Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	answer_n	great_a	letter_n	916	5	6.8005	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25599	The Answer to the letter written to a member of Parliament upon the occasion of some votes of the House of Commons against their late speaker and others		1695 (1695)	Wing A3417; ESTC R110	23,110	60

THE ANSWER TO THE LETTER Written to a Member of Parliament Upon the Occasion of some VOTES OF THE HOUSE of COMMONS against their late Speaker and Others LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCV THE ANSWER c. SIR WHen you did me the Honour to write me a Letter upon the occasion of some Votes passed in our House against the late Speaker and others I had then leave given me to retire into the Country for my Health It was the Reason I could return you Thanks no sooner for the Favour you put upon me to read your Thoughts upon the Affair handled by the Commons against such Members as had taken Money for expediting of Business I do Sir naturally run into all the Measures of good and unbiassed Men for the Honour Safety and Interest of my Country which never more wanted good Example and Support than at this Day I must likewise tell you That I ever loved Freedom and Ingenuity and will not stick to give your Letter such a suitable Return as may be consistent with your own and its Character I confess when I read your two first Periods I had some Difficulties to guess who might be the Author but after I had proceeded mid-way in your historical and political Reflexions it was no great trouble to find you out So equal a Pace you tread in your admired way of writing that it made me call to mind a frugal Gentleman once my Neighbour in the Country who had the Art to fit a Servant of his own to so many Uses that upon occasion you found the same Man a Gardener Cook Coach-man and Barber by turns I must say That in your learned Works now abroad in the World you use the same Repetitions in your Observators Vindications Inquiries Answers to Declarations Great Bastards Protectors to little ones and in your Letters to your Friends For had not the Letter you did me the Honour to write me exceeded the Bonds of your Ordinary Observators I had taken it for granted you had began a fresh to your Politicks I find you sustain sudden and ill disgested Thoughts with so many Greek Latin and French Transcripts abundance whereof according to your Custom are but upon Hear-say and stoln from some Gentlemens Conversation where you are said to intrude with a great deal of Impudence and ill Breeding You begin then Sir your first Flight with the amends the Parliament has made in the research of the Blood-suckers of the Nation for the Loss of an incomparable Queen but that I may endeavor the better Answer you will give me leave to inform you a little in our Constitution to which by Birth and Knowledge you may be a Stranger The House of Commons in England contains the Representatives of the People originally called to that Honour by the King's Rescript they meet where it pleaseth his Majesty to appoint them and are generally called either to give Money for the pressing Affairs of the Kingdom in War and Peace or to give their Consent to the Establishment of wholesom Laws or to humbly represent the Necessities of the People and their Grievances that thereby redress may be had orderly and according to Law You know the House of Commons is no Judicatory nor cannot do so much as can any ordinary Justice of Peace Administer an Oath The House of Lords Spiritual and Temporal make up the other two Estates and are a Court of Judicatory when assembled together by the King's Order they can determine finally in Legal Differences between Man and Man And if Bribery should unhappily get footing in that House the usual Punishment thereof ought naturally to follow But at the same time what is unhandsomly taken without the knowledge of a Peer by any of his Family be it Wife Son Daughter or Servant it cannot be charged upon himself as a Fault if he have no accession to the Thing I should be heartily glad and I think it would contribute both for the Honour and God of the Nation That there might be an established and explained Law against all taking of Money in both Houses to compass which I think it would be fit to go to the most necessary ways to reform a House of Commons There be two radical Evils that ought to be remedied the one is The manner of Elections where besides all the usual Disorders and Debauche to excess there Reigns a popular Partiality for the Richest or Profusest to run away with the Election upon any occasion and Vertue which is generally modest to be neglected But the greater is Many Men of uneasy Circumstances do get into being Parliament-men and keep there as in a Sanctuary to secure their Estates and Persons from just Debts From which last Source intolerable in a well-governed Nation there is given a natural and necessary handle to take and retain what in Conscience ought to be paid innumerable Families suffering by an abused Constitution so much famed as being the Nations great Barricade against the Enemies of Liberty and Property the darling of Mankind and without which they must be uneasie and unhappy What our House has done in confining or expelling two of its Members to vindicate the Honour of its illustrious Body does not want Censure and Obloquy from the most sensible part of the Nation and Strangers who know not to this day upon what Law the displeasure was founded You seem satisfied to rally the Misfortune of two Gentlemen and while you endavor to descend your Malice to Posterity they have still a sufficient stock of Vertue to defend them It 's true you say it will look but with an ill Grace beyond Sea to hear of one of the English Parliaments sent to the Tower for Bribery so great a Name for the most incorrupted Body of Men in all Christendom has the House of Commons of England ver born Believe me Sir as you do not seem Learned at home so give me leave to conclude you Ignorant of the abroad World Strangers understand so little of our Constitution that hardly any Foreigner has writ tolerable of the Forms or Power of our House and to believe us an incorrupted Body what greater Arguments can be taken against that than from your own Mouth Who often have been heard to aver That in former Reigns many Members of the House of Commons were Pensioners to King Charles the Second and the French King and that certain Sums of Money so appointed had been put at the Roots of Trees in St. James's Park and other hidden Corners where afterwards the Parliament-men went or sent to fetch them But the Misfortune was there was no search made into the Matter then Sir I cannot enough admire why you are so hard upon Mr. G. It may be he has not paid you the Deference and Respect you expected of him or has he incurred your Displeasure as did unhappily once the Master of a Tavern for neglecting to give you the first and lowest Bow or according to the manner of some other