Reign And hence it is that our Kings enjoy their Crowns be it for Life or Intail Now it is certain that this Solemn Oath or Contract which was taken by the first King ought by Law to be renewed at the beginning of every King's Reign and hence it is that our Kings are not only bound by their own express Oaths or Contracts with their Subjects but also by the implied Oaths or Compacts of their Predecessors under whose Title they claim And King Iames I. was so sensible of this double Contract that he expresly mentions it in one of his Speeches to 1609. both Houses of Parliament where he very well distinguishes between both those Contracts telling them That a King in a setled Kingdom binds himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom tacitly as being a King that is claiming under his Ancestors and so bound to protect them as well as the Laws of his Kingdom and expresly by his own Oath at his Coronation So as every Just King in a setled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction or Covenant made to his People by his Laws in forming his Government agreable thereunto according to that Paction which God made to Noah c. And then goes on to tell them That therefore a King governing in a setled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to Rule according to his Laws And then concludes That all Kings who are not Tyrants nor Perjured will be glad to bind themselves within the limits of their Laws and they that perswade them otherwise are the worst Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common-wealth So that you see here by King Iames's own Concession that there are not only Fundamental Laws but an Original Contract which he there calls a Paction or Covenant to observe them from the time of the first King or Monarch to this day and that when he ceases to Govern according to this Compact which he here calls his Laws he then becomes a Tyrant F. But I have heard some say That William the First after he had conquered England distributed almost all the Lands to his Norman and French Followers and that if there were any Original Contract ever entred into by the English Saxon Kings it was quite void upon the Conquerors obtaining the Crown and subduing all the People of this Nation so that whatever Liberties we now enjoy they were but the gracious Concessions of himself and his Successors without any such Original Compact I. I confess it is so alledged by some high flying Gentlemen who if they could would make us all Slaves to the King 's Absolute Will but without any just grounds in my Opinion since every one of their Suppositions are either false or built upon rotten Foundations For in the first place a Conquest in an Unjust War as I have already proved can confer no Right on the Conqueror over a free People and if this War were never so Just yet could not he thereby have acquired any Right over the whole Kingdom since the War was not made against the English Nation but Harold only who had usurped the Crown contrary to Right so that King William could have no Right to it without the People's Consent in their Great Council or Parliament which most of the Historians of those times say he obtained but indeed King William whom you call the Conqueror never claimed by that Title but by the Donation or Testament of King Edward the Confessor and the Consent or Election of the People of England as all his English-Saxon Predecessors had done before him nor did he give all nor yet a third part of the Lands of England to his Norman Followers as you suppose or if he had would it do the business for which it is urged since his Norman and French Followers to whom he gave those Lands were never conquered but were if any thing the Conquerors of others and from them most of our Ancient English Nobility and Gentry are lineally descended or else claim under their Titles by Purchases Mariages c. and so succeed to all their Rights and Priviledges And at the worst supposing King William to have in some Cases governed Arbritrarily and like a Conqueror over the English this was not so till he was provoked to it by their frequent Plots and Conspiracies against him and yet even that was done contrary to his Coronation-Oath which was the same that all the Saxon Kings had taken before only with this Addition That he should govern as well his French as his English Subjects by equal Law or Right so that his wilful Breach of this Oath could not give him or his Successors any just Right by the Sword over the Lives Estates or Liberties of any Englishman who had never fought against him nor offended his Laws And tho I should grant that this King and his Son William Rufus governed his Norman as well as his English Subjects very Arbitrarily and contrary to his own Laws yet did his Brother King Henry 1st make both his English and Norman Subjects large amends by the great Charter of their Ancient Liberties which he granted immediately after his Election to the Crown by the Chief Bishops Lords and Free-men of the Kingdom and upon which the