Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	according_a	great_a	king_n	5,046	5	3.6170	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44970	An humble address with some proposals for the future preventing of the decrease of the inhabitants of this realm With allowance. Ro. L'Estrange.		1677 (1677)	Wing H3392; ESTC R221332	4,916	16

An Humble ADDRESS WITH Some PROPOSALS for the Future Preventing of the Decrease of the Inhabitants of this Realm With Allowance Ro. L'Estange LONDON Printed in the Year 1677. Proposalls for the Future preventing of the Decrease of the Inhabitants of this Realm FIrst it is most evident that this Island is so fertil and so productive of all sorts of corn flesh and fish and all other things necessary for the maintenance of it's inhabitants that it can maintain thousands more than it is now peopled withall It is also productive of many Merchantable and staple Commodities about which many thousands might be employed more than are or more than there are of the ordinary rank of people in the Nation These things are so true that there needs no argument to Confirm them Secondly it is beyond all question That the strength of the King and Kingdome both in peace and war consists in the multitude of it's inhabitants and that the riches and poverty of a Nation have their rise and original from the number or paucity of them and by the same causes a Nation is rendred either considerable or inconsiderable amongst it's Neighbours as to Alliances c. So that it seems to be an affair of the cheifest concernment to prevent the decrease of the inhabitants of our Nation and to propose a certain and undeniable method how such a publique mischief may be remedied which I shall endeavour briefly None then that understands the constitution of this Nation can deny but it 's polity fundamental laws and government are as just and convenient as any in the world notwithstanding in every age there is a necessity of abrogating Old and establishing New Laws the reasons of some ceasing and new publique inconveniencies happening which it is necessary to obviate by New Laws Now with all those penal Laws made against the most capital crimes viz. Such as Felony Burglary and Murder it self the King by his Prorogative has a power to dispense either wholly by acquitting the Offender from punishment or by Commutation of the greater punishment into a Less nay the Law it self doth daily admit such a Commutation by inflicting the burning in the hand upon the easy terms of reading a verse in the Bible on these who according to the rigour of it are to lose their lives And these criminalls being thus acquitted either by the Kings clemency or the Law may return to their former employs or undertake any other lawful calling without any obstacle or impediment But let it be supposed that a Malefactor is found guilty of some Capital crime viz. Murder Treason c. which the King will not pardon nor the Laws admit any Commutation for but condemn him to the most ignominous death yet this person is in a better and more desirable condition than that to which the severity and cruelty of some inexorable men oftentimes reduce their fellow-subjects whose misery according to some present Laws it is not in the Kings power to relieve although at such a time when the King and Nation stands in greatest need of their help and assistance To manifest this is not difficult from the frequent instances and examples of those whom we every day see deprived of Liberty cast into prisons where they are forced to live under all the circumstances of misery and want and that irrecoverably for some small and trifling debt which their poverty to which it may be they are reduced by Divine providence not dishonesty is the cause of not paying Now the terrour of these sufferings more dreadfull to a Generous Spirit than the severest death is one of the principal reasons of drawing great numbers of people out of this Realm First if we consider the Sea-men than whom there is no rank of men more beneficial nor necessary for England being an Island The humours and inclinations of these men are to be liberal yea even prodigal in their expences so long as the stock of their Wages last that being consumed they venture further upon their credit in hopes of a succeeding employ of which probably failing longer then they did suppose and being incapable of paying their impatient creditors from whom they constantly fear the severity of a prison they betake themselves to some forreign Nation as France Holland c. who are always ready to entertain such useful persons where they fix and never more to venture into England nor have any desire for their Native Countrey probably having more strong engagements of wife and children to oblige them to another Nation Secondly The artificers or handicrafts-men do oftentimes either by mispending what they acquire by their labour or by providence fall into penury and want and prove engaged in debts which they have no prospect of paying and therefore evidently discern that the miseries of a prison must be their portion out of which being once confined to it they see no possibility of being rescued Their next resolution therefore is to leave their Countrey there being no other way by which they can evade those dangers and preserve their liberty And to give themselves an encouragement to prosecute those resolves they consider their art and labour will procure them as plentiful a subsistance abroad as at home Thirdly The next that fall into calamity various ways are Farmers who notwithstanding their care and indesty either by the smallness of their crops the loss of their stocks or hard bargains to which their ignorance betrays them are frequently disenabled to satisfy their Land-lords which though sometimes they prove charitable and generous persons and cosider the undone condition of their distressed Tenants yet oftentimes may prove men of much inhumanity and will accept no satisfaction besides the ruine of their miserable Debtors which severity puts many Countrey-men the want of whom causes such large tracts of ground to lie un-occupyed in England to try their future Fortunes in remote parts Fourthtly the last sort of men I shall instance are Merchants and Tradesmen many of which do suffer greater losse both by Sea and Land then any other and this is so incident to their very employs that few can pretend an exemption Sometimes their losses are so very great that they are altogether incapable with their small remainder to make any proportionable satisfaction Therefore nature her self whose first Law is self-preservation from misery instructs these men rather than submit to the cruelty that some unrealed laws enables unmerciful Creditors to inflict on them to secure themselves by flying their Countrey From all this it must be evident to any unprejudiced person that so many leaving this Nation for fear of being imprisoned during their lives for debts which frequently providence and not unthriftiness has brought upon them And the irrecoverable confinement of such multitudes to prisons is the chief reason of drawing people out of England Those who escape are ordinarily followed by their Families The confinement of those who are imprisoned deprive the kingdome of themselves and proves the