since and for some time before the Barons Wars The people have got the Possession and the King is entrusted with a power and prerogative over it or at least with so much as may prove prejudicial to it This Naturally creates Fears and Jealousies least at any time the Prince by his power should invaded their Properties and abridge their Liberties upon which account his Prerogative is the White they level at esteeming it rather their Terror than their Security for which it was at first given and intended and therefore when the people find an opportunity either by their Prince's weakness folly or other unhappy circumstances they have usually made breaches upon this Bulwark of the Crown and by such Sallies and Incursions have got ground and advantage towards the farther securing of those Liberties and Properties they with so much Diligence and Reason endeavoured to provide for So on the other side is the Prince jealous of his people and is always fearful that they should snatch this Rod which he holds over their Backs out of his hand and to obviate this Evil he is not without his Counter-designs also and therefore spares neither Money nor Power in the Elections of Parliaments and Juries to obtain such persons to be return'd as for a Mess of Porridge will sell their Birth-right and by advancing his Prerogative and lengthening his Scourge are willing to ruine and undo their Country And so it generally falls out that when this power happens to fall into the management of an haughty daring Spirit it breaks in upon the people and endeavours to get again by Force what his Ancestors had given away by Flattery Thus there is always a Tide of Ebb or Flow the Scales rarely or never standing even between the King and his People and indeed the Constitution of our Government is such That Murmuring and Dissention do naturally spring from it the Ground is dispos'd to produce such Weeds we are always engag'd in a sort of Civil War and in this respect continue still in the same state in which Nature left us An House divided against it self cannot stand every Man has enough to do to defend his own from Domestick Invaders and whilst this Root of Division is suffer'd to grow at Home its impossible to do any thing that 's Great abroad every Design is poyson'd with a Jealousie in its Cradle and it is enough to make the people suspect it a Snake thô the Skin and Flowers in which it lies be never so plausible and pleasing if the King does but hand it to them From hence it is that our Government always totter'd twice fell down and now lies in its primitve undigested Chaos and he must be a greater Architect than Perhaps our Nation can afford to warrant its standing above three ordinary Reigns if it be rebuilt upon its old Foundations An Expedient to prevent this Inconvenience will be a proper Subject for this Great Convention Another thing not well consistent with the Policy and Government of England is the exceeding largeness of the Revenue of the Crown In France indeed it is six times greater that King being reputed to have 12. Millions and the King of England but two But we see the miserable Effects of it in the extreme Poverty and Vassallage of his people 'T is true the Kings of England once had more for they had in effect all but then the people were but one remove from the state of Nature and the possessions are now got into the hands of the people which they will be loath to part from so that the Case is much alter'd Whatsoever the Government of Heaven may be yet on Earth in one State there cannot be two Equals One must submit and the other must Govern or else there will be a constant War and while the King has so great a Revenue as to be able to maintain a Standing Army there still remains so much of this Equality as will promote and maintain such Differences as ought by no means to be allow'd of in a well constituted Government But moreover the people by the present Constitution are Sharers with the Prince in the Supreme and Legislative Power in Parliament and 't is by them that Grievances must be redrest It ought therefore in every Well-Constituted Government to be provided for that this Supreme and Legislative Power may frequently if not always be in a capacity to Enact and Order such things as tend to the Peoples Benefit and Security but in this our Government is defective it being in the Prince's power as our Lawyers have generally determin'd to keep off Parliaments as long as he pleases And how is this defect remedied Only by another which on the other side they subject the Prince to which is by keeping him poor that so his poverty may necessitate him to call frequent Parliaments Thus by a mutual lameness or infirmity on both sides the Prince and People are become equal Matches Both Cripples not able to go forward in any great Enterprizes abroad but to lie struggling with each other at home King Henry the Fifth had but 56000 l. per annum and Queen Elizabeth's whole Revenue was but 160000 l. but some kind Parliaments and such they usually are to excess upon the first accession