Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	king_n	law_n	people_n	8,247	5	5.1348	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34348	Considerations offered to all the corporations of England well worth their observation, containing seasonable advice to them in their future elections of burgesses to serve in Parliament, merely in relation to, and so far forth only as such elections affect trade, and are, as will appear hereby, the main cause of its present great decay.		1681 (1681)	Wing C5912; ESTC R25353	8,626	8

through self Interest Politickly dissemble that Knowledge of this sort are all those Laws which give leave for the Exportation of the growth of England without Manufacturing Secondly most of those Laws prohibit the growth of other Countries which if Trading were free we might with great advantage purchase with our own Manufactures of this kind there is a very late one the Irish Bill which enriching only a few in the West of England is out of every house-keepers way in London and most Counties twenty shillings a year for every person in his Family besides the disadvantage of our Artificers in Exchange of Manufacture and our Irish Merchant in Exchange of Mony Before I pass further I must needs here mention one great damage the Crown it self sustains by this Bill for the Victualing the Navy stands his Majesty each pound of Beef once as much again as his Neighbours the French and Dutch to whom the Irish being forbidden England are forced to sell their Cattle at a very low rate thus the King loses the City loses all Ireland or a good part of it suffers when besides the French and Dutch a few West Country Gentlemen and their Tenants only gain by it V. There are many Laws which would be of very great use for the Publick Interest which upon the same account are neglected and laid aside as first the most excellent Statute of the fifth of the Queen Ch. 5. The very title of which were sufficient to recommend it it is an Act touching politick Constitutions for the maintenance of the Navy in this Statute amongst other things that great and wise Princess and as true a Protestant as the best of them that distinguish themselves by the Name makes several Provisions for the encrease of Shipping and Saylers appointing them certain Fish days by which means they might be encouraged through the certainty of a Market for Fish to build Vessels bring up and employ Seamen and for want of which those few that do now use Fishing carry it into other Countries where they are sure of a Market so that we find by Experience that Fish is cheaper in other Countries of Europe than it is here in England though that Fish be taken upon our Coast and by our Country-men Secondly Flesh would be at a more reasonable rate if that Prodigious quantity were not each day devoured and for which we are look'd upon as such Gluttons by the world even to become a by-word among the Nations for who has not heard it said that London must needs be a strange Beast that in six Months consumes more flesh than all Spain in seven years and this was another end of that Statute VI. The Laws ought to be revived which preserves the Property of the Trading Corporation and those which regard Aliens not that at this time when the Wisdom of King and Council think fit in so extraordinary an occasion to receive and encourage them to use their Trades I presume to offer any thing further than that the Statute whereby they cannot work but as retained by English nor take other Apprentices than English saving their own Children be at that time look'd well after for that by such means these Aliens might freely Trade and the Profit be shared between them and the English 7. The Laws against Hawkers ought to be revived by whom great abuses are committed Wares are ill made and Trade brought low all which matters now so heavy on Tradesmen would be remedied if so in their Elections they persued the Act of Parliament and made choise of such men as were sensible of such greivances and were obliged as well of Interest as in Justice to redress them There are likewise many things very advantageous and beneficial that might be past into Laws if such Elections were 1. As first that Freeholders should constantly bear an equal share in Payments to the Crown with the Trading People that would Enable the King to force a Trade abroad and encourage Manufactures at home 2. That a Register might be Establish'd to prevent Cheats which fall most on Tradesmen and the many trivial Suits in Law upon several and inconsiderable accounts a Blessing not to be hoped for as long as Lawyers fill the House 3. That all Linnen cloth under the value of 3 s. an Ell might be prohibited and a valuable Tax set upon our own Manufactured Cloth to make up the loss the Crown will receive by that Prohibition This would employ a Million of People and if the Work were carried on by a publick Stock it would in three years time abate as much in the Poors Book as the first advanced Stock would amount to 4. That many Persons having little or no Estate who live at a rate much above their Ranks and Fortunes whereby the Tradesmen of whom they take up must needs be losers may be obliged to take to some honest Employment 5. That mony lent upon Land-security should not receive above 4l 10s per Cent and mony upon Personal-security be at 8l per Cent. The present equality of Interest mony without respect to the difference of the security having this disadvantage that 6l per Cent. being more profitable than the Land it self at 20. years Purchase men choose rather to lend upon Land than Purchase it hence arise Mortgages whereby so many have been cheated where if this remedy were had men would choose to buy outright and Fraud prevented From these Considerations I presume it is by this time pretty plain that it is the Interest of all the Corporations in England to make choice in their Elections hereafter of Tradesmen of their own respective Corporations it being as absurd as injurious to trust all the Trade of England in the hands of men who neither truly understand it nor are concerned to improve and advance it it being clearly the Interest of Freeholders that the number of Tradesmen increase though not their Fortunes that Tradesmen be many and poor There is no doubt but after the making of the Statute of H. 5th Citizens and Tradesmen were returned to serve in Parliament and 't is very clear that the reason why that Custom has been discontinued was by reason of the charges each City and Borough was at in paying their Members which made them give ear to those who voluntarily profered their service tho they have dearly paid for it since surely there is scarce any Corporation so poor but amongst them may be found two men of such Fortunes as does enable them to bear the expence of that service tho otherwise the paying of Members is by far the less evil considering what burthens have been laid upon them by a house of Commons made up of Gentlemen and Lawyers The greatest Strengh and Riches of England were formerly in the hands of the middle sort of People and is not yet so far Alienated but that it may be retrieved if care be taken to make due Elections without which the wealth of the Nation will quickly be