great Charter of England renewed by King Iohn and afterwards confirmed by his Son Henry the 3d were founded being but larger Explanations thereof F. I confess this is more than ever I knew before but what if a King of England as King Iames lately did will cease to govern like a legal or limited King and prove a Tyrant by breaking this original Compact which his Predecessors made with the people does it therefore follow that he may be resisted if he does or can he ever cease to be King or forfeit his Royal Dignity if he acts never so Tyrannically for sure if all resistance of his Power be unlawful as being so declared by several Acts of Parliament in King Charles the Second's Reign he can never cease to be King except he will wilfully turn himself out of the Throne I. I am very well satisfied that those Acts you mention were only made upon this Supposition That the King would never violate the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by which he became King or go about to change the Constitution of the Government since that had been to give the King an Irresistible Power to make us all Slaves whenever he pleased so that our Religion Lives and Civil Liberties would lye not only at the King's mercy but at the mercy of those Ministers that govern him and therefore as it can never be supposed to have been the intent of that Parliament to tye up themselves and the whole people of this Nation to the King on such hard terms nay supposing that the Parliament had done it I do not think they had any right so to do since they were intrusted
therefore used the word Abdicate as that which though it implied both a Renunciation and also a Forfeiture of the Royal Power yet not being commonly so understood made some men only to understand it of the King's Desertion of the Throne by his going away a Notion which because it served a present turn mens heads were then very full of But indeed if this Desertion be closely examined it will not do the business for which it is brought as you have already very well observed F. I confess I never understood the true sence of this word Abdicate before much less the reason why it was made use of therefore commend me to the honest bluntness of the Scotch Convention which as I am informed did not stick to declare That King Iames by subverting the Fundamental Laws of that Kingdom had forfeited the Crown But pray Sir tell me what those Acts or Violations of this Original Contract were which you suppose to cause this tacit Renunciation of the Crown I. As for these I need not go far since they are all plainly expressed in the Convention's late Declaration as striking at the root or very Fundamental Constitution of the Government it self viz. Raising of Money contrary to Law that is without any Act of Parliament as in the late Levying of the Customs Excise and Chimney-Money upon Cottages and Ovens contrary to the several Statutes that conferred them on the Crown 2dly His Assuming a Legislative Power by Dispensing with all Statutes for the Protestant Religion established by Law whereby he at one blow took away above Forty Acts of Parliament and he might at this rate as well have Dispensed with the whole Statute-Book at once by one general Declaration 3dly Raising a Standing Army in time of Peace and putting in Popish Officers contrary to the Statute provided against it for these being but the King 's half Subjects as King Iames the 1st called them in a Speech might be looked upon when in Arms as no better than Enemies to the State so that by thus Arming our Enemies it was in effect a declaring War upon the People since it was abusing the power of the Militia which is intrusted with the King for our Safety and Preservation in our Religion Liberties and Civil Properties and not for the destruction of them all as we found by woful experience must have inevitably befallen us 4thly The Quartering of this standing Army in Private houses contrary to Law and the Petition of Right acknowledged by the late King his Father 5thly His Erecting a new Ecclesiastical Court by Commission contrary to the Statute that took away the High Commission Court 6thly And by the pretended Authority of this Court suspending the Bishop of London from his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and turning out almost all the Fellows and Scholars of Magdalen Colledge because they would not chuse a President uncapable of being Elected by that Colledge Statutes 7thly By Imprisoning the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Six other Bishops only for Presenting him with an humble Petition not to impose the reading of his Declaration of Toleration upon the Clergy of the Church of England as being contrary to the known Laws of the Kingdom and then Trying them for this as a High Misdemeanor though it was contrary to the Opinion of Two of the then Judges of that Court of Kings-Bench There are also other things of lesser concernment as Packing of Juries and unjust and partial Proceedings in Tryals with excessive Fines and cruel