Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A30310
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An essay upon the excising of malt: as also, the present case of tallies consider'd. By A. Burnaby, of the Middle-Temple.
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Burnaby, A. (Anthony)
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1696
(1696)
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Wing B5741; ESTC R213421
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21,674
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87
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in the Hundred Upon the whole Matter whether the want of Judgment in the Employment and Knowledge in the Materials those Gentlemen that do brew their own Drink might not be as Cheap furnish'd by the Brewers is a Question that I shall not consider at this time But if it be true then there will not be any Difference notwithstanding the present Excise-Duty But that it is highly Just and Reasonable that a Malt-Duty be added and that all private Families and Strangers ought to pay a Proportion towards such a Tax will easily be Consented to when we reflect on King Charles the Second his Consent for taking away the Court of Wards Purveyance Preemption c. and then we shall soon find how reasonable it is that both Private Families and Strangers should contribute towards such a Duty and indeed unless they do it cannot be said to be equal for which purpose let us see with what disadvantages to the Prerogative of the Crown that King granted the Exchange But by the way I shall first inform those that are most dissatisfied with this Proposal what King James the First said to the then Prince of Wales while in his time some Essays were made for the abolishing all those Royal Advantages Son said he the yearly Revenues as are now offer'd in lieu of your Court of Wards and other Tenures may make you a Prince a little Richer but if ever you accept them you will much lessen your Greatness Why did he say so but because he well knew those things were notable Branches of the Royal Prerogative from which the Crown received much of its Honours Powers and Dignities The truth is most of our Gentlemen at this time are of a new Generation and feel not the Smart of those Grievances their Ancestors and their Tenants did from all these things therefore know no more of them than what they have in the Histories of those times and their own Speculation deduced from thence But that they may be the better acquainted with the Advantages that they had by the Exchange I will give some touches at a few of the Grievances by which the rest may be judged namely The Denial of Dying Parents the Disposal of their own Children The many Unhappy Marriages that too often attended young Heirs and Heiresses upon their becoming Wards How were such Persons oft-times drawn into Marriage before they were capable of making it an Act of their own Judgment and Affection Yea and what force was put upon others Such as it seems at least to me as made their Marriages differ but very little from a Rape I cannot but believe this Court of Wards was at first well intended or surely so many Acts of Parliament could not have been made to confirm it some whereof were so late as in King Henry the Eighth his time but such woful Corruption had crept into the Execution of them as many of the Children of Noble and Worthy Parents were so disposed of as could they have fore-seen it nothing could surely have been a more Melancholy Representation Again what great Charges Trouble and Hazard were the Lords Mesne put to by Assessments of Escuage and otherwise How often the Kings Tenants in Capite and by Knights Service did the Escheators immediately Seize not only the Lands of the greatest Nobility Gentry and Meaner Men but the Stock and Cattle also on the Ground with the Goods in their Houses insomuch that their Executors were many times constrained to Petition and obtain the King 's special Favour by his Writ to have an Allowance for the Personal Estate to be delivered back again Let us likewise consider what hasty and frequent Summons's were Issued out at the King's Pleasure even to the Chiefest Men of the Kingdom over whom he had this power to attend him Cum equis Armis And how tedious and Chargeable were those Attendances to them What Work was made also amongst the Country Farmers Yeamondry and Market People What Exactions and Oppressions did all this Rank of People suffer from the King's Officers in Executing their Preemption Purveyances and Carriages for the King's Houshold Which the Parliament in the Preamble of the Excise Act Complained were grown to that height that it was found tho divers strict Laws had been made in the time of His Majesty's Progenitors some extending so far as unto Life that yet divers Oppressions were still committed and continued and several Counties held to sundry Rates Taxes and Impositions to redeem themselves from those Vexations A Man would think there needed not one Word more to be said to make this Cogent Argument for settling the Excise on Malt yet I have something more to add that will or at least should make it more forcible than all that is said before which is to observe who the Persons were that chiefly injoyed the benefit of those Exemptions from the Court of Wards in lieu of which the Excise was Entail'd upon the Crown Secondly Who are they that have gotten the special Advantages being delivered from those Grievances and Oppressions And who are the Persons that have and still do pay the Purchase Money To the first of these Questions I say or at least modestly ask Whether it be not the Nobility Gentry and their Tenants the Country Farmers and Yeamondry and all others who have Estates in Lands or are by their Occupation related to them I say are not they the only Persons where by the way let it be noted that these Advantages mostly concern all those Families in Country Towns who Brew their own Beer for in Cities and great Towns where the Inhabitants are of Trades and their Estates lying in Wares and Debts their Orphants were not so much subjected to Wardship or could the Grievances touch them as they did the Country To the other part of the Question viz. Who are the Persons or what Rank of People are they who pay this Excise which brought off all those Grievances Are they any other than those that make the Consumption of the Beer now under Excise And who are they but the Commonalty of the Kingdom the Nobility and Gentry judging it as indeed it is much below them to drink in such Houses otherwise than as they are by Travelling constrained to it Surely nothing could have been more reasonable than that that Act it self should have made such provision that they who shar'd deepest in the benefit of it should have shar'd deepest in the burthens of it also however to have born an equal share at least and not intirely to have freed themselves from their Burthens by laying a fresh Burthen upon the Backs of the most Laborious and Industrious part of the Common People upon a Commodity of absolute necessity for the support of Life And as it is the Commonalty that pay this Duty so it is the more inferior part of them that support the Victuallers Trade as Taylors Weavers Smiths Bricklayers Combers of Wooll Sawyers Colliers Seamen Soldiers Watermen Labourers