the King 's Dispensing with them cannot take place with any man that considers the First of those two Statutes viz. That a Parliament shall be holden every yeer once OR more often if need be by which words the King is left onely Judge of the need of a Parliament oftner than once a yeer But whether the King see need or no he is absolutely and peremptorily bound to hold a Parliament once a yeer ANIMADVERSION This sort of men are always up with a great Noise about Property Right and Liberty of the People because most men are wont to be taken with the mention of those matters wherein their Good and well-being is concerned and the Projecting Faction would be supposed to be the onely Advocates for them but alas this is the Faction's old main Engine to catch Proselytes among the injudicious part of the World which are always much the major Part of Mankinde who in the mean time are not able to judge whether Discourses be made rationally or not till the Sophisms or Cheats of such Crafty Writers be discovered And verily I believe this Penman himself if he had pleased might have saved me the labour of discovery for he writes more like a Lawyer than any of his Fellows And therefore he could have told you that the Law of England is as careful for the Prerogative of the King as it is for the Liberty of the Subject and whereas the Government of England hath in all Times even from utmost Antiquity been for a Monarchy the Laws have not left it destitute of Powers to preserve it Self in that Condition and the People ought to be as zealous for the Conservation of it by maintaining the Rights of the Crown as they are for their own because those also were Ordained for Publike good and are as necessary as the other and accordingly the eye of the Law hath been as tender of them as of the other because our Ancestors in framing the Constitution of this Kingdom conceived the end of Government which is Peace publike Convenience and Safety could not well be attained without it Therefore that in this the wisdom of the Law was great of old and ought greatly to be admired is most evident because by late Experience we have found since 1641 that in pulling the Feathers of Monarchy the People did put none in their own Caps but what made them look like Bedlams and become really such by running at last into Anarchy mere Confusion It were endless to bring in here a citation of manifold Provisions made by Law to preserve the Prerogative for they are known to all men that have studied the Law and to most men that have not And therefore in making Interpretations of Law about Government we are when we write to carry an even hand betwixt what is Right for the King and what is Right for the Subject and not draw Conclusions on one side out of literal Expressions and particular Sentences but rather to derive them from the general Sence and Scope of all our Laws on both sides compared one with another and so should this Considerator and his Fellows have done if they had honest Intentions Next as to what he saith of the Peoples Rights and Liberties being bound up in Annual Parliaments 't is so ridiculous that his Masters of the Faction in 1641 would not understand it so They before all things proclaimed to the World that the onely way to preserve the Rights and Liberties was to have a Parliament of length sufficient to sit and dispatch the Publike affairs that is to say they who pretended themselves to be the great Patrons of the Peoples Rights were so far from thinking those Rights were bound up in yeerly Parliaments that they would not be satisfied till they had an Act passed to impower them to sit as many yeers as they pleased which they never could with any face have demanded if the opinion of Lawyers or of the People of that time had been that all our Rights had been so bound up in those two Statutes that to part with yeerly Parliaments had been to part with our Rights and Liberties For it would then have savoured of too rank Hypocrisie before the Multitude and have raised their Jealousie against them had they imagined or should any body have told them that their Rights and Liberties were at Stake by such proceeding of their Patrons Moreover consider this present Parliament's proceeding in those days when but few men offer'd to finde fault with them For when in the Sixteenth yeer of His now Majestie they passed that Act to prevent long intermission of Parliaments it is plain that they were of another opinion than the Considerator and his Fellows For the words and scope of the Act shew they were exceeding tender of our Rights and Liberties yet determined the time of Parliamentary Meetings to once in three yeers which 't is reason to believe they never would have done if they had not understood our Rights and Liberties would have been better provided for by their Triennial than by yeerly Meetings But now adays it is a small matter with our Factious Leguleian Scriblers to form up Opinions upon forged Interpretations of Law and prefer them before the Opinions of whole Parliamentary Bodies whose Wisdom ought to be reverenced as and as it is the Wisdom of the whole Nation In the next place consider how slily the Considerator shuffles in his transcribing one of the two controverted Statutes The first saith a Parliament shall be holden every yeer once AND oftner if need be but he writes OR oftner if need be in stead of AND. It is not out of any inclination I have to Pedantick Niceties or that I think it becomes any man to mingle Points of Philologie with discourse about matters of Politie that I now begin to play the Grammaticaster but when I perceive there is a crafty purpose in altering such a small Particle when one is placed in a sentence in stead of the other I suppose it becomes me not to neglect it especially when it perverts the whole meaning of a Law I dare appeal to the Ferula of Dr. Busby the Prince of Grammarians whether there be not a material difference in signification betwixt AND and OR the former being a Copulative the later a Disjunctive Now the present Dispute betwixt the Considerator and me being this Whether the words IF NEED BE do refer onely to the later part of the Sentence or to the whole Sentence as he a few lines after expresseth and would have those words to refer to the later part onely and therefore would by foisting in the Conjunction Disjunctive OR in stead of the Conjunction Copulative AND dis-joyn the said words IF NEED BE from the first part of the Sentence give me leave to say that he hereby would put upon us a most partial Artifice of Delusion and mere Juggle for by the word OR there may be some colour for his Construction of the Law that
the King is Judge onely whether a Parliament shall be held oftner than once a yeer whereas the Conjunction AND couples and joyns the sence of the words IF NEED BE to the former part of the sentence and so the Statute speaks plain for the King 's being Sole Judge whether there be need of calling Parliaments once a year as well as whether there be need of calling them oftner than once a yeer So that 't is evident the Noble King Edward the Third and his Parliament meant no such matter as the Considerator and his Fellows and as some other Professors of the Law have hitherto misunderstood contrary to the General sence of Law in that part of our Laws which concerns the Establishment of the Prerogative of our Kings a very principal flower whereof is the Power of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments as often as they shall judge there is need and the Practice of other Nations in all the World hath justified this that it is the common Birth-right of Hereditary Kings to be sole Judges of this Question Whether there be need or no need at all times of Calling or of Dismissing the Supreme Assemblies unless they limit themselves but you see here is reason absolute to conclude our King Edward did not intend to limit himself to yeerly Parliaments by the said Statutes And to make further proof of this see again what is said by the Considerator CONSIDERATOR That the Kings of England have not duely nor constantly observed those Statutes ever since their making doth not render them of the less Force because 't is an Offence in the King not to fulfil a Law ANIMADVERSION Here he is pleased to acknowledge what cannot be denied that the Kings of England have not observed those Statutes ever since their making which shews that our succeeding Kings never thought themselves obliged by them or that King Edward intended it so unless they should see need or at any time judge it necessary to call a Parliament Besides we do not read of any Parliamentary Complaint about the omitting of YEERLY Parliaments till our Presbyterian Masters of the Faction in their Grand Remonstrance 1641. charged it as a fault upon his Majesties Father under pretence of those Statutes And doubtless some of the foregoing Parliaments would have made complaint about Yeerly Omission had they believed Kings bound to Yeerly Parliaments But that King Edward and his Parliament which passed the Law never intended or understood it in the Considerator's sence is to be concluded from this most undeniably That from the Fifth yeer of the said King to the Eighth yeer no Parliament was called the reason was because he judged there was no need Nor doth it appear that he did afterward observe any such certain Puncto of time in calling his Parliaments but doubtless 't is in reason to be thought he would have been so tender of his own Law as to have observed it within the fifth or sixth yeer and not so soon have broken it if he had thought himself obliged absolutely to a yeer because it was but in the fourth year that he passed it CONSIDERATOR But saith the Considerator the King is the onely person that is meant or can be bound For he it is that is to Summon or Hold Parliaments and therefore the Statutes intend to oblige Him or else they intend nothing and the Laws for Parliaments that secure our Religion Properties and Liberties are become onely Advices and Counsels to the King with no obligation further than the Kings present thoughts of their expedience ANIMADVERSION That the Obligation to a Yeerly Parliament lies no further upon the King than if in prudence he see there be need is already proved from a Right Construction of the words of the Statutes and that this prudential power and part of the Kings Prerogative in Judging the expedience of calling Parliaments at this or that time as Affairs shall in His Judgement require did remain undiminished by the said Statutes And they intended onely this which was enough That seeing the People had an ancient Right by Custom to have frequent Parliaments the King accordingly should oblige himself to call Parliaments so often as every yeer or oftner if there should be need Whereupon it is observable