in every part is sick and therefore can find rest in no posture Humane Laws grow out of Vices which gives to every Government a tincture of Corruption That the Government of England was originally and always under the same constitution that now or of late it did appear to be I cannot conceive though Sir Edward Coke and some others do seem with much earnestness to contend for it I am of opinion that like Epicurus his World it is grown by Chance and Time to what it now is or lately was by various Concussions and Confluence of People Interests Factions and Laws like so many Attoms of different shapes and disposures springing from meer Accident in several Ages for where there are Men there will be also Interests which creates Factions and Parties and these as they prevail or are supprest produce Laws for or against them which so far alters the former Government as new Laws are introduc'd in the room and place of old ones which were thought fit to be Repealed and Abrogated Althô some Governments seem to be built upon firmer and more unalterable Foundations than others yet there is none but ought to adapt it self to the Circumstances and Disposition of the People Govern'd and as these do daily change so ought the Government to shift and tack with them that it may the better hit with the Necessities and changing Circumstance of those for whom it was first instituted That Property is founded in Dominion I look upon to be a most undeniable Truth for Naturally in the same degree that a Man has a Right and possession in a thing he must necessarily have the Power and Dominion over it To argue or defend the contrary is as great an absurdity in Nature as to say the Fire must be hot and yet not burn such Cumbustibles as are cast into it It is upon this account that the Grand Seignior is so Despotick in his Government for by the Constitutions of that State all Lands are in the Crown none hold longer than during pleasure or for Life and then their Lands revert to him that gave them For the same reason in the days of Englands Ignorance and Poverty when Arts and Learning were strangers to the Land and the people were scarcely removed from their primitive estate of Nature and War when every man had a universal Right to all things and no man could by a peculiar property pretend to a Possession longer then his Sword and Bow could maintain it Then I say were our Governours like Generals absolure and unlimitted 'T is true indeed we have some dark shadows of Laws and Councils then in use which our Governours thought fit as they saw occasion to make use of and we also find the People sometimes dissatisfied treating their Magistrate with much Roughness and ill Usage upon his Male Administration yet this does not at all argue that their Governours were limitted and bound up by Laws as now they are These things are all practiz'd in France Turky and the most Arbitrary Monarchies in the World. Without Laws and Methods such as these one Man is not able to govern Millions and therefore Moses who under God was Absolute and Arbitrary was necessitated to appoint certain Rules and Methods and to admit of others into the Government with him as Assistants by their Councel and Advice the Work being too great for one Man to discharge It was from the King 's absolute Property in the Lands of England which in those Times none could pretend to but by and through him who held the Sword as well as from his power over the Laws that our old Tenures sprung of Knight service Serjeantry Escuage Socage Villenage c. Then were all Tenures servile and all Persons held mediately or immediately from the King which our Law-Books tell us we still do but there was a vast difference between our then and present Holdings the first being by actual Services paid these now being only Nominal and Titular To hold in Socage is by the service of the Plow as almost all persons are said to do The Tenant was in old Times actually bound to Plow the Lords Lands in consideration of which Service he granted to his Plow-man instead of Wages to hold another piece of Land to his own proper use but now though the Tenure does nominally remain yet the Service is absolute every Man being now become by the circular motions of Chance or Providence his own Lord and his own Plow-man His Property and Possession makes him the Lord over those Glebes which his Necessity derived from his Ancestor Adams Transgression makes him Till Those Governments which succeeded the Patriarchal were all Military all people being then left by Nature in a state of War but some Countries ripening into Prudence and Knowledge sooner than others they also sooner betook themselves to Compact and to such Methods of living as might be for their Common Advantage Amongst these England was none of the earliest Reformers but continued long after Greece and Rome in that Natural state that the first Fathers of Families lest it and there was reason for it in respect it was an Island and in those Times when Navigation was in a great degree a stranger to the World