others he himself made the Laws a Measure of his Prerogative It will not be worth Enquiry Whether he first Instituted a Parliament in the Form it now stands He raised Money in a Parliamentary way we find in his First Parliament at Salisbury he obtained Three Shillings upon every Hide of Land towards the Marriage of his Daughter with the Emperor although 't is said there these Aids were due by Common Law from the King's Tenants by Knight's Service viz. Aid to Ransom the King's Person Aid to make the King 's Eldest Son a Knight and Aid to Marry the King 's Eldest Daughter once And although this matter was ascertain'd afterwards by King John's Charter at Running-Mead yet following Kings have not been so tender and reserv'd in this Point If he may be said to be Cruel to his Brother Robert I 'm sure he was very Honourable towards Lewis of France when in England whither he came on his own Head notwithstanding he was Solicited and Tempted to make him away As to his Personal Virtues or Vices they were to himself If he fail'd in the Oeconomicks he had Troubles in his own House and whether his Misfortunes of this kind were occasioned by Judgments or the Follies of himself or Wife it is certain he had his share of them but he took so much care that the Nation knew but very few troubles during his Reign And as he obtained a Kingdom by a sort of Artifice so he used his Prerogative with Discretion STEPHEN THIS King's Reign was almost one entire Scene of Military Actions without any mixture of Civil Policy he did not live a Year to Enjoy or Manage Peace after his Agreement with Henry II. the Son of Maud And there was never any formal Meeting of the Body of the Estates in his time The Expences of his War were occasioned by a troubled Title and he maintained them by Confiscations and although he had continued Charges that way yet he required few or no Tributes from the People 'T is said he had another way of getting Money viz by causing Men to be Impleaded and Fined for Hunting in his Forests after he had given them Liberty to Hunt there For thus far at least the Kings Exercised an Absolute Prerogative only over the Beasts of the Forest Which is a Prerogative I confess they ought to Enjoy Indisputably HENRY II. THOUGH this King came to the Crown by the most Absolute Title and Clearest Right yet in Four and thirty Years time we do not find that he pretended to impose upon his People any Arbitrary Power but by Success and Policy he added to the Crown of England Scotland Ireland the Isles of Orcades Britain Poytiers Guyen and other Provinces of France And for all this he had only one Tax of Escuage towards his War with France His causing the Castles to be Demolished was a justifiable piece of Policy for the reason given as being Nurseries of Rebellion In the beginning of his Reign he refined and reformed the Laws and 't is said made them more Tolerable and Profitable to his People than they were before and what is better Governed himself by them We do not find the Punishments of Capital Offences or others were certain but variable and distinguished in the same Crime according to the degrees of Aggravation The Church-Chroniclers bestow a Judgment upon him for refusing to take the Protection of the Distressed Christians in Jerusalem offered to him by Heraclius the Patriarch and assign his Troubles at Home to that Cause but they might be mistaken and he might as he apprehended have had greater from his own Sons if he had gone Abroad upon that Errand And if the Church will forgive him the Story of Thomas Becket for he was otherwise very Civil to it the State had no reason to complain of him for he suffered neither his Wars nor his Pleasures to be Chargeable to the Nation nor his Concubines to be Spungers on the People RICHARD I. THERE is but little Observable in the Reign of this King with relation to the Subject at Home he being the greater part of it out of the Land If his Artifices of Raising Money were not Justifiable the occasion may at least Excuse him He obtained a Subsidy towards his necessary Charges of War what was properly called Taxation was by Parliament or by the Subjects own Contribution and Method of Charging themselves with as the Money raised for his Ransom If he may be charged with some slips in Justice he made it up in Courtesy which by the by goes a great way with Englishmen for 't is observed they may be Led tho' they will not well Drive And upon his return Home from the Holy Land we find the first thing he did was to give his Lords and People Thanks for their Faithfulness to him in his Absence and for their readiness to Supply him for his Ransom JOHN MOntaigne says in one of his Essays and he speaks it upon Observation of History That Women Children and Mad-men have had the Fortune to govern Great Kingdoms equally well with the Wifest Princes And Thucydides That the Stupid more frequently do it than those of better Understanding Whether this be an Argument of a Providential Disposing and Governing of Kingdoms I leave to those that are conversant that way Some Men perhaps may be apt to think it reflects Disgrace on Dignities if this be true Some Kings are involv'd in such a Cloud of Circumstances of Difficulty and Intrigues that there is no looking into them nor making any Judgment of their Actions Speed guesses of King John That if his Reign had not fallen out in the time of so Turbulent a Pope such Ambitious Neighbour Princes and such Disloyal Subjects nor his Story into the Hands of Exasperated Writers he had appear'd a King of as great Renown as Misfortunes This is civilly and gently said This is certain This King as all others when once they have broke through their Coronation-Oath presently became as it were infatuated and deaf to all good Counsel stoop't to every thing that was mean and base and having once laid aside his Native Honour run into all Dishonourable Sordid Actions The History represents him pursuing his Profit and even his Pleasures by all manner of Injustice He prosecuted his Brother Geoffry Archbishop of York and took from him all he had only for doing the Duty of a Wise and Faithful Councellor Hence his Lords grew Resty and refused to follow him into France unless he would restore to them their Rights and Liberties which he had invaded And when he shuffled with them in the Grant of their Demands What Wars what Miseries did not follow Wars at Home Foreiners call'd in the Nation plunder'd and spoil'd Money procured by Base poor-spirited Tricks He on one Side forc'd to truckle to the Pope and as is said to submit to somebody worse his Subjects on the other hand calling in to their Relief as they thought a Foreiner fetch
't in Lewis the Son of Philip the French King the People in general not living like Men nor dying like Christians nor having Chrstian Burial the whole Nation one dismal Scene of Horrid Misfortunes Behold the Effect of Violated Faith and Arbitrary Oppression But it is no great Credit to Prerogative That this King who had no very good Title unless it were Election was the first Vindicator of it in a violent manner And asserted the Right to Absolute Power with the same Justice as he did That to the Crown in the time of Arthur his Nephew who was the Undoubted Heir By these means he brought himself and People into Troubles which never ended but with his Life HENRY III. HERE we may perceive as also in another Reign or two hereafter how the Irregularities of a Father or Predecessor involve the Son and Successor in a Remainder of Troubles and the Nation also in their intail'd Misfortunes For although those Lords as Sir Richard Baker tells us who had been constant to the Father notwithstanding his Faults were also more tender of the Son who was Innocent and so stuck to him That by the Interest chiefly of William Marshal Earl of Pembroke who married his Aunt they prevail'd so that Young Henry was Crown'd King yet he could not come to the Crown upon the square but was forc'd to do Homage to Pope Innocent for his Kingdom of England and Ireland when he took his Coronation-Oath and to take an Oath to pay the Church of Rome the Thousand Marks which his Father had granted And though after his Coronation most of the Lords maintain'd him in his Throne preferring their Natural Allegiance to Henry before their Artificial Obligations to Lewis and Beat or Compounded the latter out of the Kingdom yet this King Henry so soon as he was got out of Protection and came to Administer the Government himself immediately in gratitude Cancels and Annuls the Charters which he had granted on pretence forsooth of Minority altho' he had taken an Oath as well as the Legate Guallo and the Protector to restore unto the Barons of the Realm and other his Subjects All their Rights and Privileges for which the Discord began between the Late King and his People These Rights and Privileges were several times enquired into and ascertain'd by the Returns of the Knights who were charged to examine them were what were enjoy'd in the time of the Saxon Kings and especially under Edward the Confessor and what the Charters of King John and his own express'd For 't is ridiculous to imagine That William II. Henry I. Stephen and King John should pretend to an Arbitrary Power virtually who all came in by the Consent if not Election of the People We may see how a Favourite can Absolve a King in Law and Conscience too And what a pretty Creature a King is when Prerogative and Humour are Synonimous and he Acts by Advice of a single Person or Party counter to that of his Parliament Hence as the Historians say grew Storms and Tumults no quietness to the Subject or to himself nothing but Grievances all the long time of his Reign He displaceth his English Officers to make room for Foreiners and all the Chief Councellors Bishops Earls and Barons of the Kingdom are removed as distrusted that is for giving him Good Counsel and only Strangers preferred to their Places and Honors and Castles the King's House and Treasury committed to their Care and Government These Indignities put upon the Lords put them also upon Confederating to reduce the King to the sense of his former Obligations but to their Petitions he returns Dilatory and Frivolous Answers and to requite their Favours sends for whole Legions of Poictavins to Enslave the Nation and to crown the matter marries himself without Advice to a Daughter of the Earl of Provence by which he brought nothing but Poverty into this Kingdom Afterwards in the Long Story of this King we hear of nothing but Grievance upon Grievance Confederacy upon Confederacy Parliament upon Parliament and Christmas upon Christmas were kept here now there in as many Places as he call'd his Parliaments and to as much purpose Bickerings upon Bickerings and Battle upon Battle till it grew to that height That the Lords threaten'd to Expel him and his New Councels out of the Land and to create a New King and the Bishops threaten'd him with Excommunication whilst through a various Scene of Confusion and Hurly-Burly sometimes one Party being too peremptory sometimes t'other with an Interchangeable undecent Shuffling on the King's Side and a Rude Jealousy on the Lords and various Turns of Arbitrary Fraud and Obstinate Disputes for above Forty Years wherein Prerogative and Liberty grew Extravagant and Mad by turns till the Nation was brought to the last Gasp at length the King in the Fifty second Year of his Reign in most solemn manner confirms the Charters That Magna Charta which was granted in the Ninth Year and pretended to be avoided by reason of Infancy and the Statute of Marlebridge which he had granted upon his Second Coronation in the Twentieth Year Wherein Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta were confirm'd with this Clause Quod contravenientes graviter puniantur Upon which as is said Peace and Tranquillity ensued And these Charters have never since been Impugn'd or Question'd but Confirm'd Establish'd and commanded to be put in Execution by Thirty two several Acts of Parliament And from the Authority whereof no Man ought to be permitted to recede even in his Writing to flatter any King whatever and Sir Robert Filmer Dr. Brady and Mr. Bohun c. perhaps deserv'd as severe a Correction as Collonel Sidney for writing Books and Papers only for I do not think he deserv'd Hanging if not greater for their's were dispers'd by an ill-tim'd-publication whereas t'others lay still only in his Study We date our Non Obstantes from this King which Matthew Paris calls an Odious and Detestable Clause and Roger de Thursby with a sigh said it was a Stream deriv'd from the Sulphurious Fountain of the Clergy EDWARD I. I Know not whether this King may come up to the Character which some of our Historians give of him in all Respects yet without doubt he stands an Instance and Example of Princely Qualities and Virtues fit to be imitated and at least as he is stiled the Second Ornament of Great Britain And as a Wise Just and Fortunate because Wise and Just Prince who in regard of his Noble Accomplishments and Heroical and Generous Mind deserves to be ranged amongst the Principal and Best Kings that ever were as Walsingham and Cambden Polyd. Virgil and Others relate Baker divides his Acts into five Parts 1. His Acts with his Temporal Lords 2. His Acts with his Clergy 3. With Wales 4. With Scotland And lastly With France And First He gave his Lords good Contentment in the beginning of his Reign by granting them Easier Laws and particularly in the
