaering towards him and his Royall Crown and dignity or compel them as is usually done in cases of Pardons for Felony or Manslaughter to find Sureties for their better behaviour towards him and his People But gave way unto his extraordinary mercy and compassion to a People who in the Career of their Sins Rebellion and Rapine could not find the way to pity the sad condition of their Souls Bodies and Estates and in all that concerned the good and welfare of his People was willing to imitate and remember that Maxime of his blessed father the Martyr that the Peoples Liberties did strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties And was lately heard to say that he would not if he might be absolute or not restrained in many things by the Laws which he or his Royall Progenitors had made or granted that the Laws of England were the bâ—st Laws in the world that if the wisest men in the world had been appointed to make Laws they could have made no better and that if they had not been made he would most willingly make the same again How little would be gained to the people by denying him the Pourveyance or Compositions for them who hath a just most antient and legall right to those their small Retributions if he should restrain the bitings and oppression of their Markets and Merchandize or by his removing his Residence and Courts of Justice from Westminster make London and her twelve adjacent Counties viz. Middlesex Kent Surrey Sussex Southampton Essex Hertford Bedford Cambridge Huntington Buckingham and Northamptonshires to loose more then forty times as much every year by it Although he should not abate or bring down the rates of Rents and Provisions so low as King Edward the Sixth did intend to do when to satisfie some of the discontented Commons and People in Armes and Rebellion against him he did undertake that there should be an Act of Parliament in the next ensuing Parliament to lessen and reduce the Rents of Lands scarce half so high and unreasonable as now they are to what they had been forty years before And how unequal it would be that the People should by infringing of the Lawes and by the improvement and high rack of their Lands and Commodities take advantage of their own doing of wrong unto others and that the Citizens of London and the Inhabitants of the twelve adjacent Counties should desire his Residence to be so near his Chamber of London and make him by the taking away of his Pourveyance so great a looser by it when if like the Sun in the Firmament he should diffuse and carry his light and heat to all the parts of his Kingdom and not make London and its neighbouâ—ing Counties an East or West-Indies and the rest of the Kingdome to be as a Greenland either by removing his Courts and Residence to Worcester or Ludlow towards Wales or to York the People of London and the neighbouring Counties would as soon lament his absence and removall as he would find the ease and benefit of it as his Royall Father King Charles the Martyr did in the year 1640 when he was at Newcastle with his Court and Army in the Borders of Scotland where the rate or price which he allowed at London for the Provisions of his Houshold according to the Compositions for the Pourveyance appeared to be so much above the Market rates as the People brought it in so plentifully as he was enforced by his Proclamation to forbid the bringing in of such an overplus And may to their cost hereafter believe that they shal be as little gainers by that small yearly sum of mony which they do but think they shall save by the not paying the Compositions for the Pourveyance or by the Kings acquitall of it as they have been or may be in his release of his Tenures in Capite and by Knights service when they dream of that which may be imagined to be a benefit but when they are waking will never be found to be so and will in the yearly expence or accidents of the better and richer part of the People in the charges of finding Offices defraying the Fees of Escheators and Feodaries many Writs Process and Suits in that which was the Court of Wards and Liveries and their payment of Rents Compositions for Wardships will not be enough to satisfie or set against the very many great oppressions mischiefs and inconveniences which since the taking away of that Court and the Tenures in Capite and by Knights service have
unworthy sparing and avarice of Subjects in withholding their Oblations from his Deputies and disabling them from relieving the Strangers the Fatherless and the Widows And that the rates of his houshold provisions being much the same or very near unto those which were agreed upon by the Justices of Peace of every County who cannot be understood to be any Strangers to the rates and Market prices of every County might not be now as cheap afforded as they were then or when they were cheaper in the â—3 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth now not much above 130 years agoe when 24 great Bâ—eves were provided for a great and pompous Serjeants Feast at Ely house in London where the King Queen and many of the Nobility the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London were present such provisions being then probably at a greater price then ordinary for 26 s. 8 d. a piece from the Shambles a Carcase of an Oxe at 24 aâ—â— s. 10 d. a piece one and fifty great Veals at 4 s. 8 d. a piece four and thirty Porks at 3 s 8 d. a piece ninety one Pigs at 6 d. a piece Capons ten dozen at 20 d. a piece Kentish Capons nine dozen and a half at 12 d. a piece Capons course nineteen dozen 6 d. a piece Cocks of gross seaven dozen nine at 8 d. a piece Cocks course fourteen dozen and eight at 3 d. a piece Pullets the best at 2 d. ob a piece other Pullets 2 d. Pigeons thirty seaven dozen at 10 d. a dozen and Larks three hundred and forty dozen at 5 d a dozen if the Magistrates of England who are trusted by