Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	charter_n	common_a	great_a	29	3	2.0812	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80370	Considerations upon the Act of Parliament, for reversing the judgment in a quo warranto against the city of London, and for restoring the city of London to its ancient rights and privileges		1690 (1690)	Wing C5922; ESTC R232047	18,419	15

by this Clause restored but these Men do not consider that it was the design of this Act to restore the Ancient Privileges and Immunities of the City not to abridge any thing of that undoubted Right of Visitation which the King had by Act of Parliament and by the grant of King Edward VI. while the Charter stood neither are they Charter Officers of whom this whole Paragraph is meant but Officers and Servants at pleasure that may be turned out as well without a reason as with one by the Power that placed them there only if the King be the Supreme Visitor as the Sun is not more bright than it is clear that he is then the Officers of his placing cannot be ejected by a Subordinate Power much less can they replace those whom he hath ejected which would render his Power and Right of Visitation contemptible and vain besides that tho the King be the Judge of the Causes of Visitation otherwise he shall not visit but when others please yet the Reasons are notorious for which he did it one had justify'd the Murther of his Father and all of them as well Officers as Governors generally speaking were Dissenters from the Church of England Enemies to Monarchy Persons disaffected both to Church and State and I hope these were sufficient grounds for a King not to suffer such to be fed and maintained in his own House A Papist whether Governor or Officer I suppose it will be granted may be lawfully ejected out of that Trust and Station and why should then a Dissenter or a Favourer and Abetter of that Interest be permitted when they are both Enemies to the establish'd Church and the Dissenter is likewise an Enemy to the Monarchy of England to which the Papist to give the Devil his due is a Friend as well as to the Episcopal Form of Government in the Church though he loads and clogs both with such dangerous Innovations that we cannot accept of those blessings upon his terms Again p. 109. of the said Act it is provided that all Leases and Grants of any Lands c. made by or upon pretence of any Grant or Commission by their Late Majesties being made for just and valuable considerations and whereupon the old accustomed yearly rent or more hath been reserved payable into the Chamber or Bridg-house or any of the Hospitals of the said City c. shall be as good and valid as if the same had been made by the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the said City under their Common Seal c. by which it may seem to be implyed that the Hospitals are so closely and inseparably united to the City and its Charter that the said Charter being illegally seized into the Kings Hands as this Act declares all Leases made and other Acts done by the Commission under the Broad-Seal were Illegal and consequently the tenant had no sufficient security by any such Grant or Lease To which I answer that this was really and is still the Opinion of a great many that this was the case and therefore since Indemnities can never be too full or ample the scruples of such Men and the inconveniences in the Administration of the Hospital that might arise from them were provided for ex abundanti by this Clause where there was no absolute necessity Secondly though as to the Commission there was no question but that the Acts done by it so far as concerned the Hospitals in which the King had Right of visiting under the Broad-Seal being otherwise materially Legal in themselves were likewise so as to the Authority from whence they sprung yet the case was altered upon the Dissolution of the Commission by the ejected Aldermen and Governors being restored without the restitution of the City Charter so that there was now no Legal Authority at all and therefore this Provisoe was necessary with reference to those Leases or Grants which had been made during that time FINIS

from the avoidance of the Charter to the restitution of it Secondly That private Persons who had bought Offices within the Mayor or Sheriffs or in any wise in the Cities gift and who were competently qualify'd for their employments and capable of them had the Charter stood might not be turned out of them to the great loss if not ruin of themselves and Families only for want of a Just and Legal Title a defect which the Parliament by their Authority was very well able to supply as accordingly it hath done and as in strict equity it was obliged to do but of this a little more shall be said in its proper place Now as to the First of these reasons of the said Provisoes it is manifest the Aldermen are not included in it nor in the second neither for it could be no disadvantage to the City in general nor to themselves in particular for them to resign their Seats in the Court of Aldermen and put themselves upon a new Choice in their respective Wards any more than it was in the Case of Common Council-men of whom a new Choice was expresly enjoined nay the Majority have agreed that it was for the City's Interest to chuse a new Common Council because they have chosen other Members for reasons that do as nearly concern some of the present pretended Court of Aldermen