the Popish Match and Popery was at the bottom For though it be said the Puritans had a Design to throw him out of the Saddle right or wrong and that nothing of Concessions should ever satisfy them and this perhaps may be true of some very sower Zealots and extravagant Pretenders yet 't is improbable and what they could never have hoped for and the greater part of the Presbyterians were drawn in by Surprise who did not foresee the end and withdrew afterwards when 't is true 't was too late But after all the design was carried on in other Nations besides our own and by other Councels beyond ours And Popish Priests had not only their Heads but Hands also in the Business not only in Peace but War likewise as you may read in Mentet who would not lie in that Affair 't is a pretty scarce Book and therefore I will give you his Words he says speaking of the Battel of Edge-Hill Ce que surprit le plus tout le Monde ce fut qu' on trouua quelques Prestres parmi les Morts du Costé des Estates Car Encore que Dans leurs Manifestes ils appellassent l' Armeé du Roy l' Armeé des Papistes pour le rendre Odieux au Peuple ils avoient neamoins deux Compagnies de Wallons d'autres Catholiques dans leur Armeé Outre qu' ils avoient rien oublié pour tascher d' engager en leur Partie le Chevalier Arthur Aston Colonel Catholique de grand Reputation And he says before That the King published an Edict at Stonely afore that wherein he tells them He did not mean that any Papist should come to serve in his Army that he might not give Discontent or Jealousy to his Protestant Subjects but then 't was too late for such like Overtures of Honour or Professions of Sincerity But to go on with Mentet Il est vray que le Roy avoit aussi sou e rt dans son Armeé quelques Officiers Catholiques Homes de grand suffisance les bien intentionées pour le bien de l' Estat ainsi les appella't ' il dans la declaration qu' il ' fit publier apres le Battail à quoy les Estates n' oublierent pas de repondre par autant des Contredits Il temoigne qu' encore que les Estates eussent sans Comparison plus grand Nombre des Catholiques que luy dans leur Armeé qu' ils eussent tasché par toutes sortes de moyens de gaigner tous ceux du Royaume leur ayant fait promettre sous main que moyennant qu' ils voulussent prendre partie avec eux On abrogeroit toutes les Ordinances faites à leur prejudice Il ne pouvoit toute fois se resoudre d'appeller les Catholiques à son secours n'y de revoquer son Edit por le quel il leur avoit fait des defenses de s'y presenter Il asseure de plus tous les bons sujets que bien qu' il eust regard aux personnes des Catholiques qui l'avoient secouru dans sa Necessité qu' il eust bonne Memoire de leur Services il ne feroit pourtant jamais rien en faveur de leur Religion c. All this came too late for our purpose yet if this and his Manifesto at the beginning of the English and Scotch Presbytery if his Letters to the Queen taken at Naseby wherein he protests to differ in nothing from her but Religion if his other Conferences with the Marquess of Worcester c. and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Dying Speech will not satisfy Men that he was no Papist they seem to be as Cruel to his Memory as they were to his Person Though after all his Articles of Mariage were too Frank for a Church-of-England-Man who was not in Love at the same time And the Spanish Match if either might probably have had somewhat a better Success for this Reason only That the King of Spain was going down the wind whereas the French King was advancing and I must repeat it the Observation of what his Brother of France Lewis the XIIIth was doing but just on t'other side of the Water increas'd our Jealousies on this and gave an incurable Wound to the King's Reputation This made the People with some colour of Reason by way of prevention endeavour to wrest the Sword out of the King's Hands and attempt to get the Militia into their own upon this pretence the Parliament were forward to put a false Construction upon his Raising of Forces and turn'd it to a Levying of War on the People in order as they call'd it to subvert the Laws and introduce an Arbitrary Tyrannical Government whereas we have the King's Word for it That he took up Arms only to Defend the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and in his Dying-Speech he tells the World He did never intend to incroach upon the Privileges of the People and that he desired their Liberty and Freedom as much as any body whatsoever and that he died a Martyr of the People meaning I suppose for them And after all these Proceedings are so unaccountable that they can't be reconciled to any Rules of Political Observation there seems to be somewhat of Fate in them which will not be confined to our little narrow ways of Reasoning nor to the more enlarged deep Politicks of Statesmen The Event exceeded the Scheme laid by Richlieu and the Expectations of his Successor Mazarine who at first being surpriz'd did prosecute the King's Death with some Resentment though after like a true Politician he kept Correspondence with Cromwell It seems their design was only to Embroil England whilst France carried on its Designs elsewhere not to Establish any setled Power not a Commonwealth certainly Their Business was but to Embarass our Councels that they might be at liberty to followitheirs without Interruption Not to Establish any Religion not even Popery for even Religion was not their Business if it could have procured Peace and Prosperity to the Kingdom But only to Counterpoise the two Extremes of Popery and Fanaticism after the manner of King James for a while and to set the Fanaticks themselves by the Ears at last Thus their Correspondents their Agents and their Money was employed on all Hands to confound us in England as well as the Jesuits had done all Europe by their Intriegues before and we must fatally run into their Noose But there yet farther seems to be some extraordinary Hand in the Turn of these Affairs above the Common Councels or Actions of Man though not to be adjusted to Human Measures of Comprehension Who knows what to say to the Prophecy of Nostredamus setting aside the Scotch Predictions and those nearer home viz. The Senate of London shall put their King to Death 'T is so very peculiar though Printed almost an Hundred Years before that it must intimate something and even
A Summary Review OF THE Kings and Government OF ENGLAND A POLITICAL ESSAY OR Summary Review OF THE Kings and Government OF ENGLAND Since the Norman Conquest By W. P _____ y. Esq Principis est Vertus maxima nosse suos Martial All Precepts concerning Kings are in effect comprehended in these Remembrances Remember thou art a Man Remember thou art God's Vicegerent The one bridleth their Power and the other their Will Lord Bacon 's Remains LONDON Printed in the Year 1698. TO THE READER 'T IS said Action is the Life of a Prince Speculation of a Scholar If the first would give himself to Thinking somewhat more and the latter to Action perhaps it would not be amiss they would Each of 'em discover some Defects in themselves and Both be more Useful to the World Be it how it will however I present you with my Thoughts defective enough as not being much seen in one or t'other the Fruit of Idleness and turning over a few Books for want of better Employment They are some passing Observations on the Conduct of our Princes who have managed the Scepter from the Norman Conquest and Those that managed Them I do not pretend hereby to limit the Descent of our Kings to that Line I know the Learned derive their Pedigree from much higher Pretensions from I know not whence even from Adam and that will scarce satisfy some will have them all the immediate Work of God All Originals I have not the Confidence to Dedicate this Issue but only to a Random Patronage if any one shall be so kind to give it a favourahle Reception Something like that with the Child left in the Temple-Cloysters with this Inscription Pray be exceeding kind to this Infant as Related to Both Societies by Father and Mother's side Some Authors who can bring in but the Name of a King must interest Him in the Title and think the Work presently due to Majesty and presume to Address the Offspring to his Protection But I do not think the Pretence of Duty doth sufficiently Apologize for the Vanity and Ambition of it Besides that Kings seldom read Books they see with other Mens Eyes and those who did have not much improv'd the Talent of Government to their Own or the Nation 's Advantage I would have Address'd it to a Friend if I had any as I should my self yet I know not what Commission I have to venture a Friend's Reputation in my Bottom Though after all I must in truth beg leave to question Whether there be any such thing as a True Friend notwithstanding all the fine Harangues on that Subject Not that I hope I have behaved my self so indifferently in my Conversation as undeserving that Character but I mean Regular Friendships are founded on adequate Considerations and are generally too much upon the Square in mutual Expectation Alas I have nothing to leave a Friend except it be Eudamidas's Legacy a Wife and Children and could I find a Charixenus or Aretheus I should very willingly quit the World and with greater Satisfaction than to remain in it unless it were only at the Instance of such a Friend for his Service and to pay him the Satisfaction of Gratitude in due Acknowledgments But this is too extravagant an Expectation for Eudamidas had but One Daughter to bequeath between Two Friends whereas I have enow to break Friendship it self enow to set forth a decent Parade of Intercession for Mercy if it should be my Misfortune to be convicted of a Capital Offence Nevertheless I have somewhat more particularly designed these short Reflections for the Entertainment of a particular Acquaintance or two and that in a sort of Grateful Return That as I have the Honour and Advantage of Improving by their Conversation so I on my part might endeavour to contribute somewhat to their easier Information in some things who have not Leisure nor perhaps Inclination to peruse larger Volumes or to read over tedious Histories 'T is for this Reason especially that I have contracted these Remarks into as narrow a Room as the Length and Variety of Matter will possibly bear and Brevity is the only Commendation I expect but this I think with some Justness otherwise I am very little concerned at the Success or with what Opinion I shall be received in the World I pretend but to Sketch not to Draw exactly not to a Finished Piece Besides I am sure there 's no one can be more severe upon me than I am upon my self and there 's scarce any body sharper-sighted to discover an Imperfection in a Child of my own than the Father And for this I have Authority What you have is but the Diversion of a long Vacation one Summer's recollected Thoughts drest up between a very ordinary Study and Garden and without help from Conversation as not having Opportunity to spend Time or Money any where abroad I confess I might have made a more Elaborate Piece of it I can't tell whether the better for that But if the Subject of these Considerations seems to require a more serious and intent Application as if any does 't is this in my Judgment I hope it may put some other Person upon it of better Qualifications and of a greater Genius and Diligence this way Not but that I my self have Leisure enough God knows and a little too much for a Man in my Circumstances But I must confess for my part as the World goes I cannot think it Tanti For besides that a Man will hazard the Reputation of his own Understanding in the Pretences of Reforming that of others 't is not in my Inclination to jade a Reader in a Journy of Paper and Ink no more than my self The Drudgery of the Mind is of the worst sort And 't were well if some other Writers were of this Opinion they would save a great deal of Trouble to others at least If it be Objected That I am not particular in my Citations I confess it I write an Essay not a formal Treatise But the Passages have been so beaten and the Authorities so well known of late Years that I conceive 't is superfluous and I needed not However I must aver they are Truths and faithfully delivered as well as my Memory will bear which I must confess is treacherous enough Yet I give you nothing but what I 'm sure I my self have met with and received and that any Man but moderately versed in Books will easily discover and acknowledge And in Arguments and Authorities which are not Nice or Critical 't is not of much Importance or Material to be so exact Others I suppose will say I touch things slightly I agree it I write not to those who are Strangers to Books and Reading but to refresh their Memories who perhaps may not have much better than my self and to give Hints to those who are inclined to make larger Enquiries upon Occasion It may serve to Admonish if not to Inform and may Divert if it cannot
Edify As to what relates to the Justification of this Government it may be thought this comes out but poorly at this Time of Day and is a sort of barbarous Triumph over the Silenc'd and Oppress'd But those who know how early I was engaged in this Revolution another Way as early almost as any Gentleman on this Side of the Water cannot entertain such Thoughts of me I can only say I have not advanc'd one Expression upon that Consideration and the Occasion given me now was only Reading over some Books which had been on both Sides Published but not with Satisfactory Arguments to me and not in so clear a Method on the Side of the Revolution as I wish'd and besides I do not find that Men are less apt to Talk against the Government now than they were Seven or Eight Years ago and therefore I suppose this Publication may not be unseasonable even under so Long and Prosperous a Success of this Establishment which can never be made too Secure in the Hearts and Affections of the People Your Humble Servant W. P. A Summary Review OF THE KINGS and GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND c. ' T IS somewhat wonderful and I know not by what Fate it comes to pass That those Nations which by Nature seem design'd to enjoy the most retired Repose and Tranquility as not being by Situation involv'd in the common Hurly-burly of the World should yet notwithstanding deny themselves that Happiness as it seems and run into equal Confusion and Trouble with the large Continents of Men. Whether it be that we ascribe too much or too little to the Powers above and assume to our selves too far in the Conduct of Human Affairs Or whether in truth we are not permitted to establish that settled Peace and Pleasure here below which Mortals in their Wisdom would fancy and pretend to prescribe to themselves Be it how it will Is it not certain that all States Civil and Ecclesiastical too when they have arriv'd to the Top of Grandeur by a sort of Necessity as it were dissolve into Luxury and by an unaccountable Weakness and Vanity dwindle into Disreputation lose their Edge and are disarm'd till another Encroachment steps up and takes the place Not that all New Establishments and Reformations have been always for the better but only to shew that all sublunary things are subject to change However That Government and some Form of Polity is necessary cannot be disputed though it may what sort is But admitting Monarchy to be the best constitution and with all the Compliments of Comparison and Advantages that the Church will have for that doth not pretend that it is the Only Form approved by God with exclusion to others yet we see the best Scheme of this whether Absolute Limited or Mixt Hereditary or Elective hath never yet been capable to establish and secure it in Peace and Prosperity long as it were to intimate That even the wisest Scheme if any such be of Policy will have its Defects and all Foundations of Government are planted in a changeable Soil and are transform'd even in Notion either through the Perverseness or Inconsideration of the Prince or People or both Nay when we have pray'd in Aid of Religion and taken that into our support what wretched work has Religion it self made in States and unhinged them as Learning has Religion Those very Means that should compose and settle have subverted and do still disorder the World What Mischiefs have not those two words Prerogative and Liberty introduced both in Law and Gospel Construction and those two Epithets of Obedience Active and Passive are sacrific'd to Forms more than Force and have been abus'd almost as much by Government as Anarchy In our best Form of Government as we call it when the Constitution comes to clash the sole Question is Which is to be preferred the Person and Will of a Prince or the Law of the Land Which is most sacred the Power or the Ordonnance Which is to be obey'd and maintain'd the King who invades the Law and Religion Establish'd for 't is certain such a Case hath happen'd or Religion and Law which establish'd them Whether Religion or the Humour of a King be to be obey'd even for the sake of Religion This it seems hath been made a Doubt and hath been a Theme more than sufficiently handled of late Years especially and managed with Artifice enough to say no worse on both sides Indeed if we were now under a Theocracy the extravagance of the Dispute would be on t'other hand and if God at this day could be suppos'd to govern our Governors as in the Jewish Oeconomy when Rulers Captains Priests Judges and Kings were immediately inspired and led by the Almighty to keep them from stumbling or swerving before that Kings were given for a Curse and when not made such Implicit Faith and Obedience must be then due But when God himself leaves us to the Rules of Human Laws as he plainly intimates and is confest by the most Learned Divines who are impartial 't is otherwise And I must confess in my poor Opinion God forgive me if I err and I err in good Company under the Gospel God seems not so much concern'd in Human Powers otherwise than Human Laws And our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount hath not one word about Kingdoms only of another World After which the Texts of the Apostles are not to be taken in a general extended Sense for our Saviour himself who is and must be suppos'd to comprehend all necessary Instructions for a Christian when he insists on superlative Directions would no doubt have vouchsafed some Guide in obedience to the Powers on Earth if he had not concluded them by the Measures of their respective Constitutions and his Expression of rendring unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's c. sufficiently implies the force of that Argument and the Exempt reservation of Property c. No doubt the meaning of the Apostles has been strain'd too far by some Divines and besides it infers but little to us forasmuch as they do not nor ever did agree in their Interpretations 't will be to little purpose that the Apostles were inspired if we are not inspired also with an adequate degree of Apprehension But this only by the by This is not my Province and I shall have occasion to resume this Argument hereafter All that I shall say at present is That Arbitrary Power and Legal Right are Contradictions and cannot consist in Human Understandings Therefore I shall make bold to take Power in that sense which may consist with Reason and Rejecting the first tack the word Legal to it and shall wave or post-pone the Premisses from the absurdity of the Conclusion For if it be allow'd or may be suppos'd That a King can with his own breath blow away the Laws of the State or at second-hand remove the Land-mark or is to be told by any Metaphysical Pedant That no Law can
