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A54694 Restauranda, or, The necessity of publick repairs, by setling of a certain and royal yearly revenue for the king or the way to a well-being for the king and his people, proposed by the establishing of a fitting reveue for him, and enacting some necessary and wholesome laws for the people. Philipps, Fabian, 1601-1690. 1662 (1662) Wing P2017; ESTC R7102 61,608 114

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dayes often committed oppression by a tyranny of the rich over the poor and needy and to keep the Wolves from their morning and evening preys and rejoycing in the spoil of the widdows and fatherless the hungry and necessitous which by a cheating and blinding of their consciences they will whether the Laws of God and man will or no suppose to be lawfull because it is their Trade and the misteries of it or because their Fathers or their Masters did it before them every one else doth it and every man must live and make use of their time labour calling or opportunities The people of this Kingdom being so universally endamaged by the evils happening by them and concerned and like to be benefitted by the remedies may as those of Spain Florence and other forreign Countries who in bearing some burdens and Taxes laid upon them are many times rather gainers then losers by the benefit of a Bands or rule of rating Butchers and many other Commodities to be bought or sold so as children cannot be cozened Be very willing that their representatives in Parliament shall consent That upon every Tun of wine French Spanish and Rhenish to be vented in England there be by the first buyer forty shillings per Tunne paid to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and accounted for half yearly in the Court of Exchequer That instead of an Excise upon Ale Beer Perry and Sider every one that shall in a publick Alehouse sell Ale Beer Perry or Sider shall yearly pay to the King his Heirs and Successors forty shillings per annum and every publick Brewer twenty pounds per annum and a further rate proportionable to the quantities of their Brewings And that to restore this antient Monarchy and heretofore famous and flourishing Kingdome to its former honour safety and defence and an ease from the charge of mercenary Armies and Guards and to prevent the great and many dangers and inconveniencies which may happen thereby as also to fatherless Children by Guardianships and breaches of trust his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors may have and enjoy his and their antient rights of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service and all mesne Lords their Heirs their Tenures by Knight Service with all incidents thereunto belonging allowing unto every one holding of the King by those Tenures the liberty of being freed from the marriage of his Heir to be compounded for by yearly paying unto the King into the Exchequer or into the Court of Wards next after his age of one and twenty years and livery sued forth the sum of twenty pounds per annum rent for every Knights Fee which he shall hold or proportionably according to the partes thereof 1. That in the granting of Wardships to the Mother or next friends according to the Instructions of King James with those reasonable cares and considerations of debts and younger children used by the Court of Wards and Liveries the marriages of the Wards and Rents of their Lands during all the time of their minorities computed together be never above one years improved value which will be but the half of that which is now accompted to be a reasonable Fine and is frequently paid by many Copihold Tenants whose Fines are certain 2. That the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Durham who by antient exemptions and priviledge are to have the wardships of Tenants holding of them by Knight service in their minorities though they hold other Lands in Capite and by Knight service of the King may be ordained to doe the like favours 3. That all that hold in Capite and by Knight service be according to their antient liberties and rights granted by the Charter of King Henry the first freed as in reason they ought from all Assessments of their demeasn Lands touching warre 4. That Primer Seisins be taken away of such kind of Tenures and no more paid 5. That the Lands holden in Socage or of any other mesne Lords in case of minority of any in ward to the King by reason of Tenure in Capite or pour cause de gard being taken into consideration only as to the Fine for the marriage may not be put under any Rent or Lease to be made by the Court of Wards but freed as they were frequently and antiently by Writs sent to the Escheators 6. That the King in recompence thereof may have and receive of every Duke or Earl dying seized of any Lands or Hereditaments in Capite and by Knight service two hundred pounds of every Marquess Viscount and Baron two hundred marks and of every one that holdeth by a Knights Fee twenty pounds for a Relief or proportionably according to the quantity of the Fee which he holdeth 7. That incroachments and wast grounds holden in Capite and by Knight Service may be no cause of wardship or paying any other duties incident to that Tenure if it shall upon the first proof and notice be relinquished 8. That only Escuage and Service of warre except in the aforesaid cases of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Durham and all other incidents except Wardships due by their Tenants which hold of them by Knight service be restored to mesne Lords and that the Reliefs of five pounds for a whole Knights Fee or proportionably according to the quantity of Lands of that kind of Fee holden shall be after the death of every such Tenant twenty pounds 9. That to lessen the charges of Escheators and Juries for every single Office or Inquisition to be found or taken after the death of every tenant in Capite and by Knight Service the time of petitioning within a moneth after the death of the Ancestor may be enlarged to three moneths and the Shire Town City or principall place of every County be appointed with certain dayes or times for the finding of Offices to the end that one and the same Meeting and one and the same Jury with one and the same charge or by a contribution of all parties concerned may give a dispatch thereunto 10. That in case of neglecting to petition within three moneths after the death of the Tenant in Capite and by Knight Service or otherwise concealing any Wardships or not suing out of Livery if upon information brought issue joyned and witnesses examined or any time before Hearing or Tryall of the Cause the party offending or concerned shall pay the Prosecutor his double costs and satisfie the King the mesne rates he shall be admitted to compound 11. That the unnecessary Bonds formerly taken in the Court of Wards at two shillings six pence or three shillings charge upon suing out of every Diem clausit extremum or Writ to find an Office obliging the Prosecutor thereunto may be no more taken when as the time limited for petitioning to compound for Wardships and the danger of not doing of it will be engagement sufficient 12. That Grants Leases and Decrees of the Court of Wards may not to the great
Restauranda OR THE NECESSITY OF Publick Repairs By setling of a certain and Royal yearly REVENUE FOR THE KING OR The Way to a well-being for the KING and His PEOPLE proposed by the Establishing of a fitting Revenue for him and Enacting some Necessary and Wholsome Laws for the PEOPLE London Printed by Richard Hodgkinson for the Author and are to be sold by Abel Roper at the sign of the Sun over against Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet 1662. REGI ET PATRIAE VERISQUE HONORIS ET FELICITATIS ANGLIAE CULTORIBUS HASCE VELUTI MATERIARUM SEDES DICAT DEDICATQUE FABIANUS PHILIPPS THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. I. REvenues of the Kings of England Pag. 6 CHAP. II. Supplies and Additions to the Royal Revenues and the many cares taken therein by Parliaments and otherwise p. 14 CHAP. III. Ruine and decay of the Revenues p. 30 CHAP. IV. The Remedies p. 58 Some Errata's or faults escaped the Printer which the Reader is intreated to correct and amend in this manner PAge 2 line 15 dele by p. 7. l. 10 dele may p. 27 l. 26. for their read the p. 68. l. 14. interfere had in principio dele in fine p. 69. l. 5. for and worser or worse and l. 29. for which r. and p. 58. for Chap. l. r. Chap. IV. p. 81. l. 23. dele that p 83 l. 31. dele and and 〈◊〉 Restauranda OR The necessity of Publick Repairs by the setling of a certain and Royall yearly Revenue for the KING OR The Way to a well-being for the KING and his PEOPLE proposed by the establishing of a fitting Revenue for Him and Enacting some necessary and wholsome Lawes for the People A Long course of time Annosa vetustas which weares out and subdues the most stubborne Rocks and Marbles and crumbles into dust and ruin things of long duration together with the necessities cares and affairs which do usually busie Crowns and Princes and their Royall Revenues in the protection and welfare of themselves and the people committed to their charge may without the inconsiderate censures of those who think much of every Ayde and Contribution which they give towards the effecting or support of their own and their posterities happiness be well supposed to be no small cause of wasting and lessening those Royal supports or means which our Kings of England have heretofore had to do it withall and as streams running far from their springs and fountains without the help or company of other waters to augment or goe along with them may be allowed more then a little to drie up or languish and might silence the murmur and complaints of those who can be content to beg get all they can from the King and by too often by false pretences concealing the worth or value of what they ask of him doe gain thereby ten times more then they seem to request or he intends to give them and making no scruple to deceive him which our blessed Saviour never taught them when he commanded to give to Caesar that which was Caesars think it is Kingly to be cozened and that he can never give or be deceived too much yet when he comes to demand any help or assistance from them though it be but for a publick good and their own preservation can crie out burdens and oppressions and as if he were some Ocean never to be drawn drie or Mountain never to be digged down or exhausted an Elixir to transmute and enrich others without any wast or diminution of its self or the Sun in the firmament which can enlighten heat and nourish all things and be never the worse for it marvail how he can come to want and if they doe believe him to be in any necessity are ready to lay the cause or blame of it upon his Officers for taking more care of their own Estates then his and for a thriving way of Arithmetick by substracting from his to increase and multiply their own whilest many who have but lately tasted of his bounty or whose Fathers Grandfathers or Ancestors have lest them goodly Inheritances which were either of the guift of the King or his Progenitors or purchased and gained by beneficial offices and places or imployments under them can look upon every Subsidy Tax or Assessment as a blast or mildew of their corn some plague or epidemicall disease or a greater national calamity and give them no better an aspect or entertainment then the children of Israel did their Egyptian Tax-masters when they were commanded to make their Tale of Brick and gather the straw though they never repine or grumble at the same time at ten times a greater sum to a Merry-meeting or a Feast or spent in a horse-race a thousand or five hundred pounds lost in a night at dice three or four hundred pounds spent in a Treatment or Banquet or the large or sinfull expensive