Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	estate_n	life_n	tenant_n	4,234	5	10.2032	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35931	The royalist's defence vindicating the King's proceedings in the late warre made against him, clearly discovering, how and by what impostures the incendiaries of these distractions have subverted the knowne law of the land, the Protestant religion, and reduced the people to an unparallel'd slavery.	Dallison, Charles, d. 1669.	1648 (1648)	Wing D138; ESTC R5148	119,595	156

thing but by Act of Parliament And if they shall in this case make a new Statute that Law must even by the same Judges be expounded too 3. The Parliament is a body so composed as that it is not onely improper but almost impossible for these persons finally to determine any one point of Law A Court of Judicature ought to consist of one entire body and of such a body as at all times hath power not onely to deliver its owne opinion but by that sentence to decide the question depending before them but the Parliament is not so composed The Members of that Assembly are divided into three severall bodies and their proceedings severall and distinct and obvious it is that in one and the same thing they frequently conclude opposite each to other yet untill all three concur it binds not And so though every Member of those bodies hath given his sentence according to his owne conscience yet the question is not decided and that which is worse peradventure never can be brought to a period for it may fall out these three bodies of the King the Lords House and the Commons may in that perpetually differ in opinion These things considered every rationall man must conclude that the Parliament is not of a Composure fit for this worke nor instituted for that purpose Those things as afterwards in its proper place is more fully shewed are the office of the Judges of the Realme By this it appears that when the two Houses have passed a Bill for an Act of Parliament and to it the Kings Royall Assent is had the Parliaments power ends and then begins the authority of the Judges of the Realme whose office is the case being regularly brought before them first to judge whether the Act it selfe be good and if binding then to declare the meaning of the words thereof And so the necessity of having a power upon emergent occasions to make new Laws is supplied and yet the fundamentall grounds of the Law by this limitation of the power of the Law-maker with reference to the Judges to determine which Acts of Parliament are binding and which void is preserved Upon the whole matter cleere it is The Parliament it selfe that is the King the Lords and Commons although unanimously consenting are not boundlesse the Judges of the Realme by the fundamentall Law of England have power to determine which Acts of Parliament are binding and which void and to expound the meaning of every Statute Thus whilst every person Court and Assembly keep within its owne bounds the knowne Law protecteth every man in his just rights the Subject whilst that is observed need not doubt protection of his person and may securely challenge a property in his estate But the Members do now teach or to speake more properly force upon the people another doctrine They without the King not onely assume the power of a Court of Judicature and that without any appeale from it but an authority and power to make and declare the Law and that boundlesse too whereby Law it selfe is totally destroyed It is a Maxime in Law that every disseisor of Land is seised in fee simple and that no man can give a particular estate by wrong for example A. Tenant for years remainder to B. for life remainder to C. in taile remainder to D. in fee E. outs A. from his possession E. doth not hereby get the estate for years but by that entry hath displaced all the remainders and untill re-entry by A. is wrongfully seised to him and his heires Like unto this was that of the Members They injuriously excluded the King from his negative Voice in Parliament They have not by it gained power to make Laws without Him but whilst they continue this usurpation they wrongfully disinherit both King and people of all their birth-rights The knowne Laws of the Land is by this totally subverted untill the King be reinvested herein we have neither common Law particular custome or Statute Law nor can any man challenge protection of his person or property in his Lands or goods for what Law they make how repugnant to sense and reason how barbarous soever it be neither the Judges of the Realme nor any other if we may believe the Members have power to examine controle or oppose it Thus our excellent Laws the Members have so much so often boasted to defend are by the same persons at the same instant and even by the same medicine excluding the King from His negative Voice they pretended to preserve them destroyed So that I confesse the Members were necessitated not onely to deny the King this power but to assume authority without Him to make Laws and that without stint or limitations for by the knowne Law the facts and proceedings of these Members are Treason Therefore they must make new ones else be judged by the old