given by Bracton and Britton and Fortescue's foolish Etimology There must be a Prerogative somewhere in all Places There is a Prerogative in Kings by the Law of Nations and the Use of it is to shew Mercy to reward Virtue 'T is the Law that punisheth not Kings and because there is no written Equity in Criminal or Capital Matters therefore the Seat of Mercy is placed by the Fountain of Justice This is no doubt properly and truly to be God's Vicegerent Thus with us Potest Rex ei lege suâ Dignitatis Spelman Gloss Praerogativa Regis Condonare si velit Mortem promeritam Spoken of Edward the Confessor Though there is a sort of Equity by the Letter of our Law in the Case of Manslaughter making an allowance for the Passions of Men and the King's Pardon of Murder hath been question'd it looks like a Dispensing with the Positive Law of God It is certain he can't change the Punishment There are several Prerogatives and Flowers of the Crown some of Use some for Ornament but founded also upon Reason The King hath all Mines of Gold and Silver Treasure Trove Escheats of all Cities May take his Creditors into Protection till he be satisfied with Preference May take Body Lands and Goods of Debtor c. because the King's Treasure is supposed to be for the publick Benefit May make any Foreign Coin lawful Money of England by Proclamation for Exigencies may require it The King may dig in the Subjects House not Mansion-House or Barn for Salt-petre being for the Defence of the Nation Kings only can have Parks and Chaces and not Subjects without his License So Swans in Royal Rivers because they are stately Creatures and Royal Game and become the Honour of a King The King shall be said to be Founder though another join in the Foundation c. because 't is for his Honour The King shall have Ward though the Lands were held of him by Posteriority because the King's Title shall be preferr'd and not put in Competition with the Subject So he shall not be Tenant in common i. e. He shall have all because a Subject ought not to be equal with him in any thing There are also several other Franchises which by the Policy of our Law belong to the Crown And we say in our Law That the King's Prerogative is part of the Law of England and comprehended within the same We say also That the King hath no Prerogative but that which the Law of the Land allows him And 't is certain he is restrained in several respects by our Law as in a Politick Capacity Letting pass those Distinctions and Cant in Coke's 7th Rep. Calvin's Case of the King's Prerogative As he hath Advantages so he hath his Disadvantages also at least Kings or others for them are apt to call them so Thus he can't by Testament dispose of the Jewels of the Crown 't is doubted whether he may legally pawn them though it be said he may give them by his Letters-Patents 't is against the Honour of the Crown The Law is so jealous of the King's Honour that it hath preferr'd it before his Profit He hath no Prerogative against Magna Charta cannot take or prejudice the Inheritance of any Can 't send any man out of the Realm against his Will because he hath the Command of the Service of the Subjects only for Defence of the Realm Can 't lay any new Impost on Merchandises Can take none but usual and Ancient Aids and Taxes Can 't dispense with Statutes made for Publick Good or against Nusances or Mala in se Can do no Wrong Can 't alter the Law Common or Ecclesiastical Nor Statute-Law or Custom of the Realm by Proclamation or otherwise Nor create any Offence thereby which was not an Offence before Can 't grant a Corporation any new Jurisdiction to proceed by Civil Law because it may deprive Subjects hereby of Privilege of Trial. The King can't put off the Offices of Justice of a King is not suppos'd to be ill-affected but deceiv'd and impos'd upon and abus'd Eadem presumitur mens Regis quae est juris c. But the late Sticklers for Arbitrary Power have found out a Plea for the Absoluteness of Kings which as they think carries some Face of an Objection against the fettering their Prerogative Say they At this rate a King can never exert himself as he ought to do any Glorious Action or as King James the II d phras'd it to Carry the Reputation of a Kingdom high in the World He cannot extend his Conquests c. No matter whether he can or not Neither can he oppress his Subjects It is sufficient for Kings especially for a King of Great Britain to be on the Defensive by Land neither do I believe any of our Kings ever got any thing by extending their Dominions 'T is no Argument to us in our Situation if the matter were so But this Notion is a Mistake For never did any King do extraordinary Feats where he made War and carried it on against the Inclinations or without the Consent of his People The Fights with the Dutch at Sea in the Reign of King Charles the II d is a sufficient Instance of this Nature We fought against the Grain and without an Enemy as Sir William Temple observes Nor shall we find in History that any King hath continued his enlarged Bounds where he carried on Imposts and Taxes by Violence at Home to the Impoverishing of his People Let the End of this present French King be observ'd who seems to stand an Exception at present but he stands a very ticklish one Besides the true Interest and Advantage of our Island lies another way To maintain the Sovereignty of the Seas to promote Trade and Traffick c. And to this purpose the King hath the highest Prerogative in this Element He may press Men for this Service which he cannot for any Foreign Expedition by Land He hath Customs Tunnage and Poundage c. Yet not these without Consent in Parliament and some of our Kings have made but a scurvy Experiment in attempting to take them without it Whence then doth come this Title to Arbitrary Absolute Power It must be the Child of Conquest or some other Paramount Inherent Right And to this purpose it is objected That by our Laws we acknowledge several Rights and Privileges of the Subject to be Concessions from Kings and we yield the Lands to be holden immediately or mediately of the Crown c. This is pretended to sound in Conquest rather than Compact or to be founded on the Patriarchal Right And Sir Robert Filmer especially is pleasant upon Sir Edward Coke for this He says If the first Kings were chosen by the People as many think they were then surely our Forefathers were a very bountiful if not prodigal People to give all the Lands of the whole Kingdom to their Kings with liberty to them to keep what they pleas'd and to
so the State doth not in the Alterations of them So that he is not Absolute or Independent either in his Ecclesiastical or Civil Capacity of Policy And therefore the whole Constitution and Three Estates must necessarily be call'd in on all Occasions of Change in Discipline or Innovation of Rites as well as in the alteration and repealing of other Old Laws or introducing and declaring New ones This by way of Parenthesis But I was speaking of Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarchal Power and the Extravagancies he infers from thence grounded as he pretends from Scripture Therefore I would only ask him one Question more Was there no such proper Word in the Hebrew Greek or Latin for Tyrant or Slave Pray how then came the Words and Doctrine of Non-Resistance and Passive Obedience into the Greek It must be only taken up of late by some such Authors in disgrace of Monarchical Government according to Law and to put Obedience as Legal out of countenance To bring People to submit blindly to Arbitrary Power There is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek which signifies at least King or Prince But is there any one doubts that there has been such a thing as a Harsh Unreasonable and Unnatural Father or King It must follow then that the Obedience intended by the Apostles who wrote in Greek was only to the Laws and the Legal Exercise of them according to the Usage of their respective Places which made them Legal Or to Kings as not being a terror to the Good but only to the Evil But it would tire even Patience it self to follow these sort of Gentlemen in all their Confused By-ways Therefore to return more immediately to my Subject and to my Friend Seigneur de Montaigne whom I am not asham'd to own let the Grave and Wise say what they will for I must ever have a greater Respect for an Author who talks judiciously of Trifling Matters if they be so than for One who talks triflingly on Judicious Subjects He tells us These Great and Tedious Debates about the best Form of Society and the most Commodious Rules to bind us are Debates only proper for the Exercise of our Wits and all the Descriptions of Policies feign'd by Art are found to be ridiculous and unfit to be put in practice And in another place Not according to Opinion but in Truth and Reality The best and most Excellent Government for every Nation is that under which it is maintain'd This Montaigne says who express'd and practis'd as great Loyalty as ever any Man of Sense and Honour did and I agree with him That all Reverence and Submission is due to Kings except that of the Understanding This as a Gentleman and as a Christian he farther adds Christian Religion hath all the Marks of utmost Utility and Justice but none more manifest than the severe Injunction it lays indifferently upon all to yield absolute Obedience to the Civil Magistracy and to maintain and defend the Laws i. e. in English To submit according to Law And all Policy as well as Religion enforces Obedience to the Administrators of Right and Justice And if it be permitted to argue from Etymologies which is surer than from Examples the Grecians tell us the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Vbi homines versantur vel potius a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod sint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certis legibus juncti And we may assure our selves That People would not build Houses c. till the Possession and Enjoyment of them was establish'd by certain Laws But we shall never have done never come to any settlement if the Forms of Government and Laws are not admitted but suffer'd to be disputed at this time of day We are therefore to take Laws as we find them and as they stand in use and practice by a continued Establishment It can't be material therefore to look back how the Figure of our Legislative Power stood a Thousand Years ago or from a much shorter date of Time How the Form of Writs issued to the Commons was heretofore though no doubt the best Authority is with them and it is confest they were always a Constituent part of the Legislative Power as 't is idle and impertinent to say The Supreme or Legislative Power must be ever Arbitrary this is an absurd Affirmation when all Parties in a Nation agree by their Representatives to the Enaction of Laws By the Laws of God and Man Our Constitution ought now to rest in Peace in an Inviolable Establishment Kings swear as our Saviour preach'd in the Mount to the Multitude A King's Coronation-Oath must be interpreted ad Captum Populi and to ordinary Intendment That so there may be some certain Rule of Governing and true Measures of Obeying whereby the whole Community may be preserv'd in Peace and Order which is the End of all Government We in England seem to value our selves more peculiarly on the Polity of our Constitution There hath been enough said in praise of our Laws No doubt they are very good if well observ'd so good at least That I never heard that any King of England ever pretended to except against them when he was ask't the Question at his Coronation Whether he would Observe the Laws and so Good That the Subject as far as I perceive desires only the Confirmation and Continuance of them And I will be bold to say for the Honour of the English Nation and People notwithstanding the ill Name some are pleas'd to give us at home and abroad at present That there was never any War in England from the Barons War to the late Civil War setting aside the Dispute between the H. of Y. and L. but what was occasion'd and begun on Colour of the King 's imposing an Arbitrary Power over the Rights and Privileges of the People and after Complaint and Application for Redress of Grievances and Restitution of their Rights and Privileges and all other Nations have done the same where they could I speak of the beginning of Wars I do not always justify the End of them And must aver That the People of England in general have notwithstanding the Proverb which is Exotick been always Good-natur'd Subjects Easy enough to be impos'd upon and cajoled out of their Money and their Lives for the Service of the Crown And as I think so Modest that they have never assum'd as Men to stand in competition with Majesty nor have ever pretended to be so much as Kings till Kings were persuaded to think themselves more than Men Hence as you will perceive in these short following Remarks have for the most part sprung those Jealousies which divided King and People and disjointed the United Common Interest of Both. Ambitious and Designing Men have rais'd Fantoms of Powers and Laws which had being only in the Clouds at least had none amongst us And Imaginary Constructions have been put upon those which were plain and obvious The Terms of Power and Subjection