that seeing in the interval of Parliament there neither ought nor can be any Judge of the necessity but the King these two Laws left the power of judging it in the Prerogative-Royal as they found it and the then Parliament gained this great Advantage for the People that whereas they before had a Right by Custom and Common Law they now obtain a right by statute-Statute-Law too which certainly so wise a King as Edw. 3. would never have granted without a Salvo put in for his Prerogative by the words IF NEED BE. Moreover consider if those Statutes should be otherwise understood viz. that the King ex debito were bound every yeer to call a Parliament whether it would not have been a great Mischief rather than Benefit to the People For in those days they that served Members in Parliament were wont to take Wages for their Service and that would have layn heavie upon every poor Burrough to have been bound to pay Wages due once a yeer sometimes oftner to their Burgesses it being recoverable by Law against them which peradventure would amount to more than their share of payment of Subsidies Again consider as this would empty their Purses so it would lade them with innumerable Laws which are as grievous almost as to have none as it hath been found in many Nations by experience and therefore it is that Justinian hath been every-where praised for so excellent an Emperour because when all the Nations under the Roman Empire were even over-laid with multitudes of Laws and groaned more under this Yoak than that of Taxes Tributes he took care how to deliver the people from that vexatious Burthen by cutting off the major unnecessary part of the Imperial Statutes and Digesting the rest into a tolerable Body Therefore should such yeerly Parliaments be imposed on us by Law the Statutes would soon swell to the like intolerable pass and tire the people out of fondness after so frequent Meetings as these Writers plead for and would force Us to admit even against all Sense and Reason Therefore we have abundant cause to praise the Wisdom of His Majestie and this His Parliament that in the 16th yeer of his Reign they framed that most prudent Triennial Law which placeth a golden Mediocrity betwixt the having too frequent Parliaments and too long delay of them and I must needs say His Majestie hath therein appeared by limiting himself to call Parliaments hereafter at Three yeers time after the determination of this and after the determination of every succeeding Parliament to be beyond all our Kings and most gracious in condescending and Indulgence towards his people that as the Faction which set on work this Considerator and his Fellows to delude the
Bottom he and the rest of them do build their Argumentations and the high-flown flourishes of discourse which they so diligently Print and spread abroad to deceive the weaker unwary People and intoxicate them with disaffection to this Parliament and to the lawful Prerogative and Government of His Majesty But if they can make no better Squibs than this to blow up a Parliament they had best give it over for the King not being bound up by Law within a yeer he is at liberty to Prorogue beyond the limit of a yeer and so the Fifteen Months Prorogation was and is good though it hath been seldom that there have been so long Prorogations For that is no Argument against the Wisdom and Power of the King to exceed some days or months if He seeth in prudence it be pro bono Publico and that urgent Reasons of State do require it and there is nothing in all our Law that speaks a syllable to the contrary if rightly consider'd Therefore to unwinde the Bottom which the Dissolver hath entangled let me with assurance determine this Point which is the Standard by which you may measure all that they have said or can say If those two Statutes did not confine the Parliament's sitting to Twelve months then the Kings Proroguing His Parliament to Fifteen months was no violation of the said Statutes If no Statute be thereby violated then the Prorogation was and is good If so then the Parliament is as firm in Being as ever any Prorogued Parliament was or can be and consequently the Laws which they have made or shall make after the Prorogation are as perfect and obligatory upon us as any other Laws that ever were made in this Nation And 't is no question a Crime little less than an endeavour at the Subversion of Parliament for any persons by Speeches or Prints in or out of the Houses to carry on a Designe of arguing a Dissolution of this thereby to perswade the People against Obedience and Submission to it Nor can this Assertion of mine be construed as if I maintained any thing in derogation of that Freedom of speech which ought to be had in Parliament and which I count absolutely necessary for the Debate and the Dispatch of the Grand Affairs But then that freedom of speech ought to be qualified with so much Modesty and Reverence as not to run to such licentious discourse as the Laws make Criminal for next to downright Treasonous discourse none can be worse than that which tends to the Violent Dissolution of a Parliament that is to say without the King's consent or against His will What then do they deserve who have been such busie Speech-makers both in and out of Parliament to bring that End about against the King's consent and against the Laws Or that shall presume to do it hereafter seeing the two Houses have given their Judgment in the Case contrary to the interpretation of all Factious Penmen and Talkers But the Dissolver goes further than this and takes upon himself the person of the People of England and in their Name falls to downright threatning of both Houses of Parliament in the following words DISSOLVER Pages 9 and 10. This we say not Gentlemen by way of acknowledgment that you are in a Legal capacity now to do us either good or hurt for your day is done and your power expired but that you may not like a Snuff smell ill after you are out For the reason why we more particularly direct our selves to you is because of the Character you have born that therefore you should not seem so much as to give Prerogative the upper hand of the Law That so however you have lived yet all may say and witness for you that you died well and made a worthy End If not we hope the whole Nation will strictly observe every man among you that to sit a little longer yet would sacrifice to this Prorogation the very best of Laws and in them all the Laws and Liberties of England The two Statutes of EDW. 3. were declared to be in force by your Selves in the Sixteenth yeer of the King in the new Triennial Act then passed and we are sure there hath been no new Parliament since to Repeal them ANIMADVERSION What need this phrentick impertinent Clause here at last seeing that no man affirms those two Statutes to be Repealed Let them stand for ever as Laws to shew that as we had and have a Right to a frequencie of Parliaments so also that the King hath a Right of Prerogative to judge whether there be need of having them so often as every yeer And thus much is to be understood also by the tenour of the new Triennial Act passed by this Parliament to prevent Inconveniences hapning by the long intermission of Parliaments for they name the two Statutes of Edward the Third but make no mention of a Right to Parliaments once every yeer the words of the Act referring to those Statutes being these onely because by them Parliaments are to be held very often which is the very same that I grant and affirm to be the meaning of the said Statutes and their not affirming a jot more than I do implieth that they understood them no otherwise than I do in general terms for a Declarative Frequencie but whether within a yeer or oftner they say not a word touching which it is to be presumed they would not have been silent if they had understood it to be the Right of the People to have had certain Parliaments yeerly whenas the Statutes declare not absolutely but onely with condition IF NEED BE. And because all mouthes should be stopped and no room left for an Objection which ill-minded heads or jealous may make and is made use of by these our Factious Book-makers viz. that our having of Parliaments is by this means left to the King's pleasure when he please to judge them needful behold there is no reason for such objecting because the nature of His power to judge I maintain not to be absolute whether we shall have Parliaments or not but whether it be needful to have one or more so oft as within every yeer Therefore the high Wisdom of this present Parliament is to be magnisied in contriving that new Triennial Act in such a manner as prevents all the frivolous Objections that may be made by any other persons For in the later end of the Act they pray in these words That it may be Declared and Enacted And be it Declared and Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That hereafter the Sitting and Holding of Parliaments shall not be intermitted or discontinued above Three years at the most but that within Three yeers after the determination of this present Parliament and so from time to time within Three yeers after the determination of any other Parliament or Parliaments OR IF THERE BE OCCASION MORE OFTEN your Majestie your Heirs and Successors do issue out your Writs for Calling Assembling