vanities of themselves and their wives and children And too many who would be thought to be better Subjects and Patriots then others can seem to hate a Civil warre shrink at the imagination of the miseries thereof tremble at a forreign Invasion Free-quarter Plunder and the Outrage of Souldiers complain of want of Trade or the guarding of the Seas boast of the ancient honour and glory due unto their Nation and take a pleasure to recount it to their children or read it in their Histories and not a few also who in our late twenty years rebellion and the spoils and afflictions which attended it could drive honester men then themselves into Taxes and Assessements and think a million and a half in yearly Assessements for some years together besides a fifth part of their real Estates a twentieth of their personal and many other of their Depredations amounting to more then all the Taxes and Aydes put together which for five hundred years last past were imposed by our Kings and Princes to be little enough to sacrifice to a mistaken godliness will notwithstanding doe as very little as they can to contribute any thing to the procuring and enjoying the blessings of peace and plenty or avoyd the contrary And do never so well esteem of their own policies as when they can by pretences of debts poverty or charge of children shift of necessary and publick duties and by undervaluing of their own Estates or overvaluing others make as smal an offering as they can to their oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy and necessities of their Prince and Defender of their Faith as well as their Estates And too too many whilst they cannot but acknowledge if Scripture and the Lawes of God and man may be their guide and directors that he hath lately by Gods mercy and a miracle redeemed them and their Laws and Liberties out of a slavery which stuck like a leprosie and was like to be entailed upon them and their posterities rescued Religion and gave them their Lands and Estates again which the just Lawes of the Land once called their Birthright
Northumberland Seymour Duke of Somerset Russell Earl of Bedford St. John Earl of Wiltshire Rich Willoughby Paget Sheffeild Barons his giving away great quantities of Ecclesiasticall and Chantry Lands Viscount Mountague Lord Howard of Effingham Lord North advanced by Queen Mary the Subsidie of four shillings in the pound for Lands and two shillings for Goods granted to King Edward the sixth in the last year of his Reign remitted by her and nine thousand two hundred pounds land per annum of the Crown given away paying at the same time twelve pound per cent Interest for twenty thousand pounds borrowed of the City of London and the greater charges and Expences of Queen Elizabeth in protecting the Neatherlands and United Provinces which cost her five hundred thirty four thousand pounds and four hundred thousand pounds in succouring King H. 4. of France besides what was disbursed for other Protestant Allies guarding the Back-door of Scotland relieving guarding the young King who was afterwards her Successor endeavouring to reduce Ireland to its former obedience which in a few years cost her as the Lord Treasurer Cecill Earl of Salisbury in the Reign of King James informed the Parliament nineteen hundred twenty and four thousand pounds and defending her self from the Assaults and machinations of the Pope King of Spain and other Catholick Princes advancing and enriching Cecil L. Burghley Sackvile L. Buckhurst Charles Blount Lord Mountjoy Knowles Wotton Sidney Carew Petre Compton Cheney Norris and Stanhop to be Barons and creating of the Earls of Essex Leicester Lincoln and Warwick Remission of a Subsidie granted to Q. Mary Farming of her Customs to Smyth but for thirteen thousand pounds per annum afterwards to forty two thousand pounds and raising them after that only to no more then fifty thousand pounds per annum five hundred thousand pounds spent by King James in a totall subduing of Ireland three hundred and fifty thousand pounds paid for Queen Elizabeth's debts to the City of London for which some of the Crown Lands were mortgaged and for debts to the Army Admiralty and Wardrobe and discharging the reckoning of brass money in Ireland with the same sums in silver his vast expences by Treaties and Ambassadours amounting in the seventh year of his Reign unto five hundred thousand pounds to keep us in our envied peace and plenty four hundred thousand pounds disbursed in relieving the Dutch besides what was spent in satisfying the greedy cravings of the Scottish Nation preferring and raising of the Duke of Richmond Ramsey Earl of Holderness Earls of Carlisle Kelley Morton and Dunbarre Howard Earl of Northampton Carr Earl of Somerset Herbert Earl of Montgomery Villers Duke of Buckingham Cranfeild Earl of Middlesex Cecill Earl of Salisbury Howard Earl of Suffolke Mountague Earl of Manchester Ley Earl of Marleborough and Digby Earl of Bristol All which and many more which might be here enumerated did not only as was usuall in the Reigns of our former Kings by necessary bounties encouraging of virtue and valour rewarding of merits and high deservings of Ministers of State and great Atchievements of men of warre through a successiion of ages accidents occasions and reasons of State draw and derive their honours from those fountains of Honour but large Revenues and Lands many times likewise to support and maintain their Dignities and sometimes upon the Petitions of the Commons in Parliament as to conferre upon John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Dukedome of Acquitaine in the reign of King Edward the third to make John Holland the Kings half-Brother Earl of Huntington in the reign of King Richard the second and to preferre and advance the Lords John and Humphrey Sons of King Henry the fourth and sometimes great Pensions and Annuities were given for life untill Lands could be provided to support them in reward of virtue and their services done or to be done for the good of the Nation and to continue them and their posterities as props and pillars of the Royall Throne in a gratefull acknowledgment of the favours received from it And besides those former rewards and Ennoblishments puts it at this day for Creation money paid to the Dukes Marquesses and Earls to no less a charge then one thousand pounds per annum by which the people were in all ages no loosers when the Honour strength and defence of the Kingdome was maintained and increased by them and themselves kept in peace and plenty the manner of living in ancient and better times being with little money and small rents great services by the thankfull and ready duty and affections of Tenants to their Benefactors and mesne Lords not only made them great in power but enabled them to imitate their Princes as much as they could in great hospitalities deeds of charity and almes building and endowing of Churches Abbies Priories and Religious Houses and giving large Inheritances to their Servants Friends and Followers pro homagio servitio and other dependances Common of Estovers and of great quantities of Lands to severall Cities Towns and Villages and in such a plentifull manner distributed and gave their Lands as if the Lands in Capite by Knight Service Coppyhold Lands Commons which our King's Nobility and Gentry bestowed heretofore upon the inferiour sort of people and what they dedicated to God by giving to Churches Religious Houses Colleges Churches and Chappels should be surveyed and measured they would amount to no less then two parts in four of the Lands of the Kingdome The quondam lethargie sleepiness and unactivity of many of the Officers of the Exchequer who should be as the Argus eyes to guard the Royall Revenue the indulgence heretofore or neglect of some of her Officers and their not remembring that they were to be the Kings and his Treasurers Remembrancers respiting or nichiling of his debts upon feigned Petitions which can tell how to deceive the most carefull Barons or Judges of that Court when their Soveraign suffered in the mean time very great damage for want of the money the not duly estreating of all Fines and Amerciaments corrupt compounding for such as were estreated by under Officers at easie rates granting to the City of London their Fines and Amerciaments want of looking after as they doe in other Nations the execution of those multitudes of penall Lawes which otherwise will be to little purpose and assisting the collection of the Kings legall profits arising thereby the heretofore carelesness or corruption of some of our former Kings Officers who for fees of favour enlarged their Charters and Grants to bodies politique Cities Towns and Corporations and to as many private persons as would petition for them and decked them with the flowers of the Kings Crown which were not to be parted with so easily So as what by Grants or Prescription which in many cases is but the incroachment or filchings of liberties and priviledges concealed or not well looked after covered and drawn into a property by a time beyond
Magna Charta and Charta Foreste fortieth part of every mans goods towards the payment of his debts and a thirtieth part afterwards granted by Act of Parliament much of his Forrests and Woods converted to errable land his Parks of Woodstock and Gillingham ploughed many Grants made in his minority revoked his great Officers as Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent Chief Justice of England and others called to account Ranulph Britton Treasurer of his Chamber fined in one thousand marks a great summe of money given by the City of London to be made Toll-free every one that could dispend in land fifteen pound per annum ordered to be knighted or pay a Fine great summes of money gained by composition with Delinquents at seven years value of their Lands by the Dictū de Kenilworth his houshold charges lessened a meaner Port kept less Almes given his Jewels and the Crown royal pawned Plate sold to pay his debts at no greater a value then the weight though the workmanship did cost as much and the golden Shrine of Edward the Confessor forty shillings for every Knights see twice assessed for his warres in Gascony great sums of money raised of the Iewes the banishment of the Poictouins and his half-brothers who had made it too much of their business to beg what they could of the Revenue and by his own sometimes sitting in the Exchequer to preserve it thirty two thousand pounds sterling received of Leolin Prince of Wales propaee habenda and a resumption of divers of the Crown Lands which had been aliened Nor by an Inquiry in Anno 4. of King Ed. 1 by Act of Parliament of the Castles Buildings Lead and Timber of the Kings his Demeasnes Parks Woods extent of Manors forrain Parks and Woods Pawnage Herbage Mills Fishings Freeholds Cottages Curtilages customary Tenants Patronages Perquisit●s of Courts Liberties Customes and Services a Subsidie in Anno 6. of his reign of the twentieth part of every mans goods towards the charges of his warres in Wales the Statute of Quo warranto in Anno 18. to inquire and seise into the Kings hands all liberties usurped a Subside in anno 22. of his reign upon Woolfels and Hydes transported a tenth of all goods the eighth of the goods of the Citizens and Burgesses a twelfth of the rest of the Laity and a moiety of the Clergy in anno 25. and in anno 26. the ninth penny of the Commons the tenth penny of the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury and the fifth of York taking away much monies from the Priors Aliens payment by the Clergy in anno 23 of all such summes of money which they had promised to pay to the Pope towards the maintenance of the Holy warres and half a years value of their Ecclesiasticall livings and promotions abased monies four hundred and twenty thousand pounds fifteen shillings and four pence