have been so artificially debated and the Laws of God and Nature the Law of Reason and that of Nations so partially and slily as well as learnedly confounded that the true Idea of our own Government and Law was perplex'd and lost So that no wonder if Mistaken Principles sometimes misled King and People where they might mean well enough both and at other times either King or People might have a latitude of construing them perversely when they did not so Now though 't is confess'd we cannot arrive at any degree of Perfection in Government nor any thing else here in this troublesome uncertain World Yet Experience convinceth us That some Times have been better than others and that this Nation hath been happier under some Princes than Others i. e. happier under those whose Conduct and Government have agreed best with the Laws and Constitutions The only Design of these passing-Observations and Reflections is to point out the Errors and set a Mark on the Rocks that we may avoid them To shew Kings and People the Principles and Practises by which they Miscarried or Succeeded upon Rational Grounds and Natural Consequences so that Measures may be taken which may more probably secure the Peace and Welfare of this Nation for the future I go no farther back than the Conquest or Descent here by King William the First That being as I think enough for our Instruction enough to Inform without confounding our Memories and Judgments WILLIAM I. NOT to play the Grammarian on Words nor to repeat Old Stories though I can scarce pass by Mr. Spelman's Definition of him Conquestor dicitur qui Angliam conquisivit i. e. acquisivit purchas'd non quod subegit But to take William the Conqueror as they call him in the usual Acceptation there can be but little Observable during the Transactions of his Reign to ground Remarks of Civil Policy As he trimmed between Conquest and Title by Gift from Ed. the Confessor he was also Kin by his Mother's side so he divided his Government between Acts of Justice and Wrong not to mention the old Story of Warren the Norman and Sharnborn an Englishman It is plain the Kentishmen had their Laws Confirm'd to them by Treaty and were never Conquered He granted to the City of London their Charters as they had them in the Time of Saint Edward 'T is true he Alter'd the Laws and introduced the French Language but the Alteration seems to be for the better and he was generally Just to the Laws which were made He alter'd Pastimes also and 't was of course for Englishmen are ever fond of New things The worst thing he did was Depopulating so many Towns and overthrowing so many Churches for Thirty Miles round to make a Chase or New Forest in Hampshire and the Execution of severe Laws against Destroyers of Deer or Game by putting out their Eyes c. for which for ought I know his Two Sons and Nephew might come to untimely Ends in the same place But in the main he was modest enough for a Prince who came in with his Sword in his Hand And at last after all his Bustle he was forced as it were to come to a Parly with the English Nobility and before they laid down their Arms this mighty Conqueror engaged for Peace and after in the presence of Archbishop Lanfrank and others took a Solemn Oath upon the Evangelists and all the Relicks of the Church of St. Albans from thenceforth to Observe and Keep the Good and Ancient Laws of the Realm which the Noble Kings of England his Predecessors had before Made and Ordained but especially those of Saint Edward which as is said were suppos'd of all others to be the most Equal and Indifferent for the general Good of the People If the Churchmen can Forgive him for he Repented of it the taking them down somewhat in their Temporal Power and calling in the Jews they may forget his Ransacking the Monasteries if thep please also because he spared the Profits of Vacant Abbies and Bishopricks His Life ended in a Circle and as he pretended to take the Crown by Gift so he disposed of it and left it by Gift also WILLIAM II. DURING this King's Time the Government and Laws seem to be in a continued Ferment and State of War As he was attack'd on all Hands and put to great Charges so he spared neither Church nor State for Taxations but pillaged both in an unreasonable extravagant manner It is said he doubted of some Points of Religion but one would rather believe he doubted of it all by his Life and Expression to the Jews and the Management of Churchmen and their Benefices and Religious Houses He Died so suddenly that he had not time to tell his Opinion at his Death If he did not keep his Word so devoutly as he ought if he was trifling in things appertaining to Religion and profanely free with the Patrimony of the Church the Historians of that Age have assign'd him the Judgments of God in the End and I shall leave him to the Pope's Mercy for with-holding Peter Pence In this King's Reign we find the first Exercise of a Prerogative which seems reasonable and natural enough in forbidding his Subjects by Proclamation to go out of the Land without License if it had been grounded on a good Design but being introduced only first to make his Subjects uneasy at Home and after to get Money out of them for a License to go Abroad the Occasion disgraceth the Thing which otherwise had been justifiable on a true foundation viz. To require the Service of the Subject at Home for the Command of the Aid of the Persons of his People is as much an inherent Right in the Crown as any can be in his own Dominions though not so to Command them out of them on his Service Abroad He also kept his Money from going to Rome and I suppose we ought not to be Angry with any King for keeping his Men and his Money at Home HENRY I. THEY who Write this King's Life do so vary in his Character that it is somewhat difficult to Adjust it But we always ought to speak the best of Kings if the matter will any ways bear it Whether he came to the Crown with a just Title or not he came with a just degree of Understanding and Inclinations to do Justice He was Born of a King in England and Queen of Royal English Blood as Sir John Hayward says though I know not how he makes it out well and is said therefore to have raised the Depressed English Nation again unto Honour and Credit and took off their Badges of Slavery and seems truly Endowed with Kingly Principles though Cambden will have it That he was Just even to a Fault Pray God That were the only Fault of Kings Whatever hath been said to his Disadvantage he appears for the most part to have Governed by the Laws of the Land And as he gave a Measure to
respect to Richard II. or the Earl of Marsh who had the Undoubted Right as being of the Eldest House without any Title unless what he had from the People or as Stow says was Ordained King more by Force than lawful Succession or Election so he held it in continued Trouble and Confusion saving only the last Year And 't is said he was well pleased that there were always Troubles that there might be no Calm or Interval for Reflection He was so jealous of his Crown that in his Sickness he would have it laid by him upon his Bolster for fear some body should Dispossess him of it as he had Richard the II d and his Son as readily took it up for fear of some other Interposition Though he had not leisure for Politicks yet he made a very useful Observation fit to be thought on by Kings viz. That of Englishmen so long as they have Wealth so long shalt thou have Obeysance but when they are Poor they are always ready to make Insurrection at every motion Here we have also a great Example of a King's Son submitting to the Laws and of a King protecting and countenancing a Judge in a due Execution of them and also of a Judge with a steady Gravity and Resolution puting the Ancient Laws of the Realm in Execution without Favour or Partiality HENRY V. THE Reign of this King was wholly taken up with the Wars in France and here may be seen what an English Prince can do when he himself is Brave and Generous and stands well in the Opinion of his Subjects they paid him Homage before he was Crown'd and voluntarily granted him a Subsidy without asking and he on the other hand ask'd but few By which it appears as Sir Richard Baker observes what great matters a moderate Prince may do and yet not grieve his Subjects with Taxations Under this King who was of English true Honour the Honour of the Nation was at the highest Character for in a Councel holden at Constance it was Decreed That England should have the Title of the English Nation and should be accounted one of the Five Principal Nations in Rank before Spain which often before had been moved but never till then Granted HENRY VI. I Know not what to say to the Reign of this unfortunate King only that it is an instance of the Impertinence of Fortune and of the Unsteadiness of Human Affairs although Philip de Comines says he was a very Silly Man and almost an Innocent yet this silly Innocence seems to be what we call Simplicity in the modest acceptation of the word and the Effect rather of Choice or Observation than Defect 'T is true he had a sort of Passive Understanding but he had Judgment enough to distinguish Good and Bad between Virtue and Vice Success and Misfortune to resent these as a Man but overlook them as a Christian and what Sir Francis Bacon reports of him upon the account of his being to be Canonized That the Pope who was jealous of his Honour and of the Dignity of the See of Rome knowing that Henry the VIth was reputed in the World abroad but for a Simple Man was afraid it would but diminish the Estimation of that kind of Honour if there were not a distance kept between Innocents and Saints seems to be brought in rather for the sake of the Jingle or Jest than Truth His greatest symptom of Weakness was suffering a Wife to be imposed upon him and then being ever after imposed upon by that Wife but I doubt this may have been the condition of some Wise Men and the Earl of Suffolk plaid the fool in the Match not the King any otherwise than by taking the Advice of a single Person without and contrary to the Counsel of his Other Peers c. And what have Wiser Kings done beset with a Favourite or a Wife Whereas he had both which shews that 't is not so much a King 's personal and private Wisdom as That of the General Council of a Nation is to be relied on The Ill-advised Tragedy of the Duke of Glocester made Room and open'd way for That of the King 's by letting in the Duke of York's pretensions to the Crown and soon ended in the Death of the Duke of Suffolk himself So unsafe is it for any Favourite how Great soever to presume on his Own strength against the Interest and Policy of the Commonwealth The Other Affairs of this Reign seem transacted upon a stage of Fortune or Fate rather than Prudence or Policy trod between a Headstrong People Ambitious Nobles and a Queen too apt to Rule and a King too easy and apt to Suffer If we may learn any thing from this Reign 't is only this That Virtue and Goodness without Policy and Justice nor Policy without Virtue and Resolution can Establish a Throne But after all Fate it self seems to weigh down the Scale his Father's Prophecy is said was not to be avoided which I leave in the Words of Howard's Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophesies viz. What Prophet could have picked out of Mars and Saturn the manifold Mishaps which befel the Prince of Blessed Memory King Henry the VIth sometimes Sleeping in a Port of Honour sometimes Floating in the Surges of Mishap sometimes Possessing Foreign Crowns sometimes Spoiled and Deprived of his Own sometimes a Prince sometimes a Prisoner sometimes in plight to give Succour to the Miserable sometimes a Fugitive amongst the Desperate Habington in his History of Edward the IVth says That this poor King in so many Turns and Vicissitudes never met with one fully to his Advantage And Cambden says He was Four times taken Prisoner and in the End Despoiled both of his Kingdom and Life EDWARD IV. THE first Twelve Years of this King's Reign if I may so call it who came to the Kingdom as Biondi says not by Power or Justice but by the People's Inclination were passed in a ferment of Blood and the better part of his Two and twenty if I may so say were taken up in Wars and Executions not so much occasioned by Henry the VIth as by the Earl of Warwick so dangerous a thing it is to put an Affront upon a powerful Subject But especially King Edward shewed a very weak part in this Management who came to the Crown chiefly by the Earl of Warwick's Interest and with a confessed Election of his People when he had Married a Subject of no great Parentage or Interest to disoblige such a Subject Dishonourably who had so great a Stroke and made such a Figure in the Nation But all Rules of Policy they say must submit to Love therefore to pass that Oversight for which there is an Excuse made Certainly the Confidence and Trust afterwards by him repos'd in the Duke of Glocester was a manifest Infatuation not to be supported with any pretence of common Consideration or colour of Reason And though Philip de Comines says he was the