And to make new Laws yet to admit the Judges power to determine whether they binde or not were to fall into the same Predicament of Treason In the next place it is shewed who are the Judges of the Law which power although with as little reason or sense as the former the Members have usurped too CHAP. V. That the Judges of the Kings Bench of the Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer are the Judges of the Realme unto whom the people are bound lastly and finally to submit themselves for matter of Law BUt some give this power to the Parliament others to the two Houses joyntly others to the Lords House singly and some make the House of Commons Judge of the Law All which are meere surmises by faction raised and spread abroad since this Parliament for besides what before is said herein in the next precedent Chapter upon consideration had of the quality of the persons of those Members the Commission required to authorize a Judge of the Law and the composier of that Body It will appear they are so far from having any such power as that the Lords House in some particular things excepted neither the Parliament nor the two Houses joyntly nor either of them singly can judicially or finally determine any one point of Law First for the quality of the persons And to begin with the House of Commons They consist of Knights of Shires Citizens and Burgesses The Knights of the Shire we see by experience although sometimes men of estates are chosen yet not alwaies of the best understanding For the Citizens and Burgesses the Cities and Corporations for which they serve are Instituted onely for advancement of trade and accordingly the bodies of such townes and places consist of Tradesmen whose educations are onely to learne Crafts and occupations and the far greater number of them mecanick handy-crafts Besides the true cause of authorizing Corporations to send Burgesses to Parliament is that they may give information concerning the Trading in those places to the end if need be to make Laws for the increase thereof And

THE ROYALISTS DEFENCE VINDICATING THE KING'S PROCEEDINGS IN THE LATE WARRE MADE AGAINST HIM Clearly discovering How and by what Impostures the Incendiaries of these Distractions have subverted the knowne Law of the Land the Protestant Religion and reduced the people to an unparallel'd Slavery Veritas emerget Victrix Printed in the Yeare 1648. To all the People of ENGLAND IN every Common-wealth where the tyranny of an Arbitrary power prevailes not some known persons are assigned unto whom for matter of law both the Governours and the Persons governed do submit For example where a King hath the Soveraignty if it be likewise in his power to judge the Law his authority is Arbitrary He may then take the life or confiscate the estate of whom he pleaseth and for what cause he thinks fit And the same it is when the soveraigne power is in severall persons whatever their number be and however composed if they have also authority to judge the Law by which they govern the rest of the People are inslaved to their will But herein the Subjects of England are a most happy people By the constitutions of this Realm our King hath inherently in His Person the soveraigne power of government but He hath not authority to judge the Law The Judges of the Realme declare by what law the King governs and so both King and people regulated by a known law giddy multitude out goes Presidents found in the Old Testament shewing that Subjects so anciently sometimes resisted lawfull Authority and have rebelled against their King Nor be the Lawyers herein excusable too many of them declining the authority of the Iudges of the Realme make their own expositions of the Books and Records their rule to know the Law Now amongst those he who hath once got the reputation of an Antiquary and hath accustomed himself to discourse of things out of the common roade ipso facto is Master of this Art It is then but making use of some dull expressions found in an old worm-eaten Record selecting the mistaken opinions of some particular Iudges obiter delivered in Arguments or some dark Sentences taken out of a rotten Manuscript And if any printed Book be daigned the mentioning it must not be the known authentique Authours reporting the resolutions of the Court of Justice nor such as shew the common and constant practice of the Kingdome which is the Law it self but some antiquated thing whose Authour is unknowne and his meaning as obscure These rules being observed his work is done the people observing this Cynicks discourse to be different from other men presently conclude him to be far more learned in his profession then his fellow Lawyers and gaze upon him as an infallible guide Those sorts of people both Divines and Lawyers thus prepared are equally armed to assault either King or Subject and ever looking upon their particular interest as they find Instruments to work upon make their applications sometimes by the assistance of a greedy Sycophant-Courtier the KING is abused being by those persons drawn to act things not warranted by the constitutions of the Realme Other times by the aide of discontented Spirits whoever affect popularity the people