lie if ever God for our sins should permit them to proceed For they of the Faction cannot fish in the waters of Monarchy they would have a Senate with Oligarchs over it in stead of a Monarch For the Narrator saith we ought not to use the word Parliament now but the word Convention is better Nor is it any part of the Faction's business to be content with the Established Religion or Liberty and Property these are words which they know how to make use of by sprinkling them as flowers of Rhetorick in all their Writings and Discourses they work upon the People with them as Witches do with Charms Characters and Spells to bewitch the Multitude with an opinion against the Court and that all is in danger that way and that themselves are the onely Patrons and Patriots when in the mean time they onely tickle them like Trouts with these things to catch them and enslave them to their own designes and humours for pulling the Government in pieces which is the only Bulwark of Religion Liberty and Property For as the King well saith before without this there will be neither Religion Liberty Property nor Safety left to any man The Truth whereof we found by woful experience which ensued after the very same Witchcrafts had bereaved the people of their Senses in FORTY ONE to run headlong into Civil Wars which lasted so long till Twenty yeers Suffering under loss of Religion Liberty Property Safety Government and all made them long and sigh after their Soveraign Lord again as the onely Restorer Look back then once again upon those short Heads of His Majesties Speech with an impartial eye and you have in view so many demonstrations of Wisdom Moderation Tenderness for this Parliament and the future being of Parliaments in their ancient Legal state as also of Love and Kindness towards his People that more cannot be utter'd by Man to cast out the devil of Jealousie and keep it from haunting the Houses of this people any more His Majestie in one of the Heads saith to this effect That without keeping within the compass of the Government as the Laws have stated every part of it viz. in a delicate Medium betwixt the Regal Prerogative and the Parliamentary Right and Liberty of the people so as both may be preserved entire unto Kings and unto Parliaments in their several Stations neither Religion Liberty Property nor Safety nor Parliaments can be maintain'd The Reason is plain because the Law of the land which is the Band that ties all together being once broken by any one of the Parties they immediately fall asunder and will easily be cleft into a thousand pieces and the Parliamentary Constitution not easily be restored as it appeared upon the FORTY ONE Divisions for Twenty yeers together Experience saith the Proverb is the Mistress of Fools Must we always then be Fooling for new Experiments of our old Foolery One would think we should have been wiser by this time than to suffer the same Faction to inchant us any more But because a better Description of Kingly and Parliamentary Interest of Government cannot be had than what was described by the Pen of His Majesties Royal Father in His Answer to the Nineteen Propositions presented to him by that Parliament of the Faction anno 1642. June 2. let me here set it down in regard it will be the best Informer of posterity what to do in like Cases to prevent future Troubles that may arise again through mens acting old Cheats over and over His words are these There being Three kindes of Government among men Absolute Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and all these having particular inconveniences the experience and wisdom of our Ancestors hath so moulded our Government in England out of a Mixture of all Three as to give this Kingdom so far as Humane wisdom can provide the Conveniencies of the Three without the Inconveniencies of any One as long as the Balance hangs even between the Three Estates and while they run joyntly on in their proper Chanels begetting verdure and fertility in the Meadows on both sides and while there is no overflowing of either on either side to raise a Deluge or Inundation In this Kingdom the Laws are joyntly made by a King by a House of Peers and by a House of Commons chosen by the People all having free Votes and particular Priviledges The Government according to our Laws is trusted to the King with power of Treaties of War and Peace of making Peers of chusing Officers and Counsellers for State Judges for Law Commanders for Forts and Castles giving Commissions for raising men to make War abroad or to provide against Invasions or Insurrections at home Benefit of Confiscations power of Pardoning and some more of the like kinde are placed in the King And this Monarchy thus regulated having this power to preserve that Authority without which it would be disabled to preserve the Laws in their force and the Subjects in their Liberties and Properties is intended to draw to him such a Respect and Relation from the Great Ones as may hinder the Ills of Division and Faction and procure such a Fear and Reverence from the People as may hinder Tumults Violence and Licentiousness Again that the Prince may not make use of this high and perpetual Power to the hurt of those for whose good he hath it and make use of the name of Publike Necessity for the gain of his private Favourites and Followers to the detriment of his People the House of Commons an excellent Conserver of Liberty but never intended for any Share in the Government or for the chusing of them that should govern is soly intrusted with the first Proposition concerning levies of Moneys which are the sinews of Peace as well as War and with the Impeaching of those who for their own ends though countenanced by any surreptitiously gotten Command of the King have violated that Law which he is bound when he knoweth it to protect and to the protection of which they were bound to Advise him at least not to serve him in the contrary And the Lords being trusted with a Judiciary power are an excellent Skreen and Bank between the Prince and the People to assist each against any Incroachments of the other and by just Judgements to preserve that law which ought to be the Rule of every one of the Three I would not have transcribed this but that I conceive it impossible to make a more excellent Delineation of the several Concerns of the King and his Subjects in the Constitution of our English Government that every one may understand what is their due by Law and how Monstrous the Demands were in those Nineteen Propositions the first of which was That those Lords and others of your Majesties Privie Council and such great Officers and Ministers of State either at home or beyond the Seas may be put from your Privie Council and from those Offices and Employments excepting such as
what fine subtil Suppositions they grounded their matchless Confidence They supposed and that most politickly That a whole Nation had lost its memory of things past the Parliament its Loyalty the Court its Vnderstanding the King all care of his Crown and his People's Interest the Clergie their care of the Church the Citie their Prudence the Country their Senses and that one little Rook had run away with all the wisdom and honesty in the Land and that downright Treacheries petty Cunnings and plain Knaveries may pass in this Age to entitle a man to the reputation of Politick Prudence which ought to be reverenced as a glorious Beam of Divine wisdom which never shines but in generous and faithful Spirits and is never to be found but in the Temples of true Honour and Vertue They supposed moreover very cunningly That Monarchies which used of old to last about Five hundred years could not live now above Twenty And that one and the same People might in one and the same Age be cheated with the same Tricks And that to bring this about three Kingdoms with three or four gay Speeches turned into Printed Paper-kites might be led in a string as the Boys are by theirs and that no other Kite of the same Strain could be found to encounter ' em They supposed likewise That if a Lord or two would but turn Tenants in the City and drive a Trade of Popularity upon the Old Exchange their Lordships being better metal than ordinary Citizens might be less liable to Breaking and that they could not chuse but thrive though every Body knew they were going to set up with no better Stock of Interest and Wit than of those that had broken before ' em They yet more wittily supposed That whereas our old World was as they thought to have been drown'd again all their Creatures though of different kinds and enemies to each other would most tamely and lovingly concur into the New Ark Also that in the midst of this Flood the Citie and Kingdom might be set on fire provided it were by Parliament-Wildfire and that then they might ring the Bells backward with a Rope of Sand and that when the Combustion should be over they might safely put in execution their pious Project of raising a new Fabrick as good and lasting as the former Republican with the most elegant mixture of all manner of Sects every jot as agreeable for building Castles in the air as lays of Ginger-bread and Marble with untemper'd Morter And for a final Crowning of the whole work they once more supposed That for carrying on the World again after all this destruction there might be a coupling of Beasts of Mortal Antipathies to replenish the Land So much for Drolling with our Politick Drolls for this kinde of Dress very well becomes ' em Now in good earnest for Animadversion And here I know not which end to begin at the Subjects are so many which is strange for I thought this kinde of work would have been over that the Faction would have been taken down by the late Correction But behold incorrigible Malice against the whole Government and new Attempts in Print a swarm of Pamphlets to revive their Designe and seduce the People Some printed a little before and one so late as since the time of the Battel of the Prince of Orange You may remember the business of the first PACQUET was to strip the Faction out of all their Fine Pretences and Projects which were delicately laid for Storming the Government and the Lines of Circumvallation were drawn in Print after the Model of their Master-Engineers in FORTY ONE they began also to make their Approches after the same manner They first fell upon the Episcopal Quarter and to that end they charged their Pamphlets here with all manner of Scandals against the Bishops and sent them to their Friends in the Country Next they fell upon the Kings Court His Favourites and the chief Officers of State not sparing the King Himself and then upon His High Court of Parliament using all manner of Devices to embroil the two Houses and so entangle Affairs that one Session was frustrated after another so that no Publike Business could be dispatched nor Supplies be had to answer the most urgent Necessities of the King and Kingdom by which means the present Parliament was made in a manner useless and the Word was given out to the Multitude to make an Out-cry for a new One All which Contrivances are to bear Date from the time of one small States-man's being turn'd out of Service as hath been already sufficiently manifested He and his Complotters cut out all this work before this last February-Session others that became troublesome after the Parliament then sat down were but his Journey-men For then seeing he had failed in all the former Inventions to skrue on a New Parliament by breaking the neck of this some Friends that had been pettifogging among Half-witted Lawyers undertook to furnish him with Weapons that is to say Arguments drawn out of Old Statutes which have lain Dormant some Hundreds of years without execution or notice to prove this Parliament null or Dissolved because they cannot bring it to their Bow and that a luckie new one so much long'd for by the Faction ought to be called forthwith they being confident to carry away the Bell at new Elections to create a House of Commons that shall do their Business one way and the King 's another or not at all In pursuance whereof they have sent abroad other new Pamphlets which I now shall make bold to encounter as they come in my way though 't is reported one or two of them were written by one Lord and that by another Lord the rest were promoted to the Penning and then to the Press in a private corner The first remarkable Pamphlet sent abroad with intent to break the Neck of this Parliament is entituled Some Considerations upon the Question Whether the Parliament is dissolved by its Prorogation for Fifteen Months And the Title-page further saith that the two Statutes upon which this Question depends are 4 EDW. 3. Cap. 14. Item it is accorded That a Parliament shall be holden every yeer once and more often if need be 36 EDW. 3. Cap. 10. Item for maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and redress of divers Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every yeer as another time was ordained by Statute ANIMADVERSION From these Statutes the substance of what the Author argues is That if the King be obliged by Law to hold a Parliament once every yeer then he ought to call a new one every yeer And if so then he cannot Prorogue one Parliament above the Term of a yeer But the last Prorogation of this present Parliament having been for Fifteen Months which is Three Months beyond what the ancient Law and Custom allows for one Parliaments sitting Therefore that Prorogation being contrary to those Statutes
