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A94411 To His Excellency the L. Generall Cromwell, and the rest of the Councell of the Army of the Comonwealth of England; the humble and faithfull advice of divers affectionate friends to the Parliament, Army and Commonwealth of England Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658. 1653 (1653) Wing T1352B; ESTC R203795 11,967 16

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Statute Law Why when after judgment in the legall Courts the Chancery and Parliament had taken cognizance of the same Causes by way of appeale doth the amendment come and say hence forth after judgment in the legall Courts the parties shall be in quiet and free from being called either into Chancery or into Parliament according to the Law of the Land but in respect to the supremacy of Fundamentalls Why were Petitioners in former times so carefull not to insert the least syllable contrary to the Fundamentall Law but that they knew Parliaments were chiefly ordained for their preservation And it will not be throughly well in England till Parliaments make answer to Petitioners according to the Rule of the Fundamentall Law The late Worcestershire Petitioners for Tythes may then know what they may justly expect from them viz. that they are at liberty either to give or pay tythes or any other proportion of their incombs to such whom they will contract with for their labours in teaching divine things or any other kind of learning but those that ap prove not of paying are not to be enforced and thus in all things are the English free wherein their neighbour is not violated Had this rule been observed of late years it had e're this stopt the mouths of many Petitioners and be got a better understanding amongst the people who have been shattered into shwers for want of this principle to unite them every man stirring and contending as for life for his own opinion one will have the Parliament do this another that others gathering themselves together in knots and boasting how many hands they had to their petition a second sort of men to theirs and so of the rest how many friends they had in the House for this thing how many for that and thus like the builders of Babel they have been devided for want of knowledge and fixtnesse in and upon the Fundamentalls which only can give rest to the spirits of the English the goodnesse whereof having been once tasted would soon beget a reconcilement and doubtlesse this way or none must come the true and lasting peace amongst our selves and by this means only can we ever be made considerable either against obstinate corrupt interest at home or against foraign pretenders and enemies ahroad who otherwise observing us to be a floating unbalanced people and consequently divided and subdivided within our selves will never cease to disturb this Nation whereas were we once again bound and knit together with this just and pleasant ligament of fundamenthll Law divide and raign would not be so frequent in their vanquisht mouths which indeed is the main ground of the hopes Consider we beseech you how uncertain the rule of prudence and discretion is amongst the wisest and best of men how unstable that people were that should be every year to make their Laws or to stablish them have we not found the Proverb verified so many men so many minds this thing voted by one sort of men as most just and necessary yea mens estates and lives and consciences cast upon it and those the best of men when in short time after the same voted down as most unjust and pernicious infinite instances of this kind we doubt not will come to your remembrance and therefore not without good cause have our Predecessors given such dear respect to their Fundamentall Rights that unlesse mens understandings were even bewitched with the sallaries of corrupt interest they would choose rather to lose their lives then to part with one of them esteeming every man though born in England no more a true Englishman then as he maintained the Fundamentall Liberties of his Country To conclude none ever yet denied that we had Fundamentall standing Laws and such as against which no Statute Law ought to be obeyed but endeavours you will find have been in all ages for powers to establish themselves and govern by discretion upon a pretence of more easie and speedy dispatch of justice as the late King did when he by power brake up the short Parliament before this he publikely declared that he and his Lords would with more speed and better justice redresse the grievances of the people then the Parliament could do And though this hath been a disease incident to the strongest to give Laws and inforce them upon the people yet as it is manifestly against the Fundamentall Rights of the people of England which you have professedly fought to restore and not to destroy having conquered their enemies not their friends so have you by Declarations laid grounds against such temptations and as abhorring all such wicked and unjust intentions would not have any entertain any such suspition of you we have very great hopes that as you will carefully preserve your hands your strength and power from being defiled by imposing Innovations or continuing such as have been brought upon us or yet by being instrumentall to such as would so we trust and earnestly intreat that you would lay the premises to heart and by wisdome and perseverance procure the antient good Laws of England to be re-established amongst us they being so just so mercifull so preservative to all peaceable minded people so unburthensome to the industrious so opposite to all self-interest so corrective of any manner of wrong so quick in dispatching so equall in the means so righteous in their judgements proportioning punishments to offenders so tender of the innocent so consonant to right reason and having no disproportion to all true Christian doctrine that the goodnesse of them as well as because they are the tyes the Bonds and Ligaments of the people and both your and our Rights and chiefe inheritance we trust will cause you like the true sons of your worthy and valiant Ancestor to be enamored of them and to be now much more of the same mind then when you professed that you esteemed neither life nor livelyhood nor your necrest relations a price but sufficient to the purchase of so rich a blessing that you and all the free-borne people of England might sit down in quiet under the glorious administration of justice and righteousnesse and in full possession of those Fundamentall Rights and Liberties without which we cannot be secure of any comfort of life or so much as life it self but at the pleasure of some men ruling meerly according to will and power And may the integrity of your hearts so appear in all your actions as may render you well pleasing in the sight of God who hath registred all your Vows of freeing this Nation from all kinds of bondages in the dayes of your distresse Keep therefore your hearts faithfull As Moses who when he was to lead the Israelites out of Aegypt would not leave a hoof in bondage and in so doing onely will you be the rejoycing of this Nation to all generations