raised from the Jewes and a farre greater summe afterwards contribution of ships and ship-money by the maritime Coasts and Counties in case of danger and invasion sixty five thousand marks of silver received for Fines of some corrupt Judges and great summes of money likewise for forfeitures by an Inquisition or Commission of Trail Baston A fifteenth of the Clergy and a twentieth of the Temporalty to King Edward the Second in anno primo of his reign the moveables and personal Estate of the Knights Templers in England Contribution of ships and ship-money by the maritime Counties a fifteenth in anno 6. and the great and rich confiscated personall Estates of the two Spencers Father and Son and an Ordinance made pro Hospitio Regis concerning the regulation of his Houshold Thirty thousand marks paid to King Edward the third in anno 2. of his reign by Robert Bruce King of Scots to release his Soveraignity to that Kingdom a tenth of the Clergy Citizens and Burgesses and a fifteenth of others granted in anno 6. of his reign Aids of ships ship-money by the Sea-coasts and in an 13. the tenth sheep of all the Lords Demeasnes except of their bound Tenants the tenth fleece of wool and the tenth lamb of their store to be paid in two years and that such of them or their Peers as held by Baronie should give the tenth of their grain wool and Lamb and of all their own Demeasnes and two thousand five hundred sacks of wool given by the Commons anno 14. the ninth of the grain wool and lamb of the Laity to be paid in two years the ninth of the goods of the Townsmen and the fifteenth of such as dwelt in Forrests and Chases anno 17. forty shillings for every Sack of wool over and above the old rate anno 18. a Disme by the Clergy of Canterbury for three years two fifteenths of the Commons and two dismes of the Cities and Towns to be levied in such wise as the last in an 20. two fifteens to be paid in two years anno 21. two shillings upon every Sack of wool granted by the Lords without the Commons in anno 22. three fifteens to be paid in three years All such treasure as was committed to Churches throughout England for the Holy warre all the goods of the Cluniacques Cistercians and some other Orders of Monks half the wools of the Laity and the whole of the Clergy the jewels of the Crown pawned imprisonment of his Treasurer abasing some of his 〈◊〉 and ordaining some of his Exchanges of money to be at London Canterbury and York monies abated in weight and made to pass according to former value and the profits which the forrain Cardinals enjoyed in England during their lives taken into his hands one hundred thousand pounds received for the ransome of John King of France great sums of money for the ransoming of David King of Scotland Philip afterwards Duke of Burgogne Jaques de Bourbon and many of the French Nobility fifty shillings granted by Parliament in anno 43. for every sack of wool for six years by which imposition only as the Trade of Wools and Cloathing then flourished the King as it was computed might dispend one thousand marks per diem fifty thousand pounds by the Laity and as much by the Clergy granted him by the Parliament in anno 45. to resume his right in France a Poll-money by Act of Parliament of four pence for every person of of the Laity that took not almes of every Clergy-man beneficed twelve pence and of every Religious person four pence in anno 50. and a resumption of divers of his Crown Lands A Subsidie in the first year of K. Richard the second levied upon the great men to spare the Commons Poll-money of every person above fifteen years old Fines of seaventeen shires in anno 21. and causing them to pay great summes of money for aiding the Duke of Gloucester and Earles of Arrundel and Warwick the Bohemians which pestered his Court banished and a resumption of divers of his Crown Lands A tenth of the Clergy and a Subsidie
of twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee twelve pence of every man and woman that could dispend twenty shillings per annum above reprises by their Lands and so proportionably according to their land revenues twelve pence of every one whose goods were valued at twenty pounds and proportionably to what it exceeded gran-to King Henry the fourth seven hundred thousand pounds found in King Richard the second 's Treasury two fifteenths of the Commons in the sixth year of his reign a tenth and a half of the Clergy and of the Commons two fifteenths in the ninth a Subsidie by the Laity and half a mark a piece of the Stipendary Priests and Friars in the tenth a Subsidie to be levied through the Realm and in anno 11. a fifteenth a resumption of many Grants and Annuities regulation of his Houshold and banishment of the Gascoigners and Welsh impoverishing him and the Kingdom by Petitions and Suits Great summes of money given to King Henry the fifth by the Clergy a Subsidie by the Clergy and Laity a double Disme and a fifteenth by the Laity and in the 9th year of his reign two tenths of the Clergy and a fifteenth of the Laity and another fifteenth in the same year his Crown Royall and Jewels pawned and a resumption of divers Lands and Annuities granted to unworthy persons To King Henry the sixth in anno primo of his reign a Subsidie of five Nobles upon every sack of wool transported for three years forty three shillings of every sack of wool carried out by Merchant strangers a Subsidie of twelve pence in the pound of all merchandize imported or exported 3. shillings upon every Tonne of wine for three years granted by Parliament in 〈◊〉 3. a Subsidie of three shillings upon every Ton of 〈◊〉 and of all other Merchandize twelve pence per pound except woolfell and cloth or every Benefice of ten marks per annum ten of that parish to pay six shillings and eight pence of every Benefice of ten pounds per annum ten parishioners to pay thirty shillings and four pence and so rateably for every Benefice And of the Inhabitants of Cities and Boroughs every man worth twenty shillings above his Housholdstuff and his own and wives Apparrel four pence and upwards after that rate or proportion in anno 8. a Disme and fifteenth of the Laity Great summes of money raised by King Edward the fourth by penal Lawes and Benevolences resumption in the seventh year of his reign of all manner of gifts which he had given from the first day of his reign A Subsidie in anno 8. of two fifteens and a half and in anno 13. a Subsidie Some Taxes laid upon the people by King Richard the third and a resumption of all Lands and Estate granted to Elizabeth Grey Queen of England A Subside to Henry the seventh in an 2. of his reign at a tenth of every mans goods towards the setting forth an Army into Britain anno 4. two fifteens of the Laity and two Dismes of the Clergy Poll-money of every Duke ten marks every Earle five pounds every Baron four pounds every Knight four marks of every one worth forty shillings twelve pence of every one that took wages twelve pence of every man above fifteen years old four pence anno 6. great Benevolences anno 11. a Subsidie towards his warres in Scotland anno 〈◊〉 Benevolences and great Fines upon penal Lawes 〈◊〉 ●●ghteen hundred thousand pounds left in his Treasury say the Historians but as the Lo●d Treasurer Cecil Earle of Salisbury informed King James four Millions and a halfe Divers Subsidies granted to King Henry the eighth in anno 6. of his reign and in anno 14. another Subsidie upon goods a years value for one year of all the Clergies spiritual livings a great summe of the Laity in the Parliameat following anno 25. a Subsidie of four pence per pound in goods from twenty shillings to five pound from five pounds to ten pounds eight pence from ten pounds to twenty pounds sixteen pence from twenty pounds and upwards two shillings of all strangers double of all Strangers not Inhabitants four pence a head of every one that had Lands Fees or Annuities eight pence the pound from twenty shillings to five pounds and so doubled according as they did for goods by several proportions and of the Clergy three shillings in the pound great sums of money and treasure by the confiscation of Cardinal Wolsey Anno 26. tenths and first-fruits of the Clergy formerly paid to the Popes granted unto him An. 36. a Benevolence An. 37. a Subsidie of six shillings per pound of the Clergy two shillings eight pence of the goods of the Laity and four shilligs per pound of Lands tenths of all Abby and Religious Lands reserved upon his Grants two hundred thousand pounds paid by the Clergy of the Provinces of York and Canterbury to be excused from a Praemunire and the vast and inestimable treasure in Money Plate Shrines Jewels Copes and rich moveables upon the spoil of the Abbies and Religious Houses An Ayde given by Parliament to King Edward the sixth in the 2d year of his reign of twelve pence per pound of the goods of his naturall Subjects two shillings per pound of Strangers for three years of every Ewe kept in several pastures three pence of every Weather two pence of every Sheep kept in the Commons three half pence and eight pence per pound of every woollen Cloth made for sale throughout England anno 6. Commissions given out for sale of Church goods an 7. one Subsidie and two fifteens granted by Parliament and the gain for some years made by the Coynage of Bullion sent from Sweden and returned in Merchandise One Subsidie of the Laity given to Queen Mary in anno 2. of her reign eight pence in the pound from five pounds to ten pounds from ten pounds to twenty pounds sixteen pence per pound and of all strangers double To Queen Elizabeth in anno primo a Subsidie and two fifteens of the Clergy and a tenth of the Temporalty Anno 5. a Subsidie of the Clergy and two fifteens of the Temporalty Anno 8. a Subsidie of the Clergy and a subsidie fifteenth and tenth of the Temporalty Anno 13. a Subsidie of the Clergy one subsidie two fifteenths and a tenth of the Temporalty anno 18. a subsidie of the Clergy two fifteenths and tenths of the Temporalty Anno 23. the like Annis 27. 29. the like Anno 31. two subsidies of the Clergy and three subsidies and six fifteens of the Temporalty Anno 39. three subsidies of the Clergy and Temporalty and six fifteens of the Temporalty An. 43. four subsidies of the Clergy and four subsidies and eight fifteens of the Temporalty the pawning of many of her Jewels and mortgaging divers of her Lands A Subsidie of Poundage and Tonnage Wools Woolfels and Leather anno primo Jac. two parts of Recusants Lands convicted in anno 3. four Subsidies in the pound by