as they did some of the late Common Council It could be no disadvantage to themselves to be dismist from their Station of Aldermen of the City any more than for others to be dismist from the Common Council for neither the one nor the other gets any thing by the Bargain only the trouble of an Alderman is so much the greater as Courts of Aldermen are more frequent than Common Councils and there is a charge of congruity though not of absolute necessity attending it they being obliged for the Honor of the City to live in some greater port and equipage than they did before and for these two reasons because they could not well spare so much time from their private Affairs and because of a Charge accompanying that Station which cannot without dishonor be avoided there are multitudes that have chosen from time to time rather to pay a considerable Fine to the Chamber of London than undergo the unprofitable fatigue and trouble of that dignity b●sides the expence and charge that usually goes along with it Sixthly Which is the sixth Corollary deducible from the premises He that is no Alderman within the meaning of this Act by which all those Acts and Proceedings during the avoidance of the Charter are expresly declared and adjudged to be null and void which are not by some especial Provisoe particularly confirmed I say such a Person let him be who he will can be no Lord Mayor because the Lord Mayor according to the Ancient Customs and Usages of the City is to be chosen out of the Court of Aldermen and all those Ancient Usages and Customs are by this Act of Parliament restored and confirmed Seventhly Sir T. P. who laid down his Gown while the City Charter was still standing and took it up again without any Legal Warrant after the date of the Judgment and before that of this Act of Parliament is no Legal Alderman and by consequence he cannot make a Legal Lord Mayor Eighthly Those Gentlemen who have continued and sat as Aldermen during all this interval of the avoidance of the Charter and were so by a due and lawful Election and Designation thereto before the Judgment given have still a right to continue Sit and Act in that capacity now the said Charter is restored and the said Judgment reversed because the declared End and Scope of the Act of Parliament made upon this occasion was to settle and confirm the Ancient Constitution as it stood when the Charter was seized into the King's Hands of which Constitution they themselves were an unquestionable Part and if the Aldermen since the Judgment do pretend a Right yet they cannot but confess at the same mite that those that were made so before it have if not a greater for an absolute Right will admit of no comparisons yet a much more plain and manifest Right than they Ninthly Those of the Court of Aldermen that lay'd down their Gowns and desisted from any further attendance upon that Court at any time between the Judgment given and the Restitution of the Charter by the Act of Parliament for reversing of it being Legal Aldermen while the Charter was standing and at the time of its avoidance may as many of them as are now surviving take up their Gowns again and Act in the same capacity that they did before they not making a voluntary surrender but conceiving themselves under a Moral incapacity to Act by reason of the Illegality of the Commission it self or not liking the Company that was obtruded upon them whom they might not look upon as Legal Assessors in that Honourable Court or fearing to be questioned in Parliament for what they did as this very Parliament hath declared the Seizure of the Charter and the Proceedings consequent upon it to have been Arbitrary and Illegal and therefore they resigned not because they would not Act but because they thought they could not being morally disabled for any further Service for id solum possumus quod possumuus de jure but the Charter being restored the capacity of acting returned together with it and the surrender being an involuntary thing created by scruples which they did not make and which they could not get over the Right of acting still remained whenever the Legal capacity should return as a Lawyer lays by his Gown and appears at no Bar in the time of the Vacation reserving still to himself a Right of doing both when ever the Term shall return However this is spoken and the Author humbly desires it may be so interpreted without any reflection upon those honest and worthy Gentlemen who continued still to act during all the time of the avoidance of the Charter which as it must be confessed to have been a signal Service rendred to the City and the Nation by influencing in some measure the Proceedings of the Court and by hindering of worse Men from Sitting in their Places so was it an undoubted Argument of courage and a publick Spirit and no sign of want either of Integrity or Judgment for the Judges and the Lawyers themselves were not agreed as to the Legality of the Seizure of the Charter and its Franchises into the Kings Hands and much more then might those who do not profess the Law but depend wholly upon others for their Sentiments in these cases be divided in their Opinions concerning it and now in God's Name let them unite together for the behoof and service of their Country in the general and of this Famous and Renowned City in particular since they both confess the Restitution to be Legal whatever disputes or controversies may arise concerning the