Warrant that we hear of yet granted by the Lord Chief Justice But it is not a Duke of Guise to be assassinated a Turbulent wicked and haughty Courtier But an innocent and gentle Prince as well as brave and renowned for noble Atchievements A Prince that hath no fault but that he is the Kings Son and the best too of all his Sons such a Son as would have made the best of Emperors happy Except it be that the People honor him and love him and every where publiquely and lowdly shew it But this they do for that the best People of England have no other way left to shew their Loyalty to the King and love to their Religion and Government in long intervals of Parliament than by prosecuting his Son for the sake of the King and his own merit with all the demonstrations of the highest esteem But he hath not used his Patron Duke much better for he hath put him under a most dismal and unfortunate Character of a Successor excluded from the Crown by Act of State for his Religion who fought his way to the Crown chang'd his Religion and dyed by the Hand of a Roman Assassinate It is enough to make his great Dukes courage quail to find himself under such an unlucky and disastrous representation and thus personated Besides he hath offered a justification of an Act of Exclusion against a Popish Successor in a Protestant Kingdom by remembring what was done against the King of Navar. The Popish Religion in France did de facto by Act of State exclude a Protestant Prince who is under no obligation from his Religion to destroy his Popish Subjects Though a Popish Prince is to destroy his Protestant Subjects A Popish Prince to a Protestant Kingdom without more must be the most insufferable Tyrant and exceed the Character that any story can furnish for that sort of monster And yet all the while to himself a religious and an applauded Prince discharged from the tortures that ordinarily tear and rend the hearts of the most cruel Princes and make them as uneasy to themselves as they are to their Subjects and sometimes prevail so far as to lay some restraints upon their wicked minds But this his Patron will impute to his want of Judgment for this Poets Hero's are commonly such Monsters as Theseus and Hercules are renowned throughout all Ages for destroying But to excuse him this man hath forsaken his post and entered upon an other province To the Observator it belongs to confound truth and falshood and by his false colors and impostures to put out the Eyes of the People and leave them without understanding But our Poet hath not so much art left him as to frame any thing agreeable or very-similar to amuse the People or wherewith to deceive them His Province is to corrupt the manners of the Nation and lay wast their morals his understanding is clapt and his brains are vitiated and he is to rot the Age. His endeavors are more happily applyed to extinguish the little remains of the virtue of the Age by bold impieties and befooling Religion by impious and inept Rhimes to confound virtue and vice good and evil and leave us without consciences And thus we are prepared for destruction But to give the World a tast of his Atheism and Impiety I shall recite two of his Verses as recited upon the Stage viz. For Conscience and Heavens fear Religious rules They are all State bells to toll in pious fools which I have done the rather that some honest Judge or Justice may direct a process against this bold impious man or some honest Surrogate or Official may find leasure to proceed ex officio against him notwithstanding at present they are so incumbered with the Dissenters Such publick Blasphemies against Religion never went unpunished in any Country or Age but this But I have made too long a digression but that it carries with it some instructions towards the preserving of the honor of your August City viz. That you do not hereafter authorize the Stage to expose and revile your great Officers and Offices by the indignities your selves do them whilst the Papists clap their hands and triumph at your publick disgraces and in the hopes they conceive thereby of the ruine of your Government as if that were as sure and certain to them as it is to us without doubt that they once fired it And further for that it was fit to set forth to the World of what Spirit our Enemies are how they intend to attach us As also how bold they are with His Majesty what false and dishonorable representations they make of him and present to the World upon a publick Theatre which I must confess hath moved me with some passion I have now some mistakes to remove that I observe abuse you and make you think that it is in your power to destroy your Franchises I come to defend your Charter against your reason and understanding though against your will there is nothing can be said if it be peremptory and obstinate But that it can have no effect in Law it will be criminal and punishable The mistakes are these That the Excommunication of Dissenters render them uncapable of suffrage and voice in the election of your Officers That by thrusting them from a right of Suffrage a Common Council may be had that will dispose of the Charter And that the Common Council have authority to destroy it Which are both mistakes And I shall likewise make out to you that the