not so apt for Commerce or Correspondence with other Countries which were more civilized they had then no Government but what conduc'd to War and no other King but a General Caesar in his Commentaries telis us that he found the Brittains poor ignorant and destitute of Laws but he also gives them the Character of a People dispos'd to War Brittannnos in Bello promptos in Armis expertes All things as in the state of Nature were in Common even to their Wives and Children But the Romans having given them a taste of the sweetness and advantage of Government they soon after began as Tacitus in his Annals acquaints us to make Application to their General to protect and defend them by his Power and Strength in the peaceable enjoyment of certain proportions and allotments of Land against all Invaders In lieu of which Protection to them and their Heirs they promise and swear to him and his Heirs certain Services together with Homage and Fealty With this Notion of Tacitus Bide seems to concur in the 4th Book of his History where he says That Generals and Kings were amongst the Brittains as Terms Univocal for Kings went always out to Battle in times of War and in Peace exercis'd the Legislative power at home And Ammianus in his 15th Book is more plain and positive for he tells us That Brittanni nulla separali fruebantur possessione nisi Principis concessu potestate defendantur From hence it may be reasonably allowed that England was first Governed by an absolute Power not from the Election of the People nor by Conquest but from the Temper Disposition and Circumstances of that Age of the World in which most Countries lay under the same sort of Government
and more especially by their Ignorance of better methods which continued longer in Islands by reason of the difficulty of Commerce than in Continents where a Correspondence was then more easily maintained It is undoubtedly from this bottom that the People of England are still supposed to hold all their Lands mediately or immediately from the King and 't is perhaps from hence that so many Commons and Wasts still remain uninclosed and that Waiss Strays Wrecks Wasts and all other things in which no man can lay a particular propriety are reputed to be in the Crown Upon these reasons I conclude that the property of all the Lands here in England being originally in no particular person must necessarily as the Law still is in such Cases rest in the King and those that held from or by his power neither had or could have any right against that power by which they held but only against others that were in a level with themselves How many these Landed Men Originally were or what seperate proportions were alloted to them whether the quantity of a County Hundred or Tything or whether their Allotments were according to the largness of their respective Families or their Princes favour I cannot say But these Proprietors were probably the Pares Regni or such as afterwards by the growth of Laws and the removal of Ignorance became by a settled and uncontroulable right the Peers and Nobles of the Land and having by their Princes permissive favour long enjoyed their Dignities and Possessions they at last wrought them up to an Establishment by Law insomuch that what was held before ad voluntatem Domini is now made hereditary performing only some small Services and Acknowledgments to their King of General some whereof were payable in times of War as Knight Service Escuage petty Serjeanty and grand Serjeanty others in times of Peace such were Burgage Villenage Socage Homage and Fealty Thus did a part of the People first twist themselves into a real Property in part of the Lands of the Kingdom and as the Prince proved kind and liberal so did the numbers of these Proprietors increase and their Properties grew more strong and indefeasable and so consequently their Power and Dominions but the Prince on the other hand grows proportionably poorer and weaker Both resembling a Boat which rises and falls with the flowing Element that bears it up After this manner the Lords grew daily richer and stronger till they had in a great measure by their acquisitions strip'd the Crown of its chiefest Embellishments and invested themselves in much the better share of the Lands of England And their Power grew with their Property to that degree that they who were Originally but Servants to the Prince became now Masters of the Nation This King John to his sorrow was sufficiently sensible of in his Barons War and it was from the Power of the Nobility alone that King Henry the Seventh did receive his Chaplet as well as Crown He was a wise Prince and from hence took an occasion of Jealously that the same Powers which rais'd and plac'd him in the Throne might pull him down again and lay his Glories in the Dust To prevent therefore all Dangers which might arise from their growing Greatness he first procures a Statute to be Enacted against Retainers that the number of the Followers and Attendants of Noblemen might be retrench'd for they did so far indulge the