Whippings which because they were done by the Lord Chief Justice Iefferies and the other Judges contrary to Law I leave them to answer for it whereas the instances I have now given were in such grand Violations as were done by the King 's own personal Orders and Directions or else could never have been done at all So that by his willful acting these things and obstinately refusing to let a Free Parliament sit to Settle and Redress them but rather chusing to leave the Realm than he would give way to it when he might have done it I think upon consideration of the whole matter it will appear that the Convention had good and just Reasons for declaring the Throne Vacant since the King had not only broke his first declaration he made in Council to maintain the Church of England as by Law Established and the Liberties and Properties of his Subjects but his own Coronation-Oath besides if he took the same his Predecessors did and if he did not he ought not to receive any benefit by his own default but is certainly bound by the Oaths which his Grandfather King Iames and his Father King Charles took before him F. I confess these seem to be great breaches of the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Civil Properties if done by the King 's express Order and Directions and if that he afterwards refused to disclaim them and suffer the Authors to be Punished in Parliament as they deserved makes all those faults indeed fall upon the King himself and consequently seem to amount to a Forfeiture of the Royal Dignity according to that Law of Edward the Confessor you have already cited That if the King fail to Protect the Church and Defend his Subjects from Rapine and Oppression the very Name or Title of King shall no more remain to him But pray Sir shew me in the next place how the Convention could justifie their Voting the Throne Vacant for Granting that King Iames had implicitly Abdicated or Renounced all his Right to the Crown by the Actions you have but now recited Yet if this Kingdom as I have always taken it to be is Hereditary and not Elective I cannot conceive how the Throne can ever be Vacant that is void of a Lawful Heir or Successor as long as one of the Blood-Royal either Male or Female is left alive since I have heard it laid down as a Maxim in our Law That the King never dies I. I grant this to be so upon all ordinary Deaths or Demises of a King or Queen as the Lawyers term it But there are great and evident Reasons why it could not be so upon this Civil though not Natural Death of the King as First the natural Person of the late King being still alive none can claim as Heir to him whilst he lives since it is a Maxim as well in our Common as in the Civil Law That no man can be Heir to a Person alive F. I grant this may be so in ordinary Estates of Inheritance in Fee-simple but I take it to be otherwise in Estates Tail for if a Tenant in Tail had become a Monk whilst Monasteries were in being in England the next Heir in Tail might have entered upon the Estate because the entering into a Religious Order was looked upon as a Civil Death now I take the Crown to be in the nature of such an Estate-Tail where the Heir Claims not only as Heir to the last King but to their first or
pleased because you may have been forced when the way has proved unpassable either through Water or Dirt to leap a Ditch perhaps for safeguard of your life into a Neighbour's Enclosure F. Sir I am so well satisfied with what your Worship hath now said in these grand Points that with your good leave I shall not fail not only to vindicate your Person from those aspersions but also to maintain the lawfulness of our present Settlement upon the same Principle you have now laid down since I know of none that seem to me more agreeable to Right Reason and the Laws and Constitution of this Kingdom and therefore I hope you will always believe me to be your honest Neighbour and humble Servant and so I take my leave of your Worship I. Neighbour I am yours and bid you heartily farewel FINIS Books Sold by Richard Baldwin THE Works of F. Rabelais M D. In Five Books or the Lives Heroick Deeds and Sayings of the Good Gargantua and Pantagruel and his Voyage to the Oracle of the Bottle As also his Historical Letters To which is added the Author's Life and Explanatory Remarks By Mr. Motteux Never before Printed in English Bibliotheca Politica Or an Enquiry into the Ancient Constitution of the English Government with Respect both to the just Extent of Regal Power and to the Rights and Liberties of the Subject Wherein all the chief Arguments as well against as for the Late Revolution are Impartially represented and considered In XIII Dialogues Collected out of the best Authors both Ancient and Modern To which is added An Alphabetical Index to the whole Work The remarkable Sayings Apothegms and Maxims of the Eastern Nations Abstracted and Translated out of their Books written in the Arabian Persian and Turkish Language with Remarks by Monsieur Galland who lived many Years in