Goodliest Personage yet I doubt he was not the Wisest and he might well affirm that his Master Lewis of France exceeded Edward the IVth in Sense and Wisdom How idle and vitious was his Consideration upon that imagined Prophecy That G. should Disposse is his Children of the Crown to suffer it to influence him so far as to consent to the Murther as 't is said of G. Duke of Clarence on supposition foreign enough that That G. was intended him whereas it fell out to be Glocester to whose Tyranny he left them by this Foolish and Ungodly Fancy and such a prophane extravagant Application of Sorceries to which in truth that Age was every where too much addicted And 't was not his jealous practices with the Duke of Britaign against Henry Earl of Richmond could secure the Crown to his Children when he overlook'd the more immediate Danger EDWARD V. ONE would have thought Edward IV. might have without Sorcery or Prophecy foreseen what would become of the committing the Care of Edward the Vth to his Brother the Duke of Glocester who had before Killed Henry the VIth with his own Hand in all probability without Commandment or Knowledge of his Brother and his Son in his own presence and was suspected also to have a hand in the Death of his other Brother the Duke of Clarence besides the symptom of an ill-contrived Soul and Body Without taking notice of all the villanous popular Harangues Insinuations and Artifices used by the Duke of Glocester to get the King's Person into his Power out of the Hands of the Queen and her Friends In short this poor Prince was an Unhappy instance of a misplaced Guardianship and an Unnatural Uncle's Care A Youth made a Jest of Sovereignty for Ten Weeks and Sacrificed to Ambition at Eleven Years of Age and an instance of the fatal Credulity of a Woman too apt to be deceived as well as to deceive He and his poor Brother were Murthered in the Tower Betrayed by an Uncle and too easily delivered up by a Mother A Reign a fit Subject only for Poetry ' Twin-Brethren by their Death What had they done Aleyn Hist of Hen. VII Oh Richard sees a Fault that they were in It is not Actual but a Mortal One They Princes were 't was their Original Sin Why should so sweet a Pair of Princes lack Their Innocents Day i' th' English Almanack RICHARD III. THIS was so great a Monster in all Respects that he ought not for the Honour of England to have place amongst the Catalogue of Kings There ought to be nothing Recorded of him but only this That he died in the Field with his Sword in his Hand 'T is said he made Good Laws but I know of none Extraordinary but only One which is rather a Popular Declaration of what was so before and that was That the Subjects of this Realm shall not be charged by any Benevolence or such like Charge but it shall be damn'd and annull'd for ever Let his Laws be transferr'd to another Reign let us not acknowledge Mercy from the Hands of Blood Sir Francis Bacon saith That his Good Laws were but the Brocage of an Usurper thereby to win the hearts of the People as being Conscious to himself that the true Obligations of Sovereignty in him failed And if he had lived no doubt would have proved such a One as King James the First describes a Tyrant to be HENRY VII IT behoved Henry the Seventh having in himself but a slim sort of distant Title to support himself by Policy And here will appear what Single Prudence can do This maintain'd his Crown whilst he trim'd between Conquest Military Election Parliamentary Birth Donation and Marriage Though he did not care to be beholding to the Last and to take a precarious Right from a Wife Sir Walter Rawleigh says He was a Politick Prince who by the Engine of his Wisdom beat down and overturn'd as many Strong Oppositions both before and after he wore the Crown as ever King of Enggland did And Cambden Through whose Care Vigilancy and Policy and Forecasting Wisdom for times to come the State and Commonwealth of England hath to this day stood Establish'd and Invincible Henricus noster Septimus cum omnes Regni rectè Administrandi Artes calleret sic his Ornamentis Instructus venit ut cum Pacem Exulantem Exul exterremque Extorris concomitatus esset reducem quoque Redux aportaret Win. Com. de rebus Brit. But perhaps the Tyranny of his Predecessor might make his first Steps more easy However I take Henry the Seventh's Master-piece of Wisdom to be That he used That of other Mens also He call'd his Parliament and consulted with it upon all Occasions especially when he had any Provocations to War from France or Scotland Not insisting on but ever waving that impertinent piece of Prerogative of Declaring War upon a King 's own Head This Method open'd his Subjects Purses This procured even a Benevolence as odious as it had been heretofore and Great Sums of Money were soon collected by it The Commotions which happen'd in the North and West upon gathering the Subsidies were but slight Exceptions taken on the Occasion of the Extravagancies and Passions of particular Persons And the Business of Lambert Simnell and the greater Attempt of Perkin Warbeck were but the Effect of a Woman's Malice and promoted by the Dutchess of Burgundy who was an Avowed Enemy to the House of Lancaster Sir Francis Bacon tells us His Time did excel for Good Commonwealth Laws so that he may be justly celebrated for the Best Law-giver to this Nation after King Edward the First For his Laws whoso marks them well are deep and not Vulgar not made upon the Spur of a particular Occasion for the present but out of providence for the future to make the State of his People still more and more happy after the manner of the Legislators in Ancient and Heroical Times I suppose he means the State-Laws against Retainers and Riots these seem more properly to be made on his own Account and that no Person assisting a King de Facto should be attainted therefore by course of Law or Act of Parliament and that if any such Act should be made it should be void which seems also calculated for a particular purpose though it hath since made so much noise in the World as the Act to take away the Writ De Haeretico Comburendo was in King Charles the Second's Time And this de Facto Act seems to have no foundation at that time unless it were for fear of the Earl of Warwick who was the last Heir-Male of the Plantagenets for the King and People most certainly knew that Richard the Younger Brother of Edward the Fifth was Dead and Safe whom Perkin pretended to represent And methinks after all this Act seems to have but a Weak and Dishonourabble Foundation and leaves an ill Savour and will cast a Reflection some-where For Fears and Jealousies
There are particular Histories of the Reformation enow and fresh in every one's Memory having had an occasion not long since to review them and consider them afresh There are Plays and Novels also of the other to gratify the Female Politicians who whether they ought to be severe upon him or not I know not and leave to them to determine This is besides my Design as being out of all Ordinary Rules of Civil Policy Therefore waving all Enquiry into the Reasons or Provocations of one or t'other though I know some are assign'd and remark'd to his Disadvantage others to his Advantage I shall dismiss my self with this general Remark upon the Qualities of a Man or King That when Either have once broke through the first Obligations of Justice or Virtue he makes but little difficulty in the proceeding upon Attempts of the same Nature Though after all to speak impartially and without Reflection I am not satisfied but the first Occasion of Divorce and Reformation too was in its self justifiable though the Circumstances inducing it are suspected and it was concluded a Reason sought not offer'd But certainly Sir Walter Raleigh's Character of him is not to be justified who says That if all the Pictures and Paterns of a Merciless Prince were lost in the World they might all again be painted to the life out of the Story of this King And that of Sir Robert Naunton is as ill-natur'd viz. Having a Design to marry within the Degrees Unlawful he set his Learned Men at work to prove it lawful and after a while being cloy'd and desiring Change set them again on work to prove it unlawful He never spared Man in his Anger or Woman in his Lust This is Satyrically said but not truly For he had no mind to marry at first where he did but did it in Obedience to his Father's Will and against the Grain with himself And he liv'd with this first Wife Twenty Years and never took notice of the Unlawfulness of that Marriage till it was objected against him again and the President of Paris started and moved it on the Proposal of Marriage between the Lady Mary his Daughter by Katherine and the Duke of Orleance the second Son to the French King And as to the Cruelty towards Men the Death of the Lord Cromwell and that of the Duke of Norfolk's Son Henry Earl of Surry sound most of Severity yet as to the first he had rais'd him from a Smith's Son he was Cardinal Woolsey's Pupil and trod in his Steps He was Attainted by Parliament and the Record says for Crimes of Heresy and Treason perhaps the Advice of the Match with the Lady Ann of Cleve but I think it doth not argue Cruelty in the King neither towards him or her He dismiss'd her with a gentle Farewel after her Marriage was declared Unlawful by the Convocation and adjudged so in Parliament and she lived sixteen Years after and died in the Fourth Year of Queen Mary As to the other It is plain it was not to gratify his Personal Cruelty For being no Lord of Parliament he was Arraigned at Guildhall before a Special Commission and found guilty by a Jury the Charge of bearing Arms which belonged to the King and Prince may seem somewhat slight yet it is always dangerous to play with Edged Tools and the Ragion di stato may in part excuse it In the main he appears a King of a great deal of Honour not without a Good-natur'd Generosity He was careful also to maintain the Civil Constitution and devout to the Privileges of Parliament He carried it fair with his Subjects in the general and was never Ill-natur'd or Froward as far as I can perceive without some Colour of Justice I know not whether I can justify him in his Politicks so well in his contradicting by the Will the Disposition of the Crown and its Succession which he had before Established in Parliament especially to bring in Queen Mary after his Subjects had sworn to the Parliamentary Succession of his Daughter Elizabeth Besides That this was subsequently by Implication to affirm the Legitimacy of his Mariage with Katharine of Spain which was with so much Solemnity laboured and declared Unlawful All that can be said is That he might in respect to the Mother be unwilling to suffer the Daughter to be Bastardised And we always ought to construe the Actions of Princes in mitiori sensu and to take them by the best part of the Handle in History To speak well of them if we can any ways justify it and to be silent in Doubtful Characters if we cannot Commend EDWARD VI. I Am at a loss in speaking to the Short Reign of Edward the Sixth He seems born and design'd for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity and to be snatched away to the Disappointment of Human Expectations to intimate That there is no Establishment of Happiness to be relied on here below However that Government which might have come to something in himself was Unfortunate in the Administration of the Councel which his Father with so much Care had assign'd him and impertinently enough shuffled between the Aspiring Conduct of the Great Men and the Foolish Ambition of Pretending Women These interrupted the Wisdom of Councels though the Protector did his part well enough at first till he came to pull down a Church and two Bishops Houses in the Strand to make him a Mansion-House c. For after the Disturbances of the Nation on the Account of Religion and the Inclosures at Home and with relation to the French and Scots Abroad had been managed with Prudence and Honour and the Kingdom began to appear with a Face of Peace and Satisfaction How vain are Mortal Considerations Behold the whole Oeconomy is on a sudden Discomposed and the Frame of Government Subverted And a Frivolous Pretence of Place between two Women Unhinges the Constitution and first exposes and then destroys and ruins the Husbands by vertue of the False Designs of a Third Person behind the Curtain who grafted Villany artificially upon their Follies and at last as was suspected brought in the King himself whose Death also is laid at the same Door What the Sense of our Neighbours was concerning it you may read in Mezeray France and England held pretty good Correspondence when Death cut the Thread of Young King Edward's Days It was believ'd to proceed from a slow Poyson and John Dudley Duke of Northumberland was suspected guilty of the Crime he having suggested to him to Institute Jane of Suffolk for Heiress to the Crown However it were it prov'd a Fatal Policy to the poor Lady Jane and himself too I confess I cannot see why Edward the Sixth might not make bold with Mary as well as his Father had done before him and dispose of the Crown by Will as he did especially for the Propagating and Establishing the Infant Reformation if that Age had been serious and well agreed in the
Temper by a gentle Remove without any Blood without Imprisoning any Person and without inflicting almost any Suffering or Penalty till the Seditious Practices of the Popish Party had provoked the Arm of Justice till the Pope had given away her Kingdom of Ireland as a Heretick and Parsons and Campian Two of his Emissaries had Deposed her at Home in their Doctrines And after all Campian Sherwin and Briant did not suffer as Popish Priests but were Prosecuted on the 25th of Edward the III d for Plotting Destruction of the Queen and Ruin of the Kingdom for Adhering to the Pope the Queen's Enemy and coming into England to Raise Forces against the State And 't was only for these Exorbitances of the Papists that new and strict Laws were Enacted against them in the following Parliaments in the 23d 27 29 35th Years of her Reign Before that there was only the Penalty of Twelvepence a Sunday for Absence from Church and some other necessary provisions concerning the Supremacy Administration of the Sacrament and Form of Common-Prayer which also were very tenderly put in Execution and for above Twenty Years no Body suffered Death for Religion nor till long after the Pope and King of Spain had conspired her Ruin and Gregory the XIIIth held secret Consultations to Invade at once both England and Ireland and longer after that Bloody Massacre of Paris which was a design to Cut off the Protestants as it was Termed or at least to give them a deep Wound and the terrible Slaughters of Protestants through all the Cities of France and the War afterwards declared against the Protestants in the time of Charles the IXth not to reflect on the Chambres Ardentes before against Protestants in Henry the IId's time and after the Attempt which the Duke of Alva on the behalf of the Queen of Scots and the just suspicious she might entertain on her account who was then accounted the great Patroness and only hopes of the Papists and all the other Stratagems and visible Designs of that Party And the second Execution of any Person was in her Twenty fifth Year and upon a just necessity of Self-preservation upon the rash and extravagant Proceedings of Somervill and Others Besides when the Queen was informed even of these Severities as they are call'd tender ones in comparison she grew offended with the Commissioners for Popish Causes Reproved them for their Severity although they declared and protested they Questioned no Man for his Religion but only for dangerous Attempts against her Majesty and the State and the Queen forbad them afterwards to use Tortures as she did the Judges other Punishments And not long after that when Seventy Priests were taken and some of them Condemned and the rest in danger of the Law she only shipp'd them away out of England A Merciful piece of Justice So Merciful she was that it gave her Enemies such Encouragement as her Life was never safe as may appear by the Case of Dr Parry till there was a necessity for an Association to provide for the Queen's safety which was first Voluntary by a Number of her Subjects the Earl of Leicester being foremost thence after of all Ranks and Conditions bound mutually thereunto to each other by their Oaths and Subscriptions to Prosecute all those to the very Death that should Attempt any thing against the Queen which the Year following was in a Parliamentary manner Enacted into a formal Law Notwithstanding which another dangerous Conspiracy of one Savage set on foot by Babington and Others to take away her Life as being Excommunicated was discovered and about Fourteen were justly Executed for Treason Upon which last Treason hung the Fate of the Queen of Scots the Justice whereof has been so much Controverted and Debated Rules of Policy and Self-preservation must cashier all Principles of good Nature or Honour Yet however Execution was not done upon her till the French Ambassador and others were again discovered to take off the Queen by way of prevention And the Circumstances suggested to the Queen at least of the Spanish Navy being come to Milford Haven the Scots into England and that the Duke of Guise was Landed at Sussex c. may extenuate if not excuse the Severity of her Execution with any but Papists and the manner of doing it at last shews it was Extorted from her upon inevitable Considerations and Symptoms of a relucting necessity Her often Countermanding it demonstrates it was not an Act of her Inclination and at last perhaps as far as it appears it was obtained of her by Surprise and without her Authorising Hand to the finishing Stroke If there were any thing in it of Barbarity 't was the denying her a Catholick Priest or Confessor and the Manner of her Execution Which yet is no more than Papists deny Protestants on all occasions and I know not why we should not vouch the dying Honour of our Religion as they do of theirs But enough has been said of this Tragedy on all Hands only it may be fit to Remark That even the French Historians give a more favourable Account of it than our own and particularly Mezeray is softer in his Expressions than Baker The first says The Indiscretion of her Friends was no less the Cause of her Misfortune than the Wickedness of her Enemies as the First sought with violent passion after some plausible pretence to Ruin her the Other furnished them with divers by contriving every Hour some odd Design and even Conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth so that they made her Perish by their over-much Care and Endeavours to Save her The Later gives a slim trimming Account which was worse Although 't is true the taking off the Queen of Scots did not break the Neck of the Popish Designs for who can restrain the Malice of Jesuits for Men must have some ingredient of Modesty to be convinc'd and silenc'd and kept within the bounds of natural Virtue yet it stopp'd their Hands for some time And when afterwards they began again upon the Example and Encouragement of the Holy League in France of which the Duke of Guise was Head and in virtue of which they had taken off their own King Henry the III d by the Hands of James Clement a Monk though Guise himself was first Assassinated and they had taken new heart upon the King of Spain's Founding a Seminary of English at Validolid and new Plots were contrived against the Queen It put them somewhat out of the way and they were at a loss where to find a Successor to the Crown for their purpose when Lopez and Patrick Cullen c. were to have Killed the Queen And they were forc'd to hunt after far-fetch'd Titles in the Infanta of Spain and farther for the Earl of Essex at Home the Son of the Queen of Scots being a Protestant and even at last they made but little of it The Queen remained in Peace and Safety and their Pretender Essex was himself Executed for Treason The
