French Pesant to his Prince There may be reasonable motives why a people should consent to slavery as if in danger of a potent enemy they could hire none on gentler conditions to undertake their defence or if reduced to extream want they had not wherewith to sustain themselves they may very probably like Esau passe away their birthright liberty We finde an example of each case in holy Scripture The Egyptians parted with all their mony and cattle and past away the right to their lands and became servants to Pharaoh Gen. 47. upon this condition that Joseph would afford them bread Jos 9. And the Gibeonites bought their lives of the children of Israel with the price of their liberty and thought they had a cheap purchase From the word trust used by his Majesty he gathers the King does admit his interest in the crown in part conditionate No ground for this collection for there may be a trust and that is so much the greater if free from condition But the thing is true de facto in some sense and his Majestie hath alwaies acknowledged He is bound to maintain the rights and liberty of the subject Yet we must not so understand it as if the right to His Kingdome were so conditionate that it were capable of forfeiture upon a not exact performance of covenant As for the word elegerit whether it be future or past it skills not much If he take notice of the conclusion deduced thence he may find as much difference between the Tenses as between Democracy Monarchy But the consuetudines which cannot refer to the future undeniably evinces it was meant of the time past and the oath in english is free from all ambiguity rendring consuetudines quas vulgus elegerit by rightfull customes which the commonalty of this your Kingdome have I may adde the different manner of the Kings answer as it is set down in their Remonstrance Where to other questions which respect the future the King answers in the future in this as referring to what is past He answers per verba de praesenti concedo permitto The King is bound to consent to new lawes if they be necessary as well as defend the old His Majestie never thought otherwise but He is not bound to an implicite faith to believe all necessary which is pretended to be so The word elegerit if it be in the preterperfecttense yet shewes that the peoples election had been the ground of ancient lawes and customes and why the peoples election in Parliament should not be now of as great moment as ever J cannot discover The election there spoken of is the election of the diffusive not of any representative body and that with the tacite consent of the Prince and so of much other authority and for the representative their ancient right is not denyed no law shall be abrogated none enacted without their assent But there is a mean between doing nothing and all The result of all is our Kings cannot be said to have so unconditionate and high a propriety in all the subjects lives liberties and possessions or in any thing else to the crown appertaining as subjects have in the Kings dignity The King pretends not to have any unconditionate proprietie in the subjects lives liberties and possessions he would onely be allowd it in his own And what he can mean by subjects having an unconditionate and high propriety in the Kings dignity surpasses my understanding It may seem to speak this wicked doctrine that subjects may dispose of the Soveraignty as they please for this right an absolute propriety gives If the King had such high right as subjects it were not lawfull or naturall for him to expose his life and fortune for his country How is it lawfull for subjects then to doe so The people have as great nay greater obligation of exposing their lives for the King This appeares by the Protestation as also by the ancient oath of fealty at the Coronation Je deviene vostre Liege de vie de biens c. Sir Hen Spelman gives us a form of sacramentum ligiantiae still in use Tu I. S. jurabis quòd ab ista die in antea eris sidelis legalis leaux domino nostro Regi suis haeredibus fidelitatem legalitatem Leaultie ei portabis de vita de membro de terreno honore quòd tu eorum malum aut damnum nec noveris nec audiveris quod non defendes i.e. prohibebis pro posse tuo ita Deus te adjuvet I cannot imagine any possible colour for such an inference I would sooner make a rope of sand hang together may not a tyrant expose his life in defence of his slave without breach of any law He doth but defend his owne goods â—xod 21.1 for the Scripture calls his slave his money His owne instance confutes him bonus pastor ponit vitam pro ovibus suis for it is evident this good pastor was our Saviour absolute Lord of his flock Parliaments have the same efficient cause as Monarchyes if not higher What higher then the law of God and of the whole land yes for in truth the whole Kingdome is not so properly the author as the essence itselfe of Parliaments just as a Proctour is the essence of him for whom he appeares or an Ambassador is essentially the King But suppose it true this declares the materiall cause proves no greater dignity in the efficient But the reason is to come by the former rule he had no good fortune with that before 't is magis tale because we see ipsum quid quod efficit tale what magis tale in essences or can a thing be magis tale then it selfe This I conceave is beyond the sense of the house However this confession and the rule quod efficit tale est magis tale subjects the Parliament to the people as well as the same rule would doe the King and proves as well that the Parliament is vniversis minus though it be singulis majus Parliaments have also the same finall cause as Monarchyes if not greater what greater then salus populi nay then to promote the Subject to all kind of Politicall happines which he told us was the end and duty of a King His reason is publique safety and liberty could not be so effectually provided for by Monarchs till Parliaments were constituted This proves not the end higher but shewes they are good helpes in government which is readily granted Two things especially are aimed at in Parliaments not to be attained to by other meanes Not so easily attained indeed but certainly many Kingdomes have enjoyed a most high degree of civill happines under arbitrary Monarchs who knew no Parliaments Such as have abundantly satisfied the inter est of the people in all weighty affaires advised with the ablest counsellors Two other ends might have been named as essentiall as those which are to supply his Majesties
