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majesty_n house_n parliament_n speaker_n 3,357 5 10.8139 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A41308 Patriarcha, or, The natural power of Kings by the learned Sir Robert Filmer. Filmer, Robert, Sir, d. 1653. 1680 (1680) Wing F922; ESTC R29832 53,082 156

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in Parliaments are restrained both for Time Place Persons and other Circumstances to the Sole Pleasure of the King The People cannot Assemble themselves but the King by his Writs calls them to what place he pleases and then again Scatters them with his Breath at an instant without any other Cause shewed than his Will Neither is the whole Summoned but only so many as the Kings Writs appoint The prudent King Edward the First summoned always those Barons of ancient Families that were most wise to his Parliament but omited their Sons after their Death if they were not answerable to their Parents in Understanding Nor have the whole people Voices in the Election of Knights of the Shire or Burgesses but only Free-holders in the Counties and Freemen in the Cities and Burroughs yet in the City of Westminster all the House-holders though they be neither Free-men nor Free-holders have Voices in their Election of Burgesses Also during the time of Parliament those priviledges of the House of Commons of freedom of Speech Power to punish their own Members to examine the Proceedings and Demeanour of Courts of Justice and Officers to have access to the King's Person and the like are not due by any Natural Right but are derived from the Bounty or Indulgence of the King as appears by a solemn Recognition of the House for at the opening of the Parliament when the Speaker is presented to the King he in the behalf and name of the whole House of Commons humbly craves of His Majesty That He would be pleased to grant them their Accustomed Liberties of freedom of Speech of access to his Person and the rest These Priviledges are granted with a Condition implyed That they keep themselves within the Bounds and Limits of Loyalty and Obedience for else why do the House of Commons inflict punishment themselves upon their own Members for transgressing in some of these points and the King as Head hath many times punished the Members for the like Offences The Power which the King giveth in all his Courts to his Judges or others to punish doth not exclude Him from doing the like by way of Prevention Concurrence or Evocation even in the same point which he hath given in charge by a delegated Power for they who give Authority by Commission do always retain more than they grant Neither of the two Houses claim an Infallibility of not Erring no more than a General Council can It is not impossible but that the greatest may be in Fault or at least Interested or Engaged in the Delinquency of one particular Member In such Cases it is most proper for the Head to correct and not to expect the Consent of the Members or for the Parties peccant to be their own Judges Nor is it needful to confine the King in such Cases within the Circle of any one Court of Justice who is Supreme Judge in all Courts And in rare and new Cases rare and new Remedies must be sought out for it is a Rule of the Common Law In novo Casu novum Remedium est apponendum and the Statute of Westminst 2. cap. 24. giveth Power even to the Clarks of the Chancery to make New Forms of Writs in New Cases lest any man that came to the King's Court of Chancery for help should be sent away without Remedy A President cannot be found in every Case and of things that happen seldom and are not common there cannot be a Common Custom Though Crimes Exorbitant do pose the King and Council in finding a President for a Condigne Punishment yet they must not therefore pass unpunished I have not heard that the people by whose Voices the Knights and Burgesses are chosen did ever call to an account those whom they had Elected they neither give them Instructions or Directions what to say or what to do in Parliament therefore they cannot punish them when they come home for doing amiss If the people had any such power over their Burgesses then we might call it The Natural Liberty of the people with a mischief But they are so far from punishing that they may be punished themselves for intermedling with Parliamentary Business they must only chuse and trust those whom they chuse to do what they list and that is as much liberty as many of us deserve for our irregular Elections of Burgesses 15 A fourth point to be consider'd is that in Parliament all Statutes or Laws are made properly by the King alone at the Rogation of the people as His Majesty King Iames of happy memory affirms in His true Law of free Monarchy and as Hooker teacheth us That Laws do not take their constraining force from the Quality of such as devise them but from the Power that doth give them the Strength of Laws Le Roy le Veult the King will have it so is the Interpretive Phrase pronounced at the King 's passing of every Act of Parliament And it was the ancient Custom for a long time till the days of Henry the Fifth that the Kings when any Bill was brought unto them that had passed both Houses to take and pick out what they liked not and so much as they chose was Enacted for a Law but the Custom of the later Kings hath been so gracious as to allow always of the entire Bill as it hath passed both Houses 16 The Parliament is the King's Court for so all the oldest Statutes call it the King in his Parliament But neither of the two Houses are that Supreme Court nor yet both of them together they are only Members and a part of the Body whereof the King is the Head and Ruler The King 's Governing of this Body of the Parliament we may find most significantly proved both by the Statutes themselves as also by such Presidents as expresly shew us how the King sometimes by himself sometimes by his Council and other-times by his Judges hath over-ruled and directed the Judgments of the Houses of Parliament for the King we find that Magna Charta and the Charter of Forrests and many other Statutes about those times had only the Form of the Kings Letters-Patents or Grants under the Great Seal testifying those Great Liberties to be the sole Act and Bounty of the King The words of Magna Charta begin thus Henry by the Grace of God c. To all Our Arch-Bishops c. and Our Faithful Subjects Greeting Know ye that We of Our meer free-Will have granted to all Free-men these Liberties In the same style goeth the Charter of Forrests and other Statutes Statutum Hiberniae made at Westminster 9. Februarii 14. Hen. 3. is but a Letter of the King to Gerrard Son of Maurice Justice of Ireland The Statute de anno Bissextili begins thus The King to His Iustices of the Bench Greeting c. Explanationes Statuti Glocestriae made by the King and his Iustices only were received always as Statutes and are still Printed amongst them The Statute made for Correction of