did not expect and hesitating much without giving any satisfactory account of what was demanded he was cast into chains and punish'd according to the hainousness of the offence Mer. And may all the Manlii amongst us be alike confounded Next Sir I cannot approve of the liberty men take of publishing their private sentiments which are generally grounded upon nothing but conjecture and Enthusiastical follies Trav. Certainly nothing would conduce more to our quiet than that the liberty of the press should be restrain'd But since it is not our business to look into those liberties which we enjoy so much as into those which we want let us leave the consideration of these and many other such things to our prudent Governours I shall only note this one thing by the way that since the Act of Habeas Corpus I think I may confidently affirm that even at this time when there is so much danger of a pretended slavery the Subjects of England enjoy a greater liberty than was known to any of our Ancestors before us Pray therefore proceed to the second consideration which is our properties Mer. That is wholly unnecessary for all the world knows that whatsoever we possess is so secured by the Laws of the Land that the King himself doth not pretend in prejudice of those Laws which indeed are his own Laws to touch the least Chattel that belongs to us nor can any Tax be impos'd but such as shall be granted by Act of Parliament which is the very Government that our Author so much approves And in a word Plato himself has clear'd this point telling us p. 127 That the people by the fundamental Laws that is by the constitution of the Government of England have entire freedom in their lives properties and their persons neither of which can in the least suffer but according to the Laws And to prevent any oppression that might happen in the execution of these good Laws which are our Birthright all Trials must be by twelve men of our equals and in the next page lest the King 's Soveraign authority might be urg'd as a stop to the execution of those Laws he tells us That neither the King nor any by authority from him hath any the least power or jurisdiction over any English man but what the Law gives him And if any person shall be so wicked as to do any injustice to the life liberty or estate of any Englishman by any private command of the Prince the person aggriev'd or his next of kin if he be Assassinated shall have the same remedy against the offender as he ought to have had by the good Laws of the Land if there had been no such command given Now dear Cousin in the name of sense and reason where can be the fault and distemper of our Government as it relates to the ease and priviledge of the Subject if this be the constitution of it as at least our Author himself affirms Trav. Faith Sir I could never find it out nor any man else that ever I could meet withal And what is still stranger our great Platonick Physician hath not vouchsafed to give us any one particular instance in what part our disease lyes notwithstanding he alarms us with dismal news of being dead men and that without such a strange turn of Government as his pregnant Noddle hath found out we are ruin'd for ever 'T is true he tells us that the property being in the hand of the Commoners the Government must necessarily be there also and for which the Commoners are tugging and contending very justly and very honourably which makes every Parliament seem a present state of war Mer. But Sir if it be true that we enjoy all those benefits and blessings before mentioned that the Government it self secures these properties inviolably to us which we know to be most certain without the testimony of Plato or any man else what then does this tugging concern us or what relation has it to our happiness which is already as great as we can wish it to be Must the enjoyment of our properties put us into a state of war Must our health become our disease and our fatness only make us kick against our masters what can this contention for Government signifie more than ambition and what could their success produce less than Tyranny should the House of Commons become our masters what could they bestow upon us more than we already enjoy except danger and trouble And what can our present Government take from us except the fears of those fatal consequences which such a popular innovation would induce Let then the property be where it will and if we possess it securely we are the happier for it Trav. Your reasons are too plain and strong to be resisted I shall quit therefore this point and inform you how our Author seems in many places to insinuate that the want of frequent and annual Parliaments is the cause of our distemper and that calling a Parliament every year might prove a pretty cure according to a certain Act in the time of Edward the first and that then instead of hopping upon one leg we might go limping on upon three Mer. Faith Cousin you are now gotten out of my reach and you must answer this your self I can only proceed according to my former rule which is that if we be as happy as we can be a Parliament cannot make us more Trav. That answer is I think sufficient to satisfie any reasonable man However we will speak somewhat more particularly concerning this matter as we find it recorded in History Our Author informs us in p. 110. That by our Constitution the Government was undeniably to be divided between the King and his Subjects which by the way is undeniably and notoriously false for according to our ancent Constitution as well under the Saxon as our Norman Kings the Government or the right of Power was originally and solely in our Kings And that divers of the great men speaking with that excellent Prince King Edward the first about it called a Parliament and consented to a Declaration of the Kingdoms right in that point So there passed a Law in that Parliament that one should be held every year and oftner if need be The same he confirms in p. 159. and in other places Now Sir if after these fine Speeches by those great men whom undoubtedly our Author could have named to this excellent Prince it should happen at last that there was no such Act during the Reign of Edward the first what would you think of our Author Merch. In troth Sir it would not alter my opinion for I already believe him to be an impudent magisterial Impostor Trav. I fear indeed he will prove so for except he hath found in his politick search some loose paper that never yet came into our Statute books we must conclude that he is grossly mistaken For the first Act that is extant of that kind was in the