of a King to the Throne either brib'd by Smiles or flatter'd by Hopes of private Gain have thought fit to setter the Nation by advancing the Revenue to about two Millions per annum so that now there is little hopes of meeting with those advantages and opportunities of tacking their Grievances to a Money Bill which formerly they use to do though in truth even then the State was in a dangerous condition that could not have a Remedy at hand upon every Disturbance and Malady which should happen This I think may not improperly be esteem'd a thing worthy of Your Thoughts to find a proper Expedient to redress it Another Particular which I take to be one of the greatest Silecisms in Government imaginable is where the most Absolute and Supreme power is yet without a Power to Remedy and Redress the Peoples Grievances Thus it has been for many years adjudged to be by the Interpreters of our Laws and Government the Judges And to illustrate this by an Instance Suppose the people are agriev'd and want a law to set them Right The King has no power to make it of himself and till he thinks fit to call a Parliament the people must still continue subject to their Government But perhaps the Kings Interest which is unhappily divided from the peoples forbids this Expedient What shall be done Why then let them stay and be ruin'd till the King wants Money which as the present Eestablishment is will never be But suppose a Parliament is called and they in their proceedings happen to fret upon the Kings Prerogative a Favourite evil Councellor or some other Interest that the King has a mind to promote and protect though never so opposite to that
Some REMARKS upon GOVERNMENT And particularly upon the ESTABLISHMENT Of the English MONARCHY Relating to this present Juncture In Two LETTERS Written by and to a Member of the Great CONVENTION holden at Westminster the 22d of January 1688 / 9. SIR YOU have been highly Obliging in the frequent Accounts you sent me of Affairs in this Great and Extraordinary Revolution I was once very diffident and could scarcely conceive that the States of Holland or Prince of Orange could have attempted so Expensive and so Hazardous an Undertaking out of pure Generosity meerly for our Sakes and for the Re-establishment of our Laws and Religion which did both equally Labour under the Pressures of an Ill Administration and seem'd to draw towards their last Periods I knew the States had the Character of preferring their own before any other Interest whatsoever and the Prince had the Reputation of setting a duo Value upon That which creates and proportions the Value of all things else The Enterprize I lookt upon as very Expensive in its Methods and Uncertain in its Accomplishment which made me proue to believe that something more lay coucht in this Vast Undertaking than was exprest in the Prince's Declaration But since His arrival and coming to London I perceive He has upon all Occasions carry'd Himself with that wonderful Modesty with such an unparallel'd Care and Tenderness of our Laws Liberties and Religion and adheres so Resolutely to every Particular in His Declaration that I cannot but esteem these to be His Noblest Trophies And that which crowns those Successes which have crown'd His Generous and Pious Undertakings His persisting to referr all to the Impartial Decisions of a Free Parliament to Do and Establish such Matters either in His their Own or the Kings behalf as they shall think fit even then when Honor and Power spread their Perswasives before Him to do otherwise is so great a Thing that it exceeds all His other Glories and strikes the Beholders with nothing less than Amazement I do more rejoyce than wonder at the Unanimous Concurrence which has hitherto been maintain'd between the Lords and Commons Assembled in Councel and indeed in the Wishes Desires of all the People in General It is what this Juncture does highly require and what the Prince's Conduct does Oblige We are very busie here in the Countrey in Electing Members for the Great Convention which is to sit in January and I think the Lot will fall on me to serve for my Neighbouring Borough You know I was never fond of Business or Trouble and truly Age seems now to have sign'd my Writ of Ease I also always cherisht some Cynical Notions which made me very much slight and disregard the Honours and Flatulencies of a giddy World But the thoughts of being one of the Great Planters of a Government which shall last for Ages and perhaps till Time has run out its last Minutes is no Ordinary thing This thought alone has envigorated my Age and baffled my Philosophy so that you may expect to see me in London about the 22d of January next and in the mean time if you will favour me with your Thoughts and Opinion of Affairs and what Understanding Men do think will or ought to be the Issue and Consequence of this great Revolution you will very considerably add to the many Kindnesse conferred upon SIR Your assured Friend and humble Servant A. B. The Answer YOurs thô it bore and early Date yet came not to