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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A25666 The Anti-projector, or, The history of the Fen project 1646 (1646) Wing A3504; ESTC R27192 7,788 9

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that point and so are those of the Isle of Axom against Mr. Gibbons Likewise those which oppose the Earl of Linsey Sir Anthony Thomas Sir John Murson Sir Cornelius Vermooden and others are ready to prove all their undertakings have been against the Countries Consents and that they have been both Commissioners and undertakers Judges and Parties which is against the Law of God Nature and common Reason By the same reason these packed Commissioners being Judges and Parties made 300000 acres the Level very much of which land is dry or bettered by overflowing they may make England the Level England to be surrounded and take one third this year for drayning and another third the next for melioration and the third take all by their Prerogative The six Counties Petitioned King Charles at Newmarket against Lyn Law which was condemned at a Session of Sewers held at Huntington 14 Car. Before this the people were Pursuvanted imprisoned by Councel Table warrants and their Hay taken off their C●res and the six Counties were most grievously oppressed Afterwards the King turned undertaker himself and so our oppression continued for the Comissioners were still Judges and Parties and took away our lands against our consents In the beginning of the last Parliament when Francis Earl of Bedford was mad● Lord Treasurer then by his power and faction in the Lords House a Bill was exhibited to the Parliament by some of the undertakers for drayning against the peoples consents but that bill dyed with him Afterwards when William Earl of Bedford was made General of the Parliaments Horse there was a bill for drayning committed there was a Committee of 30 or 40. and they sate in the Court of Exchequer and Mr. Pelham had the Chair The Earl was there present himself and some Parliament men which were the said Earls participants were very active and sate at the Committee as Judges and Parties Upon a long debate that bill was overthrown About two years after when William Earl of Bedford and Mr. Henly returned from Oxford there was a short Ordinance for drayning committed The Committee sate in the Star-chamber and the six Counties were summoned and there was an extraordinary appearance against the undertakers Mr. Scowen had the Chair and the people cryed out no Mr. Scowen for he was Francis Earl of Bedford's Sollicitor This Committee was furnish'd with too many undertakers of Parliment men There were at least twelve several Chairmen of that Committee and most of them byassed for the undertakers for no witnesses were fairly examined for the six Counties but leading Interrogatories obtruded upon them not one Town of ten were examined at all when the six Counties attended there were commonly two or three undertakers who adjourned the Committee in Westminster-hall on purpose to vex and tire the people when the people had spent their money and were gone out or town then the Committee sate in one corner or another so that their sollicitors were fain to watch them The Committee-men were often feasted by the undertakers and our lands were offered to be sold at two years value to Parliament men which was often complained of to the Parliament by some worthy Patriots This great not good bargain increased very much their faction yet providence which hath done wonders blafted this Ordinance that it withered away to nothing About four years since there was a new Act set on foot and the six Counties were surprised for they were not as formerly so much as summoned This Act was a child of darkness for it could not endure the light We are informed the Chairman ushered in this Act with a Petition like unto that at Kings-Lyn as though it proceeded from the Major part of the owners and Commoners but it was a meer imposture of the undertakers faction and not one of a hundred The House was very thin when this Act was passed about 43. and some of them were parties interressed and the undertakers of all the Levels like birds of a feather flocked together and watched their oppertunity when many of the uninteressed Parliament-men were absent If the truth were known there was no House because there was an Order That no Parliament man being a participant should be Judge and Party in his own Cause For the Act it self it is a formidable monster The Title and Preamble is like a Sarazens head and neck the Body is proportionable and worse then that and the conclusion worst of all We shall make it appear to be against the Law of God nature reason and common sense For first They have enacted parties interessed to be Judges Secondly they have enacted impossibilities as wet to be dry and dry wet viz. that to be the Level which is not the Level they may as well enact white to be black and black white Thirdly This Act destroys Propriety Fourthly the Earl of Bedfords Pan Thorney Abby is exempted from draining when dry land and such as is bettered by overflowing must contribute Fifthly they have destroyed a chief branch of the Common Law in depriving the people of their Juries of the neighbourhood Sixthly they have enacted a most intollerable grievance in impowring the Commissioners to make the people dance attendance a hundred miles from their homes every seaventh day after the Term to attend them for four or five hours to spend their monies and have no agrievance redressed sometimes no Committee appearing whereas anciently according to Law and equity for the ease of the six Counties This Level was seaven Levels and each Level had their several Commissioners and Iurors and acted only in their proper Countries We shall discover many more insufferable grievances if the Supreme Authority please to hear us by witnesses upon Oath And we hope their Honours in their wisdoms will take care we shall not be obstructed by Judges and Parties and biassed Chairmen as formerly we have been The Undertakers have had two Adjudications which they much boast of The first was when many thousand acres were actually drowned occasioned by land-flouds incident to River-Medows yet contrary to occular demonstration they were adjudged drained The other was in the extremity of the drought when it was impossible to judge what land was drained and what not And they have adjudged thousands of acres drained which were never drowned and thousands drowned which are bettered by overflowing in the nature of River-Meadows The people are put out of possession of their lands without hearing one witness upon oath on their parts which is against the fundamental Law of the Land and the great Charter of Liberty and property The Lincolneshier men in the Isle of Axom had the benefit of the Law against Mr. Gibbons and they have a verdict against him Sr. Edward Barkham Captain Hall and Mr. Waldren were left to the Law by the Parliament and recovered against the Undertakers But we of the six Counties have been so obstructed in the E. of Bedfords Level by the Undertakers faction that we are barred the Law by