Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A69635
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The speeches of the Lord Digby in the High Court of Parliament, concerning grievances, and the trienniall Parliament.; Speeches. Selections.
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Bristol, John Digby, Earl of, 1580-1654.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing B4774; ESTC R2652
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8,164
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28
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affections had not the later of these bin still kept alive by our Kings owne personall vertues which will ever preserve him in spight of ill Counsellors a sacred object both of our admiration and loves Mr. Speaker It hath bin often said in this House and I think can never be too often repeated That the Kings of England can doe no wrong but though they could Mr. Speaker yet Princes have no part in the ill of those actions which their Judges assure them to be Just their Counsellors that they are Prudent and their Divines that they are Conscientious This Consideration Mr. Speaker leadeth me to that which is more necessary farre at this season then any farther laying open of our miseries that is the way to the remedy by seeking to remove from our Soveraigne such unjust Judges such pernitious Counsellours and such disconscient Divines as have of late yeares by their wicked practises provoked aspersions upon the government of the gratiousest and best of Kings Mr. Speaker let me not be misunderstood I levell at no man with a forelayd designe let the faults and those well proved lead us to the men It is the only true Parliamentary method and the only fit one to incline our Soveraigne For it can no more consist with a gracious and righteous Prince to expose his servants upon irregular prejudices then with a wise Prince to withhold Malefactors how great soever from the Course of orderly Justice Let me acquaint you Mr. Speaker with an Aphorisme in Hippocrates no lesse Authentick I think in the Body politike then in the naturall This it is Mr. Speaker Bodyes to be throughly and effectually purged must have their humours first made fluid and moveaable The Humours that I understand to have caused all the desperate maladies of this Nation are the ill Ministers To purge them away cleerly they must be first loosened unsetled and extenuated which can no way be effected with a gracious Master but by truly representing them unworthy of his protection And this leadeth me to my motion which is that a select Comittee may be appointed to draw out of all that hath bin here represented such a Remonstrance as may be a faithfull and lively representation unto his Majestie of the deplorable estate of this his Kingdome and such as may happily point out unto his cleere and excellent judgement the pernitious Authors of it And that this Remonstrance being drawn we may with all speed repayre to the Lords and desire them to joyn with us in it And this is my humble motion THE LORD DIGBYES SPEECH IN THE HOVSE OF Commons to the Bill for trienniall PARLIAMENTS Jan. 19. 1640. Mr. Speaker I Rise not now with an intent to speake to the frame and structure of this Bill nor much by way of answer to objections that may be made I hope there will bee no occasion of that but that we shall concurre all unanimously in what concerneth all so universally Only Sir by way of preparation to the end that we may not be discouraged in this great worke by difficulties that may appeare in the way of it I shall deliver unto you my apprehensions in generall of the vast importance and necessity that wee should goe thorow with it The Result of my sence is in short this That unlesse for the frequent convening of Parliaments there be some such Course setled as may not be eluded neither the people can be prosperous and secure nor the King himselfe solidly happy I take this to be the Vnum necessarium Let us procure this and all our other desires will effect themselves if this Bill miscarry I shall have left me no publique hopes and once past I shall bee freed of all publique feares The Essentialnes Sir of frequent Parliaments to the happinesse of this Kingdome might be inferr'd unto you by the reason of contraries from the wofull experience which former times have had of the mischievous effects of any long intermission of them But Mr. Speaker why should we clime higher then the levell wee are on or thinke further then our owne Horizon or have recourse for examples in this businesse to any other promptuary then our owne memories nay then the experience almost of the youngest heere The reflection backward on the distractions of former times upon intermission of Parliament and the consideration forward of the mischiefes likely still to grow from the same cause if not removed doubtlesly gave first life and being to those two dormant Statutes of Edward the 3d for the yearly holding of Parliament And shall not the fresh and bleeding experience in the present age of miseries from the same spring not to be paralleld in any other obtaine a wakening resurrection for them The Intestine distempers Sir of former ages upon the want of Parliaments may appeare to have had some other cooperative causes as somtimes unsuccessefull Warres abroad somtimes the absence of the Prince somtimes Competitions of Titles to the Crown somtimes perhaps the vices of the King himselfe But let us but consider the posture the aspect of this state both toward it selfe and the