the Parliament it Self must needs die and can continue no longer to act as a Parliament being by Law extinct and Dissolved This is the Sum of what the Faction alledges to destroy this Parliament Lord what a Thing is Pedantism in every Profession The shame and reproach of every Science and Sort of Learning especially of this of the Law and more especially of that part of it which concerns the Constitution of the Crown and Kingdom to the prejudice whereof no Construction of Law whatsoever ought to be made or will be made by any wise and weighty man But there are a sort of little Pedants whose shallow Brains want Line and Plummet to sound the depth of matters whose Skulls are too narrow to comprehend the utmost Scope of Law these are a sort of Creatures that are wont to be carried away with mere Sounds of words are too apt to be Captivated by Phansie and mistake it to be Understanding as 't is the manner of the profane Vulgar of this and every Profession and so not being fit to get Publike employment from a King are of little use but to torment the Law by wresting it for the service of such as are Factious and Seditious in his Kingdom But now for an Answer to their Argument take notice in the first place That in all the Books lately printed by this sort of men to pervert the People's opinion against the legal continuance of this Parliament they are very careful to tickle them with frequent mentions of ancient Laws the good old Laws and ancient Customs of England and the like Phrases which make a noise and great Noises usually take the weaker sort of people yea and engage them too they believing of course that where most Clamour is there must needs be most Right especially if it be thought that the wisdom of our Fore-fathers and their practice be concerned in the Case As for the Antiquity of Politick Constitutions I believe our Predecessors acted as far as they understood and perhaps they understood what was convenient in their time and state of affairs to be done but certainly they could not be so unwise as to do it eo animo with an intent to tie up Posterity to the same Rules as were then used it being utterly impossible in matters which relate to administration of Government because in the Torrent of Time there flow down innumerable Accidents both among our Selves and our Neighbour Nations which induce unavoidable Alterations in every Age and those must of necessity introduce new Counsels and Rules and Forms of managing a Government suitable to the Season that is to say to the present posture and condition of the People For as in the preservation of mens private bodies so this Verse following holds to be a Rule absolute in ordering the Publike Body Sic quoniam variant Morbi variabimus Artes. As new disorders in State arise and alter its former Temper so there must be variation in the method and means of Remedy or else all runs to Ruine And for this End Parliaments themselves were first ordained that Princes in such Cases might advise with them when they shall need their Advice about the making of new Laws or altering old Laws and Customs as they shall see occasion Secondly we find by old Records that our Forefathers in conformity to this Reason many times varied the Formalities of Parliament both as to its time of Meeting its Number its Manner of sitting and time of Continuance and other Circumstances yet we nowhere find them in any wise condemned for it it being to be supposed they did what in their times was for the then publike Convenience For both before and after the Conquest Parliaments were held Three times a year viz. at Easter Whitsuntide and Christmas but for continuance no longer than the space of Eight days for each time but that Custom continued not any considerable time after the Conquest but received many Variations all along to the time of King Edward the Third in whose days the fore-cited Statutes were made which give Occasion to our present Disputes The Book call'd The Mirrour of Justice saith Cap. 1. Sect. 3. that sometimes those Parliaments departed from that frequencie and were held Twice a yeer and in those days there was no such thing as a House of Commons as 't is noted in Print for that the Parliament consisted then onely of King and Lords so that it were better for our Admirers of old Statutes and Customs in some Cases to bury some of them rather than let their Brains run a madding up towards the Conquest and beyond to revive them to give Rules for us to proceed by Thus it was some time of old as to the quality of Parliament-members and then as to their manner of Sitting my Lord Coke Instit Par. 4. cap. 1. tells us that in Edw. the First 's Reign the Commons had no distinct House to sit in and no Speaker as it appears in the Treatise de Modo tenendi Parliamentum And in 6 of Edw. 3. in divers places it appeareth that the Lords and Commons sat together and had then no continual Speaker And then as to the nature of the Power of the Commons House it would tend to little edification to describe and measure it by the Report of Ancient Records Customs and Proceedings and the People would get nothing by it but this even a discovery of the slenderness of those Priviledges which they had of old in comparison of those that by the Favour and Indulgence of succeeding Kings they have enjoyed to this day But thirdly if Customs and Precedents of time past be of such esteem with this Author and the rest of his Fellow-Scriblers in their Printed Books then let them tell me a reason why a Prince may not in his time make use of a Precedent made by a former Prince in a Business of the same nature and for which that Prince was never found fault with after till this Captious quarrelsome Age that we now live in For this Author confesses that Queen Elizabeth in the Fifth yeer of her Reign Prorogued the Parliament from the second of October to the fifth of October of the yeer following which was three days above a yeer and in strictness of Law this Prorogation lately made Anno 1675. for Fifteen Months which is three Months above a year is as good and valid in Law as that they are his very words wherein he is so far in the right because three days or three months can as to point of Law make no difference in the Case either of them being a lapse of time beyond what this man and his Fellows do suppose as limited by those Statutes for a Parliament's sitting and consequently for its Proroguing because if a Parliament cannot legally sit longer than a yeer it cannot be Prorogued to a longer time than the Law gives it a Being But that a Parliament may sit and act with full force and vigor longer than a yeer
there is no Law to be found that contradicts and therefore 't is to be supposed that an Argument drawn from those two Statutes of Edw. 3. being an Argument ex Consequenti that is an Argument grounded upon Consequence the Consequence if good ought to be derived from a right interpretation of those Statutes Now the decision of the matter rests onely upon this Which of the two Parties Judgements you will rely upon as most likely to make right interpretation of the Statutes whether upon our Author's Judgment and his Fellows who appear to be parties concerned in a present Factious designe and season or upon the Judgment of the Queen's Parliament which sat in a more Happie Season who doubtless could not be ignorant of those Statutes but neither they nor any Parliament or Person since that yeer of the Queen ever found fault with her Prorogation as illegal which it 's to be believed would have been done before this time if that Parliament or any succeeding Parliament or Lawyer or other person before the time of the late Prorogation had apprehended the Queen to be faulty in hers Therefore 't is to be supposed that this Precedent of Prorogation made by that most excellent Princess is a good one and that the Interpretation of those Statutes made by this Author and his Fellows to serve a Faction towards the ruine of this Parliament is the wrong Moreover if the sence of those Statutes be taken as they would have it viz. That no Parliament ought to sit above a yeer but a new one to be called within the yeer why were not those Statutes made use of before in Fifteen yeers time to condemn the sitting of this It is strange that no notable Lawyer should in all that time affirm the illegality of it But that onely some few Scarabees of the Law should now to bolster up a Faction be scribling their sence upon the Statutes when the ablest have been and are silent is ridiculous Besides Fourthly consider that when his Majesty now Regnant did in the 16 yeer of his Reign Enact That the Triennial Act passed by his Royal Father in his 16th yeer should be Repealed for Reasons in that Act of Repeal expressed yet upon the humble Supplication of the Lords and Commons He did Declare That hereafter the sitting and holding of Parliaments shall not be intermitted or discontinued above three yeers at the most And that within three yeers after the determination of this present Parliament and so from time to time within three yeers after the determination of any other Parliament or Parliaments or if there be occasion more often your Majestie your Heirs and Successors do issue out your Writs for calling assembling and holding of another Parliament to the end there may be a frequent calling assembling and holding of Parliaments once in three yeers at the least From which I collect these ensuing Particulars 1. That by the word Three yeers after the determination of this present Parliament it is implied by the Act that the duration of this Parliament shall not be comprehended within any