my hands till last Friday I am very glad that my slender Services have prov'd upon any account acceptable to you I never thought my self qualified to pry into the Recesses of Government or the privacies of a King What I acquainted you with was little more than what was publickly discours'd of in Coffee-Houses But indeed such was the Management of Affairs during our late King's Supremacy That his most private Councels prov'd generally the next days Table-talk for as they were shallow so was the bottom of them discoverable to every common Eye The Prince has perhaps with more Courage than Caution and a great Zeal for the Protestant Interest then Care of His own particular Concerns undertaken mighty Things for us and run such Risques in the Accomplishing of them which Story can scarcely parallel But what the sequel of this will be I must leave to Astrology 'T is true the people seem to be Unanimous to a wonder and yet there are a Sett of Men in this Nation whom nothing will satisfie but to Lord it over their Brethren These do still labour under some Discomposures and although in no respect disoblig'd yet fearing they may receive a Crush in this great Turn do by their Sourness and Discontent rather assist and further their fate than anticipate and prevent it The Protestant Dissenters are not esteem'd by Computations which have been formerly made to amount to more than a 25th part of the Nation the Church of England receiving all the rest This I do believe to be true if the Church of England be taken in the most large and comprehensive Sense by including all such as frequent the publick Service But if we might suppose them in the same Circumstances that Dissenters were in at the time of this Computation made under the Frowns of the Court and the power of the Laws which like so many Billows beat in against them if thus we might be admitted to view them in Reverse I do believe their Numbers would not exceed or Scarcely equal those of the Dissenting party There are but very few in the Nation would undergo Fines and Imprisonment for the sake of the Surplice or Common-Prayer The prevailing Opinion now in England is Latitudinarian Most Men are so far improv'd in their Judgments as to believe that Heaven is not entail'd upon any particular Opinion and that either an Episcopal or Presbyterial way of Worship together with a due observation of the Rules of Morality may serve well enough to carry them to Heaven the only Byass which enclines them to the one side or the other being the Laws Be subject to the Higher Powers not for Wrath but Conscience sways the Scale and gives the casting Vote in such Things as are thought indifferent This is it which crowds the Church otherwise the Sarsnet Hood and Lawn Sleeves might be as destitute of Votaries as the Long Cloak and Collar Band. Which may the succeeding Government will lean I dare not determine but it is more than probable That Episcopacy in that strictness in which it has of late Years excercis'd ow'd its Continuance as well as Originally its Being to the King His power and His purse has been liberally imploy'd in favour of the Church and they as plentifully requited His Kindness by their Doctrines of Jure Divino-ship and Passive Obedience So long as the King continued thus their Servant He was in all Causes Civil and Ecclesiastical their Supreme Head and Governour But when the King became of another
in every part is sick and therefore can find rest in no posture Humane Laws grow out of Vices which gives to every Government a tincture of Corruption That the Government of England was originally and always under the same constitution that now or of late it did appear to be I cannot conceive though Sir Edward Coke and some others do seem with much earnestness to contend for it I am of opinion that like Epicurus his World it is grown by Chance and Time to what it now is or lately was by various Concussions and Confluence of People Interests Factions and Laws like so many Attoms of different shapes and disposures springing from meer Accident in several Ages for where there are Men there will be also Interests which creates Factions and Parties and these as they prevail or are supprest produce Laws for or against them which so far alters the former Government as new Laws are introduc'd in the room and place of old ones which were thought fit to be Repealed and Abrogated Althô some Governments seem to be built upon firmer and more unalterable Foundations than others yet there is none but ought to adapt it self to the Circumstances and Disposition of the People Govern'd and as these do daily change so ought the Government to shift and tack with them that it may the better hit with the Necessities and changing Circumstance of those for whom it was first instituted That Property is founded in Dominion I look upon to be a most undeniable Truth for Naturally in the same degree that a Man has a Right and possession in a thing he must necessarily have the Power and Dominion over it To argue or defend the contrary is as great an absurdity