are incited to disobey the Kings just commands And so misunderstanding oftentimes is occasioned between the King and His Subjects whereupon ariseth feares and jealousies on both sides This in some sort was our condition before this Parliament which was the ground-work whereupon these men at Westminster even by a totall destruction of the whole Nation have compleated the business At the first meeting of this Parliament the confusion began visibly to appear The Incendiaries of that Faction not only cherished the old but by casting false calumnies upon the King fomented new jealousies whereby the people were put into such a pannick fear as that they believed a present destruction inevitably must befall them if not preserved by the Members of the two Houses of Parliament And the King on the other side with wonderfull expressions of loyalty even by the same Serpent was told He should be made more Glorious then any of His Ancestors or Predecessours But the Members having thus encreased the flame between the King and the Subject and having by these false surmises and cunning dissemblings gulled the people into a belief That whatever the Members declared be it in things either Spirituall or Temporall the one was good Law and the other true Gospel which the Members perceiving they instantly made use thereof and upon that score Voted it a high Breach of the Priviledge of Parlialiament for any the Iudges the Courts of Iustice nor the King himself excepted either to oppose their Commands or to deny that to be Law which they declared so to be By which sleight their whole work was finished for by this the known Law was absolutely subverted and both King and people for their Consciences their Lives Estates and Fortunes inslaved to their will and doome But this Arbitrary power thus by the Members usurped rested not long there Shortly after that a Faction in the City of London who were the mony'd men and so interessed in buying the Church Lands and those who were possessed of beneficiall places in gathering that cursed tax of Excise and the like gave the law unto these Members And now we see it is a Councell of War although acted in the name of the Westminster men called the Parliament and none else who dare declare the Law And so for the present six or eight empty soules and untill inriched by theft and plunder indigent persons are our Legislators And in this condition the people must be It cannot be otherwise until the King be restored to His just Rights for till then although we have as many new Governours as new Moons it is but so often changing the Theif It is not at all considerable to the people whether this or that Faction or which opinion in Religion prevailes in the Houses be it the true Protestant Religion established Popery Presbytery Independency or what else soever it is whilst the King is kept from his just Rights of His Negative Voice in Parliament and his Soveraigne power of Government every predominant Party makes his Will the Law and consequently the people for their Consciences their Lives Estates and Fortunes inslaved to that Faction Therefore whether thou beest a Royalist or against thy King what Religion soever Sect or opinion thou doest professe If thou hast not lost thy wits thou must be sensible of thy present sad condition Doest thou enjoy a competent estate doest thou find comfort in having freedome of thy conscience in matters of Religion In the society of thy wife family kindred or friends if thou doest consider what hopes thou hast to enjoy them to thinke thereof will rather adde grief unto thy soul then increase thy consolation for being defeated of thy Protector the knowne Law which is banished thou canst not for the least instant of time promise to thy self continuance of

himselfe and family as if it were taken by way of Ship-money Loan or Benevolence Nor is any mans hunger satisfied his thirst quenched or his children clothed by being told that this is done by the representative body of the whole Kingdome But on the other side it is apparent that the people are hereby generally impoverished and the Members in pompe glory and wealth advanced far beyond their ranks and fortunes We had a Star-Chamber and a High Commission the Judges whereof sometimes imposed exorbitant punishments But we have now the Members stiled a Parliament who have not onely accumulated unto themselves the power of those Courts and of all other Courts of Justice in the Kingdome but have therein assumed an unlimited power when they think fit to censure whether it be for a crime or vertue disobedience or obedience of the Law The punishment if they please is either pecuniary corporall brands of infamy confiscations of their whole estate or death it self And in all this which by the Lawes of England is most horrid the Members are both Judge and Party the profits of those forfeitures redound unto themselves But the new mercenary Preachers and other incendiaries appointed for that purpose blaze those Westminster-men to be persons full of grace and mercy They would make the people beleeve they are such as drive onely at the publicke not looking upon their owne particulars And herein make speciall use of the putting down