those Countries Translated from the Paris Edition into English Twelves Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane The World bewitch'd is now publish'd containing an Examination of the common Opinions concerning Spirits their Nature Power Administration and Operations as also the Effects men are able to produce by their Communication Divided into Four parts By Belthazer Bekker D. D. and Pastor at Amsterdam Vol. I. Translated from a French Copy Approved of and Subscribed-by the Author 's own hand A New and Easie Method to understand the Roman History With an exact Chronology of the Reign of the Emperors An Account of the most Eminent Authors when they flourish'd And an Abridgment of the Roman Antiquities and Customs By way of Dialogue for the use of the Duke of Burgundy Done out of French with very large Additions and Amendments by Mr. Tho. Brown A Collection of Speeches of the Right Honourable Henry late Earl of Warrington viz. I His Speech upon his being sworn Mayor of Chester in November 1691. II. His Speech to the Grand Jury at Chester April 13. 1692. III. His Charge to the Grand Jury at the Quarter-Sessions held for the County of Chester on the 11th of October 1692. IV. His Charge to the Grand Jury at the Quarter-Sessions held for the County of Chester on the 25th of April 1693. Letters of State Written by Mr. Iohn Milton To most of the Sovereign Princes and Republicks of Europe From the Year 1649. till the Year 1659. To which is added An Account of his Life Together with several of his Poems And a Catalogue of his Works never before Printed Mathematical Magick Or the Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry In Two Books Concerning Mechanical Powers Motions Being one of the most easie pleasant useful and yet most neglected part of Mathematicks not before treated of in this Language Mercury or the Secret and Swift Messenger Shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his Thoughts to a Friend at any distance The Second Edition By the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester Printed for Rich. Baldwin where are to be had The World in the Moon England's Interest Or a Discipline for Seamen Wherein is proposed a Sure Method for Raising Qualified Seamen for the well Manning Their Majesties Fleet on all Occasions Also a Method whereby Seamen will be obliged mutually to Relieve each other on board the Men of War yearly or thereabout except where any Seaman by his own voluntary Consent shall be willing to stay longer Likewise is shewed the Advantages which by these Methods will accrue to the Nation in general and in particular to the Merchants and Seamen For hereby the Wages now given in Merchant-Ships will be brought lower and every Seaman will have the liberty of chusing his own Commander after the first year and continuing with him if he so likes By Captain George St. Lo. An Answer to a Paper written by Count d'Avaux the French King's Ambassador in Sueden concerning the Proposals of Peace made by France to the Confederates An Essay concerning Obedience to the Supream Powers and the Duty of Subjects in all Revolutions With some Considerations touching the present Juncture of Affairs An Essay concerning the Laws of Nations and the Rights of Sovereigns With an Account of what was said at the Council-board by the Civilians upon the Question Whether Their Majesties Subjects taken at Sea acting by the Late King's Commission might not be looked on as Pirates With Reflections upon the Arguments of Sir T. P. and Dr. Ol. Both by Matth. Tyndal Doctor of Laws The Second Edition The Antiquity and Justice of an Oath of Abjuration In answer to a Treatise Entituled The Case of an Oath of Abjuration considered A Sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor and the Court of Aldermen of the City of London at St. Mary-le-Bow on the 29th of May 1694. By Iohn Trenchard M. A Recto of Wrexhall in the County of Somerset and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Manchester A Poem on the Late Promotions of several Eminent Persons in Church and State By N. Nate Servant to Their Majesties The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity placed in its due light by an Answer to a late Book Entituled Animadversions upon Dr. Sherlock's Book c. Also the Doctrine of the Incarnation of our Lord asserted and explained Liturgia Tigurina Or the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies usually practised and solemnly performed in all the Churches and Chappels of the City and Canton of Zurick in Switzerland c. The Tragedies of the Last Age consider'd and examin'd by the Practice of the Ancients and by the common sense of all Ages in a Letter to Fleetwood Shepherd Esq Part I. The Second Edition A short View of Tragedy its Original Excellency and Corruption with some Reflections on Shakespear and other Practitioners for the Stage Both by Mr. Rimer Servant to Their Majesties A New Plain Short and Compleat French and English Grammar whereby the Learner may attain in few months to