in Nature as to say the Fire must be hot and yet not burn such Cumbustibles as are cast into it It is upon this account that the Grand Seignior is so Despotick in his Government for by the Constitutions of that State all Lands are in the Crown none hold longer than during pleasure or for Life and then their Lands revert to him that gave them For the same reason in the days of Englands Ignorance and Poverty when Arts and Learning were strangers to the Land and the people were scarcely removed from their primitive estate of Nature and War when every man had a universal Right to all things and no man could by a peculiar property pretend to a Possession longer then his Sword and Bow could maintain it Then I say were our Governours like Generals absolure and unlimitted 'T is true indeed we have some dark shadows of Laws and Councils then in use which our Governours thought fit as they saw occasion to make use of and we also find the People sometimes dissatisfied treating their Magistrate with much Roughness and ill Usage upon his Male Administration yet this does not at all argue that their Governours were limitted and bound up by Laws as now they are These things are all practiz'd in France Turky and the most Arbitrary Monarchies in the World. Without Laws and Methods such as these one Man is not able to govern Millions and therefore Moses who under God was Absolute and Arbitrary was necessitated to appoint certain Rules and Methods and to admit of others into the Government with him as Assistants by their Councel and Advice the Work being too great for one Man to discharge It was from the King 's absolute Property in the Lands of England which in those Times none could pretend to but by and through him who held the Sword as well as from his power over the Laws that our old Tenures sprung of Knight service Serjeantry Escuage Socage Villenage c. Then were all Tenures servile and all Persons held mediately or immediately from the King which our Law-Books tell us we still do but there was a vast difference between our then and present Holdings the first being by actual Services paid these now being only Nominal and Titular To hold in Socage is by the service of the Plow as almost all persons are said to do The Tenant was in old Times actually bound to Plow the Lords Lands in consideration of which Service he granted to his Plow-man instead of Wages to hold another piece of Land to his own proper use but now though the Tenure does nominally remain yet the Service is absolute every Man being now become by the circular motions of Chance or Providence his own Lord and his own Plow-man His Property and Possession makes him the Lord over those Glebes which his Necessity derived from his Ancestor Adams Transgression makes him Till Those Governments which succeeded the Patriarchal were all Military all people being then left by Nature in a state of War but some Countries ripening into Prudence and Knowledge sooner than others they also sooner betook themselves to Compact and to such Methods of living as might be for their Common Advantage Amongst these England was none of the earliest Reformers but continued long after Greece and Rome in that Natural state that the first Fathers of Families lest it and there was reason for it in respect it was an Island and in those Times when Navigation was in a great degree a stranger to the World not so apt for Commerce or Correspondence with other Countries which were more civilized they had then no Government but what conduc'd to War and no other King but a General Caesar in his Commentaries telis us that he found the Brittains poor ignorant and destitute of Laws but he also gives them the Character of a People dispos'd to War Brittannnos in Bello promptos in Armis expertes All things as in the state of Nature were in Common even to their Wives and Children But the Romans having given them a taste of the sweetness and advantage of Government they soon after began as Tacitus in his Annals acquaints us to make Application to their General to protect and defend them by his Power and Strength in the peaceable enjoyment of certain proportions and allotments of Land against all Invaders In lieu of which Protection to them and their Heirs they promise and swear to him and his Heirs certain Services together with Homage and Fealty With this Notion of Tacitus Bide seems to concur in the 4th Book of his History where he says That Generals and Kings were amongst the Brittains as Terms Univocal for Kings went always out to Battle in times of War and in Peace exercis'd the Legislative power at home And Ammianus in his 15th Book is more plain and positive for he tells us That Brittanni nulla separali fruebantur possessione nisi Principis concessu potestate defendantur From hence it may be reasonably allowed that England was first Governed by an absolute Power not from the Election of the People nor by Conquest but from the Temper Disposition and Circumstances of that Age of the World in which most Countries lay under the same sort of Government