the Law with the Assiâ—e and correction of the rates and prices of victuals and houshold provisions and the punishment of Ingrossers Forestallers and Regrators did not sleep over their duty or too many of the Justices of Peace and Lords of Leets did not finde it to be more for their own advantages to improve and raise their Lands to the highest rack rather then reduce those now exorbitant rates and prices into that order which the Laws and Statutes of England do intend they should be There being no just cause to complain of our payments to the King for his Pourveyance or any other of his necessary affairs when the cry and daily complaints of our want of money is not so much by reason of our want of Trade as our want of wit by mispending that which should regularly and orderly maintain us and our Families and it is not our want of Trade but our too much trading in pride excess and superfluities which hath brought the Nation into that Hectique Feaver and almost incurable Consumption which hath now seised upon the vitalls of it and would be very evident if a strict accompt and view were taken of what hath been needlesly and vitiously spent within these last twenty or thirty years more then formerly in Apparrel Diet Wine Tobacco Jewels Coaches new Fashions greater Portions given with Daughters then our Forefathers could either have given or thought fitting increase of Servants Artificers and Labourers wages gaming by women as well as men great interest and Brocage paid for money and buying upon Trust to support their vanities and twenty millions sterling lately spent in the enterteynment of the Devil and a most horrid Rebellion and seeking for a Liberty to loose all our own Liberties and may give us to understand that if we had that money again which was so foolishly mispended those that could then lay it out and now want it might subscribe unto this undenyable truth that there would be greater riches and less necessities seen in England then in any other Nation and enough and more then enough to drive the Trade thereof and that whilst the back and belly have vyed who should be most inordinate and profuse the improvement of Rents Wages and Commoditâ—â—s have been to no better a purpose then to improve our vices and the Nationaâ—l as well as particular miseries and damage which are and will be the never â—aâ—ling concomitants and consequents of it For no reason can be given why we should not as chearfully submit to any thing that tends to the support of the King and the Honour 〈…〉 Nation as every Citizen of London and man of Trade will do to the furnishing of Pageants or publick 〈◊〉 for the honor and Reputation of their City or Company or as the Universities sometime do in an Entertainment of the King or their Chancellour though they did at the same time contribute to the Pourveyance or as the People of England did in the 5 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th when the Queen Regent of Scotlandâ—n â—n her return out of France thither desiring to take her Journy through England was by the City of London presented at her fiâ—st coming with Muttons Beefe Veals Poultry Wine and all other sorts of Provisions necessary for the Entertainment of her and her no small Train even to Bread and Fâ—well and when she departed to goe for Scotland was after great and Princely Entertainments by the King at Whitchall conducted by the Sheriffs of London to whose care the King had committed it as farre as Waltham and by all the Sheriffs of all the Counties through which she passed untill she came unto the Borders of Scotland her Enterteynment being provided by the Kings appointment at the charge of the Counties Nor can it be for the honour of the English Nation to come behind the Jews that stiffe necked and Rebellious Race of Mankind in their kindness and returns unto their Kings and Princes who notwithstanding that pedagoguy and hard hand of Government which the Almighty in his eternall Wisdome found necessary to put upon them in their releasing of Servants and letting their Lands lye untilled every seaventh year permitting their Debtors and Mortgagors or Venâ—ors in every Jubile or 50 year to enjoy their Lands and Estates and to be at liberty their many and many times Free-will and Thanksgiving Offerings Peace-Offerings Sin-Offerings costly Sacrifices Feasts unto the Lord and Journeys to Jerusalem the Offerings which were brought and prepared for the building of the Tabernacle in such aboundance a readiness and zeal not now to be found amongst us as formerly in the building of Churches or repair of the Cathedral of St. Paul as God directed Moses by a Proclamation to restrain them from bringing any more and their Males appearing three times in every year before the Lord not empty handed and their very large Offerings also at the Dedication of the Temple when Solomon their King invited them unto it and their Corban or money often given to the Treasury of it could not forget their respects and duty to their Kings in their Presents or Pourveyance for them and their Houshold When God would not suffer the Majesty of Kings shining as the beams reflections of his divine Majesty upon the face of Moses