Vanity of a large Retinue in those times that their respective Trains were sufficient for a Soveraign Prince's Guard. In the next place he procures the Statute of Fines to pass both Houses whereby the Nobility got a power which by the Common Law they had not to cut of Entails and thereby to sell their Estates to the best Purchaser Before this Statute and Estate in a Noblemans hand might in some respect be said to be in Mortmain for by the Intail it was so bound up in the Family that it grew almost irremoveable and thus having a power to purchase but not to fell their Possessions and consequently their Power grew daily greater without a possibility of Diminution But these Entails as they were injurious to Trade and Industry so by their Consequences they were dangerous to Regall Authority and therefore this Device was contriv'd to prevent both these Inconveniencies and it did indeed prove very effectual in divesting the Nobility both of their Property and Power but at the same time it open'd a Door to the Commonalty and gave them free access to that Property and Dominion which the Nobility did by degrees part with Nor did they neglect to improve this advantage they had got by Diligence Industry and Frugality for in process of Time they wound themselves into the better share of those Possessions which were first derived from the King to his Nobles and from them thus to the Commons of the Nation The Effect and Consequence of these Acquisitions made by the Commonalty were discover'd and fear'd by King James but not felt till the Reign of King Charles the First who by an imprudent Contest with This Superior Power was first depriv'd of his Crown and afterwards of his Life The yearly Rents of England besides the accrewing benefit of Trade which is altogether in the hands of the Commonalty amounts to 14 Millions per annum Of this the King and Nobility both together hold not above one Million at the most the King's Revenue being principally made up by the Excise and Customs not by the Rents of Crown Lands so that there remains 13. shares of 14. of the Lands of England and consequently a proportionable share of the Power in the Commons But the Constitutions of our Government as it now stands placing the Dominion in the King whilst the Property is in the People does in this commit a sort of Violence upon Nature 〈◊〉 seperating thus the Soul from the Body the Power from the Possession This it is which causes these frequent Distempers and Convulsions in the Body Politick for Power is a sort of Volatile Spirit which cannot subsist without a proper Vehicle to give in Body and this must be Possession from which if it be once separated it immediately evaporates and disappears Having hitherto trac'd the Government of England in its Originals and Procedures I will farther take the liberty to advert some Particulars as they seem now to stand in its present Constitution and in the first place I cannot think it so happy and well compos'd a Government and so aptly suited to the present condition to the People as most Men endeavour to represent it for it seems in its Frame and Nature to be sett to Factious Interests and Dissentions and thus it has been ever since the disunion between Property and Power the Court and Country Interests are no new nor unknown Terms to us and have been managed and upheld by their respective Votaries tho in some Kings Reigns with greater Spirit and Animosity than in others ever
Misery and as it has deliver'd us from the Evil Administration of Law so in some things I wish it would rescue us from the Law it self and so far change it that for the future it may be no more subject to such Shams and Delusions nor in a capacity thus to become an Accessory to its own Death It seems farther very incongruous That where Government is made up of two different Interests as here it is the absolute power of Peace and War should be only in the King whilst the power of maintaining it continues in the People For if the King should be led aside by a private Interest and should refuse to make War in a time when perhaps the Safety and Honour of the Nation did wholly depend upon it What a condition must the People then be in Put the case that before this our late but seasonable Deliverance the King in whom this Power did reside should have open'd the Gates of the Kingdom our Harbours and Strengths which are to protect us from Forreign Invaders to a French or Irish Army Who durst lift a hand to stop this inundation of Tyranny without incurring the penalty of a Traytor Nay they must farther be call'd Friends and Allies even whilst they pillage our Houses and hold their Knives to our Throats This Branch of our Laws serves to cover the Landing of a Forreign Power and so long to cherish and keep it warm till like the Serpent in the Fable it at last stings the improvident Benefactor to death Another thing which highly requires Your Regulation is the Elections for Parliament 'T is a great Blemish to our Government that such whose Place gives them the Title of Founders of