the Clergy and three entire Subsidies and three Fifteenths and tenths and three hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Subsidies unpaid to Queen Elizabeth Anno 7. an Ayd to make his Son Prince Henry a Knight Anno 18. two Subsidies of the Laity and three of the Crergy Anno 21. three Subsidies and three fifteens of the Temporalty and some Subsidies of the Clergy Primo Car. primi three entire Subsides by the Spiritualty 3. Car. five entire Subsidies granted by the Spiritualty and as many by the Temporalty great sums of money raised by Ship-money and by an Act of Parliament for Poll-money pawning all his Jewels and the benefit for some years of Coynage of two hundred thousand pounds of Spanish Bullion and returning the value in English Commodities All which being great supplies and easements to the charges and burdens of our severall and successive Kings and Princes and were not without some charge in the collection would have been much greater if the people of England keeping close to a long custome of not only getting all that they can from their Kings and Common Parents but returning as little as they could of their Aydes or Thanks unto them would have permitted them to arrive to a just or true valuation or any more then a small part of what they should be content to rate one another at having by an Act of Parliament in 6. Ed. 3. obtained of the King that from henceforth all Aydes should be taxed after the old manner and not otherwise the Subsidies being most commonly rated but at two shillings eight pence in the pound for goods and four shillings in the pound for lands with consideration of debts and other diminishing circumstances and put in the Ballance and compared with that which was given to the people by the Confirmations of divers Kings and Queens of Letters Patents and Lands given therein Coronation Pardons the General Pardons of 21 Jac. those in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and of some of our later Kings and Princes for in the Reigns of many of the former they were not so frequent general or usuall The Act of Parliament of 21 Jacobi Regis for debarring the Kings Title to concealed Lands after sixty years possession where nothing within that time had been answered or paid to the Crown or was in super and the last all-surpassing Act of Indemnity and General Pardon granted by King Charles the second would be farre surmounted by those and many other beneficiall Acts of Parliament granted in every King and Princes reign of liberties and benefits to the people And were not enough or sufficient to repair the decayes of the Regal Revenues or keep them from a consumption occasioned by their vast charges of our Kings as well in times of warre as peace to keep their people in safety peace and plenty nor to cure the Revenue of a Hecticque Fever of almost 500 years continuance though some of our Kings and Princes took some parts of Trade into their own hands to supply their necessities as the Wool by King Ed. 1. Tinne by Ed. 3. that and corn by Hen. 6. and Beer transported by Queen Elizabeth and notwithstanding the care and provision of divers Parliaments to have the Crown Lands not alien'd or wasted and the care of the Laws of England that the grants of the King shall be void where he is deceived or not truly informed The Ordinance in the 21 of Richard the second that whatsoever should come to the King by Judgment Escheat Wardship or any otherwayes should not be given away That of primo King H. 4. ca. 6. that in a Petition to the King for Lands Offices or any Gift the value thereof shall be mentioned and of that also which they have had of the Kings gift or of other his Pregenitors or Predecessors before and in case it be not their Grants shall be void and repealed the Ordinance of 21 R. 2. that the Procurer of any gift should be punished continued untill 7 H. 4. untill the King should be out of debt under penalty of forfeiting the double value for moving or procuring any such suit The Statute of 4 of H. 4. cap. 4. that the King grant no Lands or other Commodities but to such as shall deserve them and if any make demand without desert he shall be punished by the Councell and not obtain his suit In 11 Hen. 4 That Petitions for any such Grants delivered to the King be examined by his Privy Councell lest the Kings wants should light upon the Commons and in 2 H. 6. That all the profits by Wards Marriages Reliefs Escheats and Forfeitures should be expended in helping to defray the charges of the Kings Houshold an account of the Kings Revenue in 1. Hen. 6. in England Ireland Wales and Aquitaine and of his charges and expences delivered into Parliament by Ralph Lord Cromwell Lord Treasurer of England and the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester and divers of the Lords of the Kings Councell appointed to consider thereof the Acts of Parliament in 18 and 43 Eliz. That the Queen should be answered for the overplus of the value of Lands granted by her Letters Patents after the rate of threescore years purchase The abating in several Kings Reigns the expences of Houshold and of their Retinue Favourites Gifts and Rewards and lessening of charges in Warre by Tenures in Capite and Knight Service Aydes to make their eldest Sonnes Knights and for the marriage of their eldest Daughters Profit of Annum diem vastum Aides and Assistances by Grand and Petit Serjeanties Aurum Reginae or something presented to the Queen in former Kings Reigns upon Grants of Lands or Estate Licences to Trade with prohibited Merchandize raising their Customes and sometimes farming out their Ships Fines upon licences of Alienation or Pardons Espargne of the Royall Revenue by the Marriages of the Heirs of the Nobility and Gentry of great Estates and transplanting and inoculating of great and Noble Families and Estates into one another not only for their good and advancement but the peace and welfare of the Kingdome and the checque which King James gave to suits and importunities at Court after that he had given away too much of his English Crown Lands to his craving Countreymen of Scotland publickly declaring what kind of Suits or Requests might be demanded of him and what he would not grant his orders to have once in every quarter of a year Certificates or Accounts of moneys issued for his Houshold Wardrobe Jewel-house Chamber Navie and Stables and his care and advice with his Privie Councel for supplies of his Revenues and regulating his expences for that the Exitus was every year by affairs troubles and cares of State disturbances and accidents often happening a great deal more then the Introitus the disbursements farre exceeding the incomes the ordinary receipts coming farre short of the ordinary disbursements and the extraordinaries very much out-going the ordinaries CHAP. III. Ruine and Decay
of the Revenues BY reason of the great charges and expences which the Kings of England were at through their severall Generations to protect and defend themselves and their people though some of them as in all other conditions and sorts of men were sound to be less provident then others and more easie to the flatteries of Courtiers or the necessities or importunities of Favourites or Followers as King Edward the second and King Richard the second sixty thousand Knights Fees or maintenance for them given away by William the Conquerour of which the Religious Houses then or in the near succeeding times came to be possessed of 28115. the yearly value of which number of Knights Fees if now they should be estimated but at ten thousand and valued but at the rate of twenty pounds per annum as they seemed to be at the making of the Statute of 1 Ed. 2. would be worth two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least of the improvement Sir Edward Coke reckoning eight hundred and others six hundred and eighty acres to a Knights Fee and others at the least allowing a large proportion would make three millions per annum sterling two hundred and eighty Manors given to Godfry Bishop of Constance which he left to his Nephew Moubray the Isle of Wight Earldome of Devon and Honour of Plimpton given by Henry the first to Richard de Ripariis or Rivers Earldome of Gloucester to Robert Fitz Henry great possessions given away by King Stephen to purchase love and fidelity the great Estates in Land which Maud the Empress was inforced to grant and her Son King Henry the second afterwards to confirme to divers of the great men and Nobility as the Earldom of Oxford to Awbrey de vere Earldome of Arundel to William de Albeney Earldome of Hereford to Miles of Gloucester and of Essex to Jeofrey Magnauile to forsake the usurping King Stephen and the great charge which those twenty years warres expended the wars of King H. 2. in France and with his own Sons there and at home and of seven and forty thousand three hundred thirty three pounds six shillings eight pence expended and given towards the warres of the Holy land great somes of gold and silver sent to the Pope charges of the voyage or expedition which King Richard the first made in person into Asia and the Holy Land and his ransome the Earldomes of Mortaigne Cornwall Dorses Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with all their great possessions being a great part of the Crown Revenues given to his brother John and a great part of the remainder sold The troubles of King John with his boisterous Barons the Stanneries Castles and Honor of Barkhamstead and County of Cornwall granted by King Hen. 3. to his Brother Richard his great warres and turmoils in the Barons warres which drove him to such wants and perplexities as he and his Queen as Matthew Paris tells us were somtimes enforced to seek their daily and necessary sustenance from Monasteries charge of endeavoring at a great rate and price though unsuccesfully to make his Son Edmond King of Sicily and furnishing his Son Edward afterwards King E. 1. with an Army to Jerusalem that of King Ed. 1. in his wars against the Scots and subduing that Kingdom the raising and advancing the unhappy Favorites Gaveston and the two Spencers Father and Son by King Edward the Second and his troubles great expences of Edward the Third in his Conquering of France the Dukedom of Cornwal and Earldoms of Chester and Flint setled upon the Black Prince his Son and the eldest Sons and Heirs of the Kings of England successively preferring of Lionel Duke of Clarence and his many other Sons restoring of Don Pedro to the Kingdom of Castile by the aid of the Black Prince the Earldom of Salisbury Isle of Man Castle and Barony of Denbigh given to Mountacute and one Thousand Marks Lands per annum besides to him and his Heirs for taking Roger Mortimer Prisoner at Nottingham Castle one thousand pounds per annum with the Town and Castle of Cambridge to William Marquess of Juliers and the Heirs of his body Honor of Wallingford and Earldome of Cornwall escheated given to John of Eltham his Brother the penalties and fines of Labourers Artificers and Servants in anno 36. of his reign given to the Commons for three years to be distributed amongst them the maintaining and humoring of severall Factions of the great Nobility by King Richard the second his voyage into Ireland and after misfortunes raising of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset and John Holland his half-Brother to be Earl of Kent and Duke of Exeter dissentions and troubles in the Reign of King Henry the fourth preferring another of the Beauforts to be Earl of Dorset and his establishment as well as he could in his own usurpations Chirk and Chirk Lands in Wales given by King Henry the fifth to Edmond Beaufort second Son of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset the charge of his Conquest of France the seeking to preserve and keep it by Henry the sixth long and bloody Factions and Warres of York and Lancaster Kendal and other great possessions given to John de Foix a Frenchman in marriage with Margaret the Sister to William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk the Earldome of Shrowsbury to the high deserving Talbot the Isles of Guarnsay and Jersey and the Castle of Bristol to Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick the charge of King Edward the fourth in his getting the Crown the Earldome of Pembroke given by him to William Lord Herbert the making of friends and parties by King R. 3. pacifying of Interests by King Hen. 7. his gifts and grants to Stanley Earl of Derby and the dying the white Rose into the Red or uniting of them the voyages and warres of King H. 8. in France preferring of Charles Brandon to be Duke of Suffolk Seymour to be Earl of Hertford Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex Thomas Manors Earl of Rutland Sir Thomas Bolein to be Viscount Rochford and Earl of Wiltshire his contest with the Pope and other great Princes large and great quantities of Religious and Ecclesiasticall Lands given away to divers of his Nobility many of whom had been the former Donors thereof and to divers of the Gentry to corroborate what he had done bring them into a better liking of that action and to be the more unwilling to leave those Lands which he had given them a remission of all debts without schedule or limitation in anno 21. of his Reign endowing six Bishopricks and Cathedrall Churches Pensions for life to many which were turned out of their Cloisters a perpetuall maintenance to the Professors of the Greek and Hebrew Tongues Civill Law Divinity and Physick in both the Universities and to twelve poor Knights at Windsor the warres of King Edward the sixth in Scotland creating of John Dudley Earl of Warwick Duke of