to the true state of antient right and the people thereby freed from abundance of torment and veration of Spirit All Monopolies at home and all restraint of trade abroad to distinct companies of men are all opposite to the antient rights of the people and may justly be reduced to a universall freedome to every Englishman which will make trade in time to flourish and wealth and plenty of all necessaries to abound especially if the way of raising money by custome and Excize were laid aside being utterly destructive to trade and rendring the lives of tradesmen tedious and irksome to them and hath no consistence with Fundamentall right for according to that rule no imposition ought to be laid upon trade but what moneys are at any time found needfull by Parliament ought to be levied by way of Subsidy or an equall proportion upon all mens estates reall and personall in which course the whole within two pence or three pence in the pound is brought into the publike treasury whereas in the other way vast sums go to the maintenance of Officers so as you perceive in this and all other particulars hitherto recited the most antient right is not only due but most for the case and good of the people you may perceive by what hath been expressed what are our antient rights and what how many and how great have been our almost as antient wrongs and oppressions Some of our antient rights remain alive to this day as Parliaments and Juries the first of which ought annually to be chosen which annnall choice hath for many years been intermitted and that inherent right withheld which should have some special thing for its excuse and happy were the people and doubtlesse happy would it be for this present Parliament also that it may truly be said they held the Parliamentary power so long that they might restore the people to their antient native rights the Fundamentall Laws to their full force and power for which end it was as you declared that you reserved these when you excluded the rest and therefore surely in this and many more respects you are obliged to persevere in putting them in mind thereof and if you find that they are not able to agree in the performance of this the proper work of Parliaments then to move them in some short time to order a new Parliament to be chosen that they may take place of them it being in no wife safe for the Parliament to dissolve untill the new immediately ready to sit when they rise nor would we for any thing in the world that Parliaments should be accustomed to be forced nothing being of more dangerous consequence to Government it self Which endeavours and desires we shall be ready to second you in and we trust you will not omit to do it by way of Petition with all possible speed that the desires of good men may be satisfied in seeing this Parliament yet honour themselves and blesse the Nation with the proper fruit of their so many years labour hardship and misery the re-injoyment of their birth-right Or if that cannot be obtained you and your friends desiring it they will not defer to give up their trust into the hands of another Parliament which when you understand we shall then desire you to acquaint the people what their antient rights are and how and by what interests of men they have been withheld from them that so they may at length beware and not chuse such men to make them free whose interest advantage and way of living binds to keep them in perpetuall bondage And to inform them likewise that it is not Statute Law nor the opinion of Judges and book-cases nor the Prerogative of Princes Lords and great ones nor any thing but their Fundamentall Rights that can render them free or happy and to perswade them no longer to give ear to such charming as hath been to their bondage and misery And that you will be as strongly provided against all motions of Innovation as against the worst of enemies though they should assail you with seeming arguments from Scripture the Scripture giving no particular rules for the Government of Nations the Government of the Israelites being only intended for them and either binds not or els it binds in all and every part so as those who require tythes by that Law or punish some offences according to that Law are bound also to circumcise and to offer Sacrifice and indeed to fulfill the whole Law none having power to make choice of one part and refuse another If they urge from the Gospell that indeed gives most blessed rules for faith and conversation but as to Government it is apparant from those words of our Saviour who made me a divider of inheritances that the Gospel intends not so much earthly as heavenly things but both old and new Covenants agree in this that all just agreements and contracts amongst men such are our Fundamentall Lawes ought inviolably to be kept and observed The sense of the Law of God is cieare in this that it is a cursed thing to remove the land-marks of forefathers nor are any more highly approved of by God himself then the Rechabites for walking stedfastly in the laws and constitutions of their forefathers Nor can any thing be more destructive to Government or human Society then for men to admit that they are not obliged to observe the Fundamentall just Institutions of the countrey wherein they were born there being nothing that tendeth so readily to the shaking of a well-bounded society of men into anarchy and confusion For what is it that gives any man propriety in what he hath but Fundamentall Law What is it els that defends propriety but Fundamentall Legall Power Why have you and we and thousands more so cried out upon such as pretended a Prerogative above Fundamentall Law and above Parliaments but that it was in subversion thereof Why did our Forefathers and all their posterity down to our selves so heavily complain against the with-holding of Parliaments and against triall of Causes by any other way but by Juries but that they are both Fundamentall Why was it alwayes noted as a mark of regall prevalencie in Parliaments when any thing passed there contrary to those ancient Rules Why upon all complaints of oppression are the amendments alwayes made by that Rule as that when Parliaments had been deferred and complaint made the remedy runs thus For remedy of grievances and mischiefs which daily happen a Parliament shall be chosen once every years according to Law where it is evident the Law was more an cient then the Act of Parliament or amendment Also after abuse and innovation in triall of Causes the amendment comes and sayes That no man shall be attached fixed imprisoned exiled or deprived of life limb liberty or estate but by Iuries according to the Law of the Land Which shewes the Fundamentall Law to have been time out of mind before Magna Charta or any