Sherifalties of London and Middlesex are in the City by course of Common Law or by Statute Law and are not of the nature of a voluntary grant from the Crown of a meer right nor can they be considered as a property that is alienable for if they were so they might lawfully be regranted by those in whom the right is So that they cannot be displac'd but by Act of Parliament tho the consent of every Citizen were thereunto had And first that excommunicate Dissenters have a right to choose City Officers notwithstanding their excommunication is evident For that excommunication forfeits no private right If a Plaintiff excommunicate sues his excommunication is pleaded in delay only and not in abatement of the writ But outlawry pleaded abates the writ and barrs the Action If a Mayor sues in his incorporate capacity a plea of excommunication is not allowable to stay proceedings for that its a publick right that he pretends to but excommunication of an Executor will stay the Suit tho he sues in another right no excommunication is to be pleaded in delay of the process in judicial writs as in Quare non admist or in a scire facias upon a judgment because the right is ascertained by the judgment and it is not militant as in an original action And tho it be allowed that a person Excommunicate may be challenged if he be returned upon a Jury which is said in some of our old
If the minority be big enough to maintain support the ends of the Corporation the minority is still the Corporation If any single Person is unwilling the Society should be dissolved and this Corporation is under the Government of any greater Society of Men as a Corporation within a Polity this single person may require and prosecute the revolters from the Society to abide in that Community These societies of men that are form'd by the soveraign Authority cannot dissolve or make the terms of their Society and the Order and Rule of governing them other than is appointed by the Charter of Incorporation Nay it is a Question whether a King can change it who hath not the Power of making Laws For the terms of their Society their Order and Rule of Government is the Condition of Incorporating and upon these terms they consent to be incorporated no man by our Law is compellable to be incorporated against his own liking Roll. 1. Rep. Baggs Case And agreeable hereto changes in the Government of the City of London from the first Charters have been made by Acts of Parliament Acts of Parliament was made for the Division of a Ward and for altering the Election and Continuance of the Office of an Alderman for Life whereas in the first Charters they were choosen annually and not to be choosen the next Year I shall here transcribe the Acts themselves which are not printed but supplied to me by my worthy Friend Mr. Petyt whose enquiry nothing that is notable in our Records hath escaped The Commons in the Parliament 7. R. 2. prayed the King for the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the City of London for the time to come by reason that all the Aldermen were choosen from year to year at the Feast of St. Gregory the Pope and none of them could be re-elected for the year ensuing and others put in their places to the great endamagement of the City The Commons therefore pray the King to grant to the Mayor and Commons of the City and their Successors in that present Parliament that the Aldermen to be elected from year to year at the said Feast franchement Ezluz be freely choosen and that of the most sufficient persons and good fame of those who had been Aldermen as others per le Gardes de la Citee by the Wards of the City Saving to the Wards their free Election in manner aforesaid To which the King answer'd Le Roy le voet Grante to endure so long as good Government should be in the City by reason of that clause Rot. Parl. 7o. R. 2 ds Numb 24. In the Parliament 17o. R. 2 di Numb 25. It was ordained that the Aldermen should not be removed Sanz honest reasonable causes without reasonable Cause In the same Parliament Numb 27. upon the Petition of the Mayor Aldermen and Commons in the said City by reason of the greatness of the Ward of Farringdon which was too great to be governed by one Alderman The King grants that les Gents de la dite Gard of Farringdon within might choose one Alderman and those of Farringdon without another and that both those Aldermen so choosen should not be removed Si non per cause reasonable as it was ordained by the King in Parliament to the Aldermen of the said City But though the Government of such Societies and Corporations may be changed by Law Yet no Law can change the Government of Kingdoms and Common-wealths and alter the terms of Government and Obedience established nothing can do this but chance and time violence and an irresistible Power But every English man ought from the Nature of his Allegiance to defend the English Monarchy with his Life under the Authority of the Government and the protection of Laws To conclude the best way to shew our Loyalty to the King is to think honorably of His Majesty to account his Person Sacred as it is and himself impeccable for so our Government hath made him by imputation which is the highest Prerogative of the Crown and a notable instance of the wisdom of our