Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
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A41163
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A brief account of some of the late incroachments and depredations of the Dutch upon the English and of a few of those many advantages which by fraud and violence they have made of the British nations since the revolution, and of the means enabling them thereunto.
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Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing F731; ESTC R38871
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64,396
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76
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Purchasing of it than She is believed to have done And therefore not being Contented with Lands of Theobalds which were bestowed upon him soon after the Prince of Orange was Advanced into a Condition and Capacity of making Grants and Alienations of that Kind and of which he has made large Improvements and Raised vast Summes from thence by Sales and otherwise to the wonderful Wrong and Damage of all those that had Leases of and Tenant Right in them from and under the late Duke of Albemarle to whose Father they were Judged a very Royal and Valuable Recompence for the Noble Service He did in Retrieving and Re-establishing the Government upon its Ancient Legal Bottom the Restoring the late King Charles to his Rightful and Hereditary Soveraignity and for Re-estating these Kingdoms in the peaceable Possession of their Laws and Liberties I say that not being Satisfied with this ample Donative and Gift He hath lately Begged of King William the other Lands I have Mentioned and hath had them Granted unto Him without the least Regard to the Right of the Crown the Property of the Prince of Wales the Laws of this Kingdom or to the Interest which some Hundreds of Persons have more or less in them Of which Acquisition on Benting's part and Alienation on William's it will not be amiss to inlarge a little that we may the better Discern and come the more Sensibly under the Impression both of the Despotical and Unlimimited Absoluteness which the Usurper and his Minions Challenge over us and of the Slavish State and Tenure we are Reduced unto of having our Estates wrested from us and given away to what Degree Measure and Proportion one Dutch Man shall have the Impudence to Demand and the other the Insolency and Tyranny to Grant For if we look into the Extent and Largeness of this Grant it is the Giving away no less than the Dominion and Property of Five Parts of Six of one Entire County which as it is too great a Power and Inheritance for any Foreign Subject to Possess and Inherit So it may hereafter prove Unsafe for the Government to have so Numerous a People made Subject unto and Dependant on Him Seeing it is of that vast Dimension and ample Jurisdiction that near Fifty Mean Lordships Hold of those Mannors and above Fifteen Hundred Freeholders are Tenants there to the King and thereby Obliged unto Him under a particular Allegiance besides that which they ow him in the Quality and on the Foot of their being his Subjects And it is so particular a Revenue Anciently Vested in the Prince of Wales that it cannot Legally and according to the Customs Constitution and Laws of England be Alienated from him And therefore upon the Creation of a Prince of Wales there are upon the Right of Tenure under him and of Tenancy unto him Mises of Eight Hundred Pounds payable to the said Prince Nor is it unworthy of Remark that in the Preamble of the Statute of the 21. Jac. Cap. 29 it was brought into Doubt and questioned whether Charles the First that was then Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal whom the Statute Declares to have an Inheritance in both tho under special Limitation could Let or Rent Leases for Three Lives or any longer than his Own And it is there Declared that he could not unless such Leases were Confirmed in Parliament And the Reason is Because upon want of a Prince of Wales that Inheritance becomes immediatly Vested in the Crown So that if the Prince of Wales himself who has an Inheritance in that Revenue cannot Grant Estates out of it for any longer than his own Life without the Consent and Authority of Parliament it demonstratively Follows that the Prince of Orange who by the very Title that he possesseth the Crown hath at most only an Estate in it for his own Life cannot Grant away and Alienate it without the Consent of both Houses of Parliament Declared in and by a formal and express Statute To which I will presume to add that in Case of a Failure of a Prince of Wales it doth not settle in the Crown as a Propriety but as an Usufructuary till a Prince of Wales be Created to whose Creation that Revenue is Annexed by those words in our Law To him and his Heires who shall be Kings of England Nor was there ever a Disposal or Alienation of that Estate from the Crown save when Queen Elizabeth who was as much the Idol as she was called the Protectoress of her People ventured to grant it unto and bestow it upon the Earle of Leicester but that both occasioned such an Insurrection and Rebellion and was likely to raise and continue such a Civil War in the Kingdom that Leicester was glad both to depart from all Pretence of Claim that was made unto him by that Grant and quietly to Resign it and the Queen who wanted neither Spirit to Assert her legal Rights and Prerogatives nor Interest in the Affections of her Subjects for Support and Justification of them was joyful to put an End to those Intestine Divisions and Troubles bâ— Reassuming those Lands to the Crown where they have ever since continued Nor can a rightful and hereditaâ—y King of England even in the Case and on the Sâ—pposal that there were no Prince of Wales legally Alienate and Give away those Lands from the Crown seeing they are no otherwise Vested in it than in Trust to be Preserved forth coming to the Use Profit and Honour of such a Prince when there comes to be One and at what time he is Created and Declared And therefore in and by the very Statute of Charles II. which gave Power as well as Liberty for the Sale and Disposal of the Fee Farm Rents there is a particular and express Exception of the forementioned Welch Rents tho there was then no Prince of Wales nor any Prospect that there would be one of that King's Body which plainly Imported that the Parliament took the Welch Revenue nor to be Alienable Much less then can the Prince of Orange that hath no hereditary Right to the Crown but hath only Obtained it by the illegal and merely pretended Choice of the People which is in other Terms to have Usurped it and who by the very Act of Settlement has but an Estate for Life in the Possession of it Grant away the Inheritance and absolute Fee of the Principality of Wales For it is no less an Absurdity in Law to say that a Tenant for Life can Grant a Fee than to say that a Tenant in Fee can Grant no more than for a Life But it appears that that tho the Power of a lawful King and of a legitimate Prince of Wales be Limited and Restrained within the Precincts of Law yet that the Power of an Usurper is boundless and unconfined However it is no way incongruous that he who has violently Snatched his Father in Law and Uncle's Crown from his Head and Drove him from his