when he came down out of the Mount from his conference with him to be abated or lessened but shewed his care of it in the severe punishment of the gain-saying of Corah Dathan Abiram and their saying that Moses took too much upon him and is and ever hath been so essentiall very necessary to the preservation of Authority and Government and the Subjects and People under it as Saul when he had incurred the displeasure of God and his Prophet Samuel desired him not to dishonour him before the People And David when he heard how shamefully his Embassadours had been abused by the King of Ammon ordered them to stay at Jericho untill their beards were grown out The Romans who being at the first but Bubulci and Opiliones a rude Company oâ— Shepheards Herdsmen and were looked upon as such a base and rude Rabble as the Sabines their Neighbours scorned to marry or be allyed with them did afterwards in their growing greatness which like a torrent arising from a small assembly of waters did afterwards overrun and subdue the greatest part of the habitable World hold their Consuls in such veneration as they had as Cicero saith magnum nomen magnam speciem magnam majestatem as well as magnâ—m potestatem as great an outward respect and veneration as they had authority and were so jealous and watchfull over it as their Consul Fabius would rather lay aside the honour due unto his Father from a Sonne of which that Nation were extraordinary obseâ—vers then abate any thing of it and commanded his aged Father Fabius the renowned rescuer and preserver of Rome in a publique Assembly to alight from his Horse and do him the honour due unto his present Magistracy which the good old man though many of the people did at the present dislike it did so approve of as he alighted from his horse and embracing his Son said Euge fili sapis qui intelligis quibus imperes quam magnum magistratum susceperis my good Son you have done wisely in understanding over whom you command and how great a Magistracy you have taken upon you And our Offa King of the Mercians in An. Dom. 760 an Ancestor of our Sovereign took such a care of the Honour and Rights due unto Majesty and to preserve it to his Posterity as he ordained that even in times of Peace himself and his Successors in the Crown should as they passed through any City have Trumpets sounded before them to shew that the Person of the King saith the Leiger Book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honour in all which did either see or hear him Neither will it be any honour for Christians to be out-done by the Heathen in that or other their respects and observances to their Kings when the Romans did not seldome at their publique charge erect costly Statues and Memorialls of their gâ—atitude to their Emperours make chargeable Sacrifices ad aras in aedibus honoris virtutis in their Temples of Honour and Virtue could yearly throw money into the deep Lake or Gulfe of Curtius in Rome where they were like never to meet with it again pro voto salute Imperatoris as Offerings for the health and happiness of their Emperouâ—s and all the City and Senate Calendis Januarii velut publico suo parenti Imperatori strenas largiebant did give New years-gifts to the Emperour as their publick Parent bring them into the Capitol though he was absent and make their Pensitationes or Composition for Pourveyance for their Emperours to be a Canon unalâ—erable Or by the Magnesians and Smirnaeans who upon a misfortune in Warre hapned to Seleucus King of Syria could make a League with each other and cause it to be engraven in Marble pillars which to our dayes hath escaped the Iron Teeth of time majestatem Seleuci tueri conservare to preserve and defend the Honor and Majesty of Seleucus which was not their Sovereign or Prince but their Friend and Ally Nor any thing to perswade us that our Forefathers were not well advised when in their care to preserve the honor of their King and Country they were troubled and angry in the Reign of King H. 3. that at a publick Feast in Westminster-Hall the Popes Legate was placed at the Kings Table in the place where the King should have sate or when the Baronage or Commonalty of England did in a Parliament holden at Lincoln in the Reign of King Edward the First by their Letters to their then domineering demy-God the Pope who was averse unto it stoutly assert their Kings superiority over the Kingdome of Scotland and refuse that he should send any Commissioners to Rome to debate the matter before the Pope in Judgement which would tend to the disherison of the Crown of England the Kingly Dignity and prejudice of the Liberties Customes and Laws of their Forefathers to the observation and defence of which they were ex debito prestiti juramenti astricti bound by Oath and would not permit tam insolita praejudicialia such unusuall and prejudiciall things to be done against the King or by him if he should consent unto it Or when the Pope intending to cite King Edward the Third to his Court at Rome in Anno 40 of his Reign to do homage to the See of Rome for England and Ireland and to pay him the Tribute granted by King John the whole Estates in Parliament did by common consent declare unto the King that if the Pope should attempt any thing against him by process or other matter the King with all his Subjects should with all their force resist him And in Anno 42 of King Ed. 3. advised him to refuse an offer of peace made unto him by David le Bruse King of Scotland though the Warâ—es and frequent incursions of that Nation were alwayes sufficiently troublesome chargeable so that he might enjoy to him in Fee the whole Realm of Scotland without any subjection and declared that they could not assent unto any such Peace to the disherison of the King and his Crown and the great danger of themselves Or that William Walworth he gallant Mayor of London whose fame for it will live as long as that City shall be extant was to be blamed when he could not endure the insolency of the Rebel Wat Tyler in suffering a Knight whom the King had sent to him to stand bare before him but made his Dagger in the midst of his Rout and Army teach his proud heart better manners Or Richard Earl of Arundelâ—nd â—nd Surrey did more then was necessary when as he perceiving before hand the after accomplished wicked designe and ambition of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and titular King of Leon and Castile did before the downfall of that unhappy Prince King Richard the Second complain in Parliament that he did sometimes go arme in arme with the King and make