Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	english_a	king_n	scot_n	1,287	5	9.2947	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70104	The late proceedings and votes of the Parliament of Scotland contained in an address delivered to the King / signed by the plurality of the members thereof, stated and vindicated.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1689 (1689)	Wing F746; Wing F747; ESTC R36438	41,628	61

THE LATE PROCEEDINGS AND VOTES OF THE PARLIAMEMT of SCOTLAND Contained in an ADDRESS Delivered to the KING Signed by the Plurality of the Members thereof Stated and Uindicated Scilicet res ipsa aspira est at vos non timetis sed inertia mollitia animi alius alium expectantes cunctamini videlicet diis immortalibus confisi qui hanc rempubl in maximis saepe periculis servavere At non votis neque suppliciis muliebribus auxilia deorum parantur Vigilando agendo bene consulendo prospere omnia cedunt ubi socordiae tete atque ignaviae tradideris nequicquam deos implores irati infestique sunt Cato apud Salust GLASGOW Printed by Andrew Hepburn Anno Dom. 1689. THE LATE Proceedings and VOTES OF THE PARLIAMENT OF SCOTLAND c. TO remain silent under the Aspersions which some busy but either weak or ill Men are endeavouring to fasten not only upon the Proceedings but upon divers of the most Honourable and Loyal Members of Parliament were to be no less treacherous to his Majesty than careless of the Reputation of that whole Illustrious Body as well as of the Integrity of those Persons who are said to have so much influenced the Transactions of it and whose chief Crime with those that Malign and Traduce them is their having expressed so much Affection and Zeal for His Majesty's Person and Service And as the representing their Actions in a true Light is all that is needful both to justify and commend them so whosoever will be at the pains to examine them will find them adjusted to all the Rules of Law Religion and Policy And as it is not to be doubted but that whensoever the Parliament Assembles they will both vindicate their Proceedings in Customary and Legal Methods and exert that Authority which is essential to them over those of their own Members by whom they have been slandered so all that is now to be endeavoured in their behalf is to vouchsafe unto the English Nation to whom they have been misrepresented such a brief Account of their Transactions with the Occasions Reasons and Motives of them as may not only manifest the Wisdom and Loyalty of that Parliament but demonstrate beyond all contradiction that the only design they have been pursuing was to preserve and maintain His Majesties Honour secure and establish him an Interest in the Love and Hearts of his People and make His Throne firm and durable It is too evident either to be denied or Apologized for that all the Laws Priviledges and Rights of the Kingdom of Scotland have under the Late Reigns been not only Usurped upon and Invaded but Subverted and Overthrown For by gradual Inlargements of the Prerogative beyond what was allowed by the Rules of the Constitution and the Statutes of the Realm the legal and regular Monarchy of the Nation was swelled into an Arbitrary and Despotick Power So that all the Franchises and Rights which by Original Contracts and Subsequent Laws had been reserved unto the People were either overthrown or enjoyed precariously And we are compelled to say that the Coalition of Scotland with England under one Monarch without a Union between the Two Nations into one Legislative Body and Civil Government hath given great advantages to our Late Princes of treating us with a Rigour and Loftiness that our Ancestors were not accustomed unto And though a small Acquaintance with the Politicks might have instructed the English that whatsoever received a first Impression amongst us would sooner or later obtain a second Edition amongst them yet they seem'd either not to have foreseen or at least not to have resented it until the Original of King Jame's Absolute Power in Scotland which all Men were bound to obey without reserve was copied over in England in his Claim of Soveraignty in dispensing with those Laws that were the Fence about their Safety It was from the unconcernedness which the English have too often testified not to say the countenance they have given in Relation to the Usurpation of our late Kings over the Laws and Liberties of Scotland that those Princes have despised the Applications made unto them as well by Parliaments as by the Nobility and Gentry for redressing their Grievances and that the Nation remained so long discouraged from relieving it self in those Methods that were left it And as the Scots did for many Years sadly feel and experience into what Excess their Kings grew up in Usurping upon their Laws and Liberties from a hope and confidence of being justified and supported in those Invasions by the Strength and Treasure of England So the English cannot be altogether insensible how Charles the Second not only confronted their Bill of Exclusion in England with an Act in Scotland for the Hereditary Succession of his Brother but what large Breaches he was encouraged to make upon their Rights and Priviledges after his having obtained an Assistance of 22000 Men to be enacted and granted unto him by Law in Scotland and those to be used in what places and upon what occasions he should please to imploy them Nor are we able sufficiently to express our Obligations to His Present Majesty who being extremly sensible that our remaining disunited in our Governments and two distinct Monarchies though link'd together under one Monarch hath been one of the great Occasions and chief Sources of our common Miseries and Oppressions and being desirous both to redeem us from the illegal Sufferings we have already felt and to obviate those which might break in upon us under future Reigns hath therefore invited the Nations to such an Union of strength Councils and Legislative Authority as may render them a Defence to each other and not Instruments and Tools of enslaving one another and a mutual Prey Which as all wise and good Men do earnestly long for so the common Interest of the two Nations obliges them speedily to endeavour But we are forced to add that besides the Encouragement which our late Princes have assumed unto themselves of Usurping upon the Rights and Liberties of Scotland from an expectation of being supported in it by the Power and Wealth of England There is another Cause unto which much of their Invasion upon the Scot's Priviledges is to be ascribed and unto which we are forced to resolve many of our Miseries as the Spring whence they have flowed For upon the Succession of our Kings to the Crown of England and their fixing their Royal Abode and Regal Seat in that Kingdom they are thereupon fallen into a Method of deriving their knowledg of Scotish Laws and Customs of being informed of the Grievances of that Nation and of receiving Impressions of Persons and Things from one or two Ministers chosen to reside about them and in order thereunto advanced into Places of Honour and Trust and who too often have been found to want either the Honesty Wisdom or Courage requisite in those upon whom so much comes to be devolved Surely the World hath had sufficient Evidence in