look like virtue and their wickedness to be successfull or been brought off when not often catched by a gentle composition or some money or recompence given to a friend at Court or Conniver are so habituated and used to cosen the King as notwithstanding the severity of our Lawes if they were let loose and not too many of them laid as they are to sleep they doe as frequently continue their practise in it as they dress themselves and put on their cloathes and can as little forbear or live without them insomuch as some having been known to have been men of an otherwise strict morality life and conversation and dealing very punctually and honestly with all men but the King can no more resist an opportunity or temptation of cozening of him then a Child at a Basket of Cherries can forbear eating of them or a Cutpurse not to be nimble in a crowd Disuse of the duties of Sheriffs and Escheators which by their then few conduit Pipes did better look after the collecting the Kings Revenues and with less trouble and charge to the King and people bring it into his Cisterns then those who being under no oath or controll are as it is to be feared by a too often respiting of the Kings debts or laying them to sleep for some years untill they be grown antient many times the occasion of their being drowned in a Generall Pardon begged by Courtiers or made to be a new discovery desperate or insolvent and by undertaking more then they should doe have to the greater charge of the King and his people disheartned and caused the more antient more diligent and powerfull Officers of the Exchequer for a great part of what belongs unto their Offices to be ineffectuall Discontinuance of the Lawes and Customes for the collecting of the Regall Revenues and the many excellent cares and orders of the Exchequer as good as any Prince in the world can have or devise for the speedy and orderly getting in issuing out and accounting for the Revenue A succession and improvement of knavery in some whom our former Kings trusted occasioned or encouraged by our warres abroad in France after 4 Edward the first for then there was an endevour of an Extenta Maneriorum and an enquiry after many of the Rights and Regalities which are not retorned or certified in Chancery nor any where else to be found but by time and the troubles thereof are lost or carried away And after the Statute of Quo warranto in 12 Ed. 1. for then also the great care and good husbandry of our Kings in preserving or improving their Revenues was not laid aside or by the troubles of King Edward the second and the irregularities of his Favourites for much about that time there began to be a quitting of the former cares of the Revenue or by our successfull warres abroad in France by Edward the third and Henry the fifth the unhappy Quarrels of the York and Lancastrian Families for almost sixty years together and the hatching or breeding of them in the unquiet and unfortunate reign of Richard the second or the short reign of Hen. 7. who had not time enough to reduce things into their former Channel but was busie in gathering the treasure which he left to his Son Henry the eighth or being newly settled in his Throne did not think it safe or seasonable to make alterations or put them into their former or better order or the great increase of Revenue as well as treasure in Money Plate and Jewels to Henry the eight by the dissolution of the Abbies and religious Houses or that the fragments not given away or disposed by him employed the bounty and munificence of his Successors Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth during their severall reigns and her many great cares and affairs of State otherwise busying her or our Halcion dayes peace and plenty in the reign of King James and a great part of the reign of King Charles the Martyr and the hearkening to pretences and erecting more Offices to hinder the cheating and knavery of others when as the proposers either by intending it at first or easily learning to imitate or exceed them did afterwards draw from the King and People more money then what their undertakings ever amounted unto and proved to be as little for the Kings good as Sir Simon Harvey's design of Reformation in the Reign of King James for the better ordering of the Expences of his House where after many dishonorable essayes and retrenchments casting many of the Kings Servants into ruine and discontents and serving some of the Tables with half a Goose instead of a whole one he could at last when he had gained a pension of five hundred pounds per annum for his own life and his wives put up all his Engines and conclude with making every thing worse then it was before And no better a husbandry then those that will feed and give wages to half a dozen Shepheards to keep a score of sheep and allow them the keeping of some of their own into the bargain and make no better a totall at the years end then the Gardner which gives entertainment to a multitude of Catterpillers in his Garden and thinks it is preserved by them the waters being ever likely to come short or but faintly when instead of fewer or greater Pipes which brought it better there shall be so many to divert or wast it in the way or passage to the Royall uses The necessity of Intelligence Leagues and Correspondency with neighbour and forraign Princes and States and the charges incident thereunto which cannot be thought to be small when as that with the house of Burgundy within the space of sixty years betwixt the reign of King Henry the sixth and the later end of the reign of Henry the eighth amounted to no less then six millions the more then formerly greater charges of sending and entertainment of Ambassadours Princely Gifts and Presents to such as come hither and the Generall Pardons at the end of severall Parliaments granted by our Kings and Princes and to the great advantage of the People of late petitioned for as a kind of custome and renumeration for some Ayds or Subsidies which came not up most commonly to a moiety of what was in every Parliament quitted and released to them The granting away in all ages many of the Royall Rights and Prerogatives to the people And in a long course and series of time like some aged parents in love to some of their children or by the importunites or designes of others giving away too much of their own Revenues and Estate and bereaving themselves of that which is now thought too little for those who have gained it from them Restorations and many times by petitions of one or both Houses of Parliament of the Lands and Estates which came to the Crown by Attainders and Forfeitures for Treason their confiscations never amounting
to the damage done by such attempts and Rebellions and the charge of suppressing them and defending themselves and their people to reconcile the Heirs Posteritie and Allies of such as had been attainted and induce them to a better obedience and love of their Country The no small charges susteined heretofore by granting yearly Pensions or Annuities to severall of the Nobility to serve extraordinary besides the ordinary duty of their Tenures with certain numbers of gens d' armes and Bowmen in times of warre or upon necessity the building and endowing of many Colleges and Halls in the Universities Eaton and Winchester Schools and endowing with great yearly Revenues the Famous Hospitalls of Bridewell and Christ-Church in London and St. Thomas in Southwark building and endowing a great part of the Cathedrals in England the Castle and Chappel of Windsor and Palaces of Sheene Woodstock Richmond repair of the Tower of London Castle of Dover c. Charges for the honour of the King and Kingdome in making and installment of Knights of the Garter and the costly ceremonies thereof and not seldome sending Ambassadours with it to forraign Princes expences in making of Knights of the Bath and in the reign of our more antient Kings for Furres and rich Vestments in making Knights Bachelors Charge of the Courts of Justice and Circuits to preserve the peoples Rights Properties and Liberties protect them from injuries and punish the transgressors now taking away yearly from the regal Revenue fifteen or sixteen thousand pounds per ann which in honester and cheaper times was in the Reign of Henry the sixth as much as worshipfully defrayed as the Record saith the expences of his then no small retinue and houshold with the greater charges now more then formerly in all other the necessaries and affairs belonging to the Kingly Office A daily and almost hourly distribution and giving of Royall favours and munificence and necessity of much of it when as that which amongst private men is accounted providence thrift and good husbandry would be an unbecoming sparing in Princes and an avarice and temptation to oppress the people and that which in others would be prodigality or a wast and consumptions of their Estates and reckoned as a folly is in Kings and Princes most necessary in their bounties and favours wherewith to satisfie and keep in quiet as well as they can multitudes of people whose numberless passions iniquities ill humors designs necessities and interests are by the Sword of Justice in one hand and the Royal Scepter of grace and Benevolence in the other to be kept in order by love honor obedience and loyalty the best increasers maintainers and preservers of publick peace and tranquility which those who have suffered in the want of it but some daies or moneths or a year or few years or our last twenty years folly and miseries may know how to esteem and value A dayly or very often craving and petitioning of some or many of his Subjects and the largeness of a royal heart and hand like an over indulgent Parent taking a pleasure and content to divest himself to enrich and give them content The vast difference betwixt the charges of Navies and Armies now more then formerly when a Hobler or Dragoon Horseman which was wont to be heretofore hired at three pence per diem now hath no less then two shillings six pence a Footman eight pence the pay of a Troop of horse cannot be under four thousand pounds per annum and of one hundred and eighty men in a Garrison three thousand six hundred pounds per annum The course of warre i● the later ages growing more and more tedious and chargeable and so immense as the Dutch notwithstanding their sout gelt or Tax upon salt their vectigal frumenti for corn grinded at their Mills the eighth part of the price of Pears and Apples a seventh of all Cattel sold to the Butchers an eighth for wood a Tax upon Candles and an Ezcise upon all things eaten drunk or worn upon Law Suits Servants Wages Ships Coaches and Carts a sixth penny upon all lease Lands Assessments upon demeasne Lands Gardens and planted Grounds an eighth upon Houses demised or let hooft gelt being a Dutch Floren for every poll or head scoors●engelt a like payment for Chimney money with many other great Taxes besides their many profitable and succesfull depredations in the East and West Indies c. great aides from France and England of men and money for many years during their warres great riches got by the greatest commerce of Christendom and ransacking Sea and Land for it have been in sixty years warres with Spain left very much in debt at the end of the warres And are yet notwithstanding since the warres ended some millions of money in debt and so much as they were for many years after and are yet enforced