swallow up the Subjects right or the Subjects right the Kings just prerogative No dissolution ought to be of rule convayed by the consent of societyes into such and such hands but by the same power by which it had it's constitution This J grant being rightly understood but because the sense may be easily mistaken J shall enlarge my selfe upon it It is most agreeable to reason that the same power should by equall right abrogate as it did at first constitute For it is not possible any body should lay a necessary obligation upon it selfe to doe thus when it had liberty to doe otherwise except in relation to some other person to whom I may part with that right I had without possibility of recalling it And this either by actuall donation so when I have given away my money J cannot challenge it as due on my repentance or by promise which is an earnest of my performance In these cases J cannot use my liberty because it would be to the injury of another according to that rule grounded on great equity Nemo potest mutare consilium suum in alterius injuriam L nemo D. de reg jur In a popular state there is but one simple power and therefore the people upon consent may establish an Aristocracy or Monarchy when they please But in the other two where the authority is placed in the hands of a few or of one there are two parties in the contract and therefore even the whole people have not any power of dissolving this government unlesse this one or those few will voluntarily resigne up their power into those hands from which they received it and that such resignation be not to the injury of a third party It were strange if the people in subjecting it selfe to command should aime at any thing but it's own good in the first and last place No question rule and subjection divided paternall powers finding it necessary to yeeld to one Regall and instead of many to submit to one common father did spring from reason directing man-kind to its greatest convenience Therefore the people ayming chiefly at their own good yet perceiving this was not to be attained except they had a common protector to administer justice equally amongst them they found it necessary in a higher degree to provide for his good in recompense of their security and out of their particular estates to grant to him honourable demaines to whose care and justice they owed the peaceable possession of all So the good of either is mutually involved and that the people may be happy they must first provide for the happinesse of their ruler What followes I shall think unworthy any answer He breaks out into a most scandalous and false invective against the late government That the subject groaned under some grievances cannot be denied and we owe to the goodnesse of his Majestie that we are free even from the feare of them for the future J speak sincerely what I think though the wit of malice should set before us the most exact table of all our sufferings let it not impose upon us what we never felt and compare us to any other nation of the Christian world we in our worst times were least unhappy Because we have no reason to be in love with any evils I shall not endeavour to excuse them by comparison with our present miseries Though neither be desirable yet we are too sensible which we have justest reason to complain of I hope under this word protect the King intends not onely to shield us from all kinde of evill but to promote us also to all kinde of Politicall happinesse according to his utmost de voyre I never before did apprehend in the word Protect this large notion we may expect all happinesse from His goodnesse we cannot challenge it from His duty How should we conceave that the Prince is obliged by oath to take care for his people in such a degree as the most affectionate mother never yet took for her dearest children If it were so then all his Majesties Royall ancestors who did not provide for their people in such a high degree of happinesse as he by the advise of this present Parliament hath done were perjured as having all taken the oath to Protect Every particular subject hath a just title and may challenge an interest in whatsoever is meant by the word Protection Is the King therefore bound to promote every particular person to all kinds of politicall happinesse to advance all to honours offices power command Though all single persons ought to look upon the late Bills passed by the King as matters of Grace with all thankfulnesse and humility yet the King himselfe looking upon the whole state ought to acknowledge that he cannot merit of it c. all hath proceeded but from his meere duty It was believed heretofore the greatest happinesse of a Prince that he was able his greatest glory to be willing to oblige his people But now he is made not capable of doing any courtesie When he hath done all that he can he hath discharged the duty of a trusty servant I am confident never any age was guilty of the like irreverence and disrespect to Princes as is shewne in this book If all single persons ought to look upon the late bills passed by the King as matters of Grace then they truly are so for no obligation can lay upon a man to believe things otherwise then they are This ground destroyes the power of beneficence in a Prince and the duty of gratitude in Subjects We should think it very hard if we who are but subjects should be dealt with by the same rule All owe a duty to their King to their country yet upon extraordinary services we beleive we deserve well of both The example of the House of Commons will better instruct him who have severall times presented their thanks and humble acknowledgment of his Majesties gracious favours and have likewise received thanks from most Counties in the Kingdome for procuring those bills so beneficiall to the subject and yet surely the trust reposed in them by those that chose them and the end for which they met did no lesse oblige them in point of duty to doe whatsoever might conduce to the generall good of the Kingdome The King ought not to account that a profit or strength to him which is a losse and wasting to the people nor ought he to think that perisht to him which is gained to the people By the same argument the people may share all that he hath and he is bound to believe he has lost nothing If King and people have severall rights what law is there which binds the King suo jure cedere and enables the people to preserve their rights nay to challenge his And if they have not but the interests of King and people be either altogether one and the same or so inseparably united as they cannot be severed then it