rest of the world the person of our Soveraigne and the nature of our sufferings since the third of his Reigne And there can be no cause colourably inventable wherunto to attribute them but the intermission or which is worse the undue frustration of Parliament by the unlucky use if not abuse of Prerogative in the dissolving them Take into your view Gentlemen a State in a state of the greatest quiet and security that can be fancyed not only injoying the calmest peace it selfe but to improve and secure its happy condition all the rest of the world at the same time in Tempest in Combustions in uncomposable Warres Take into your view Sir a King Soveraigne to three Kingdomes by a Concentring of all the Royall lynes in his Person as undisputably as any Mathematicall ones in Euclide A King firme and knowing in his Religion eminent in vertue A King that had in his own time given all the Rights and Liberties of his Subjects a more cleare and ample confirmation freely and gratiously then any of his Predecessors when the people had them at advantage extortedly I mean in the Petition of Right This is one Mappe of England Mr Speaker A man Sir that should present unto you now a Kingdome groaning under that supreme Law which Salus populi periclitata would enact The liberty the property of the Subject fundamentally subverted ravisht away by the violence of a pretended necessity a triple Crown shaking with distempers men of the best Conscience ready to fly into the wildernesse for Religion Would not one sweare that this were the Antipodes to the other and yet let me tell you Mr. Speaker this is a Mappe of England too and both at the same time true As it cannot be denyed Mr. Speaker that since the Conquest there hath not bin in this Kingdome a fuller concurrence of all circumstances in the former
Caracter to have made a Kingdome happy then for these 12 yeares last past so it is most certaine that there hath not bin in all that deduction of ages such a Conspiracie if one may so say of all the Elements of mischiefe in the second Caracter to bring a flourishing Kingdome if it were possible to swift ruine and desolation I will be bold to say Mr. Speaker and I thanke God we have so good a King under whom we may speak boldly of the abuse of his power by ill Ministers without reflexion upon his person That an Accumulation of all the publique Grievances since Magna Carta one upon another unto that houre in which the Petition of Right past into an Act of Parliament would not amount to so oppressive I am sure not to so destructive a height and magnitude to the rights and property of the Subject as one branch of our beslaving since the Petition of Right The branch I meane is the judgement concerning Ship-money This being a true representation of England in both aspects Let him Mr. Speaker that for the unmatcht oppression and enthralling of free Subjects in a time of the best Kings raigne and in memory of the best Laws enacting in favour of Subjects liberty can find a truer Cause then the ruptures and intermission of Parliaments Let him and him alone be against the setling of this inevitable way for the frequent holding of them 'T is true Sir wicked Ministers have bin the proximate causes of our miseries but the want of Parliaments the primary the efficient Cause Ill Ministers have made ill times but that Sir hath made ill Ministers I have read among the Laws of the Athenians a forme of recourse in their Oaths and vows of greatest and most publique concernment to a three-fold Deity Supplicum Exauditori Purgatori Malorum depulsori I doubt not but we here assembled for the Common-wealth in this Parliament shall meet with all these Attributes in our Soveraigne I make no question but he will gratiously heare our Supplications Purge away our Grievances and expell Malefactors that is remove ill Ministers and put good in their places No lesse can be expected from his wisdome and goodnesse But let me tell you Mr. Speaker if we partake not of one Attribute more in him if we addresse not our selves unto that I meane Bonorum Conservatori we can have no solid no durable Comfort in all the rest Let his Majesty heare our Complaint never so Compassionatly Let him purge away our Grievances never so efficaciously Let him punish and dispell ill Ministers never so exemplarily Let him make choyce of good ones never so exactly If there be not a way settled to preserve and keep them good the mischiefes and they will all grow againe like Sampsons Locks and pull down the House upon our heads Beleeve it Mr. Speaker they will It hath bin a Maxime among the wisest Legislators that whosoever meanes to settle good Laws must proceed in them with a sinister opinion of all Mankind and suppose that whosoever is not wicked it is for want only of the opportunity It is that opportunity of being ill Mr. Speaker that we must take away if ever we meane to be happy which can never be done but by the frequencie of Parliaments No State can wisely be confident of any publique Ministers continuing good longer then the Rod is over him Let me appeale to all those that were present in this House at the agitation of the Petition of Right And let them tell themselves truly of whose promotion to the management of affaires doe they think the generality would at that time have had better hopes then of Mr. Noy and Sir Thomas Wentworth both having bin at that time and in that businesse as I have heard most keen and active Patriots and the later of them to the eternall aggravation of his Infamous treachery to the Common-wealth be it