chosen the day of the date of the Writ of the Summons of the Parliament And that the Knights and Esquires and other which shall be Choosers of those Knights of the Shires be also resident within the same Shires in manner and form as is aforesaid and moreover it is Ordained and Establish'd that the Citizens and Burgesses of the Cities and Boroughs be chosen Men Citizens and Bugesses resident dwelling and Free in the same Cities and Boroughs and no other in any wise Thus far the Statute which is very short and very plain Here the King with his Parliament observing how at their time Gentlemen Freeholders were sometimes returned for Boroughs who had Interests of their own to manage and these being opposite to those of Tradesmen whose Burgesses they were they were not like to favour these against themselves nor to take that care of Trade as was requisite for the publick good of which and of the ways and means of improving it they were wholly Ignorant These things considered by King and Parliament to prevent the growing mischeif they did very seasonably apply that early remedy of this act of Parliament obliging thereby Corporations to choose Representatives among themselves of their own Cities and Boroughs inhabiting and dwelling among them and sure this was done with as great Wisdom as Justice for since the design of Burgesses from every Corporation was and still is that each City and Borough might have some body on their behalfs present in Parliament well versed in their ways and means of dealing best acquainted with their Greivances and consequently best able to represent them that so through the endeavours of every Burgeses in particular the Mischiefs and Greivances of every part being made known by those who best knew them the whole Nation might be preserved and its Intrests advanced I do not see nor can conceive how any man can be presumed better qualifyed to answer these ends than such men as the Statute directs viz. Citizens and Burgesses resident dwelling and Free in the same Cities and Boroughs and in no other wise and sure for any number of men in any Corporation to set up a stranger for the Election is a bold liberty they assume to themselves of dispensing with Acts of Parliament and that in a matter of the highest nature and consequence imaginable it is imposing their sense upon the Nation and preferring their own private opinion to the Supream Wisdom and Judgment of the Kingdom the King and his two Houses and this I think is sufficient to shew them their plain easie and necessary duty in Elections I come now to shew that it is their Interest also where it might be enough to tell them that the same reasons which induced at first the making that Act of Parliament do at this day oblige in point of interest all men to the just execution of it It is a known rule cessante causa cessat effectus so vice versa should the same causes continuing be attended with the like effects and indeed I should be glad that any man would shew me how according to this Statute most of our late Elections be made out how by your Statute is a Gentleman of the Temple a fit Member for Worcestor or Taunton or how a very worthy Knight resident and dwelling in Southampton Square tho otherwise of very great abilities sufficiently qualified for a Burgess of Plymouth how these Gentlemen I say tho never so learned in all other things can be supposed to understand perfectly the particular Interest of Cities and Towns in which perhaps they nere set foot but at Elections or what reason Tradesmen have to hope or promise themselves that Strangers being Gentlemen whose Interests if they run not directly counter to are yet very different from theirs who choose them should be more concerned for their good tho in opposition to their own than men of their own body obliged by the same Interests and therefore moved by the same considerations is not within my understanding The mischiefs and evils in the Body Politick do thus far resemble the natural body that to know and well understand the distemper is a good step to the cure of it this is by all men allowed so likewise that the knowledge a Physician has of the constitution of a body with reason prefers him to abler means in the cure as most likely to remove the evil common experience demonstrates daily This might be sufficient to shew that t is the interest of Tradesmen to send Members chosen out of themselves yet to make this more plain to matter of Reason I will add matter of Fact and shew them how by neglect of this duty in their Elections they have already actually received much damage 1. What has the House of Commons being full of Gentlemen done as for instance not to run back into times which it were to be wisht were as absolutly forgot as the Guilt of them is forgiven in 1660 It was necessary to improve the revenue of the Crown they did it by easing themselves and laying the burthen upon the Trading part of the people The Court of Wards and Liveries Tenures in Capite and by Knights service were one of the goodliest Jewels in the Crown a high and vast Prerogative it was and such a one by means whereof the Kings of England had a strange hand over all the Gentry by the great Interest they had in all their houses as well over the persons of their Children as their Estates yet this Prerogative extended but to them Tradesmen were not at all concerned this therefore they thought fit to remove but that the Crown might be no loser as there was no reason it should something was to be found out equivalent the Excise which just before had been given for the Kings Life was thought sittest and was accordingly settled upon the Crown in Fee 12. Ca. 2di Ch. 24. II. The taking away these Courts has been as Prejudicial to the Yeomanry as it has been useful to the Gentry who before of Interest were obliged to make their Farms less and to let long Leases at reasonable Rates but now they erect great Farms which few are able to Rent and Rack the poor Tenants III. All the Assessments and Revenues of the Crown are cheifly paid by the middle sort of People as Tenths and first Fruits from the Clergy Customs by Merchants Excise by Brewers Chimney-mony by Tenants Freeholders paying nothing certain to the Crown which is a great disadvantage to the Trading People that Freeholders are not obliged to some Proportion at least in payments with them IV. Upon a Presumption of raising the Product of England many Laws have been neglected which would be highly for the interest of the Trading sort of People and some Laws have been made directly contrary to their Interest which is no wonder when amongst the Law-givers there are so few if any that either understand what may prejudice or advance Trade or if they do