Rawleigh and others Protestants and Papists amongst whom were two Priests and for which there was no other apparent Occasion only that he provok'd all Parties whilst he sought to win One by Fawning to shew something like good Inclinations to the See of Rome as the Pope expected though they well knew he did not mean that neither whilst he received others coldly for Reasons neither he nor they knew So that they agreed only in this to lay him aside who as they concluded by his Behaviour would answer the Expectations of neither There was no necessity of adding Papists as Spies upon his Councels he might in prudence been contented to have taken it at present as left him with the Addition only of his Scotchmen to the Number And 't is plain it gave no satisfaction to the Papists by the Powder-Plot which followed His Next Step of Unaccountable Wisdom was dissolving the Parliament for Reasons known to no body besides himself 't is said because they did not comply with his Designs but what those Designs were do not appear Above-board The Third Action of Moment out of common Forms was the sacrificing Sir Walter Rawleigh to the Importunities of Gondomar for neither his Justice nor Mercy was to be relied on that is giving up the Interest of England to the Spanish Satisfaction And his Conduct with relation to Spain is admirable throughout Queen Elizabeth had pretty well humbled that Potent Monarch and as Sir Robert Cotton observes forced him in his after-Reign that is after his Unsuccessful Tricks with her to that Extremity that he was driven to break all Faith with those Princes that trusted him and paid for One Year's Interest above Twenty five thousand Millions of Crowns Hear Sir Robert Cotton who speaks to the Person of King James and therefore we may assure our selves modestly and gently So low and desperate in Fortunes your Highness found him when you took this Crown Thus from the abundant Goodness of your Peaceable Nature this is the way of Banter if Kings would see it you were pleas'd to begin your Happy Reign with General Quiet and with Spain first which should have wrought in Noble Natures a more Grateful Recompence than after followed For long it was not before Tyrone was hearten'd to Rebel against your Highness and flying had a Pension at Rome paid him from the Spanish Agent His Son Odonel Tyrconnel and others your Chiefest Rebels retain'd ever since in Grace and Pay with the Arch-Duchess at Spain's Devotion So soon as your Eldest Son of holy Memory now with God was fit for Mariage they began these Old Designs by which before they had thriven so well c. Thus Sir R. C. in that Stile And thus they led him on their Dance whilst he Deserted or what was worse so meanly Vindicated the Interest of his Son-in-Law the Prince Palatine He must take his Measures from Gondomar and instead of assisting him with a Powerful Army he is treating with this Spanish Agent and must take his Advice and Matters are to be made up with him by a Match for his Son the Prince of Wales with the Infanta of Spain and then suffers himself to be imposed upon by Idle Representations which this Ambassador carried on only in Disguise to serve his Master's Ends whilst in the mean time the Poor Palatine is swallowed up by a Confederacy between the Emperor and King of Spain and all this without calling a Parliament that being forsooth an Affront to his Wisdom then sends his Son to Spain when he was told by Sir John Digby c. who advised him not to suffer his Resolutions to be interrupted by that Overture of the False Appearances and Insincerities of the Spaniards which the Letters from the King of Spain to Olivares and his Answer would have convinced any one of besides himself and after that his making so many and ample Concessions in favour of Popery during the Treaty And in truth Treating of any Popish Match are no great Arguments of Wisdom Fatherly Care or indeed of Religion The English Navy must be neglected on pretence intimated by Gondomar that the furnishing of it would breed suspicion in the King his Master and the Cautionary Towns must be rendred up being the Keys of the Low-Countries to oblige his Friend Gondomar too His People of England must be Check'd Disgrac'd and Silenced for opposing this Popish Match with their Speeches Counsels Wishes and even Prayers 't is said Gondomar could Dissolve Parliaments also The Protestant Interest on his Son's Account in Bohemia slighted though Archbishop Abbot represented the Circumstances and Call of Religion to Engage him besides Honour Though his Ambassador Cottington inform'd how Matters went and though every body besides himself saw through the Designs of Spain as well in the Complimenting him in the Match as Mediatorship to keep him Neuter and hold him in Suspence And though he himself saw it turn to a War of Religion and would be the Overthrow of the Protestants or Evangelicks and though the Emperor had proscribed the Prince Palatine yet King James's Eyes would not be open'd nor would be persuaded to take the Alarm These are no great Master-strokes of Policy no more than of Conscience or Honour And to War at last when all was lost against his own avow'd Principles was an Incomprehensible Mystery of Judgment and Wisdom Besides these of which he discharged himself thus learnedly there was no Matter of Moment did or could Occur during his Reign to exercise any Extraordinary Talent As for the Governing his People 't is plain he had King-Craft as his Friend Sir Richard Baker calls it as is pretty Evident by his Parliamentary Speeches and his Ways of getting Money He could also Dissemble and sometimes Huff but 't was only his own Subjects and that with no good Grace neither He had Priest-Craft too as Heylin observes who tells us 'T was his usual Practice in the whole Course of his Government to Balance one extreme by the other Countenancing the Papists against the Puritans and the Puritans sometimes against the Papists Thus he was Devout for the Church of England at Home and for Popery Abroad making Canons for their Conformity here and submitting our Orders to Truckle to the Popish Match against all the Remonstrances of Parliament Church and People What could he expect from this Popish Match from any Popish Match but the Consequences all the World expected That it would let in Popery once more into Hopes of Success at least to gain Breath by a suspension of the Laws against them What could be expected but that this must create Jealousies and Misunderstandings between him and his Subjects And 't was not sending a Synod of Divines to Dort or having a Convocation at Home of which Dr. Overal his Dean of Paul's has given a special Account for the Edification of his Successor the present Dean could likely settle the Affairs of the Church in Europe when he at the same time was
giving the Pope a Lifting-hand and rais'd his drooping Head here so early after the Reformation and when at the same time the Protestants in Germany France and the Low-Countries were groaning under a Persecution Which made Du Plessis complain Que Sa Majestie D'Angleterre trop arreste à quelques petits dissensions entre les Siens n'evoit pas assez de soin de la guerison de plus profondes playes qui sont en l'Eglise and which made the House of Commons Petition and Remonstrate in the Force of Fourteen Reasons and Ten Remedies in the XIXth Year of his Reign which had only this Effect to make him fly to his old Refuge of Prerogative with a Huff And that the Mariage of his Children Peace and War c. were Matters of State and Government above their Considerations And Speeching it backwards and forwards which he took great Delight in till his Son-in-Law was despoiled of his Ancient Patrimony which he at last ingenuously confess'd was through his Default Here 's the Effect of Prerogative These Proceedings I suppose put Sir Robert Cotton upon Enquiry what the Kings of England had done in the like Cases And after great pains in the search of Records he informs us That the Kings of this Nation ever since the Conquest so soon as they were cool enough for Councels have usually consulted with their Peers in the great Council and Commons in Parliament of Mariage Peace and War He might have said before the Conquest also for Harold who had promised William Duke of Normandy to take one of his Daughters to Wife Answers That he should be very injurious to his own Nobility if he should without their Consent and Advice take a Stranger to Wife If we look into our Neighbour Kingdoms Mezeray will tell us That the French during the two first Races and part of the third had a Right to intermeddle and controul the Mariages of their Kings and neither could the King make War without the Lords In earnest I know not whether Kings in Reason ought to be permitted to Converse with Ambassadors on t'other side of Forms upon their own Heads without a Quorum of their Councils For Nations generally send the sharpest Men on such Errands and sometimes Kings are not a Match in Politicks for them as it plainly appeared by this Story this King was not for Gondomar who outwitted him who pretended to be the wisest But King James came over to us Tinctur'd with his Scotch Notions of Monarchical and Sovereign Absolute Power without vouchsafing ever after to consider the English Constitution and he lets us see what Opinion he had of Parliaments in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein he Advises his Son to hold no Parliaments but for Necessity of new Laws which would be but seldom Not it seems for the State Matters of War Mariage c. No not for raising Money neither so long as he could get it by Privy-Seals and Benevolences Besides after all he did not come hither without some Prejudices to the English People though he had none to the Crown of England Thus there may seem to be some inconveniences in a Learn'd Crown'd Head This King thought himself too Wise and too Knowing He was above Advice or Instruction because as he thought he was capable of giving it He was too wise in himself to be taught by others and yet not wise enough always to follow those Rules of Wisdom which he had given As is evident by the Observation of his Theory and Practice and by his inconsistent Directions to his Sons Henry and Charles He was a little too much addicted to the Pedantry of a Scholar and affected with Polemical Controversies in Words which he dreaded in Action Was more for determining Quarrels by the Pen than the Sword And perhaps might have made a better Bishop than a King a better Father of a Family than Country as being better seen in the Oeconomicks than Political Government of a Nation CHARLES I. MOntaign whom I confess I delight to bring in as often as I can though I know the Philosophers are angry with him for I do not pretend to be a better Politician or any thing else than he was The Grave have Gravity in them but I know not what besides says That about a Month since he read over two Scotch Authors of which he who stands for the People makes Kings to be in a worse condition than a Carter and he who writes for Monarchy places him some Degrees above God Almighty in Power and Sovereignty I 'm sorry there is no Medium and I know no Necessity for Either Who those two Scotch Authors were ev'ry one knows King James complain'd of one of them and advanc'd t'other as it always happens to them who stretch for Kings Such have been the Notions of Government in both Extremes and both were unhappily experimented in this Reign This King flush'd I doubt with such Authors as the last and perhaps withal observing what was done in France under Lewis the XIth who boasted that he had mis le Royaum hors du Page as he calls it and who as Mezeray observes had even Government without Council and most commonly without Justice and Reason Who thought it the finest Policy to go out of that great and beaten Road of his Predecessors to change ev'ry thing were it from better to worse that he might be fear'd His Judgment which was very clear but too subtle and refin'd as was that of King James was the greatest Enemy to his own and his Kingdom 's quiet having as it seems taken pleasure in putting things into disorder and throwing the most Obedient into Rebellion Who rather lov'd to follow the bent of his own irregular fancies than the wise Laws of the Land and made his Grandeur consist in the Oppression of his People c. And also in the Reign of Henry the IVth who gave the last stroke to Parliamentary Formalities and Huff'd the People into a new Law that from thenceforth the King's Edicts should be ratified on sight without those formal triflings of Dispute by Virtue of Living and Ruling always with his Sword in his Hand might conceive some such great Hopes These Reflections might perhaps inspire King Charles with the French Ayre of Grandeur but a People is sometimes quick-sighted too And hence on a sudden grew an impertinent as it then seem'd Jealousy between King and People One pretending to too much after one Author and t'other yielding too little by the other Whilst the former might be Nibbling at Arbitrary Power in an Extended Prerogative and the latter enlarging their Liberties somewhat beyond a modest bound and there were Courtiers in those Days also such as Philip de Comines observ'd in Court Language to Complement a King call'd it Rebellion to mention a Parliament and Lewis also was a superstitious Friend to the Church whilst he was assaulting and oppress'd the State In these and such like Circumstances of Notional
