Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	grant_v	rent_n	tenant_n	3,039	5	10.2671	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52850	Discourses concerning government, in a way of dialogue wherein, by observations drawn from other kingdoms and states, the excellency of the English government is demonstrated, the causes of the decay thereof are considered, and proper remedies for cure proposed / by Henry Nevill ...; Plato redivivus. 1698	Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.	1698 (1698)	Wing N503A; ESTC R39070	112,421	300

they are to Cultivate and improve This is well managed by the Bashaws and their Officers and comes to an incredible sum the goods being sold the Money is conveyed in specie to the Port and is the greatest part of that Prince's Revenue And it is believed that if all the Lands had been entirely confiscated and that the Grand Seignior had managed them by his Officers he would not have made a third part so much of the whole as he receives now annually for one half not only because those People are extreamly industrious where their own profit is concerned but for that it is clear if they had been totally divested of their Estates they would have left their Country and made that which is now the most populous Kingdom of the World a Desart as is all the rest of the Turkish Dominions except some Cities And if the People had removed as they did elsewhere there would not only have wanted hands to have Cultivated and Improved the Lands but mouths to consume the product of it so that the Princes Revenue by the cheapness of Victual and the want of Labourers would have almost fallen to nothing Noble Ven. Pray God this be not the reason that this King of France leaves Property to his Subjects for certainly he hath taken example by this Province of Egypt his Subjects having a Tax which for the continuance of it I must call a Rent or Tribute Impos'd upon them to the value of one full half of their Estates which must ever increase as the Lands improve Eng. Gent. I believe Sir there is another reason For the Property there being in the Nobility and Gentry which are the hands by which he manages his Force both at home and abroad it would not have been easie or safe for him to take away their Estates But I come to the limited Monarchies They were first Introduced as was said before by the Goths and other Northern People Whence those great swarms came as it was unknown to Procopius himself who liv'd in the time of their Invasion and who was a diligent searcher into all the circumstances of their concernments so it is very needless for us to make any enquiry into it thus much being clear That they came Man Woman and Child and conquer'd and possest all these parts of the World which were then subject to the Roman Empire and since Christianity came in have been so to the Latin Church till honest John Calvin taught some of us the way how to deliver our selves from the Tyrannical Yoak which neither we nor our Forefathers were able to bear Whence those People had the Government they Establisht in these parts after their Conquest that is whether they brought it from their own Country or made it themselves must needs be uncertain since their Original is wholly so but it seems very probable that they had some excellent persons among them though the ignorance and want of learning in that Age hath not suffered any thing to remain that may give us any great light for it is plain that the Government they setled was both according to the exact Rules of the Politicks and very natural and suitable to that Division they made of their several Territories Whenever then these Invaders had quieted any Province and that the People were driven out or subdued they divided the Lands and to the Prince they gave usually a tenth part or thereabouts to the great Men or Comites Regis as it was translated into Latine every one as near as they could an equal share These were to enjoy an Hereditary right in their Estates as the King did in his part and in the Crown but neither he nor his Peers or Companions were to have the absolute disposal of the Lands so allotted them but were to keep a certain proportion to themselves for their use and the rest was ordered to be divided amongst the Free-men who came with them to Conquer What they kept to themselves was called Demesnes in English and French and in Italian Beni Allodiali The other part which they granted to the Free-men was called a Feud and all these Estates were held of these Lords Hereditarily only the Tenants were to pay a small Rent annually and at every Death or Change an acknowledgment in Money and in some Tenures the best Beast besides But the chief condition of the Feud or Grant was that the Tenant should perform certain Services to the Lord of which one in all Tenures of Free-men was to follow him Armed to the Wars for the Service of the Prince and Defence of the Land And upon their admittance to their Feuds they take an Oath to be true Vassals and Tenants to their Lords and to pay their Rents and perform their Services and upon failure to forfeit their Estates and these Tenants were divided according to their Habitations into several Mannors in every one of which there was a Court kept twice every year where they all were to appear and to be admitted to their several Estates and to take the Oath above mentioned All these Peers did likewise hold all their Demesnes as also all their Mannors of the Prince to whom they swore Allegiance and Fealty There were besides these Freemen or Francklins other Tenants to every Lord who were called Villains who were to perform all servile Offices and their Estates were all at the Lords disposal when he pleased these consisted mostly of such of the former Inhabitants of these Countries as were not either destroyed or driven out and possibly of others who were Servants amongst them before they came from their own Countries Perhaps thus much might have been unnecessary to be said considering that these Lords Tenants and Courts are yet extant in all the Kingdoms in Europe but that to a Gentleman of Venice where there are none of these things and where the Goths never were something may be said in excuse for me Noble Ven. 'T is true Sir we fled from the Goths betimes but yet in those Countries which we recovered since in Terra firma we found the Footsteps of these Lords and Tenures and their Titles of Counts though being now Provinces to us they have no influence upon the Government as I suppose you are about to prove they have in these parts Eng. Gent. You are right Sir for the Governments of France Spain England and all other Countries where these People setled were fram'd accordingly It is not my business to describe particularly the distinct Forms of the several Governments in Europe which do derive from these People for they may differ in some of their Orders and Laws though the Foundation be in them all the same this would be unnecessary they being all extant and so well known and besides little to my purpose excepting to shew where they have declined from their first Institution and admitted of some change France and Poland have not nor as I can learn ever had any Free-men below the Nobility that is