determinate time and there was reason for it because they had a tedious work to do to repair the Ruines of three Kingdoms wasted and unsetled by a long Civil War 2. This appears farther by the subsequent words which shew that the determinate Course of Parliaments set by the Act is meant onely for the future after the Dissolution of this 3. The Parliament had been sitting four yeers when they form'd this Act and therefore though they in the Act made mention of the two old Statutes of Edward the Third for holding a Parliament every yeer yet it seems they did not then in their virgin-days conceive themselves to be within the breach of those Statutes for sitting above a yeer because they were upon the making of this Act which doubtless so many learned men as are in these honourable Houses would never have presumed to do if their Sitting had by Law been limited to but a yeers time for then they could not but have apprehended that the Laws they made in the three yeers before must have been null and void for want of legal power to make them as well as all the Laws that they should make afterward till this day And what must the miserable Consequence of that have been even to demolish all the new Foundations which had been or were to be laid for the Restauration and Establishment of the Crown Church and State in case the validity of their former Sitting and Acting had been questionable as they would have been by such bold Interpreters of Law as I shall further make them appear to be who presume to advance their own Understandings above the Judgement of whole Bodies of Parliaments which these men have done and do by Printed Books scattered like Wild-fire about the three Nations to set all in Combustion But Fifthly what if it should appear a more considerable Question to be put Whether those two Old Statutes of Edward the Third be not of most force for the King And truely there appears good reason to conclude in the Affirmative The two Statutes may stand as declarative Memorials of the Judgement of Parliament in time past for the Peoples having a right to a frequencie of Parliaments if need require and no farther but it is not to be believed that so Victorious and Potent a King as Edward the Third ever would have passed those two Acts if his Parliaments meaning had been to cut off that main Point of his Prerogative Royal viz. the power of judging when 't is fit or needful to call a Parliament and when not Nor is it at all likely that it was the Opinion of that Age that the King had done so in passing those Acts but 't is rather to be supposed that that Parliament meant no more than this That those Statutes were intended to be declarative of the Common Law and of the People's having Right by antient Custom to Parliaments and that as they had been so they should also be yeerly in the future if judged necessary For I would know of any man of an impartial Judgment how it is possible to skrue out of those Statutes any other Meaning seeing the words if need be are words Hypothetical or Conditional viz. supposing there be need or upon Condition there be need Hereby 't is implied that if in a yeers time there be no need there is no obligation by Law from hence for the calling a Parliament always within the yeer The Sum of all then is this That if no need be he need not call one And who I pray you ought to be judge of this need but the King who is to Call But what saith our Author of the Considerations to this He hereupon turns Statute-Expositor and Objector as followeth CONSIDERATOR He saith this meaning of the Law is but a Phansie all our Properties Rights and Liberties are bound up in those LAWS of Annual Parliaments and
3. cap. 10. That for the maintenance of those Liberties and remedy of Mischiefs and Grievances that daily happen a Parliament should be held once every yeer ANIMADVERSION I cannot but note this Dissolver to be a mere Shifter He shifts that Statute of 4 Edw. 3. out of the way as a thing too hot for him to handle because of the words IF NEED BE. And as he lays that aside so next he turns Statute-clipper cuts off the main Clause which qualisies the Sence of the Second Statute of the 36 of Edw. 3. The words of the Clause are As at another time WAS ORDAINED BY STATVTE Now that other Statute here mentioned is the first Statute of Edw. 3. which ordained that Parliaments shall be holden once a yeer if need be and more often if need be that is to say we shall have frequent Parliaments and as frequent as heart can wish IF NEED require Just so much and no more was Ordained by the former Statute But who shall be Judge of this need or who can be but the King in whom the Law hath trusted the Calling of Parliaments Therefore 't is in Law to be supposed it may be inconvenient for Him to call a Parliament so often as every yeer when in his Judgment He concludes it not needful so to do So much for Clipping the Statute a Crime as bad as Clipping the King's Coyn if not worse But any thing must be done to serve the turn of Dissolution DISSOLVER The reason he saith is because this Parliament hath sat so many years till they are not the Representatives of one half of the People of England And the Gentry who think themselves born to have their share in Ruling as well as being Ruled judge it a very hard thing upon them to be secluded from their hopes of having the honour to serve their King and Country in Parliament ANIMADVERSION A Share of Ruling as well as being Ruled 'T is very fine ye men of Shaftsbury this is so like the language of the Old Levellers who were all for Ruling by Turns that one might almost swear a small Friend of yours was at the Penning it He is always for Vp and Ride and Rule and Rule alone and so is the whole Faction and that is the Reason why they are for a Tumbling-Cast to the present Rulers of Church and State But what Gentry are those who hanker after Rule If to sit and serve in Parliament be to Rule this the Law never understood in England and the Writ of Summons to Parliament saith no such thing the Rule and Empire being vested in the King and those that are by Law deputed under Him for that purpose It was never otherwise understood till that fatal Parliament in FORTY ONE when they wrested the Rule out of the hand of the King and His inferiour Magistrates There were then such a Sort of Gentry got into the House though but few in comparison of the whole number that in order to the gaining of all Rule into their own hands from their Fellow-Members as well as the King first placed it in the hands of London-Prentices till by Tumults and Tumultuous Voting they drave away the rest of the Gentry as well as the King and the majority of the Lords and never left till themselves became the onely Lords of Mis-rule Such Gentry as those were are they that now reckon of Ruling in Parliament one day or other if they can but be rid of this and perswade the People to chuse 'em having to that end a great confidence in the strength of the Tongues and Lungs of their Ambulatory Chaplains The rest of the Gentry understand them well enough and all their Windings and do very well know and are satisfied that here is a full Parliament all places of Members having been fill'd up by Election of new ones as fast as they were vacant and that a convenient duration of this Assembly of the Peoples Representatives as he calls them is the only Expedient to prevent the Designe of that restless Faction in whose Service this Dissolver and his Scribling Companions are listed And now to do the Feat he ventures at matter of Law too and his Arguments are all summ'd up in what follows DISSOLVER By the Statute of 4 EDW. 3. cap. 10. and 36 EDW. 3. cap. 14. and by other Statutes a Parliament is to meet once within a yeer But directly contrary to those Statutes this last Prorogation Order'd the Parliament not to meet within a yeer but some months after and therefore either the Prorogation is null and void in Law and consequently the Sitting and Acting as a Parliament is at an end or else by your Sitting and Acting you will admit and justifie that a particular Order of the King is to be obey'd though contrary to an Act of Parliament and thereby subvert the Government of England by Law So also the King's Order is to be obeyed against Magna Charta Petition of Right c. and we have neither life nor liberty secured unto us Then the Dissolver by vertue of the foregoing Lines goes on to spend four or five pages in setting forth the great hazard of our Laws Liberties and Properties as if all were true he said and concludes all are gone if the Prorogation beyond twelve months were a good one but he saith 't is null and the Parliament null'd therewith ANIMADVERSION Such small Faggots of Argumentation as these are now bound up in Books to fire the Nation if it be possible They first make false Constructions of the two Statutes of Edw. 3. telling the world the King is by them bound to hold a Parliament once within every yeer and if we could grant that to be the Statutes meaning then they might have some shadow of Reason to make Conclusions to their own mindes But I have already made evident that they either misunderstand the Statutes or craftily wrest the sence of them There is no intent in the Statutes that Parliaments be call'd yeerly ex absoluto but they contain a clear Hypothesis as a Salvo for the undoubted legal Prerogative of the King in the words IF NEED BE so that 't is supposed in the Statutes the King hath by his Prerogative-Royal a Right of Judging the time when it is needful to call a Parliament because He and none but He can Call Therefore 't is to be admir'd there should so many words be made about so plain a business For were I never so much a Conspirator in forming Devices for the Destruction of this Parliament I would finde out some more solid Basis to build my Arguments upon than a manifest Contradiction or else certainly I would for shame be silent The two Statutes say we shall have frequent Parliaments and so frequent as once a yeer if there be need But the Factious Dissolver maintains the sence of them to be that we shall have Parliaments once a yeer though there be no need so that you see upon what a wretched