of the Court of Wards The truth whereof is but thus By the Lawes of England every one who holds Lands by Knights service whether of the King or of his fellow Subject and dyes his heire within age of 21 years the King or that Lord of whom it is held hath the profits of such Lands untill his full age and the government and marriage of his person Which being an interest due unto his Lord by reason of the tenure of his Land is as justly his as the rent of a Tenant for yeares belongs to his Land-lord Now this right both of King and Subject these Westminster-men take upon them to dispose and call it their own act of grace Much like unto their taking from their King and His Loyall Subjects their whole Estates and bounteously dividing it amongst themselves But admit they had had Authority which they have not the least colour to challenge to alter the Law in this case of tenures yet the people are not by this alteration any whit bettered It is true formerly the eldest son or the heire of some particular persons were during their minorities subject to wardships But under the Tyranny of these men and by the doctrine they preach the King and all the people are hereditary slaves Themselves all their Children their Childrens Children and posterities for ever in person estate and fortune whether owner or not owner of Land and however it is held even to the worlds end are at all times at their absolute command Suppose the King should quit His right of tenures and then by other impositions wrest from the people 40 times the value thereof these Members would judge that to be no act of bounty And if so in the Kings case much worse it is in them For they neither have power in the one nor in the other They cannot acquit any one of Wardship nor lawfully tax the people one penny And suitable to this we hea● of another bounty intended The people say they must be eased of free-quarter wherein the Country-men are dealt with as sometime it happeneth to an innocent man upon the racke who to gain a little respite from the present torment falsely accuseth himself of a crime for which he is put to death or like unto the carriage of a sturdy bold theif whereof these times afford examples enough who tels the owner of a horse that unlesse he may have the value of it he will steal the horse but having got the money takes the horse too So here the people are pestered with quartering of Souldiers and are so barbarously used by these inhumane wretches as that the poor men are prepared to part with their whole fortunes to be eased of that present Tyranny Hereupon a new and an illegall tax of about 20000. l. the weeke is laid upon them which done although it a mounts to twice treble the charge of quartering still the Souldiers must be bilited And their insolency hereby rather increased then abated These and such like are all the favours we can expect to have during the time of the raign of these Westminster-men To be short they have got possession of the wealth of the whole Nation and have usurped an Arbitrary power So that did they incline thereunto they cannot do unto the people any considerable favour or act of grace For so long as they abide to these their owne principles of which Arbitrary power they cannot settle in any man a permanent estate interest power or authority wherein the City of London may be a paterne to the whole Nation We see these Westminster-men sometimes judge it fit that the Citizens should enjoy all their liberties and priviledges Presently upon that even by the same hand they are not permitted so much freedome as from the Lord Major to the petty Constable to elect one officer But those Officers are placed and displaced at the pleasure of these Members To day is granted to them their owne Militia to morrow by the same Authority they are judged persons of so base a condition as not capable of so great a power And not long after that courted to accept of it againe They are now exalted to the heavens and instantly thereupon even by the same mouthes and as it were with the same breath impeached of Treason And this is every mans condition Suppose one by these Members to be condemned to death is by them afterwards pardoned The next houre even by ●●ese who pardoned he may be put to death An estate of Land an Office or other power or authority is by these men given for life or in fee be it as strong and ful as words can expresse it neither that nor any other act of these Tyrants binds one minute longer then they please And all this consonant to these their new principles for these men tell us their will is the Law we have no other Judge upon earth either in soul or body say they but themselves Farre otherwise it was with the people of this Nation under the King The King neither hath nor claimes power to tax the people or impose upon their estates but as the known Law permits When the King hath once made His grant either of Land Office Power or Authority He is concluded He cannot recall it or take to himself any thing in Lieu thereof Therefore shall the King quit His tenants of the foresaid tenures and put down the Court of Wards It may properly be said an Act of grace and bounty And so it is in all other things granted by Him