spoken the first mover and insiister to have this clause added to the Petition of Right that for the comfort and safety of his Subjects his Majestie would be pleased to declare his will and pleasure that all his Ministers should serve him according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realme And yet Mr. Speaker to whom now can all the inundations upon our liberties under pretence of Law and the late shipwrack at once of all our propertie be attributed more then to Noy and those and all other mischiefes whereby this Monarchy hath bin brought almost to the brinke of destruction so much to any as to that Grand Apostate to the Common-wealth the now Lievtenant of Ireland The first I hope God hath forgiven in the other world and the later must not hope to be pardoned it in this till he be dispatcht to the other Let every man but consider those men as once they were The excellent Law for the security of the Subject enacted immediatly before their coming to imployment in the contriving wherof themselves were principall Actors The goodnesse and vertue of the King they served and yet the high and publique oppressions that in his time they have wrought And surely there is no man but will conclude with me that as the deficience of Parliament hath bin the Causa Causarum of all the mischiefes and distempers of the present times so the frequencie of them is the sole Catholique Antidote that can preserve and secure the future from the like Mr. Speaker let me yet draw my Discourse a little nearer to his Majesty himselfe and tell you that the frequencie of Parliament is most essentially necessary to the power the security the glory of the King There are two wayes Mr. Speaker of powerfull Rule either by Feare or Love but one of happy and safe Rule that is by Love that firmissimum Imperium quo obedientes gaudent To which Camillus advised the Romans Let a Prince consider what it is that moves a people principally to affection and dearnesse towards their Soveraigne He shall see that there needs no other Artifice in it then to let them injoy unmolestedly what belongs unto them of right If that have bin invaded and violated in any kind whereby affections are alienated the next consideration for a wise Prince that would be happy is how to regaine them to which three things are equally necessary Renistating them in their former liberty Revenging them of the Authors of those violations And secureing them from Apprehensions of the like againe The first God be thanked we are in a good way of The second in warme pursuit of But the third as essentiall as all the rest till we be certaine of trienniall Parliament at the least I professe I can have but cold hopes of I beseech you then Gentlemen since that security for the future is so necessary to that blessed union of affections and this Bill so necessary to that security Let us not be so wanting to our selves let us not be so wanting to our Soveraigne as to forbeare to offer unto him this powerfull this everlasting Philter to Charme unto him the hearts of his people whose vertue can never evaporate There is no man Mr. Speaker so secure of anothers friendship but will thinke frequent intercourse and accesse very requisite to the support to the Confirmation of it Especially if ill offices have bin done between them if the raysing of jealousies hath bin attempted There is no Friend but would be impatient to be debarred from giving his Friend succour and reliefe in his necessities Mr. Speaker permit me the comparison of great things with little what friendship what union can there be so comfortable so happy as between a gracious Soveraigne and his people and what greater misfortune can there be to both then for them to be kept from intercourse from the meanes of clearing misunderstandings from interchange of mutuall benefits The people of England Sir cannot open their Eares their Hearts their Mouthes nor their Purses to his Majestie but in Parliament We can neither heare him nor complain nor acknowledge nor give but there This Bill Sir is the sole Key that can open the way to a frequencie of those reciprocall endeerments which must make and perpetuate the happinesse of the King and Kingdome Let no man object any derogation from the Kings Prerogative by it We doe but present the Bill 't is to be made a Law by him his honour his power will be as conspicuous in commanding at once that Parliament shall assemble every third yeare as in commanding a Parliament to be called this or that yeare there is more of Majestie in ordaining primary and universall Causes then in the actuating particularly of subordinate effects I doubt not but that glorious King Edward the third when he made those Laws for the yearly Calling of Parliament did it with a right sence of his dignity and honour The truth is Sir the Kings of England are never in their glory in their splendor in their Majestique Soveraignty but in Parliaments Where is the power of imposing Taxes Where is the power of restoring from incapacites Where is the legislative Authority Marry in the King Mr. Speaker But how in the King circled in fortified and evirtuated by his Parliament The King out of Parliament hath a limitted a circumscribed Jurisdiction But wayted on by his Parliament no Monarch of the East is so absolute in dispelling Grievances Mr. Speaker in chasing ill Ministers we doe but dissipate Clouds that may gather againe but in voting this Bill we shall contribute as much as in us lyes to the perpetuating our Sun our Soveraigne in his vesticall in his noon day lustre FINIS