Government Imperii Majestas Tutelae Salus We heartily bewail the unhappy death of the late King But detest that it should be made a pretense to change our Government They are very bad men that raise on the one side in the People a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or King-dread and on the otherside in the King a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or People dread from his deplorable death Such passions indeed respectively possess the People and Successors of Tyrants and work the woo of the People or the abolition of the Kingly Government But most unnatural these confounding apprehensions are from the death of a good King bitterly bewail'd by almost all of his subjection It is too unreasonable that we should offer up our antient Government our pretious liberties our Religion it self in the defence of which he dyed to attone for the guilt of an inconsiderable part of the Nation that was engaged in that detestable fact and are since gone to their proper place This is hard that we must loose our Government and have no more English Kings to expiate for their guilt We do not shew our Loyalty but discover an ignominious baseness if we yeeld up our rights at the perswasion of a Courtier who tells us it is for the Kings Service when he is thereby promoting his own advantages and projects and shifting for indeminity upon the ruin of the Government Plutarch in his treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 base sneaking says that the Asâ—â—ticks became slaves because they could not pronounce the word NO and gave denyal to Sycohants and flatterers If these Courtiers really and honestly thought it were for His Majesties Service that all Authorities and Dignities in the Government should be held precaciously of the Crown they ought to hold their honors and session in Parliament by the same tenure for that those that shall inherit to them may be wiser than themselves for this there way is their folly and their posterities I hope will not approve their doings When our Preachers exhort to obedience they ought not to be heard if they press us beyond the terms of obedience that the Government hath established And we may dutifully insist notwithstanding to have the benefit of such Laws that the power of the Government can make to preserve us in the peaceable enjoyment of our Religion when we have a Protestant King When they exhort us to Christian patience they should not forget to tell the People that they are not bound to suffer but where the Christian virtue of Fortitude is perfected and not else but as Christian charity doth direct But they ought not by any means to abuse the People with a vain amuzement that a Popish Successor will protect the Church of England I shall end with the words of King Solomon Proverbs 24. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their Calamity shall arise suddenly and who knoweth the Ruine of them both It is not good to have respect of Persons in Judgment He that saith unto the wicked thou art righteous him shall the People curse Nations shall abhor him But to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good Blessing shall come upon them If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain If thou saist behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the Heart consider it and he that keepeth thy Soul doth not he know it and shall not he render to every Man according to his Works ERRATA Pag. 2. L. 23. r the negligence of page number the twelfth is misplac'd after page the thirteenth and must be read before it pag. 7. r obliquandi for obliquendi pag. 12. lin vlt. for which r what pag. 13. L. 19. for help r help'd pag. 19. L. 26 dele all pag. 36. r. By-laws p. 38. l. 21. r. their FINIS
will infallibly bring up the Papists into all Governments in Cities and Corporation Towns and in consequence thereof give us at the next Turn a Parliament of Papists and Red-coats But this is not all for I know there are many that have no concern for Gods Religion that have no other Religion but Loyalty and believe the onely Diety is Earthly power and Soveraign Authority Yet such have some conscience that the antient Government ought to continue and that attempts to change it are criminal in the Advisers I shall therefore add that this new Mode of incorporating Cities and Towns doth ipso facto change the Government For that one of the three States an essential part of the Government which is made up of the Representatives of the People and ought to be chosen by the People will by this means have five Sixths parts of such Representatives upon the matter of the Courts nomination and not of the Peoples choice What will be the consequence of such a Parliament I leave all considering men sadly to weigh and ponder and whether this is not a change of the Government let the Advisers thereof in time resolve themselves Amongst Plutarchs Apothegmas I find this saying of Dionysius the Tyrant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the Laws of a City may be wronged but the Laws of nature cannot be violated the nature of things will not change at pleasure the continuing of the old name doth not continue the old constitution after an essential change Res nolunt decipi Nor will the Nation contentedly