Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A24696
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An Account of the affairs of Scotland, in relation to their religious and civil rights
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1690
(1690)
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Wing A230; ESTC R11870
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30,717
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40
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grudge him one years Cess for the relief of the rest There was more heat in this matter than consideration 6. I cannot but admire their confidence in pretending to be surprised with the sudden Adjournment of the Parliament most men did wonder it sat so long and every body knew it was to rise that Week that strange Vote in refusing four Months Supply after all the rest that had passed made it evident there was no better to be expected and when they had formerly refused to proceed upon the Instructions how could any man think that they should not be Adjourned As to your last Question where these mens strength lyes and whether the Presbyterians will desert the King and joyn with them I tell you plainly my thoughts these men play upon the Presbyterian Staik and though the Sticklers be persons who have little concern in Religion or regard to Church-government and when Episcopacy was formerly abolished and all the Laws establishing it Rescinded in consequence the Laws made at the Reformation in favours of the Presbyterian Government were redintegrat and revived the same might now have been done but thirsame Addressers did oppose it and did add a Clause in the House declaring the Church-government was yet to be established upon this project that if Presbytery were once established they knew the Presbyterians needed no more depend upon them whereas the Presbyterians must either support them or else they will turn about and fall in with the Cavaleer Party against them for they Front to all Sides but to the King and in the mean time they render the Presbyterians jealous of the King and tell them that the Civil Magistrate likes always to have the Church in his power and that the King to oblige the Church of England will in the end abandom them whereas they are willing to establish Presbytery in what terms they can desire and to go the length of a Covenant and League with the Dissenters in England But after all I can hardly believe that the Presbyterians will be so imposed upon and whidled out of their Interest by persons they know to have no concern for Religion but to raise themselves by it And therefore I think the following Considerations will secure the Presbyterians First All the Presbyterian Lords in Scotland who have been all along of that Perswasion and have suffered for it have all to a Man stood firm to the King in this Parliament against the Club and they are almost all actually imployed in His Service Now it is not possible that any rational or sober Presbyterian will part with their old and great Friends who are able to do them good for new Undertakers whereof some have been lately their Persecutors and the Presbyterians have no safe retreat King James will neither trust nor forgive them Will they be Neuters and Associat again as the Five Western Shires did in Anno 1650. when they refused to joyn either with King Charles's Army or Cromwels This design was both foolish and fatal they were quickly broken at Hamiltoun Secondly I can hardly believe that the Presbyterians will forget the regard the King had to their sufferings that he hath revived and restored them and will certainly settle the Government of the Church of Scotland by Presbyters and imploy them where they are capable in the Civil Government if they themselves do not hinder him For though I do not believe that the King either is or should be of a Party yet their circumstances lyes together his success and their deliverance For in Scotland though we had Bishops who were Tools for the Civil Government and led Horses for the State yet we never admitted Canons Service or any Forms in our Church so that even in time of Bishops the Nation was Presbyterian And whereas the Church and Bishops of England before this Revolution were standing in the Gap and suffering and the King in His Speech to the Parliament did avouch them to be a Bulwark to the Protestant Religion yet at that time our Bishops in Scotland in their Address to King James not only pray for his success and prosperity in that Expedition but they pray that God may give him the necks of his Enemies after they knew that the King then Prince of Orange was Embarqued and had set Sail for Britain This may conciliate a greater confidence and regard from the King to the Presbyterians of Scotland without giving any discouragement or displeasure to the Church of England For a Prince that hath different Countries and Nations may maintain distinct Religions and much more distinct Forms of Government professing the same Religion without affecting or neglecting any man upon that account Thirdly As it is duty and gratitude for the Presbyterians to stand firm by the King they lye under a suspition to be difficile and uneasie under any Government and that their Principles are more suited to a Common-wealth than Monarchy they have now an opportunity to retrive and vindicate themselves from these aspersions and if they be such fools as to suffer themselves to be seduced to quit the King for the Club there are many that are now looking after their halting who will not be wanting to represent to the King that he hath neglected a far greater interest in looking after the Dissenters whom he could not manage These and other such Considerations will certainly oblige the Presbyterians to look to their interest and foresee their danger if they should either lye by or prove unkind And if they do not support and sustain this Club it will fall to nothing and the Nation will return to some better temper and see their folly in not closing with the Kings Instructions Sir I have been carried far beyond my design in giving you an account of my thoughts in this matter But without further I am Your most humble Servant