to continue their Excise and most of their Assessments and Taxes upon the people When the King of Spain notwithstanding his vast Dominions twenty millions of Duckets which is above six millions of our sterling money yearly Revenues great exactions and impoverishing of his people by yearly Taxes and Assessments the golden Mines of Peru Mexico and Potozi and other inestimable treasures of the West Indies which P●●hero a Spanish Ambassadour in a brag or vie with the treasurie of Venice could say had no bottom and having the Sun for its Lord Treasurer daily to generate and increase its gold hath yearly for many years yeilded the Crown of Spain by and out of the Fifths sometimes ten and sometimes fifteen millions of gold and so much as in the year 1638. two hundred and sixty millions of gold did by the Records of the Custome-house of Sivill appear to have been in seventy four years then last past brought from the West Indies into Spain and from Potozi in nine years inclusivè from 1574. to 1585. one hundred and eleven millions of silver hath notwithstanding with his wars with the Dutch and a warr of late years with France chargeable bribes and intelligences and a thirst after an universal Monarchy consumed that and all that he could borrow besides from the Bankers of Genoa And France with all her Taxes and Gabells beggering and very much enslaving of her common people hath in a warre of thirty years last past with the Spaniards fought it self almost off its legs and into a consumption Which a long and late experience may forbid our wondring at when as the late long pretending but no performing Parliament could with the spoils of the Kings and Churches Revenues the Estates of the Nobility Gentry and good people in England Scotland and Ireland and more Taxes and burdens imposed by them and Oliver their man of sin in twenty years then our Kings of England in five hundred years last past all put together had before laid upon them could not leave their Oliver when their sins and his tricks had made him to be
their Master any more then three hundred thousand pounds sterling in Cash and ready money and that with that and such of the Royall Revenues as they left him and those vast Spoils Rapines Taxes Assessments and pillage of all that were not as bad as himself and his Predecessor Common-wealth Contrivers in the three Kingdomes of England Ireland and Scotland which amounted unto above forty millions he was not able in a few years wars with the Dutch and Spaniards to bring about his expences support the Protection as he called it of the people with it but died above three millions in debt which the debts of our famous King Edward the third and Henry the fifth who conquered France and the most of our indebted Kings never amounted unto When our English Kings and Princes having never received of the people by their Aides and Subsidies the twentieth penny towards their expences in the preservation of them and the honor peace plenty of the Kingdom could never do as the Field Marshals Stadt Holders or Generals in Commonwealths have done or as the late Princes of Orange did for severall successions in Holland and the united Provinces receive great allowances and Sallaries keep and greatly improve and increase their own Revenues and make the Publick bear and defray its vast charges as well in warres as the cares and defence of peace in the absence of it but did bear and sustein the brunt of all that was not extraordinary and the charge of many a warre abroad and suppressing of insurrections and rebellions at home out of their own Estates and Revenues and made many a hard shift even to the pawning of their Jewels and mortgaging of their Lands without an often calling to the People for Subsidies or other Aids or Assistance to preserve them and their Estates and Posterities Nor took to themselves the liberty which many Subjects doe to put into their Accounts and Bills of charges to their Princes their Damnum emergens damage happening by any service done for him or their Country and many times their Lucrum cessans gain or improvement lost though every mans particular in the defence of their King and Country is involved in the generall that the service was not altogether or immediately done or tendred to him or for the preservation of him or his Estate only and Posterity but as much if not more for their own concernments and think themselves to be ill dealt with if they be not speedily and abundantly rewarded To help on which consumption of the Royal Revenues came also the great charges which King Charles the first upon whom the decay of the Royal Revenues occasioned by the necessities and indulgences of his Predecessors at once falling might have made him crie out with King Henry the third as the Monk of St. Albans relates it seducor undique mutilatus sum Rex et abbreviatus was at in leagues and confederacies with forreign Princes maintaining Armies in the Palatinate and Germany aiding the Kings of Bohemia Denmark and Sweden engaging in a warre against Spain and sending a great Fleet and Army to invade him great expences in sending a Navy and Army to the Isle of Rhe and two others to aid the Rochellers to furnish part of which for it amounted to a great deal more he sold at once at too easie rates to the City of London above twelve thousand pounds Land per annum rent of Assize the payment of fifty thousand pounds per annum Pensions aud Annuities out of the Exchequer as it was industriously computed by that factious party of Common woe contrivers to diverse of the Scottish Nation many of whom did afterwards joyn with his enemies to ruine him the great and necessary yearly Pensions and Annuities paid to the King and Queen of Bohemia and their children charges of going with a great Army to the Borders of Scotland against the Covenanting Scots and maintaining another in England with the payment of 120000l principall money borrowed by his Father of divers Citizens of London with interest at 8. per cent Which with the many great cares troubles wants and necessities which compassed him in on every side whilst his great virtues for want of necessary supplies of money and treasure were not able to support or bear him up against the storms of an hideous Rebellion escape the snares and pursuit of a rebellious party or scour and cleanse that Augaean Stable which had ruined and weakned his Revenues made him a glorious Martyr for the Laws and Liberties of England and those that were the causers of it the great Examples of a Divine Justice overtaking them And enforced him to leave his troubles to descend upon his Son our most gratious Soveraign Charls the Second with a small and despoyled Revenue which by its fluidness and the gnawing and deflux of time was as to his Crown Lands brought almost to an Exinanition and his casuall and other receipts bearing no more proportion to his expences and disbursements then a Dwarfe or Pigmey doth to a Giant or Poliphemus could doe no less then bring the remainder of that little which was left into a Tabes and almost incurable consumption when there is so great a difference betwixt the rates of provisions and livelyhood and all manner of things bought or used in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and what is now paid for them when he is at greater expences then any of his Progenitors and a less receiver receives at the old rate and buyes at the new his demeasn Lands besides his Pastures at Cresl●w in Buckinghamshire which were hertofore imployed for the keeping of some Oxen for his household provisions and his parks and some adjacent Grounds to his Houses of residence and all his Land and certain Revenues are not above reprizes one hundred thousand pounds per annum and two parts of three of that consisting in Fee Farm Rents which admit of no improvement when his Customes which should now amount to as much or more then what they were in his late Majesties Reign by the addition of an Excise amounting to one hundred and forty thousand pounds per an now yeilds not near so much as it did formerly the Excise of Ale and Beer ill collected o● so chargeable in the gathering of it as it yeilds little more then the half of what the Parliament estimated and intended it to be great yearly Revenues Inheritances in Lands given to men of high deservings both of him and the Kingdom all the Confiscations of the late Traitors of a great yearly value with the benefit of the Post-Office Wine Lycences and many discoveries of personall Estates due to the King given to his Brother the Duke of York to make him a Princely Revenue When his ordinary expences doe so much exceed his ordinary receipts and his extraordinaries are six or seven to one of his ordinaries is sixteen hundred thousand pounds in debt spends more then as much again
all wast Lands Commons belonging to the Kings Queens and Princes revenues in England and Wales allotting equall and reasonable proportions for satisfaction of Commoners and by disafforrestation of some Forrests and Chases remote from London or the Kings ordinary Residences the imbanking and taking in of all Lands infra fluxum refluxum Maris high and low watermarks derelicted and forsaken by the Sea or brought thither by Alluvion and added to the firme Land and together with the Lands and Revenues now belonging to the Crown of England never to be aliend rent-charged or leased more then for 21 years or three lives which besides the addition of revenues and profit to the King will very much adde to the livelyhood and industry of many of the people who will be maintained thereby better the Lands and increase subsidies when there shall be occasion And causing the like to be done by a generall inclosure of all that now lies wast and in common in particular and private mens Revenues in England and Wales amounting to some millions of Acres will produce the like benefits to the owners and Commoners who in a gratefull acknowledgement thereof may out of their severall allotments as freewill-offerings to their King pay yearly three pence per Acre to him and his Heirs and Successors That Banks or Mount Piete's be erected in several places of England and Wales as at London York Durham Golchester Norwich Ludlow Denbigh where mony may be lent and Pawns or Securities taken not exceeding the Interest of twelve per cent for a year or proportionably for greater or lesser times and that Commissioners in the manner of a Corporation or otherwise may in every of those places be from time to time appointed by his Majesty his Heires and Successors to order and supervise the management thereof for which his Majesty his Heires and Successors may out of the increase and profit of the said Interest receive and take forty shillings per cent no one particular person being permitted to imploy or put into the said Bank at interest above the sum of five hundred pounds and that no private or particular person putting their monies into the said Bank shall have and receive above the sum of the current or usual Interest in the Kingdom or any other gift or reward whatsoever whereby the intollerable oppression of publick and private Brokers those Baptizati Judaei and Pawn-takers which like Wolves gnaw and devour the poor as sheep when as driven to them by their necessities they are inforced to come to them for succour and give after the rate of fifty or sixty per cent which the hate of Jews to Christians never arrived to and a Christian and Protestant Kingdome ought not to countenance That by sumptuary Lawes concerning Apparrel to be worn by all degrees and orders of people the excess thereof may be regulated and abated with great penalties to the infringers thereof which Athens Sparta and Rome being heathen Common-wealths and England heretofore by sundry good Laws and Statutes unhappily repealed in anno 21 Jac. Spain by Pragmatico's and France by a late Reiglement have found