see the Government changed we retain Loyalty enough to prevent it and our loyalty is strengthned with our concern for our Religion and a National interest against Popery Our Enemies know that they can never prevail and bring their design of changing our Religion to effect Without first changing the Government and the present constitution of Parliaments To make the Nation therefore obedient to their design we are to have a Parliament of their nomination by this new mode of incorporating Towns Dr. Bradys President fol. 249. of writs directed to the Sheriffe to Summon one Knight for a County and one Citizen for a City named in the writ in 27 E. 3. which appears by the record it self not to be a Summons to Parliament is not of weight enough to make it downright lawful for the King to name who shall be of the House of Commons Obliquandi sunt sinus by this side-wind they may gain the point But to prepare the People for admitting this illusion to pass upon them our latest Parliaments are to be disgrac't A Cabal takes upon themselves to Censure and arraign their proceedings and expose them to the Nation under what misrepresentations they please because they would not be confin'd to their Will and pleasure whereas every mans loyalty certainly is to be measured by his agreeableness to their projects They endeavour to make the Nation believe that a convention of the best bred Gentlemen in England of the greatest fortunes do not understand the interest of the King and Kingdom nor are so faithful to it as a few men got together by chance that are accumulating honors and making their fortunes by notable projects upon the Government Tho unhappy they are that they have not yet made themselves conspicuous either for their Wisdom or Virtue But whatever that great Assembly resolves in any matters That by the Laws and Customs of Parliament fall under their deliberation tho Kings have the liberty of dissenting as they have likewise a liberty of dissenting from the Kings desires for no Law can be made without them and they who have the Power to give moneys can deny it when askt it is a Crime to Censure and blame them And a Crime of a high nature it must needs be in any Subject of this Government for that it tends to the destruction of the Government it self But endeavours to lay them aside is Treason against the King his Crown and Dignity for that it will make him a very mean King or turn him into a Wicked and Miserable Tyrant And therefore our best Kings have always had a high Regard to their Parliaments and if it be a Crime to dishonor the King it is so likewise to disgrace Parliaments And he is a dolt or a Papist and a Traytor to the Government that doth not thus conclude and determine If it be a Scandalum Magnatum to reproach a mean Judge for erring and mistaking in his Office It is insufferable that a vile Pamphleteer should revile the States of the Realm for the exercise of their high and uncontroulable Authority such insolencies against the Government ought not to be respited untill doomsday or the Sitting of a Parliament But ought immediatly to be prosecuted by every man that loves his Country and the publick peace to condigne punishment But if these arts should prevail to bring about a change in our Government as they cannot sure in the Reign of our present gracious King who hath given us assurance in his publick declarations against such fears yet our Enemies know that their numbers are not visibly great And they can have no hopes of subduing the Nation to their Religion by their own numbers and by their own proper strength They have therefore engaged a party of Protestants to their assistance by raising in them apprehensions of a party of Protestants which they call dissenters as dangerous to the Government and the Church of England against whom therefore they ought in every thing to be contrary Many Protestants they have thus abused and divided from the true intrest of the Church of England and have engaged them in courses that tend to her destruction under the pretext of their being contrary to her Enemies the dissenters They are taught to hate a Presbyterian as a Jesuit or to have as much kindness for a Jesuit as a Presbyterian which will better serve the purpose of an Observator This Frace-maker and Scaramuchi to the vain youth of the nation is ever enterchanging the Characters of men disguising truth with colours of falshood pleasantly deceiving you with the shiftings and turns of his inept Wit and making himself merry with the abuse confounding things of the most separate nature to embroyle us to do us into confusion and to make the Nations Tragedy If the Church of England had not been divided by these Arts and mingled with her Enemies the Church of England united would have been able to have defended her self against all the Power of the Popish Faction if it were much stronger than it is and by an easy Temperament have in time cur'd the frowardness of the Dissenters and accommodated the Schism that the Papists the irreconcileable Enemyes of our Religion at first occasion'd and at present by these Methods manage and improve to its Destruction The Division that our Enemys have made amongst you for this purpose is that which opposeth your Charter and the continuance of your