our Laws and Preservers of our Liberties and whose Reputation for Principles of Honour Honesty Prudence should be beyond assault or censure must yet be expos'd to a Necessity of doing such things as are really mean and scandalous as well as expensive before they can get into a Capacity of doing their Country service for if such things be not done some Pensioner from Court bids higher jostles him our and gets thereby into a Power to put to Sale both the Laws and Liberties of his Country which he is willing to barter for the hopes of some Court Preferment and the Euge of his great Master In old times no person had an Electing Vote in the Shire who had not a Freehold of 40 s. per Ann. but I could easily demonstrate 40 s. then to be Equivolent in value to 40 l. now for by the discovery of the Western World Gold and Silver is to that degree increas'd Now if the number of Electors were reduc'd to those only having Freeholds of 40 l. per An. these lavish Expences would certainly cease and the Electors though fewer in number would be less apt to be led aside by such low and indirect means There are also great irregularities in the Corporations and Burroughs Electing as well as in the Electors I can see no reason why Cornwall a poor and barren County should return 43 Members for Parliament and yet Cheshire together with the City of Chester should return in all but 3 and why old Sarum which has but 2 Houses and those under the Commands of one Landlord should send 2 Representatives to Parliament whilst many other Towns which might deserve the Title and Priviledges of Cities send no Representatives at all I can scarcely think a Parliament thus Constituted can truly and fairly represent the People the Majority and Richest of them being by such inequallities excluded from an Electing Vote The same inconvenience springs from the Constitutions of the Boroughs which Elect not by vertue of their Wealth Dignity or Number of Inhabitants but by the Burrough Houses in which they live These only which perhaps are the most inconsiderable part of the Burrough having in them the Electing power exclusive of the rest This Qualification makes such Houses sell better to a purchaser then any others in the Town and it is customary for Gentlemen who are desirous of a Seat in Parliament to lay out their Mony in such Bargains and tho' it costs them dear yet if it be possible they will be Landlords of a sufficient number of these Borough Houses in the purchase whereof some Friends Name is mostly made use of in Trust that thereby they may Command an Election either for themselves or their Assigns at pleasure What is this less than buying of Votes with Money A Crime which has been always lookt upon with a severe brow and yet Licens'd by this old Usage Nor can I discern why this Electing power should be thus fixt to the Freehold in being restrained to a small and inconsiderable number of Houses as if Wood and Stone had a Rational faculty and must be made use of to build and repair the Government The Methods of Electing in these Boroughs are various Titles to Elect are also different and very often dubious and uncertain This necessitates double Elections and countenances false Returns which are often made ill use of for the King having a power to nominate the Sheriff and he to make a Return it may happen that the true and rightful Members shall continue Petitioners only whilst such as came in by unjust Returns pass an Act to give the King Money for the maintainance of a Stranding Army This Artifice was of much use in the last Parliament at Westminster and became so notorious from the great Number of Petitioners that a Gentleman being ask'd whether the House of Commons sate that day in the Parliament No reply'd he It stood in the Lobby It is Customary in the Borough of Limmington in Hampshire to Elect by the Ballot The manner is to give to every Electing Burgess their number being limitted and known a different Colour'd Ball for every Competitor each Colour being respectively appropriated to the several Competitors As suppose there should be three Candidates each Elector has three several Balls given him which he so manages as to keep only that in his hand which by its Colour belongs to the person he intends to chuse this being inclos'd in his hand he puts it into a close Box made for that purpose leaving no possibility to any one to detect what colour'd Ball he put into it Thus each having put in his Ball according to his Vote the Balls of one Colour are separated from those of another colour and so according to the Majority of Balls of one Colour the Return is made This Method I know to be of great advantage where it is made use of It prevents Animosities and Distast and very much assists that freedom which ought to be in Elections No man in this way need fear the disobliging of his Landlord Customer or Benefactor for it can by no means be discovered how he gave his Vote if he will but keep his own counsel If this or some such Device were appointed to be made use of in every Borough