Question to put it in your eyes that you may not discern Right from Wrong Their Business is to get themselves by the help of a Popular Vproar into a Governing posture and to this end they compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes to carry on a general Crucifixion of the present Governours Cares and Sorrows that is a Crown of Thorns they prepare for the head of the King Scandals for his Ministers a Level for the Nobility a Pitfal for the Bishops a Yoke for the Gentry and a Fools Coat for all the Commons that they can seduce into their Party in which they have leisure to repent and once more pay Taxes to fellow-Subjects who as ye may remember do know how to ride you being ready Booted and Spurr'd if you please once more to set them on horseback till you sigh and confess what a Poet said of old Nec enim Libert as gratior extat Quà m Domino servire bono As for the two Statutes of Edward the third you know I have granted that the Triennial Act of Charles the second doth not at all infringe their force and I have told you I wish they may for ever stand to preserve the Right of the King in calling frequent Parliaments when he judgeth them necessary as well as to maintain the Rights of the People in having them BENCHER He talks next of a Statute made in Richard the second 's Reign That Parliaments be held yeerly to redress delays in Suits and to end such Cases as the Judges doubt Also that in the Ninth of Richard the second the Duke of Gloucester told the King That one old Statute and laudable Custom is approved that the King once a yeer do summon his high Court of Parliament as you may read in Grafton ANIMADVERSION First you have onely Grafton's word that the Duke of Gloucester said so And suppose the Duke did say so you have onely the Duke's saying for it and he doth not name the time of that old Statute's making for no such Statute was in being till the time of Richard's Grandfather viz. King Edward the third and then that short succession of time from him could not make any such Statute an old one But I grant there had been an ancient Custom of yeerly Parliaments till at length the people grew weary of it which no doubt was the reason why the House of Commons in Edward the third's time agreed to pass those Statutes not to have them so frequent unless the King should see need For this sence is clearly implied in the very words of the first of the two Statutes as I have shewn before Besides I once again assure you No such Statute is to be found that saith any thing about the matter in the times elder than Edward onely there had been a Custom which the people held as laudable till they saw reason to alter it in that King Edward's days As for yeerly Parliaments to redress delays in Suits of Law and end difficult Cases there is no such Statute which he mentions to be found nor is it likely that the Commons should be called to such kinde of work of determining such Suits they having never had jurisdiction so to do Nor could it have been a Parliament after the manner of the Parliamentary Constitution then in being if the Lords had assembled alone to end Suits Therefore it is in no wise likely that there ever was any Intention to make such a Statute about the Calling of Parliaments yeerly to end such Law-suits Nor are such difficult Suits as pass the skill of the Judges or so many of them happening constantly in a yeers time as to need a Parliament to end them BENCHER The ancient Britains as Dunwallo writes held Annual Parliaments four hundred yeers before Christ and the Mirrour of Justice saith King Alfred ordained parliaments twice in the yeer or oftner and William the Conqueror did the like ANIMADVERSION Here learned Mr. Bencher shews his Reading So the old Britains went naked before Christ's time and many odd fashions came up in the times of the Saxons the Danes and Normans both in Cloaths and Government Doth this oblige us to the like now To what end then is this old thred-bare stuff brought hither to stuff his Pamphlet I have granted over and over that Parliaments of old were so frequent as he saith but I suppose it would do the people of England little service to tell them what a sort of Parliaments they were and how composed of Lords Spiritual and Temporal c. I suppose we should be loth to have such Parliaments now And yet according to Mr. Bencher's learned way of Arguing if we be obliged to one Circumstance of Example we are also as much bound to observe the other If to the timing of Parliaments as of old then also to the form and manner of them But Time and Law having provided better things for the people his Worship's way of arguing Us into old Fashions again is as pertinent as if he would prove John a Nokes should be bound to make all good that was devised by his sixteen hundred and tenth great-great-great-Grandfather whose name was John-a-Stiles if the Writings of the Devise were to be found in Dunwallo BENCHER I must tell you there are those that affirm the Laws for Annual Parliaments to be Musty obsolete Statutes whose strength and life are devoured by Time But it is enough to stop their mouthes that they have been Declared by two Parliaments within forty yeers last past to be the Laws of our Realm ANIMADVERSION Who are they that are so weak-headed as to say they are Musty and Obsolete Neither his Majestie nor his Parliament will give 'em thanks for saying so nor doth the Prorogation need such an Allegation to maintain it good I have sufficiently shewn that the sence of the two Statutes if entirely taken makes fully for the Right of the King to judge whether Parliaments Annually be needful or not and that within Forty yeers time two Parliaments have confirm'd their Frequencie and so frequent as every yeer or oftner if his Majestie see Occasion shall require their Assembling so often Therefore he hath much more reason to defend them than the Faction hath to make such ado about them unless they could get more Credit to their own Cause by a Rational Construction of them BENCHER My Lord Coke saith Instit part 1. page 81. That no Act of Parliament can lose its force or be antiquated by Non-user unless the Reason of it fail and by change of time it become a publike Mischief c. ANIMADVERSION It seems the Reason for having constant yeerly Parliaments did fail in Edward the Third's time or else his Parliament had never devised those two Statutes and put in the words IF NEED BE so far to change the ancient Custom of their frequencie as not to hold them so often unless Need require and of that Necessity who can be a Judge but the King whom our Laws have
Hereditarily invested with all the Rights of Government of which this sort of Judicatory power is a principal Wherefore the Reason of the ancient frequencie being out of date long since it was well done by this Parliament upon new Reason more suitable to the Condition and Temper of this Age to ascertain us of holding Parliaments in the future with frequencie more convenient for us However 't is worth the observation what his Master-ship doth grant that Non-user may antiquate Acts of Parliament and make them lose their Force if the Reason of them fail or if by change of time they become a Publike Mischief As for the Reason of King Edward's Act I have shewn already that his Parliament had nothing in their Reason of making them that savours of the Old Custom of yeerly frequencie otherwise than with Condition there shall be need nor do they contain any sence that gives us cause to plead that they are antiquated or to desire an antiquation of them because to Repeal them would be an Injury to the King But next let me adde this that in the two late Triennial Acts it is implied that in these days things are alter'd to such a pass that there was high Reason to be no longer bound to the ancient Custom of that Annual frequencie which his Mastership pleads for and thereby you have the Determination of two whole Parliaments the FORTY ONE Parliament and this Parliament that the Reason of the said Custom at Common law fails and that publike Inconveniences if not publike Mischief would follow if it were practised in our time or else 't is in reason to be supposed they never would have alter'd it Therefore seeing his Mastership doth admit what I have made evident in the foregoing part of this Discourse that there hath been a Non-user of King Edward's two Statutes in any such sence as he and his fellows do impose they having never been so put in practice by Edward himself or by any succeeding King to this day we with all assurance conclude that a pleading of Non-user is a good Plea against the two Statute's being in force for such an absolute yeerly frequencie as the Faction doth insinuate into the mindes of the people Especially when two Parliaments before-nam'd have judged that Reason of publike Good and Convenience now lies against having them so frequent as within a yeer and that the time of Three yeers is soon enough unless there be need Nothing then but a spirit of Sedition or Treason would have fixed such a Construction as these men have lately made upon the said Statutes with a mighty Clamour as if Noise would carry it among reasonable men But their Construction being every way proved naught all the Arguments founded upon that Bottom do necessarily fall and Master Bencher and the rest of the Disputants ought to be tried before a Bench of Academian Sophisters that they may be brought under Correction for that wretched Beggery A Begging of the Question A way then with the Questions with which he stuffs up all the rest of his Book because they are grounded upon the same sad account of Petitio Principii and so are altogether impertinent to the Point in hand till they can better prove their own Construction of the two Statutes to be a right one or that those Statutes were at any time since their making put in use and practice upon supposal of any such absolute Meaning as he and his Fellow-writers would fasten upon them His Questions follow BENCHER 1. Whether the Statutes for yeerly Parliaments may be dispensed with by the King 's Soveraign Power and Prerogative being as some say onely Counsels and Advices to the King not obligatory ANIMADVERSION Who are those some that say so If any did they talkt as idly as Master Bencher writes and as little to the purpose for his Mastership hereupon starts up an invidious Question Whether the King may dispence with Laws and Statutes I rather suppose the SOME that say so never were men of God's making but mere men of straw set up by Master Bencher for a Tryal of his own Skill in Confutation and Conquest and to entertain his Majesties subjects with Supposals that there is strange Doctrine at Court in matter of Law that so himself may take occasion to lug in a long discourse to prove the Negative that his Majestie cannot dispence But know once for all that there is none under heaven who can be more tender of the currencie of Law and Legal Constitutions than the King Himself is especially such as are Parliamentary and it would be the joy of the Faction if they could really finde Him otherwise or if they could by any Tricks of State such as were shewn in several Sessions of Parliament before last February-Session play in upon Him the necessity of having recourse to that Supreme Law the Idol of the FORTY ONE Parliament Salus Populi suprema lex to save Himself and his People from such Confusions and Destructions as the Counsels of the Faction if they proceed will bring upon