to be an universall good and the Common-wealth of Venice held it to be necessary Nè civium patrimonia nimia intemperantia abliguriantur to keep their Citizens from wasting and spending their Estates being Laws now more then ever wanting in England when as that which wil quickly undo private or particular Families which by their universality do make a Kingdome is so frequent and every where almost to be found in a daily practise and pursuit of pride and that cheating one another to maintain it is the most of the peoples cares and consciences every house almost as to the excess of their vanities and expences beyond their Estates hath a Mark Anthony and Cleopatra in it and too many men and women though not so good or well able to bear it as King William Rufus doe think their clothes not costly enough many of the Nobility and Gentry have wasted and spent themselves almost quite out of themselves and left themselves little more then their Titles and Pedigrees The Citizens doe all they can to our-doe them infolly the Farmers Yeomanry and Countrymen all they can to overtake them and the Servants to come as near as they can to their Masters Ladies or Mistresses And they that first spend themselves to nothing or very near it are like to quit the race to those that come after and they which come last to the brink of ruining their fortunes which will be probably the common and lower ranks of the people are likely to learn by those that ruined themselves before them to stay where they left be Masters of the others Estates And that such as shall wear any habits or kinds of Apparrel forbidden be rated in all publick Assessments according to the estate and quality of such persons as are allowed to wear the like that whosoever shall not be of the degree and quality to keep a Coach or live in the Country not farre distant from the Parish Church and keepeth one shall forfeit and pay 5. l. for every year in which he shall so keep it that the Justices of Peace in every Country be the Collectors of all the penalties concerning Apparel Habits and keeping of Coaches and to have a ●ourth part of the forfeitures upon the receipt conviction or recovery thereof that the Masters and Mistresses of Servants trangressing that Act shall out of the wages due to such Servants pay and answer every of the penalties forfeited by the Servants not exceeding their said wages and stop and detain the same and for their care therein have and receive to their own use one third part in four to be divided of the said penalties and that the residue of all the said penalties ordained and forfeited by the said Act shall be collected and answered to the use of the King and his Heirs and Successors Whereby that grand improvement of all Sins and Wickedness which hath now overspread the Kingdome that consumption of Estates and destruction of good Manners And that high unparralleld and inordinate excess of Apparel and pride which being the canker of all honesty and virtue ruined Rome the Conqueror and Mistress of all the World and as Histories have told us never failed to undo many other Kingdoms permitting or allowing it which our Ancestors and former inhabitants of England would have abhorred and blushed at may be restrained and those sinfull necessities and plenty of all manner of knaveries dishonesties Cheatings and villanies to maintayne it depressed and extinguished which the book of God danger of Sinne Hell and Damnation and all that can be said and done by the Bishopps Ministers Preachers and men of holy Church without the assistance of such sumptuary Lawes can never as experience hath sufficiently told us be able to beat downe extirpate or lessen Which the pretended loss of the Kings Customes by Silkes
them that the Church-wardens or Governours of every Parish as is usually done in Holland where by their excellent orders and care of their Poor very few are to be seen either wandring or miserable may upon poverty happening to any Family or the death of a Father or Mother of children goe or send to their houses as the Commissioners de aflictis at Amsterdam usually do lift up the broken hearted and enquire what are their necessities or what there is to maintain them and accordingly make provision for them by relieving the aged sick or impotent providing work for such as are able and putting out of children at fitting ages to be Apprentices or to service or some other imployments wherein we may well hope for those good effects which the like courses in France by the erecting of the Hospitals de dieu or other Hospitals in or about Paris have lately assured that the encrease and decrease of the poor in every Parish and the Collections and Assessments for them and Legacies and charitable uses given to the poor be yearly certified to the Clerk of the Peace of every City County at the Quarter Sessions to be holden after Michaelmas to be by him entred into fair Books with Calenders and Tables fitted thereunto publickly read before the Justices at the next Quarter Sessions after to the end that the Justices there assembled may duly consider thereof and make such further orders and Provisions as shall be fitting and requisite And that when the English Captives at Algier shall be released and no more likely to be in that condition the one pound per cent granted by Act of Parliament for that purpose or the like allowance and proportion for seven years to be allowed out of the Custome-house may be imployed to relieve and make a stock for the Poor of England And in regard that such as sue at Law in forma pauperis notwithstanding all the cares which have been hitherto taken by the Courts of Justice in assigning them Counsel and Attornies and ordering that no Fees should be taken they doe for want of money and those cares and diligences which are only purchased and procured by mony many times but tire themselves to no purpose and after many years expence of time and labour in trudging to and fro with their foul and tatered Bundles and Papers wither away die in the hopes of that which for want of a due assistance and vigorous prosecution they could never bring to pass That an Utter-Barrister or Councellor at Law be once in every three years appointed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being and to continue for that time and no longer in the high Courts of Chancery and the Courts of Kings Bench Exchequer and Dutchy of Lancaster and a Sergeant at Law in the Court of Common-pleas to be for the like time nominated and appointed by the Lord chief Justice of the Court of Common-pleas for the time being to be of councell assistant for all rights and duties of men and women suing in forma pauperis and as Counsel to assist and help the poor of the respective places in the prosecution and recovery of all Legacies and charitable uses given to them or penalties given or ordained by any Statute to be had or levied for their use or any Parish collections and assessements withheld from them for which they shall take no Fees but in a reasonable manner upon the recovery thereof or end of the said Suits And for their better encouragement may in all the Courts of Justice of this kingdom according to their said several nominations and appointments as well Superior as Inferior have a prae audience in those other causes next to the Councel learned of the Kings and Queens of England and the Prince or Heir apparent That in every County and City there be a publick Work-house to imploy the Poor in the manufacture of Woollen or Linnen cloth making fishing Nets or other Manufacture and that for their better encouragement they may as they doe in Holland after a competent number of hours in every day imployed in the work of the Publick be allowed two hours in a day to work for their own advantage notwithstanding that their lodgings diet and fitting apparrel be defrayed out of the Publick and that the Governours thereof may for their encouragement have the benefit and liberty of Exportation and Importation of any the said commodities without any Custome to be paid for the same upon the Certificate of the next Justice of Peace of such County or City upon the oath of every such Governour that the said quantities to be exported were made or wrought at the said publick Workhouse and upon the oath of such Governour that the commodities imported are to be imployed and used only in the said publick Workhouse And that the kindred of Poor living in any part of England and Wales not taking almes or overburdned with poverty may be sought out and enforced to a reasonable contribution according to their abilities towards the maintenance or providing for such Poor and decayed as within the eighth degree are of their own blood and lynage and where it may be put them into such a way of living as may exempt them from the fate of common servants or people taking almes or from being placed in common Workhouses that by such means and provisions to be made for the Poor which our Acts of Parliament and the careless and many times purloyning Collectors and Overseers of the Poor in severall Parishes have not yet performed And that all Nobility Gentlemen and others excepting such whose constant and necessary attendance upon the persons of the King Queen or Prince shall not permit the same having an Estate of Lands of Inheritance of the yearly value of one hundred pounds per annum or more above reprises and their houses of residence in any Parish of England or Wales not keeping their Christmas in the said house or Parish shall at every of the said Feasts pay unto the Poor of the said parish the sum of forty shillings or proportionably according to that rate of his or their Lands lying or being in the said Parish besides their other payments to the Poor collected and assessed in the said Parish That so the multitude of Beggars in England may no more be a Byword amongst other Nations that there may be no complaining in our streets nor such dismall and sad spectacles as the leprous blind lame and aged people and young children crying out for bread and ready to starve for want of food or clothing nor so many counterfeits or tricks to make an ill use of charities to uphold their lazy and ugly condition of life That the Clerks of the Peace and Assizes and every Justice of Peace shall take their oathes not to release or discharge or respite any Fines Issues Recognizances and Amerciaments forfeited due to the King
