Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	john_n	king_n	pope_n	14,323	5	7.1772	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55894	A seasonable question, and an usefull answer, contained in an exchange of a letter between a Parliament-man in Cornwell, and a bencher of the Temple, London	Parliament-man in Cornwall.; H. P., Bencher of the Temple.	1676 (1676)	Wing P35; ESTC R5471	14,823	24

been and that you must not assemble again or hold Parliament for above a year then following and you did separate your selves and never held Parliament within the year and this by the act and judgment of the Law hath Dissolved you there hath been a failer of any such act in law as could continue you in the Commission and Authority whereunto the People hath chosen you in the Form that the laws hath prescribed The King declaring under the name of proroguing you that all the 〈◊〉 you had begun should be void and that you should not meet in parliament the next insuing year as the law required I say that declartion of the kings could not in any construction of law be an Act of continuance of your power and commission you had from the people the execution whereof was thereby wholly defeated likewise there was no Act of your own by adjournment of your house to continue you and therefore your Authority was wholly superseded and discontinued I know nothing that can be pretended to prevent your discontinuance but the kings will that you should sit again 3 months after the year expired but his prevention of your sitting for above a year having contrary to the law and his trust first discontinved you his Will cannot give or renew those Parliamentary powers that the people gave you in return of the legall writ The Lord Cooke sayth 3. Part. Instis. Chap. Parl If you sit again you are a severall Parliament from vvhat you vvere if you be a Parliament every distinct session being in lavv a severall Parliament And your former Authorities being Ceased by a failer of continuance you can have none but what the kings will vest in you and I need not tell you that the king cannot chuse for the people their Representatives To me it seemes playn that the king having not continued you nor you continued your selves nor having set or held Parliament for above a year the law hath dissolved you and Judged you for none I have not time to write you all the talks of the Town upon this question some have invented a new fashion prorogation for the king to prorogue without day and call the Parliament again by proclamation but their mouths must be stopped if they be only told That such a practise or use of prorogation hath no foundation in any Statute Custome usage or Reason of Law and the king cannot change the lawes and customes or introduce new I take a prorogation Sine die if any such be made to be as void in law as a writ of summons of a Parliament would be that named no day for their sitting And there can be no pretence of Antiquity for such prorogations the words of Adjornment and Prorogation having been used in differently for the same thing about 400. years if not more They were so taken in the state of 13. E. 4. n. 42. and how long after I cannot find but it would have been a plain contradiction in termes to have said then the Parliament is adjorned Sine die that is it was appointed to meet at another day without a day It s a sign that men are sore pinched when they will assert contradictions rather then submit to truth I ought to tell you one thing more that is said in this case they pretend a president that the king hath prorogued above a year they say that in the great plague in the 7. of Eli. that Parliament was prorogued for a year and three dayes what then say they therefore the king might do it now Such arguers shew themselves pittifull Logitians lack-lerning lavvyers and degenerate English men Is it a logicall arguments to say that what ever any king of England hath once or oftner done may be lawfully done by any other king An English king Rich. 2. by pretence of Royall authority cut many a worthy mans throat and murdered his Unkle the Duke of Gloster An other king Iohn sold this kingdom to the Pope May it therefore be lawfully sold and have any lawyers learned so little as not to know that there is no President to be alledged against an express Statute or not to know A Transgression of a statute even by the king if silently passed over and never brought into Judgment is not in the meaning of the law to be called apresident There 's no use of presidents unless it be to shew the usage where there is no statute in the case or to serve the construction of a statute where the meaning is doubtfull but where so many statutes are plaine and express as in this case 't is in vain to alledge what hath been done and connived at without Questioning it as a president to warrant the present breach of those statutes or rather to anull them forever And they must also as much degenerate from English men as from Logick and Lavv who shall assert that the kings of England may acquire a right or power to themselves and their successors for ever by their Ancestors transgressing any statute made to bound the Regall power All true English have alwayes maintained with their blood that our kings were limmitted by the laws and that they broke their oaths if they did not carefully see to the execution of them And in dayes of yore they have been so far from allowing the son and succesor of a king to break any of the laws because his father did so before him they have rejected the father because he kept not within the limmits of the law and taken the son upon his promise not to walk by his fathers Example Sir I have told you my thoughts upon the Question being satisfied that the kings will being declared upon record that you should not hold Parliament within the time limmited by law you were thereby dissolved and the Authorities given you by the people did thereby cease and return into the People and the kings will that you should afterwards hold Parliament again being not agreeable to law could not revive your power And in my poor opinion if you now assume to your selves to exercise Parliamentary powers becaus the king will have ' it so you must pass this fatall Judgment against the old English government That the king may lawfully prorouge you for 40. years if he please and may refuse for ever to hold a Parliament and if such a Judgment seemingly passed in Parliament against our Fundamentall lawes and liberties shall ever be left to the interpretation of any successors to our gracious king who shall intend a Tyranny he shall claim by that record to be our absolute master and neither Lords nor Commons to have any right to provide in Common Counsel for the defence of the Realm and their own good government and wellfare unless be please In fine our innocent babes shall hereafter read in that record that you Judged your selves and them to be perfect slaves all prostitute to the will of the king Doubtless if it be granted that the People have no right to parliaments but at the kings will we shall never have any king after this that will tell us as king Iames did in his speech to the parliament held March 19. 1603. That he vvas not ashamed to confess it his principle honnor to be the great servant of the Common vvealth and that he knevv himself to be ordained for the people and not the people for him I shall not advise you to come or stay I have herein delivered my one soul as becomes Your Fithfull and Affestionate Friend H. P. FINIS