us I may well call it the Idol of that Parliament considering how they abused that Maxime in a causless using it against his Majesties Father perfidiously pleading the Safety of the People to justifie whatsoever they did as confidently as if the People could have been saved no other way if they had kept within the Bounds of Ordinary law But the ordinary path of Law is that which his Majestie desires to walk in and to prove the Truth of this we need onely to recollect the past Provocations given Him by the late extravagances of some men which would have provoked any Prince less patient to other Courses than he hath taken to secure Himself his Affairs his Friends and the Interest of his Crown And as to that point of the Prorogation he did not thereby assume to Himself any power to dispence with the Laws relating to the Course of Parliament but kept within the bound of Law as is abundantly proved Therefore the dragging in this Question of yours must needs be very impertinent as well as maliciously meant good Master Bencher and so are all the vile Inferences that you have made thereupon to catch the People BENCHER 2. His Second Point under question is Whether the Kings dismission of the Parliament without any day set for their return and their continuing so beyond a yeer be a Dissolution or whether such a failer in Time onely may by Act of Law dissolve a Parliament even against the Will of the King ANIMADVERSION So so All is out now The main Point they drive at is to Dissolve the Parliament against the Will of the King but what pretence hath the Bencher for declaring it Dissolved Not a tittle more than what was alledged by the DISSOLVER He said Dismission of a Parliament sine Die amounts to a Dissolution But how comes it that the Fifteenth of February the day to which the Parliament was prorogued or dismissed
is reckoned to be No day They prove this as fast as Hops because it is to be reckoned No day in construction of Law in regard it exceeded three months beyond the term of Twelve and beyond Twelve no Parliament can by Law live and dying at the yeers end it cannot be made alive again by Prorogation This is a very fine and quick dispatch but 't is to be answer'd too as fast as Hops now that King Edward and his Statutes meant no such quick Births and sudden Deaths of Parliaments as these men would perswade us so that notwithstanding all the Clouds that some persons raised about it the 15th of February appear'd a fair day in Law and to all other intents and purposes and it gave us day-light enough to discern the vanity and folly of the Faction and its chiefest Advocates with their matchless Confidence grounded upon the Construction of no better Lawyers than Master Bencher himself and his fellows appear to be viz. pitiful Logicians Lack-learning Lawyers for they are his own words which in pag. 22. he frankly bestows upon all Gentlemen of the long Robe that are of less malice and more understanding Therefore his Friend the new-elected Member may come up to Town if he please for the Body to which he belongs is yet alive and like to continue in good Health notwithstanding all the endeavours that have been used to put it out of temper Thus far I have been giving you the utmost that hath been argued by all the Three books which the Projecting Faction have hitherto proclaimed to be unanswerable But now you see a very little Learning in Law they having no Law on their side goes a great way with them They are better at Vp-cry and Out-cry and Down-cry and just so much Construction of Law and Gospel as will serve to beat up Drums in the Pulpit for that is the way of doing their work without Wit or Reason And therefore I was willing to spend the more time about those Books that I might not omit any one thing in them that is considerable that so the World may see how small cause they have for all their Clamour and that the Parliament did Justice when they condemned so many of these Prints as came to their hands to be fired by the hand of the Hang-man The next Pamphlet that comes to hand is a Thing that pretends to little of Argument but takes occasion from the Imprisonment of the Four Lords to rail at and revile and scandalize the whole Government most sufficiently especially the Parliament in the most odious terms that could be invented It is Intituled A Narrative of the cause and manner of the Imprisonment of the Lords now close Prisoners in the Tower of London And it is intended to walk abroad among the People to perswade them that their Lordships suffer Martyrdom for maintaining the Nation 's Rights and Liberties whereas the very Truth is they are but one mans Martyrs being misled by him 'T is a little leven that leveneth the whole lump Behold how great a matter a little fire kindles Can a man take fire into his bosome and not be burnt Nay though it be but a small Squib it will do the Feat if it be not well put out especially on the return of Gunpowder-Treason-days Therefore I will be so charitable as not to think that all the Four Lords had a hand in this malicious work My reason is It can hardly consist with a Man of Honour unless he be one that hath often forfeited it to be petitioning his Prince and at the same time to be plotting a Libel against Him It was about the time that the Petition was deliver'd to the King at Newmarket in April last that this Printed Narrative came to my hand and after perusal finding it was full fraught with Revenges and Falsities it proved the occasion of my now taking Pen in hand to cure all the Tetters of State that are to be cured with Ink of which none is so virulent and Corrosive as this We expect to see it more openly published as soon as the Faction shall finde the lucky day they hope for but in the mean while the Books are kept in and ready dormant all except those which they craftily convey in private to inflame their Party in City and Country against this Parliament It begins thus NARRATIVE On Thursday the 15th of February the Parliament as they call themselves or the Convention as I hear others generally call them met And at the same time a vast number of people filled Westminster-Hall the Court of Requests the Painted Chamber the Lobbies and all places neer the Parliament-house that the like was never seen upon the Meeting of this or of any other Parliament in our memory They did earnestly desire and expect they would declare themselves to be No Parliament ANIMADVERSION There was little difference betwixt the number of people at the opening of that February-Session and the number that went to be at the Opening of other Sessions of Parliament But how weak soever this Narrator's Memory be I and Thousands more can remember and the Citie of London can and will remember what they got by it when it began to be Flowing water of Rebellion with the same Faction in 1641 what a mighty Inundation of the Multitude they sent down to Westminster to fill that Hall and besides the Lobbies Court of Râ—quests Court of Wards and Painted Chamber that whole Citie White-hall the Strand and All was filled with a Mad Crew crying out upon King Evil Counsellors Bishops French and English Popery Fears Jealousies and Grievances And as Cats are let blood in the Ear many times by old women to cure the Shingles so the whole Posse of Sermoning Matrons the chief Garison of the Presbyterian Clergie made a Sally out o' th' Citie and went down also to bleed Strafford and Canterbury as the onely means to cure all our Evils I should not mention these things but that I am forced with grief of heart to it now that I see the same Humours would be preached about anew by the same impenitent restless Faction if they could but cheat the Old men again who saw and cannot forget these things so easily but the Faction now delude the Younger men who never saw yet a Bleeding nor the sport of Bear-baiting the King's Ministers and Privie Counsellers in whom lies all His Safety at such a season I remember what some of the Leaders then said Have we got him to part with Strafford Then he must deny us nothing the rest at Court being frighted will fall in with us to save themselves and so it proved too true of too many of them that for their childrens sakes I forbear the naming But by this means those Leaders got the Foot-ball before 'em and the King was fain to run for it but could never recover it And then what got the Nation by it I think we all know but that the young men of
Homilies the 39 Articles and her Doctrine as it relates either to God Religion or the Civil obedience due to the King and the whole Government of State and the Security of all these by an Oath of Allegeance If his Lordship thought that the Law allowed either Peers or Commons such a liberty of speech why did he bustle so diligently and briskly as I have been told to promote a Bill not long since against the ancient way of Tryal of Peers Every body then smelt a Rat in the Case and smiled at his Lordships wise Providence and his secret intent of speaking and acting beyond Compass upon the open Stage and therefore I did not wonder when I did read afterwards in the Pamphlet intituled Debates and Arguments for Dissolving this Parliament c. which was reported to be his that his Lordship was very angry at the House of Commons for throwing out the said Bill of Trial when it was sent down to them and tells the Commons p. 6. They certainly were grown very high in their own opinion and had a very low esteem for the Lords when they neglected their best friends in the House of Peers and did almost with scorn refuse that Bill intituled For the more fair and equal Tryal of Peers I never saw the Bill yet therefore can say nothing more of it onely I cannot but take notice that in the same page and in many other parts of that Print a through-revenge is plentifully bestowed upon the Honour of the House of Commons Nothing would then serve the Turn but they must be turned out of doors Dissolved and a new one presently call'd an instance clear enough for discovery out of whose Quiver this Arrow of Dissolution was first shot and of great probability who set on the Writers since against the Prorogation to break the neck of this Parliament and in it all the hopes of the Loyal part of the Nation And if that aforenamed were the Print of his Lordship I might reckon up out of it and another Print stitcht to the tail of it the most virulent Scandals that could be raked together to prepare that House for the rage of the Rabble But the Narrator having sum'd up in few words the sence of the Author I leave him here because the Narrative it self will give the House that short Cut by and by In the mean while if freedom of speaking in Parliament and after that of Printing All and more than All that is of more perhaps than was spoken be to be construed and extended at this rate know that the old Customs