Prescribed by the 14th Act of the Parliament 1661. for the said In-land Excise for six Months from the first of May next allenarly Art 12. Griev THat the Marriage of a King or Queen of this Realm to a Papist is dangerous to the Protestant Religion and ought to be provided against This is Answered by the Fourteenth Instruction Instruct 14. YOu are to pass an Act that the King or Queens of that Realm shall not marry with Papists under this Certification that a Popish Queen Consort or the Husband of a Soveraign Queen shall not be capable to enjoy the benefit or advantage of any Provisions which the Law provides or particular Contracts or Agreements may have secured to them This is a most just Grievance and at this Port much Mischief hath been Landed to these Nations and a great Danger to our Religion in general No Popish Princes do Marry with Protestants but all the Daughters of Popish Princes are assumed into the Throne of Protestant Kingdoms whereby the Royal Issue to sad experience may be poisened with Popish Principles from the Mother and her Priests which is unavoidable if a Papist can be a Queen If the Grievance had proposed any particular Remedy the King would not have refused His Consent who is above all Suspition in this Matter and therefore the King hath proposed in His Instruction to make a Law Disabling the King or Soveraign Queens of Scotland to Marry with Papists as to which at present they are under no Limitation by any former Law and for a further Penalty to deter all Papists to Marry with them it was to be declared That the Popish Husband of a Soveraign Queen or a Popish Queen Consort should be incapable to enjoy any Provision or Benefit either by Law or Paction during the Marriage or after its Dissolution and if the Parliament could fall upon any further Securities it would be worthy of their pains to fortifie this Passage yet further which is in so great probability to be Attack'd and hath so great opportunity to sink the Interest of these Nations and endanger the Protestant Religion thorow the World Article 13. Griev THat the levying or keeping on Foot a standing Army in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament is a Grievance This Thirteenth Article of the Grievances is Answered by the Nineteenth Instruction Instruct 19. YOu are to pass an Act against a standing Army in time of Peace but so as Guards Garisons and necessary Standing-Forces may be continued By this Instruction tho' the King hath the Power yet He is Content to pass a Law against a Standing-Army in time of Peace beyond His Guards Garisons and necessary Standing-Forces Article 14. Griev THat all Grievances relating to the Manner and Measure of the Leidges their Representation in Parliament be Considered and Redressed in the first Parliament This Fourteenth Article of the Grievance is Answered by the Fifteenth Instruction Instruct 15 YOu are to pass an Act that the greater Shires of that Kingdom such as Lanark Air Perth Fyfe Aberdeen and Mid-Lothian and others where it shall be found Convenient may send three or four Commissioners to Parliament that the Representation may be the more equal The Parliament of Scotland is a Feudal Representation of the whole Nation wherein every bit of Land within the Kingdom is represented The King as Leidg-Lord Jurâ—… Coronae is not only invested in the Kingdom and hath the Dominium directum as Superior as well as King of the whole but likewise has the particular Patrimony of the Crown and whatever falls to the King Jure privato by Succession Emption Excambion or any other Title and also what befalls to him by Confiscation or what is Caduciary or where the King Succeeds as Vltimus Haeres nam quod nullius est Regis est The great Barons or Lords they Sat in Parliament for their Lordships and Baronies whether they be Bishops or Temporal Lords And by the Ancient Custom of Scotland every Free-Holder that is to say not as in England he who is Seised of a Proportion of Lands belonging to Him in Property but he who Holds a parcel of Lands in Capite or immediately of the King is understood a Free or Noble-Holder in Scotland and because the Divisions or Multiplication of Baronies hath rendred many of the Free-Holders small so that their Attendance in Parliament was Chargeable and Burdensom to them and it was a Disparagement to the King 's great Court of Parliament that the Mean Free-holders should be Pares Curiae with the Nobility or Peers therefore the small Barons who do not hold an Hundred Merk Land of the King are allowed to send their Commissioners to the Parliament and the Barons of each Shire are allowed to send two or more Commissioners to the Parliament The Royal Burrows make up the Third Estate to the Parliament and each Royal Burrow doth send One Commissioner but Edinburgh which sendeth Two to Represent in Parliament the Lands given out by the King to their respective Burrows to be holden of him Burgage whereby unaquaeque Gleba every Bit of the Kingdom is represented in Parliament But the Number of the Lords being Increased at the King's pleasure they are now become as many as the Commissioners of Shires and Burrows if they were all present and it hath been the custom of our Kings to Erect Royal Burrows as they think fit the Shires always remaining the same The Commissioners for Shires who do represent the greatest part of the Property of the Nation they are not proportional in Number and they have made many Attempts that the Shires being unequal in Extent Value or Number of Inhabitants that therefore the great Shires might be allowed to send more Commissioners which is agreeable to the Act of Parliament to send two or more that the Representation in Parliament of the Nation might be the more equal This Design hath been always obstructed by the Lords or great Barons that they might have more Votes and Influence in the Parliament as also the Court hath considered the Barons as that part of the Parliament wich could be least pack'd or influenced being persons generally of the best Sense and Substance as being chosen by the rest of the Barons to represent them Therefore the Court hath never favoured this adjusting of the Representations having greater Influence upon the Royal Burrows who are weaker and upon the Noblemen who are generally more necessitous and so more easily brought over to the Sentiments and Designs of the Court But this King regarding Equity and Justice more than Power he hath consented that the Representation in Parliament be rendred as equal as can be and that the greater Shires shall have a greater Number of Representatives Article 15. Griev THat the Grievance of the Burrows be Considered and Redressed in the first Parliament This is Answered by the Sixteenth Instruction Instruct 16. YOu are to pass an Act Ratifying the Priviledges of the Burrows and Securing their