Dominions should also take upon himself to Grant away and Alienate the Inheritance of his Cousin and to Disinherit him of it But why doth he not as well make Benting Prince of Wales as to give him the Revenue of that Principality Seeing he may as lawfully and by the same Measures of Justice do the First as he has done the Last And no doubt but that as he hath Inclination to it we may also live to see it done if he can but once Emerge out of the present War and thereupon bring over from the Continent a numerous and triumphant Outlandish Army to support and protect him in his Usurpation and Tyranny and make us with Tameness and Decency wear our Chains In the mean time considering the Depopulaation and Poverty which thro a long and costly War the Nation is already reduced unto we may make this Reflection upon and this Inference from the Prodigality of our Belgick King to his Dutch Minion and to his Outlandish Janizaries viz. that it can be done upon upon no other Design than to gratifie the Commo-nwealth of Holland and to raise them to an Ascendency of Wealth and Power over us For had he the least Regaâ—d to the Welfare of England he would blush to ask such immense Summs of the Parliament when he is alienating and disposing away the standing Revenues of the Crown to his Whores and Burdaâ—â—â—â— For how can we imagin that any thing should be held needful to be Levied of the People if it were not in Subseâ—viency to an Outlandish Interest when we see not only those Lands that are pretended to be forfeited but those Ancient Inheritances that the Sovereign and Royal Family should Subsist upon squander'd away upon little Foreigners which were bred and heretofore accustomed to live upon the Fragments of their Master's Table Surely we may expect from the Justice and Wisdom of this Parliament That before they Empty the Purses of those they Represent they will enquire how the Revenues vested in the Crown are bestowed and applyed For whatsoever Usurpers may dare to do in wasting the Treasure and Inheritance of the Throne by Buildng Palaces and furnishing them splendidly at Loo and for making Indorsements on the posteriour Parchments of those I have mentioned Our Natural and Lawful Kings never used to demand Succours of their Subjects till they had Exhausted themselves and Disbursed their whole Revenue in the Service and for the Protection of their People Nor is there any thing more frequently met with and better known in our Law than that there have been Acts of Resumption of former Grants and Donations from the Crown whensoever the Nation has been Engaged in an expensive War and the People have Groaned under large Taxes And as this is the first Original of the Kind that ever we had Experience of in this Kingdom and for which we are indebted to Holland so I hope that after our Deliverance from a Belgick Prince we shall have no Copy of it or that any King hereafter will make Alienations of Lands from the Crown when he is under Necessities of demanding Aids of his People for his Support and Assistance in Wars wherein he may come to be engaged To which I will only add that under all those lavish and squandring Wasts and Consumptions of our Prince upon Dutch for Closet and Chamber Services he hath not only been Narrow and Parcimonious enough but Niggardly and highly Ungrateful to the English because it could not benefit Holland Whereof among others Talmash that is Dead and old Danby who is Alive are known Instances tho they Served him both in Policy and War and Contributed farther to his Exaltation to the Throne and to the keeping him in it than Thousands of his Country-men were capable of doing and especially beyond what the Chocolate and Carpet Gentleman I have been speaking of had either Courage or Brain to Attempt In recompence whereof instead of any Lands and much less those of the Crown the one was sent and abandoned to be Killed by the French but Murthered by the English abroad and the other is Forsaken Given up and Sacrificed at â—â—me to the old Envy and bigotted Rage of his Enemies But whereas what I have now Represented may seem to Issue only in the Enriching a few Hollanders at our Loss and Expence and not to amount to the Benefit and Advantage either of the Community of that People or of those States unless Secondarily and after several Removes I shall therefore advance to the laying open and displaying wherein to our Vast and infinite Damage we are Bubbled out of our Money and Treasure and made a Prey to that Republick thro the large Sums daily Allotted and Paid them out of our Exchequer Nor is the way wherein it is done such a Mistery as needs Accuracy of Parts and great Penetration to Comprehend it seeing it cannot escape Proving Demonstratively Obvious to every One who will give himselfe leave to Consider how many of the Dutch Troops and of those that Constitute their Particular Quota are upon the English Establishment and Paid with English Mony For as if it had not been enough to have been Guilty both of that Prodigal Folly and that Treasonable Crime of giving them at one time Six Hundred Thousand Pounds as a pretended Re-imbursment of the Charge and Expence they Alleadged they had been at in sending their Fleet and Army hither upon the Motives as they had the Hypocrisy and Impudence to say and We the Simplicity and Lunatism to believe of Rescuing Us from Popery and Slavery but as appears by the Event for Introducing Atheism Thraldom and Poverty We did not only over and above that Maintain and Pay their Whole Army here for a Considerable time but have had ever since Six or Seven Holland Regiments upon English Establishment and both Maintained with good English Mony and at the Proportion of our Pay which is larger then they allow to those Troops which remain under their own Establishment Sure it might have been thought sufficient and would be so by any Prince save this Dutch one who inwardly hates Us and by all the Methods of his Administration seeketh and Pursueth our Ruine that besides the Raising and Maintaining the largest Body of Brittish Troops that has for many Ages been Imployed upon the Continent and over and above the Charges we are at in Assisting and Relieving the Duke of Savoy and on those particular Forces which are on English Pay in Piedmont We should be at the Expence of Purchasing Subsisting and Paying all the Danes most of the Hess many of the Lunenburgh and divers of the Swiss and some of the Brandenburgh Forces that are now in the Confederate Army in Flanders but that after all this Prodigal Expence which tho it may possibly give us the Reputation of a Rich yet will not even with our Allies themselves acquire us the Credit of a Wise Nation We should be so Ridiculously silly as to Beare and