Government in such State of picqueering Misunderstanding King James left his Crown to King Charles and in a War for Recovery of the Palatinate without any Money and in a fair way of Quarrel at Home as well as Abroad Besides the People had it in their Memories and Consideration his Complaisant Behaviour in Spain his Letter to and Tampering with the Pope in Order to that Match which rais'd new Jealousies on Account of Religion and his Compleating himself the Match with France with as Frank Articles for Popery as had before been offer'd to Spain in Conjunction with his Father confirm'd them in them These Reasons and Considerations took possession justly enough in the Minds of Men which made them ever after stand upon their guard And setting aside all those Scurrilous Authors on the One hand who have pretended to give us a Narrative of his Actions and also those Fulsome Ones on the Other all those who would Depress or Advance his Character with Art certainly a great many Actions of his Administration are not to be justified in a Court of Honour or Wisdom Such as Dissolving the First Parliament meerly in Complaisance to the Duke of Buckingham A King must necessarily Disoblige and Affront the Community when he Espouseth the Interest of a Single Person against the Publick and it shews a Weakness to put one Man no better than the rest in the Scales in competition with Mankind as it were But especially a King ought to be sure the Subject-matter of such Protection and Preference is good and justifiable otherwise he commits a double Error It will be thought Ill-natur'd to Argue against Favourites but I must Argue against the Argument for them It is a very odd Inference That because our Saviour had his Favourite-Disciple therefore Kings must have their Favourites I suppose No body will pretend there is any parity of Reason To return therefore to the Duke of Buckingham who without Dispute had betrayed the Vantguard c. to the French after the King and he knew both that they were to be employed against the Rochellers this was in it self a great Abuse to the Honour of the English Nation and a manifest Injustice and Injury to the Protestant Religion And 't was from this King's Reign that the French began to Date their Strength at Sea This only Action bred such ill Blood and created so great a Misunderstanding at first between the King and his Subjects as stuck to the Duke of Buckingham till his Death whom Felton kill'd and I doubt till the King 's too His next Proceeding was Extraordinary when he had thus Dissolv'd the First Parliament To Levy Money by Privy Seals which had so ill a savour in his Father's Time and then to call a Parliament presently on the neck of that Miscarriage and to side with the D. of B. against the E. of B. and the denying the latter his Writ to Parliament this lookt inconsiderate and a little mean and the interposing so much on behalf of the former even with passion as well as partiality had but an ill grace I pass by the Business of the Earl of Arundel which also could not but breed ill Blood in the House of Peers By the King's Obstinacy in these Affairs though I do not pretend to justify the House of Commons in theirs instead of preserving one Friend in the mean time he sacrifices all the rest to his Humour For the King of Denmark who at his Instance chiefly had taken up Arms in his Quarrel was beaten and reduced to great Distress for want of Succors from England which the King had thus disabled himself to supply according to his Promise That Necessity put him again upon Indirect Courses for Raising of Money by Commissions of Loan and seising all Duties of Customs Privy-Seals Benevolences c. as if he would shew he design'd if he had prevail'd to live on himself without a Parliament But the Imprisoning the Gentlemen for refusing the Loan and the Suspending and Disgracing Archbishop Abbot for refusing to License Sibthorp's Book were Strains of Arbitrary Power which exposed Religion as well as Law into a Jest and seem to profane the Sacred Title of a King as well as that of an Archbishop as appears especially in that Archbishop's Narrative and Dialogue with the Passages therein express'd if it be true which exposes that whole Transaction as a plain Rhodomontade and Defiance to all Rules of Justice and Reason I will take notice only of the Observation of the Archbishop upon the Fourth Objection to Sibthorp's Sermon by which you may guess at the rest To the Fourth Let the Largeness of those words be well consider'd says the Archbishop yea all Antiquity to be absolutely for Absolute Obedience to Princes in all Civil or Temporal things for such Cases as Naboth's Vineyard may fall within this and if I had allow'd this for Doctrine I had been justly beaten with my own Rod If the King the next day had commanded me to send him all the Money and Goods I had I must by my own Rule have obey'd him And if he had commanded the like to all the Clergy of England by Sibthorp's Proposition and the Archbishop of Canterbury's allowing of the same they must have sent in all and left their Wives and Children in a Miserable Case yea the Words extend so far and are so absolutely deliver'd that by this Divinity If the King should send to the City of London and the Inhabitants thereof commanding them to give unto him all the Wealth they have they were bound to do it There is a Meum Tuum in Christian Commonwealths and according to Laws and Customs Princes may dispose of it That Saying being true Ad Reges Potestas omnium pertinet ad singulos proprietas This was the Sense of the Archbishop on this Matter and yet the King espoused the Fancies of a Sibthorp against him who was not so much as a Batchellour of Arts only for the merit of his Flattering Divinity And in truth the whole Proceeding is apt to turn one's Stomach besides that the King in Exposing the Dignity of a Person of such a Figure in the Church did also make bold with his own Character at second hand who stood but one Remove Higher And what was it but to intimate to the Lay-Gentlemen that neither of them were so sacred or inviolable as was pretended And by the by 't is not safe to make too Light of a Spiritual Person they can't be held too sacred on this side of Infallibility But how like a Prophet did the Archbishop talk How did he Reason like a Statesman concerning the King and Duke of Buckingham How did the Event but too well justify the Predictions What could the King expect from his Next Parliament which he was in a manner forc'd to Call after the Imprisonment of so many Gentlemen and the Poor-spirited Way of Releasing them which lookt almost as bad as the Imprisoning them What could he say
Kings such our Ministers and such were the People to be But all these Kings of the Scotch Line seem to have differ'd in their Ideas and Methods of Government King James the First Philosophised upon it Charles the First Reason'd on it with too much Opiniatretie and King Charles the Second Banter'd it and I 'm sure King James the Second did not Moralize upon it JAMES II. IF what Sir William Temple says of King Charles the II d be true and he gives good Authority for it viz. That the Prince of Orange upon Discourse c. said to him That the King Charles II d was as he had reason to be confident in his Heart a Roman Catholick though he durst not profess it It will go a great way towards the justification of those Gentlemen and their Conduct in the Oxford Parliament c. in relation to the past King and much more the Behaviour of the Nation towards King James of whom there was no doubt of being one and who dar'd own it at last though he very meanly prosecuted One upon a Scandalum Magnatum for having said so once For no doubt they both came over as much Papists as they ever were and if the first dyed such I can't but believe he had lived one for Thirty Years at least and they will both stand in need of a very great Dispensation somewhere else for their Hypocrisy so many Years If King Charles believ'd nothing of the Popish Plot as is said I know not whether it will diminish the Credit of it But 't is certain his Successor King James abundantly confirm'd its Credibility even so much as to give a Reputation to the intended Bill of Exclusion though the Loyalty of the People then ran so high that they were not willing to part with him without Experience nor then neither it seems by some vainly imagining that the Honour of a Popish King could supersede and take place of his Religion The Books and Pamphlets of that Season have sufficiently exposed or demonstrated the Character of this King and the Principles of that Religion And 't was as Evident to any body that would see what he had been doing in his Brother's Reign as what he did in his own Whether we conclude his Practice from his Principles or his Principles from his Practice there 's enough to convince for the past and to caution for the time to come If Declarations repeated with so much Solemnity and broke through with so much Ease and a Coronation-Oath Discharged and Violated so plainly though with an impertinent Distinction of the Judges to keep up a feeble Countenance of Law For what will not Judges in Commission during pleasure say or do For our Judges are not Sworn as those Judges whom the Kings of Egypt made solemnly to take an Oath that they would not do any thing contrary to their Conscience though commanded to it by themselves If the Business of the Irish at Portsmouth If the sending the Lord Castlemain to Rome and receiving a Nuntio here which was never suffer'd in a Protestant Country nor at Treaties where Protestant Ministers have been If the Letters from Liege to the Jesuits at Friburg If sending the Lord Preston to France which sufficiently implies a French League to mention no other Evidence of it nor the Story of sending out the Fleet Half-Mann'd If these or any of these did not unvail the Designs of that King we shall ever be in the Dark and nothing on this side of Dragooning could have open'd their Eyes they must also be persuaded That the Pope King Lewis and King James were all well-wishers to the Protestant Religion and to the Heretick Prosperity of England as by Law Establish'd That inviduous little Management of Magdalen-College Affair with Huffing a parcel of poor naked Fellows of a College for not swallowing Perjury without a Dispensation shews his good Nature equally with his Policy and sets forth in Epitome his Devout Observation of an Allowance to Church-of-England Consciences The prosecuting the Bishops so Barbarously First One for refusing to do what was not in his power by Law and then the rest for humbly begging to be allowed to have Souls The turning all the Nobility and Gentry out of all Commissions Offices and Places for pretending to Honour and refusing to concur in Dissolving the Reformation was a Master-stroke that we might be subdued and over-run with Jesuits Councels and Irish Courage and Conduct Some of his Friends are so Hardy to fancy and pretend to say He could not have introduced Popery if he had endeavoured it they should have put in Arbitrary Power too For what cannot a King do over a passive People Disarm'd in Power and Defective in Notion and Thought Cependant les Anglois se doivent souvenir le Massacre D'Ireland c. says a late French Author but I forbear to give you any Account from the French Refugees 'T is true he could not subdue our Understandings but he might exercise a fatal Tyranny over our Wills Besides King James never tried fair means which would have went a great way he went the false way to work upon Englishmen I doubt we are not so much Temptation-proof And it might for ought I know have been a dangerous Experiment to have trusted the Church with it self so long in an Enemy's Quarter We see King James hath lived a great many Years enow to have gone a great way with us with the Assistance of French and Irish and such Subjects as were inclinable to be of the King's Religion at Home and he must have gone as far as he could No doubt the Nation had been as easily supplied as Magdalen-College But it happen'd very luckily for England that King James discover'd his Temper of Spirit a little too soon We all knew of what force Edicts-had been in Hungary and France the Copies whereof our Kings had been so apt to follow and what the Duke of Savoy had been doing in the Valleys of Piedmont but we would not believe King James was Cruel was a Persecutor scarce that he was a Papist because he had the Art to Conceal and Disguise himself a little before it was in his power to use the Rod. But presently Father Petre shew'd that he would do as much in England as la Chaise had done in France and the first was observ'd to be the hottest of the two And not to aggravate or mince Matters They must all have done what lay in their power in Obedience to what their Councils Decree towards the Extirpation of Hereticks But God be thanked King James did not shew himself that Prince of Resolution at least he fail'd them in one Character as they would have had him deceiv'd us by another He was pleased for some Considerations whether of Fear or Guilt to leave us abruptly and we have taken that Advantage of parting with him fairly And I wish him all the Happiness that is consistent with the Welfare of England Only let us as