Fourth of Edward the Third and the words of it are these It is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year once and more often if need be Now Sir you must observe that this Act was made whilst the King was but Nineteen years of age and both himself and Kingdom under the care of Twelve Governours His Mother Queen Isabel and Roger Mortimer very powerful the Governours of the Pupil King divided amongst themselves and many other pressing affairs of the Nation oblig'd most people to propose that expedient of frequent Parliaments as the most probable means to secure the peace and prosperity of the Kingdom at least until the King should come of riper years and thereby many differences be reconciled After this in the Thirty sixth year of his Reign he called a Parliament and wanting money as generally he did the Parliament would grant nothing until an Act passed for maintenance of former Articles and Statutes there expressed And that for redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by Statute These are the two Statutes intended by our Author when he tells us that the Statute of Edward the first was confirmed by that glorious Prince Edward the third Whereas in truth they were both made by the same King and both in a great measure revoked in his own time Having declared after the making this last Act that he yielded to it only to serve his own turn This Sir is the matter of Fact upon which our Author builds his great pretensions to the old constitutions of Annual Parliaments The first Act was made whilst the King was very young the second when he wanted money and had Twenty six shillings and eight pence granted him upon every sack of wool transported for three years And both first and second Acts were broken by several intermissions before he died Besides we must make this remark that a Parliament seldom met without giving the King some money which might encourage those Kings to assemble them oftner than lately they have done But the truth is Annual Parliaments were lookt upon as so great a grievance to the Nation that we find that about the Tenth year of Richard the Second his Successor it was thought a great Prerogative in the King that he might call a Parliament once a year And both Houses appointed the Duke of Glocester and Thomas Arundell Bishop of Ely to acquaint the King that by an old Statute the King once a year might lawfully summon his Court of Parliament for reformation of corruptions and enormities within the Realm And if we consider with our selves we shall find that if yearly Parliaments were imposed upon us they would become grievances equally insupportable as to have no Parliaments at all For if the Knights Citizens and Burgesses be chosen out of the Countrey Gentlemen and Merchants inhabiting those Countries where they are elected as sure they ought to be what inconvenience if not ruin must it bring upon their affairs when they shall be forced to run every year a hundred or two hundred Miles from their particular domestick affairs to serve in a formal Parliament in which it may be the greatest business will be to make business for the next Indeed for idle persons who live about Town and have nothing to do but to scrible knavish politicks to the disturbance of honest men such a constitution might do well enough if they could get to be chosen members But we find from experience and History that in those days when Ambition and Faction were not so much in vogue as at present men were so far from making parties to get into the Parliament that many Commoners and Lords too have petitioned and been excused their attendance The King 's Queen's and Prince's Servants have stood upon their priviledge of exemption So James Barner was discharged by the King's command Quia erat de retinentia Regis 7. R. 2 and the Lord de Vessey in Edward the Fourths time obtained Licence not to serve in Parliament during his life Rex concessit Henrico Bromflet Dom. de Vessey quod ipse durante vita sit exoneratus de veniendo ad Parl. Besides the very Writ of Summons shews that in the original institution and design of Parliaments a frequent meeting could not be necessary For they were only to treat concilium impendere de magnis arduis negotiis Now God help us if every year should produce such magna ardua negotia such difficult and weighty affairs that the King with his Judges and â—rivy Council could not determine them without assembling his great Council the Parliament I confess in our Authors Chimerical model I am perswaded our circumstances would be bad enough but I thank God we are not gotten there yet Thus you see Sir that this grievance in not having annual Parliaments is become no grievance at all Mer. I begin Cousin to lose all manner of respect for this mistaken Mountebank For I perceive notwithstanding his great words and pretences all is but wind emptinâ—ss and cheat Having therefore fully satisfieâ— me concerning our liberties properties and Parliaments pray forget not to say somewhat of our Religion Trav. Sir I shall not presume to meddle with the Doctrinal part of any Religion that being none of my Province Nor shall I say much concerning the Ceremonial part or discipline of our own that is to say the Church of England It is sufficient to mind you that both the Doctrine and Discipline in Church Government have been established and confirm'd by several Acts of Parliament and Statutes Which Parliaments being the most Soveraign power that our Author himself pretends to set up amongst us we ought all to acquiesce in and be concluded by what they have done until an equal authority shall repeal those Acts or otherwise determine concerning us Mer. There is no objection can be made against this answer But Sir since the difference in our Religion seems manifestly to occasion most of our troubles why may not the King by his own authority dispence with the penal part of these Laws or grant a toleration especially to Protestant Dissenters or encourage an Act of Parliament for uniting them into the Church of England or else why might not the same Church release some part of the rigour of the Discipline and Ceremony since 't is agreed on all hands that the observance or non-observance of them are not points necessary or absolutely conducing to Salvation Trav. Cousin I shall answer you all these questions as plain as I can And first I shall never believe that true and unfeigned Religion especially amongst men where the Doctrine agrees is ever the real cause of any troubles disturbance or disobedience to lawful authority such as is that which produces an Act of Parliament even in our Authors sence being so contrary to the Doctrine and Principles of Christian Religion that I may confidently affirm where