but carefully and duly estreat and certifie them every half year into the Exchequer in the Terms of Easter and St. Michael which the example of Hengham a Judge in the Reign of King Edward the first who for reducing an Amerciament or Fine of thirteen shillings four pence to six shillings eight pence in favour and pitty of a poor man was grievously fined and ordered to provide at his own charge the great Clock at Westminster may perswade them not to violate That the Ballance and In and Out of forraign Trade may be observed and reduced into Books to be yearly brought into the Exchequer but not with Blanks fair Seals Covers and Labels as they have used to be to little purpose That the more to encourage Merchants to an honest accompt and payment of their Customes to the King and to deal better with him it may be enacted that where any Ships of any Merchants and their goods and lading shall be taken in times of hostility with any other Prince so as it be not by the carelesness and neglect of the Merchants in carrying prohibited goods or the Captain or owner of the Ships in not making so good a defence or not arming or providing themselves so well as they ought the losses of such Merchants and shipowners duely estimated and proved before the Judges of the Admiralty shall be refunded out of the next Prizes which shall be taken from that Nation Prince or Enemy that took it the accustomed allowances to the Lord high Admiral and others first deducted That the wages of Servants now trebled more then what it was twenty years agone and of Labourers and Workmen very much increased by reason of the intollerable and unbecomming pride of clothes now in fashion amongst them by licence and imitation of times of pride disobedience disorder and rebellion and the folly of some of their Masters and Mistresses enjoyning them to wear clothes too high for them may be limited and ordered to be as they were before these last twenty years that every Master or Mistress that giveth more shall forfeit double the value to the King and that no Servant who hath formerly served in any other place be received or taken into service without a certificate or testimony of their good behaviour from their Maister or Mistress where they last served if they shall not appear to be unreasonable or for malice or any sinister ends to deny the same That the Tenths of all the Fishing in the British or English Seas by Barks or Busses now beginning to be instituted and taken into consideration which in part was intended to be had by King Edward the sixth upon the coasts of Wales Ireland and Baltimore by building a Fort or Castle upon the streight to command as Captain John Smith relates in his discourse of the benefits of Fishing in our English Seas a tribute for Fishing and if industry fail not is like if we but imitate the Hollanders who have hitherto enjoyed that which was none of their own and enriched themselves by our carelesnes to grow up to a great and not to be estimated National profit be paid and accompted for to the King and his Heirs and Successors who may well deserve it when as besides his Soveraignty of the Sea and the guard and protection of them by his Navie and Shipping he hath of late in the midst of his own wants and necessities for the better encouragement of his people to seek their own good and that which our British Seas will plentifully afford them given all his Customs inward and outward for any the returns to be made by the sale of Fish in the Baltick Seas Denmark and France for seven years for the first entrance into the Trade of Fishing That the rivers in England and Wales not yet navigable and fit to be made navigable may by a publick purchase of the Mills or Wears standing upon them and pulling down the Wears Kiddels hindring it attempted in the Reigns of King Henry the third and Edward the third by several Statutes made for the taking of them away be made navigable and a reasonable Toll or Custome upon every Vessell and Fraight paid to the King his Heirs and Successors That for the better support of our Nobility and the honours which they enjoy and that as starres in our firmament they may be able to attend the Sun their Soveraign and not suffer such Eclypses in their Estates and Revenues as too many have lately done that the Lions which should guard the Thrones of our Kings may not pine away or languish and the stately columns and pillars thereof moulder into ruins and decay and have small or unbecoming Estates to maintain them in the splendor of their Ancestors and the Royal Revenue not to be troubled or lessened by suits or requests to supplie them they may according to the intent and custome of the Fewdall Laws and the locality which ought to be in Earldoms and Baronies not be without some honorary possessions which was so usual and frequent in England as through the three first Centuries after the Conquest the Lands belonging to Earldomes and Baronies were accompted to be parcels and members thereof and the word Honor so comprehensive as it conteined and comprised all the Lands belonging thereunto as well as the Earldomes Baronies and Title which did in sundry of of our former Kings reigns grants pass and comprehend the Land as well as the Titles And that according to that laudable and ever to be imitated example of Thomas late Earl of Arundel and Surrey in obtaining an Act of Parliament in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr for the annexing of divers Baronies and Lands to the Castle and Earldome of Arundel inseparable and unalienable in contemplation of the poverty and small Estates of the then Lord Stafford and some other of the antient English Nobility wetherbeaten and wasted by the injuries of time or the luxuries and carelesness of their Ancestors The Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons and Baronets of England leaving some other Lands to their own disposing for the preferring of younger children payment of debts and supply of necessities which accidents may cast upon them may be ordered to settle annex by like Acts of Parliament the Capita Baroniarum and chief Castles Manors and Lands belonging to their Earldomes Baronies or Estates competent and sufficient to keep up and sustain the honour and dignity thereof from the gripes or defilements of poverty and Adversities not to be aliened or separated from their Earldomes Baronies or Dignities as long as it shall please God to continue them That the antient use of the Exchequer be restored and the Kings revenues carefully collected and answered and that the Justices in Eyre of the Kings Forrests and Chases on this side and beyond Trent Clerkes of the Market and Commissioners and Clerks of the Commissioners of Sewers do duely certifie into the
and paid into such hands as they shall appoint and such part thereof not exceeding the sum of two hundred thousand pounds be destributed by his Majesty to the suffering and Loyal English who took Armes for him or his Royal Father and never deserted their Loyalty or to their Wives and Children surviving them as his Majesty under his sign Manual shall direct and some other part of the said moneys not exceeding the sum of one hundred thousand pounds arising out of the said Assessements be imployed for satisfaction without allowance for Interest which should not be for wickedness or sinfull contracts of such Wives and Children of Purchasers or the Purchasers of Purchasers which have yet received no satisfaction according to his Majesties Declarations by the Bishops Deanes and Chapters or Prebends or out of his Majesty or his Royal Mother the Queens Revenues or which have not been Purchasers by false Debenturs and the other remaining undisposed moneys as aforesaid of the said two years Taxe to be and remain to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors as a sacred Patrimony unalienable to be annexed inseparably to the Crown of England not to be Leased or Rent charged further then for one or two Lives or one and twenty years That after the end of five years next ensuing there be another monthly Tax or Subsidy of 120000 l. more for two whole years then next ensuing to be raised as aforesaid and disposed of by such as the Parliament shall appoint for his Majesties use of which if his Majesty shall please there may also be issued by Warrant under his Majesties sign Manual such moneys as his Majesty shall think fitting not exceeding the sum of two hundred thousand pounds to be imployed for the further relief of such of the Loyal suffering party in England for his Majesty or his late Royal Father as his Majesty shall appoint and that the residue of the monys to be collected and raised by the said monethly Tax or Assessement for two whole years be as soon as conveniently it may laid out and disposed for the purchasing of an honorable Revenue in Land for the King his Successors unalienable as aforesaid and to no other use or purpose which they that could pay as much and a great deal more to uphold a Slavery may be better contented to pay to establish a redemption and freedom And that after the end of three years next after the said two years there be a like monethly Tax gathered and collected for two whole years next ensuing to be disposed of by such as the Parliament shall appoint for the buying of an honorable and Princely Revenue in Lands of inheritance for the King and his Heirs and Successors never to be aliend from the Crown of England other then as aforesaid And although it may seem to be a great sum of mony in the Total to be raised out of the people yet it being the more probable and easie way and a great deal more necessary then what hath been done for worser ends and occasions and being to be born by so many Cities Towns Counties and people as are to contribute thereunto in several yeers and with several respirations will the eby not onely free them from many of the like publike Taxes and Assessements hereafter and save them in their purses and estates as much or more then that will amount unto by some good Laws and provisions to be made for the freeing of them from many of the gripings and oppressions of one another but entail our happiness and a greater then formerly freedom quiet and safety upon themselves and their posterity For there was is and ever will be a necessity of power strength and riches to be in a King that intends either to protect or make happy himself and his people as well as to have their love and affection and though David when he was in his private condition could before he was King of Israel rescue a Lamb of his flock slay a Lyon and a Bear and with a sling and a peeble stone kill the dreadful Goliah and that Nathan the Prophet no flatterer but a man of God had after he was a King said unto him The Lord is with thee and brought him a message from God that His house and Kingdom and throne should be established for ever yet neither he nor his subjects the men of Judah and Israel could believe him or themselves to be in any condition of safety without his mighty men of war Militia Captaines of thousands and Captains over hundreds nor did son Solomon after God had given him a large and understanding heart and a portion of wisdom beyond that which ever was granted to mankind with a promise likewise of riches and honor suppose it to be any policy to neglect his Tributes and Presents the improvement and well ordering of his Revenues and putting an honorable order in his houshold to build Cities of Store and Cities for his Chariots and Cities for his Horsemen and a Navy of Ships in Ezion Geber and send them to Ophir to fetch Gold Nor can it be certainly for the good and safety of the people to do by their earthly King who untied the chains and fetters of their folly restored them to their Laws and Liberties and as a balm of Gilead cured and healed the wounds of those that never could do it themselves Nor accord well with their gratitude or the many protestations and promises which they made of sacrificing their lives and fortunes and all that they had in order to his happiness Or with the repentance and satisfaction which makes repentance efficacious of those that were the causes of his twelve years misery and affliction greater longer and sharper then any of his own hundred and eight Royal Progenitors ever endured enough to have turned his youth into the gray hairs and infirmities of an old and decrepit age To doe by him as they doe by their heavenly King take get and receive all they can from him but return as little as they may for it or by the earth their common feeder and nourisher in their lifetimes and the receiver and entertainer of them at their deaths by making furrows on her back and enforcing it to serve all their designs and business and for all her fruits and kindness doe not so well by her as the Heathen who could sacrifice to Tellus and Ceres but think they do enough if in the moneths of April and May they shall be pleased to admire her beauty and beat Harvest well contented to fill their Barns with her bounty And will be as likely to be for their good as for children to have their parents so poor and impotent as not to be able to protect them or for those that are to go a Sea Voyage to have the ships ill or not at all victualled or to adventure in a War or Garrison when the Commander in chief or the General upon whose wisdom valour strength and conduct the