in the fidelity of others If it could have been averred as it could not for the contrary was true that this would have bred disturbance and have been the occasion of greater danger Truly then he shall get the better if he can impose upon our sense and make the Kingdom beleeve contrary to what they see and suffer under What hath been the cause of these unhappy distractions but as the taking the Kings Towne from him by force and the illegall alteration of the Militia upon pretence of apparent danger Though for a time they were afraid where no feare was quis illis sic timere permisit yet after they have had so long a time to recover their understandings and to consider with themselves if the danger were apparent it might in so many months be made evident and they might know whence to expect the blow I dare now appeale to the weakest part of men their distrusts and aske them if they can now believe there was any just ground for jealousies It is not improbable since they have raised a house without a foundation it may fall upon the heads of the master builders Where the people by publique authority will seek any inconvenience to themselves and the King is not so much interessed in it as themselves 't is more inconvenience and injustice to deny then to grant it More injustice to deny then grant therefore it seemes that injustice too Into what streights must a King be brought by the mindes of the people If they seek any inconvenience injustice to deny it O unheard of Maxims out of these new Politiques that a King should be bound by Law to destroy his people and kill them out of duty that he doth not preserve their rights except he doe them wrong This affabile odium hath often had but never deserved thanks Can a man imagine those people of whom Juvenall speaks Evertêre domos totas optantibus ipsis Dii faciles if they had understood their own prayers would have accused the Gods for denying them Charior est Regipopulus quà m sibi How great are His deserts towards His People that will not suffer them to be miserable though they intreat him though they provoke him to it and can content himselfe with the conscience of merit whilst his honour suffers under the envy of wrong doing Indeed this is the end of all government for the people finding they were not fit to govern themselves resolved to be ruled by those that were wiser and so committed their safety to the trust of others Now this were to reduce themselves to that first state which their sufferings made them weary of to place a Governour over them and to governe that Governour What blame is it then in Princes when they will pretend reluctance of conscience and reason No man justifies pretended conscience no man can condemne reall But what grounds can malice have to cast this aspersion of pretence of conscience and reason If we looke either on that unhappy misunderstanding of the people who would not be undeceaved by pretences his actions must appeare unto them as cleare as the day or on his owne necessities his owne extreame wants it cannot be For certainly he that hath granted so much in this Parliament and that in a short time as put all his Royall Ancestors Acts of grace together they fall much short of his would not have denyed any thing which was reasonable not any thing since his wants required supplyes from them but what should put him into farre worse condition then that of Poverty After a long and generall discourse of the originall of government the various formes and severall distempers whil'st policy was yet imperfect he returnes to the present matter The vertue of Representation hath been denyed to the Commons and a severance has been made betwixt the parties chosen and the parties choosing and so that great priviledge of all priviledges that unmoveable Basis of all honour and power whereby the House of Commons claimes the entire right of all the Gentry and commonalty of England has been attempted to be shaken and disturbed The sense of it is a trust is committed to them and they are to be guided according to conscience in the performance of it Let it be so but is not this cleerly the Kings case who is entrusted certainly as highly as they So that they will find the ready way to endanger their own rights is to entrench upon the Kings Yet there may be a mistake in the imputation of severance and denyall of representation to the Commons For put the case if a few men of a County present a Petition to the House against established lawes and the setled Discipline of the Church this is received and thanks returned if after another Petition modestly and discreetly expressing their desires and withall due respects to the House as to instance in that most excellent Petition of Kent be presented attested by men much more eminent then the former whether we respect number Gentry meanes or reputation and this in favour of present government which they have found happy by long experience and therefore have no reason to be so desirous of a change of which they are not able to judge so well without tryall this by no meanes is to be called a severance or denyall of representation though I confesse the Kingdome apt to mistake may easily be deceived and learn to miscall it because the Gentlemen were imprisoned who presented it Most of our late distempers and obstructions in Parliaments have proceeded from this that the people upon causelesse defamation and unproved accusations have been so prone to withdraw themselves from their representatives and yet there can be nothing under Heaven next to renouncing God which can be more perfidious and more pernitious in the people then this Here we may see the strength of passion above reason Certainly we never took the oath of Supremacy nor of Allegiance unto them Hence it will evidently follow that Treason against a Burgesse is higher then that against the King This he grants as unquestionable that the legislative power of this Kingdome is partly in the King and partly in the Kingdome so that neither the King can make a generall binding Ordinance or Law without the Parliament or the Parliament without the King This one truth if constantly stood to would have prevented our miseryes and if yet embraced might restore the Kingdome to happinesse But alas it is soon recalled as bolding only in ordinary cases but if the safety of the people be concerned if it may prove dangerous or inconvenient to them then an extraordinary course may justly be taken This is it which hath so miserably rent this Kingdome and caused these sad divisions First the people are made beleeve they are in danger and then a prevention of those dangers is promised This must needs be very gratefull to them so out of that naturall love they bear to themselves they favour that side