yet we see that till Joseph's time he had not the whole Property for the Wisdom of that Patriarch taught his Master a way to make a new use of that Famine by telling him that if they would buy their Lives and sell their Estates as they did afterwards and preserve themselves by the Kings Bread they shall serve Pharaoh which shews that Joseph knew well that Empire was founded in Property But most of the Modern Writers in Polity are of Opinion that Egypt was not a Monarchy till then though the Prince might have the Title of King as the Heraclides had in Sparta and Romulus and the other Kings had in Rome both which States were Instituted Common-Wealths They give good Conjectures for this their Opinion too many to be here mentioned only one is That Originally as they go about to prove all Arts and Sciences had their Rise in Egypt which they think very improbable to have been under a Monarchy But this Position That all Kings in former times were absolute is not so Essential to the intent I have in this Discourse which is to prove That in all States of what kind soever this Aphorisme takes place Imperium fundatur in Dominio So that if there were mixed Monarchies then the King had not all the Property but those who shared with him in the Administration of the Soveraignty had their part whether it were the Senate the People or both or if he had no Companions in the Soveraign Power he had no Sharers likewise in the Dominion or Possession of the Land For that is all we mean by Property in all this Discourse for as for Personal Estate the Subjects may enjoy it in the largest Proportion without being able to invade the Empire The Prince may when he pleases take away their Goods by his Tenants and Vassals without an Army which are his Ordinary Force and answers to our Posse Comitatus But the Subjects with their Money cannot invade his Crown So that all the Description we need make of this Kind or Form of Government is That the whole possession of the Country and the whole power lies in the Hands and Breast of one man he can make Laws break and repeal them when he pleases or dispense with them in the mean time when he thinks fit interpose in all Judicatories in behalf of his Favourites take away any particular mans personal Estate and his Life too without the formality of a Criminal Process or Trial send a Dagger or a Halter to his chief Ministers and command them to make themselves away and in fine do all that his Will or his Interest suggests to him Doct. You have dwelt long here upon an Argumentation That the Ancients had no Monarchies but what were Arbitrary Eng. Gent. Pray give me leave to save your Objections to that point and to assure you first That I will not take upon me to be so positive in that for that I cannot pretend to have read all the Historians and Antiquaries that ever writ nor have I so perfect a memory as to remember or make use of in a Verbal and Transient Reasoning all that I have ever read And then to assure you again that I build nothing upon that Assertion and so your Objection will be needless and only take up time Doct. You mistake me I had no intent to use any Argument or Example against your Opinion in that but am very willing to believe that it may be so What I was going to say was this that you have insisted much upon the point of Monarchy and made a strange description of it whereas many of the Ancients and almost all the Modern Writers magnifie it to be the best of Governments Eng. Gent. I have said nothing to the contrary I have told you de facto what it is which I believe none will deny The Philosopher said it was the best Government but with this restriction ubi Philosophi regnant and they had an Example of it in some few Roman Emperours but in the most turbulent times of the Commonwealth and Factions between the Nobility and the People Rome was much more full of Vertuous and Heroick Citizens than ever it was under Aurelius or Antonius For the Moderns that are of that Judgement they are most of them Divines not Politicians and something may be said in their behalf when by their good Preaching they can infuse into their imaginary Prince who seems already to have an Image of the Power of God the Justice Wisdom and Goodness too of the Deity Noble Ven. We are well satisfied with the Progress you have hitherto made in this matter pray go on to the two other Forms used amongst the Ancients and their Corruptions that so we may come to the Modern Governments and see how England stands and how it came to decay and what must Rebuild it Eng. Gent. You have very good Reason to hasten me to that for indeed all that has been said yet is but as it were a Preliminary discourse to the knowledge of the Government of England and its decay when it comes to the Cure I hope you will both help me for both your self and the Doctor are a thousand times better than I at Remedies But I shall dispatch the other two Governments Aristocracy or Optimacy is a Commonwealth where the better sort that is the Eminent and Rich men have the chief Administration of the Government I say the chief because there are very few ancient Optimacies but the People had some share as in Sparta where they had power to Vote but not Debate for so the Oracle of Apollo brought by Lycurgus from Delphos settles it But the truth is these people were the natural Spartans For Lycurgus divided the Country or Territory of Laconia into 39000 Shares whereof Nine thousand only of these Owners were Inhabitants of Sparta the rest lived in the Country so that although Thucidides call it an Aristocracy and so I follow him yet it was none of those Aristocracies usually described by the Politicians where the Lands of the Territory were in a great deal fewer Hands But call it what you will where ever there was an Aristocracy there the Property or very much the Over-ballance of it was in the hands of the Aristoi or Governours be they more or fewer for if the People have the greatest interest in the Property they will and must have it in the Empire A notable example of it is Rome the best and most glorious Government that ever the Sun saw where the Lands being equally divided amongst the Tribes that is the People it was impossible for the Patricii to keek them quiet till they yielded to their desires not only to have their Tribunes to see that nothing passed into a Law without their consent but also to have it declared that both the Consuls should not only be chosen by the people as they ever were and the Kings too before them but that they might be elected too when the