and Laws Parliamentary in England know no such matter A freedom of speech in Debate is that which every Speaker by ancient Custom after the House of Commons hath chosen him and presented him to the King doth petition for to the King on the behalf of all the Members of that House and it was never yet denied by any of our Kings The Lords also in their House do claim it by Birthright for to what end do they meet if they may not freely debate matters without which 't is impossible to come to any Resolution about them May his hand rot off then that shall write a word against it But withal we are to understand there are Bounds Rules and Laws of speaking in either House of Parliament for the Law of Parliaments ever supposeth that the Members ought to keep within the compass of those Bounds and observe those Rules both as to the matter spoken and the manner of speaking Every Member hath a Right to be heard and heard out what he hath to say but then when he hath done the House to which he belongs hath power to judge whether he hath spoken ill or not and if ill then they are the proper Judges to dispose of him to punishment according to his desert And this the Law supposeth they will always do they being interested and intrusted with such Necessary Power and Priviledge for the good of the King and Kingdom Now this is the Case of the most Noble House of Peers They have as to the committing of the Four Lords to the Tower not done it because they spake for they heard out with great patience what they had to say but because they judged what their Lordships had spoken against the Being of this Parliament was of most pernicious Consequence against the Safety and Good of the King and Kingdom And to say no more of this the House was so unanimous in concurring to their Commitment after a debate and consideration of the matter as will appear upon search of the Books of that House that it was with great odds of number carried by the Temporal Lords alone without reckoning in the Bishops or the number of Proxies And the Narrator himself confesseth this was agreed on after a full Hearing of all that could be said by the four Lords themselves or their few Friends only he mingles many ill-favour'd Reflections and false Insinuations in his Relation NARRATIVE It had been he saith moved also by the Duke of Buckingham that the Opinion of the Judges might be declared in the Point ANIMADVERSION All Reverence be given to the Judges in due time and place This was an arduous Point of a Superlative Nature touching the very Life and Being of a Parliament in a conspiring Factious Season infinitely above those ordinary points of Law touching which that House is wont sometimes to consult my Lords the Judges when their Lordships conceive they have need to consult them But this was so plain a Case to their Lordships that having the Judicatory right and power in their own hands and in so transcendent an Occasion it had been a strange thing to have yeelded to such a Motion merely to gratifie those whom they had judged Offenders Nor was it to be supposed that the Judges would have undertaken to opinionate about so Supreme a Question wherein the Safety of all the Concerns of Crown and State were involved fit onely for the Supreme Judicature to consider NARRATIVE It was the next day urged by some Lords in the behalf of the Four Lords that three several times viz. 1 Hen. 7. 1 Qu. Mary 1 Qu. Eliz. the very same Debate was in Parliament yet no man questioned for moving it ANIMADVERSION Whether those Debates were the same or not let the world judge when as the Narrator himself confesses it was only about the Forms of the Writs that summoned the Parliament that the Question in those days was But this Question made now was about the validity of a Prorogation and the very being of a Parliament after it I do not finde in my Lord Cook 's Treatise about the High Court of Parliament that the length of a Prorogation beyond a Years time can dissolve it or that a small flaw in the Form of the Writ of Summons can invalidate a Parliament But if it were so that it could yet that is not within the Case of this Parliament whose Writ of
Subjects and beget in them an Opinion as if His Majestie intended to deprive them of their Old Laws and Rights to Parliaments do appear now to be most ungrateful towards Him so I suppose their mouthes will henceforth be stopped seeing they are secured by that new Triennial Act in which they ought to bury all such Disputes for the future which they must needs do if they will cast an eye upon the said Act before they fall to disputing and perverting His Subjects One Objection more give me leave to answer because it will be but in short 't is this That though the words if need be be in the first Statute yet they are not expressed in the Second which being passed Thirty two yeers after must be understood therefore to be absolute But this I say though the words be not there in terminis yet other words are there which make those to be necessarily understood and they are these AS ANOTHER TIME WAS ORDAINED BY STATVTE The Statute meant here is the former of the two which is of the Fourth of Edward the Third The Issue then is this That this later Statute which is of the 36 of Edward the Third referring as by the word AS appears to the former Statute nothing more is Ordained here but what was and AS it was Ordained in the former and so it can bear no other Interpretation than what is proper to the former and is onely a Second Confirmation by Statute-Law of the Right by ancient Custom which the People had before to Parliaments as often as they should be needful as it is intended by the first of the said Statutes So I have done with the Considerator His Fellows who do but steal out of him shall be handled in the next place One of them entitles his Book THE LONG PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED But under that Title he means this Parliament because they have sat Fourteen or Fifteen yeers by reason of the world of work they have had before them to repair the large Breaches made within these Nations by a tedious Civil War which they might have finished before now had not many impediments been cast upon them by the Malice and Cunning of a restless implacable Faction whose glory it would be above all other things attainable in the World if they could any way dissolve this Parliament or contrive how to make it End with disgrace re infectâ that they may not have the honour of finishing that glorious Establishment of Church and State which they designe but that themselves viz. the Faction and the Forlorn Hope of their Party might once more have the opportunity to play the Game they have prepared against the good time of trying their Fortune at New Elections In the mean while their Plot is laid every way to backbite this present House of Commons and by odious Reflections upon the King and House of Peers to make as many of the People as they can out of love with our ancient Monarchical Constitution of Parliaments that they may introduce the New Model of their own For this is certain the Spiritual Drivers which they make use of and must will neither go nor drive as the Proverb saith unless the whole Civil Frame be form'd to a cleverly comportment with the Geneva-Patern but will rather flie off and curse them in stead of Meroz and all their Undertakings as the Scotch General Assembly did Duke Hamilton when by an Authority of Parliament there he presumed without their Blessing to enter England Anno 1648. to have restored His Majestie 's Father No Temporal Lordships must look to thrive by trinkling with them unless they will truckle to 'em too and comply with their eternal Pride and Ambition in all Senatical as well as Classical Concernments as those unhappie Lords and leading Commons who staid in the Houses to act along with them were fain to do in the yeers 1644 1645 1646. 'T is worth the remembring how the Spiritual Assembly sat and dictated Decrees to the Secular which the poor Senate always very tamely obeyed and shaped into Ordinances as fast as might be to be hang'd about the necks of the People who had e'n as good have been hang'd out of the way as to have suffer'd the Intailment of such a Slavery upon their Posterity the End whereof must have been and if we look not now about us may and must be again to bring King and Parliament to the same truckling condition which King James once most sadly experienced in Scotland and in his wisdom saw after he came to the Crown of England would certainly return upon Him and His People here if ever that Faction got afoot again or a horsback forasmuch as 't is the onely Faction that cannot be mended or put into a consistence with Monarchy By which you may see what is to be gotten by crying down Bishops which their Opposites of late have most studiously done both in Prints and by long Speeches and what those few Lords and others must bring upon us at last though perhaps they intend it not if ever to compass their own Ends they make use of that Malignant Faction And know that use them they must and be ruled by 'em too if they weaken the Reputation legal Power and Reverence due to Bishops the doing whereof will necessarily make way for the other and give them the opportunities for which they have above these hundred yeers been sowing of Tares and planting and watering them in England and Scotland Oh that I had leisure in this place to give a particular Account of them what a Thorn they have been in the sides of Princes and People in both the Kingdoms The prevention of the like is to be expected onely from His Majesty and this present Parliament who are sure to Him and the Government by Law established And that is the reason why this Dissolving Pamphleter and his Fellows are so hot for a Dissolution of them having set their Dice to make us undergo Hap-hazard by a New one which must needs have less Ability Experience and Knowledge than these that have been long practised to promote and manage what is proper Parliamentary work in this difficult season to heal our Breaches secure the Government compose and ease the People But a new raw one quoth the Faction would be more fit for us to practise upon and tutour The Author of this Book may be called the Dissolver because he would Dissolve all immediatly But having little of a Lawyer in him he goes another way to work and in stead of Reasoning he chiefly betakes himself to Oratory to try what that will do among the People with the help of fine Flashes of Wit Therefore I shall make but short work in dispatching him as he does to dispatch this Parliament out of the way DISSOLVER Our Ancestors had a glorious value and kindness for our English Liberties therefore that they might have a perpetual Assurance that their Liberties should continue it was Ordained 36 EDW.