so necessary to be effected that it was morally impossible to succeed in the former until the latter was actually executed It being then most certain that our Authors intention was to establish a Common wealth I shall now give you my reasons why we ought not upon any terms to admit of it And first I shall not insist much upon those vulgar inconveniences which are visible to all men As for example the inevitable consequences of most bloudy wars For can any rational man believe that all the Royal family should be so insensible of their right and honour as never to push for three Kingdoms which would so justly belong to them or could they be supposed to leave England under their popular usurpation what reason hath Scotland to truckle under the Domination of the English Commonalty What pretence hath the English Subject supposing they were to share in the English Government over the Kingdom of Scotland All the world knows that that Kingdom belongs so particularly to our King that the late Rebells themselves did not scruple to call him King of the Scots Why should Ireland also become a Province to an English Parliament Or should both Kingdoms be willing to shake off the Government of their Natural Lawful and antient Monarchy why should they not set up a Democracy or an Aristocracy or what else they pleas'd amongst themselves Is there never a Statesman in the three Kingdoms but Plato Redivivus Can none teach them to Rebel but he No rules to maintain an usurpt Authority but what we find among his extravagancies I am confident you do not believe it Shall these people notoriously known to have hated one another whilst formerly they were under different Governours become the strictest friends when they shall return unto those circumstances under which they were the greatest enemies Will the French King take no advantage having so good a pretext of our Divisions Or should we unite against him under our popular Governours was it ever known that a Confederate army was able to defend themselves long against an Army of equal strength commanded by one sole absolute Monarch Can we foresee any thing but most desperate wars and can wars be supported but by most heavy taxes Were not our Thimbles and Bodkins converted in the late times into Swords and Mortar pieces and by a prodigious transmutation never before heard of were not our Gold and Ear-rings turn'd into a brazen Idol These consequences Cousin and dismal effects of a Commonwealth besides many other are so obvious that I shall not spend any more time to mind you of them Supposing then that none of those former horrid inconveniences might happen I must mind you by the way that one reason why our Author and the Associators desire a Commonwealth proceeds from the fear of a certain Arbitrary power which they pretend the King would introduce as may be seen pag. 161. 208 and in several other places Now Though nothing be more extravagant than such a groundless imagination our Author having assured us that his Majesty never did one act of Arbitrary power since his happy restoration And moreover pag. 176. That our laws against Arbitrary power are abundantly sufficient Yet that we may no more dispute this point I must produce Plato's own authority against himself in these words That the King fears his power will be so lessened by degrees that at length it will not be able to keep the Crown upon his head pag. 208. Nay farther in pag. 214. he shews us That it is impossible he should ever become an Arbitrary King For his present power as little as it is is yet greater than the condition of property can admit and in a word from his beloved Aphorism and the whole course of his Libel he endeavours to prove that Dominion being founded on the property and the property being in the people the King can have no manner of hopes upon earth of becoming absolute nor introducing an Arbitrary Government but by some Army of Angels from Heaven who must procure him an Authority which he cares not for The next and main reason why our Author would set up a Democracy at least as far as I can collect from the whole scope of his discourse is because the State inclines to popularity Now Sir for this last time I must make use of our Author 's own reasons against his own positions and do affirm that for this very reason were there no other all sober men and true Politicians ought to oppose with their utmost endeavours a Popular Government I will not recount to you the many mischiefs desolations and destructions which a popular power hath brought along with it whereever it goâ—â—he better of the antient Established Government of the place Somewhat hath been already said to this purpose in our discourse and much more may be read in the Histories of most parts of the world to which I refer you and shall only mind you of some inevitable consequences which will follow such an innovation amongst our selves And first if it be true that the King hath no power to make himself absolute then we have no cause to apprehend an Arbitrary power in him and by consequence no reason to change But if the inclination of the people be such that they will take advantage of the King's want of power and introduce their own Government what moderation may we expect from men towards those who are to become their Subjects who shaking off all sense of Justice Law Religion and temper dare usurp the Soveraign authority over their natural Governour Where shall we appeal for mercy when having cut the throat of the most merciful King in Europe we expose our own to our ambitious and unmerciful Tyrants Where shall we expect compassion towards our selves when we shall become Parricides and Regicides to our father and our King Where shall we seek after Eqâ—ity when the House of Lords the supreme Court of Equity are most unjustly turn'd out of doors and what end of our miseries can we ever hope for when our Tyrants by our villanous Authors constitution have not only got all the Wealth and Militia into their hands but have perpetuated their usurpation by annual Parliaments never to end Who being Judges of their own priviledges p. 254. may regulate elections as they shall think fit p. 249. Sit Adjourn Prorogue and Dissolve as they alone shall judge expedient What more barbarous villany was ever propos'd and publish'd under a lawful and peaceable Government besides our own upon earth But suppose our poor Country thus enslav'd and our antient Kingdom turn'd into a Common-wealth what can our new masters do for us more than is already done Can our libâ—rties be greater as to our persons and estates It is impossible to suppose it Will our properties be more secur'd all the Laws that ever were upon earth under any Government cannot make them more inviolable Nothing then can remain but liberty in Religion which we call of