himself whether Frighted or not is not material upon which the Prince together with his Consort the next Heir Indisputable to the Crown in a full and due Representation of the whole Community and Body of the Kingdom is and are Declared and Appointed King and Queen Now let us see what we have done upon the whole matter to deserve that harsh Language of the Convocation-Book produced by Dr Sherlock Whether we have done more or so much as all other Nations have done in a Case any thing like Ours Whether we have done more than becomes Good Christians or Men of Honour And what it is that stands in our way to hinder or bar such an Attempt and Action First Setting aside at present those Texts of St. Paul and St. Peter which are the only discouraging Impediments and which have been sufficiently as I think answered and avoided by several Pens Upon the Law of Nature no Man I believe can pretend to say here is any Natural Injustice or Moral Injury done Certainly Nature and Reason prompt us to Defend Injuries and to Repel Force Nature will preserve it self in its Being No Man will say a King of England hath power of Life and Death over his Subjects We say he hath no Power other than by the Law of the Land the Moral as well as Legal Consequence must be That we may Defend our Lives against all Assaults 't is the same of Liberty and Property for there is a Meum and Tuum in all Christian Commonwealths as Archbishop Abbot said before subject only to the Laws of the Place therefore I can't defend my self or House against the King Arm'd with Legal Power as upon a Cap. Vtlagatum or upon a Duty due to him c. but I may where I am out of the compass of a Legal Prosecution If the consequence of Self-defence and Preservation be denied it 's vain trifling to talk of Laws and to value our selves upon Living in a Country where the Measures of Right are ascertain'd and the Limits of Government and Subjection the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and the Bow String will be the same if Laws are only a simple Direction for Information and not an Obligation We must owe our Lives c. at this rate to Fortune not to Justice But since the Restoration it 's said we are under another Tie not to take up Arms by the Extravagant Compliment to King Charles the II d and the Declaration pursuant to that Act. Be it so though all Laws made in Extraordinary Heats are not a regular Obligation but let them take that State-Artificial Obligation into the Bargain the King Swears too and this was not designed to let loose the King's Hands and tie the Subjects for all Obligations whether Natural or Artificial are Reciprocal and Mutual and always so taken and understood in common Intendment There can be no other Notion of Justice Natural Moral or Political and whatever Preference and Advantage is allowed to One above the Other 't is an Authority upon Supposition of Care Protection and for Order and centers in the Good of the Community And I think the Lacedemonians had a Law to Punish Parents who did not their Duty towards their Children Let us therefore take in the highest Instance of Obedience and Duty from Children to Parents No Man I suppose will pretend now that a Father may Castrate Sell or Kill a Child the Inference must be That in any Case of such open Violence a Son may Resist a Father in his own necessary Defence and Self-preservation without offering Reproach Injury or Vindictive Force So in the Case of Lunacy in a Parent or any fatal Extravagance no doubt a Son may lay Hands on a Father by way of Restraint and must take a continued Commanding Care over him in case of Relapse c. This is agreed on all hands to be the severest Tie of Obedience and therefore Kings are endeavoured to be brought within the Fifth Commandment to make our Chains the faster not in the mean time considering that they make them looser by putting an inconsistent double Duty upon us Thus we are told Religion stands positively in our way and fetters us with an Absolute Obedience to Kings without Reserve c. It seems hard that Religion should weaken our Arm in Defence of it self and force our Obedience and Submission to Laws and Absolute Power in the same breath For where there is Absolute Power there is no Law and where there are Laws there is no Absolute Power But Scripture is to be our Guide I agree it But what Authority shall I rely on Where shall I apply my self for an Interpreter 'T is manifest our own Church cannot settle me that is divided against it self Some bring Instances from the Old Testament Others tell us That is nothing to the purpose those Kings being by God's Designation c. Some tell us these Texts of St. Peter and St. Paul oblige us to Passive Obedience on peril of Damnation And Others as boldly and magisterially inform us That the New Testament gives no Rules for Submission to Forms of Government but only Rules of Justice Order and Peace That those Texts are nothing to Our purpose for the Apostles spoke to those under Heathen Emperors where Paganism was Established by a Law and that those Texts are to be only Expounded against the Jews who still believed themselves under the Divine Authority and thought they could not become the Subjects of any other Power As to the Scripture-Examples we are Taught by a very great Divine and Bishop not to rely on them and he says Those who place the Obligatory Nature of these Examples from Scripture must either produce the Moral Nature of those Examples or else a Rule binding us to follow those Examples especially when these Examples are brought to found a New positive Law Obliging all Christians Some say in general the Bible is a Miscellaneous Book where Dishonest and Time-serving Men may ever in their loose way find a Text for their purpose Sir Robert Filmer upon the Dispute of the Form of Powers for these Texts are sometimes applied to the Form and sometimes to the Quality of Power takes Power only in the Singular Number Powers in the Plural is a damnable Sin and he will have all Governments but the Patriarchal to be Illegal and Abominable but this is so Extravagant that I think none of our Divines pretend to justify him in it and therefore Others on the contrary are of Opinion That Submit to all Powers infers That all Forms of Government are admitted to be good and do not allow that Power in the Singular is to be taken restrictive and so there is no Authority if not of God and the Authorities which are of God's Institution are ordered under God Sir Robert Filmer Dr Hicks c. will have the Legislative Power to be in the King alone And the First says all Legislative Powers are Arbitrary But where is the necessity for
Government before he obtained it And Ethelwolf a Monk a Deacon and a Bishop yet Elected King because they could not find a fitter Person for the Crown Edwin by his Miscarriage turn'd his Subjects Hearts and the Mercians and Northumbrians revolted and swore Fealty to his Younger Brother Edgar The Danish Kings were approved by the Lords during their short time of Reign here Edward the Confessor by general Consent was admitted King Harold chose himself and ravish'd a Crown and he fared accordingly for his Intrusion without the Consent of the People All that is intended by this short Account is only to shew That Succession was not always esteemed so Sacred and that Non-Resistance hath not been so stanch'd a Doctrine always as some now would pretend To come nearer to our present Case Let 's see the Opinion of Councels and Divines and perhaps we shall not need to be much out of Countenance for assisting the Prince of Orange in the Vindication of our Civil Rights and Religion and I believe the Church of England will stand by Us And Divines of great Reputation gave their Judgment for Subjects defending themselves against their Princes in Cases not near so strong as Ours Queen Elizabeth gave Countenance and Aid to the Revolt of the Low-Countries or Rebellion as it is call'd against the King of Spain and did it by Advice of Learned and Religious Divines as Dr. Bancroft c. And 't was for the sake of Religion Queen Elizabeth also assisted the Protestants in Scotland against the French Faction Cambden says she had a Consultation about that Matter and although it was urged That it was of Ill Example to patronise another Prince's Subjects in Commotion yet it seem'd to be an Impious thing to be wanting to them of the same Religion Bishop Bilson justifies the Defence which the French and Dutch made on supposition that it was for the Maintenance of the Laws If we look into the Affair of the King of Bohemia or Prince Palatine we find tho King James was backward i. e. fearful and had not Courage when the War broke out in Germany the Sense of the Archbishop in his Letter to Sir Robert Naunton Secretary of State when he advised the King to send Aid against the Emperor's Attempts of introducing Popery and Arbitrary Power he encourages the Prince Palatine as King of Bohemia by Election in the matter for propagation of the Gospel and to protect the Oppress'd and declares for his own part He did not dare but give Advice to follow where God leads apprehending the Work of God in This and That of Hungary and that he was satisfied in Conscience that the Bohemians had a Just Cause c. King Charles the First who appeared to be of as Scrupulous a Judgment in the Point as any By the Advice of Archbishop Laud not only assisted the King of Denmark who assisted others against the House of Austria to keep the King of Spain from overrunning the Western part of Christendom and sent Forces and Supplies for the Cause of Religion as his Reasons are emphatically express'd in the Declaration But also some time after published a Declaration of War against France chiefly on Account of that King's Protestant Subjects for Violation of Edicts and Breach of Articles and Contracts with them Whereas Contracts and Articles at other times with Us have by some been pronounced Prophane Absurdities c. The Revolt of Catalonia hath had its due Representation here as well as elsewhere The only Reason for their taking up Arms was in plain Terms to rid themselves of their Oppressors which the Nobility said was their Duty and to preserve their Ancient Form of Government from the Encroachments of the King of Spain who Oppress'd Rich and Poor by Arbitrary Taxations Religion was no Ingredient in their Rebellion Their Acclamations were Long live the new King D'Juan de Braganza and let them dye that govern ill His Accession to the Crown of Portugal was Congratulated and Countenanced by all the Kingdoms and States in Europe upon the Return of his Manifesto's only the Emperor whose Interest it was condemn'd it the Pope himself did not Resent it And they congratulated him upon the Merits as well as Success of the Attempt Where then is this Ambitious Prince Where is that Wicked and Ungodly People as they call Us We have done no more than what hath been done upon a Godly Consideration in like Cases nay not so much and our Case goes farther for these had only Edicts and Acts of Grace to maintain We defend our Religion Establish'd by the Laws of the Land This Family of the Nassaus have the hardest Measure under the Sun To be stiled Daring and Ambitious Spirits and to have Damnation thus Entailed upon them only for undertaking the Cause of the Oppress'd and Rescuing Abus'd Innocence from the Tyranny of Arbitrary and Barbarous Power Why then are the Gentlemen of the Church of England so resty upon this Revolution There is scarce any Reason to be imagined unless it be for those which they bring themselves such as the Convocation-Settlement Conquest c. If we should enquire into their Opinions and variety of Principles I doubt we shall find them so Un-uniform that we shall never ground any fixt Authority upon them in this Point or any other Tho it seems but an Ungrateful Task to expose their Contradictions and Contrarieties in all Ages But if they have differ'd amongst themselves in their Doctrines and Notions of Obedience or Resistance and the Settlement of Crowns I hope they will give Us leave in Equal Authorities to chuse which we will follow In truth he who will be at the pains to examine their Writings i. e. their General Councels themselves even from the first Four to the Last I 'm sorry to say it will I believe find but a Sandy Foundation to fix his Conscience or Judgment in Articles of Faith What have they been doing with the Trinity of late What have they not been doing to get the Government into the Church-Conusance by way of Success and Providence Tho I would have this Government setled to satisfy and please every one in their own way if it were possible for Men have different Ideas of things Yet I'am unwilling the Government should be trick'd and impos'd upon And that Men should advance their own Stations and Interest by publishing and mis-applying Notions which expose the Church and King both I must confess I think Dr. S Reasons for the Government have been the greatest against it with all Men of Reason and Honour and have hindred many from coming into it What stuff have we produced in a Convocation-Book the greatest Affront to a King and People that was ever offer'd with a salvo to the Church It is said Providence may actually and God will when he sees fit and can serve the Ends of his Providence set up Kings without any Regard to Legal Right or Human Laws and when they are thus set
Inviting of him over and the Dissenting Archbishop who thought fit to draw back afterwards was pleased to Countenance his coming to London and to assist with his Counsels He was willing to be in the Sanhedrim upon the Vacancy which by his favour was as far from being Passive as Harnessing and Equipping c. and several Noblemen with their Chaplains at their Elbows agreed upon the first Overtures against King James who only differ'd after in the Form of Administration and supplying the Power There were those who would have been contented and satisfied with a Regency which by the by was as much against the late Notions of Loyalty and 't was once taught that it was as Damnable to put any Restraint upon a King or Fetter his Prerogative or to limit the Measures of our Obedience as to cancel and throw them off If then there be no steady Obstruction in our way no Irrefragable Arguments but what are Overturn'd or Embarrass'd Why may we not throw off the Mask and declare our selves frankly and sincerely And talk as becomes Gentlemen or Free-born Creatures of Reason and tell the World That King James was no longer fit to be entrusted with the Government That he could give no Adequate Security for his Administration That it was no more in his Power than his Will to Rule according to Law That it could not be therefore safe to Re-admit him on any Terms because he would not be restrain'd by any Qualifications In short That King Jamess Character and Administration are inconsistent and incompatible with the Laws of this Realm and that therefore it was necessary absolutely necessary That the Government should be supplied and some Other Person admitted and placed in the Throne from and by whom might be assur'd he would Observe and Maintain the Constitution in Church and State And that for these Reasons we have admitted King William to the Crown allow'd him to take the Government as King of England and consented to transfer our Allegiance to him and have Recognized Acknowledged and Declared His Majesty he having accepted the Crown and Royal Dignity To be of Right and by the Laws of this Realm our Sovereign Lord and King of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging c. If our Principles are just the Consequence must be so too If the Premises be true the Conclusion is warrantable Montaign says Authority is not given in favour of the Magistrate but of the People And 't is the general Opinion That Government was made for them whether originally it were made by them or not All the respective Schemes of it are contrived to provide for the Welfare of the Community and the Laws and Constitutions of Power are the Measures of Submission to it Thus the Notions of Providence and Human Right may be understood and consist in Human Understanding Kings and Subjects may know their Duties Kings may preserve their Rights so long as they continue to be Rational Men and Man may preserve his Native Honour in the Character of his first Creation as he was made after God's Image also Thus I hope this Present King may at last rest in Peace being setled by such a Recognition and guarded by an Association in Parliament Though 't is hard to imagine how the Voluntary one came to be boggled at after such a Declared Right in Parliament before and Oaths of Allegiance taken to it And long may He live to Assert the Rights of the People To administer Justice and to retrieve the Honour of Great Britain by vindicating it from the Encroachments suffer'd not to say consented to in the late Reigns FINIS CORRIGENDA PAge 3. Line 16. read we are p. 6. l. 2. r. off p. 8. l. penult for affecting r. offering at p. 18. l. 17. r. Sir Henry Spelman p. 22. l. 8. r. Aristotle p. 31. l. 15. r. Government p. 35. l. 4. r. they p. 116. l. 8. r. to make War p. 118. l. 5. r. n' avoit p. 123. l. 6. r. ever governed p. 137. l. penult r. souffert p. 152. l. 27. r. Revenue p. 153. l. 29. r. Opiniatreté p. 160. l. 5. r. Noble id l. 24. r. and he p. 161. l. 5. r. dimm p. 180. l. 28. for i e r and even