be modestly said that it is not only one of the wisest but constituted of the most considerable Persons for Quality Estate and Esteem in their Country that ever Scotland had For even the Vote about the Lords of the Session which is most censured and stumbled at pass'd the whole House without any more dissenting Voices than barely four and of those Sir J. D ple who was the leading Man amongst them sensibly biassed by the Consideration that if the Vote obtained his Father would have been excluded from the Honourable and to him Beneficial Place of President to which he is now advanced Is it not more likely that these few should act without regard to the King and Kingdom 's Interest and depart from the Laws Rights and Customs of the Realm th●n that the whole Body of the Parliament should be unacquainted with what the Constitution as well as the common Safety of Prince and People authorize them to claim And that they should exceed the measures of Law Justice and Equity in what they demand Nor was the Parliament under the Influence of such Motives for encroaching upon the King's Prerogative as these Gentlemen were for betraying both the Jurisdiction of Parliament and the Priviledges of the Nation For having sacrificed all the Laws and Rights of the Kingdom under the late Reign to the Lust and Will of one Arbitrary and Despotical Monarch they could do no less both by the Rules of Policy and Uniformity than endeavour to vest his present Majesty in the Robberies of former Princes there being no such way for Thieves to escape at the Bar as to prevail with the Judg to receive and harbour their stolen Goods And for the King to rely upon being informed by Sir J. D pie what is the Prerogative of the Crown and what are Rights and Jurisdictions of Parliament is as if King James's Attorney-General were to be made the Oracle of the Court in reference to what Crimes and Offences Peers and Gentlemen were to be condemned and executed for and for what Failures and Miscarriages Cities and Corporations were to Forefault their Charters and to be deprived of their Franchises Could the Parliament have been guilty of so Impudent as well as Criminal a Thing as to incroach upon the just Prerogatives of the Crown and to rob his Majesty of his legal Rights it would have been more for their Profit and Interest to have effectuated it in relation to the disposal of Offices of state and of Military Commands than to claim meerly a right of interposing and that only in the Case of a total Vacancy of the Session about the approving of Persons nominated by His Majesty to judicial Places For whereas the former would look like the putting themselves into a condition of giving check to their Prince whenever a Caprici● should take them and they should fancy themselves agrieved all that can be aimed at or possibly compassed by the latter is to have Justice equally administred according to the known Laws which is no less his Majesties Interest than his Duty to make wise and careful Provision for In a word it would seem to command as well as to bespeak belief that a whole Parliament who in all other Proceedings have acted with the highest Prudence Temperance and Justice and where there are so many Persons of Vertue Honour Probity and Knowledg of the Laws and Customs of the Nation should be more regardful of voting justly and challenging nothing but their legal Rights than that only four Men should be found insisting upon what is Right and they such as most of them have been Tools and Instruments in the Breaches made upon the Rights and Liberties of the Nation And as the whole Blame is to be intirely lodged upon a few Ministers about his Majesty both as to the delay that hath been given to redress any of the Scots Grievances and as to the disputing of the Equity and Justice of actually relieving them from some so besides the Confidence that all Good Men are possessed with from the Consideration of his Majesty's Wisdom and Goodness that all will be at last accommodated to the King's Honour and the Peoples universal Satisfaction the Concessions his Majesty hath lately granted with reference to the Articles even against the Opinion of his Ministers is as an Earnest and Pledg what his People may exspect in reference to the rest if it can be made appear that what is further insisted upon and humbly desired of him is the relieving of his Subjects and not the robbing of himself the being kind to his People and not unjust to the Crown and the exercising Mercy to all without being cruel and unrighteous to any So that we are become obliged in point of Duty to his Majesty before whom our Demands and Claims lie and from the Respect we owe to the English Nation among whom these Matters are both publickly discoursed and differently represented and censured And finally by the Justice we account due to the Parliament of Scotland whose Moderation is not only questioned by reason of their Demands but also their Loyalty I say we are become obliged by all these Motives and Inducements to enter into a detail of the several Particulars in Controversy between some of his Majesty's Ministers and the Parliament of Scotland and not only to state with what distinctness we are able the several heads subjected to debate but to give all that support enforcement from Reason Law and Custom to the Expediency as well as Equity of them that we judg to be requisite and that we can dispatch in the narrow room which we have confined our selves unto In pursuance of which undertaking We will begin with the Vote to which the Royal Assent is not given that referreth to the disabling and precluding Persons from publick Trusts and Imployments And this we the rather do both because we can discharge our Hands the soonest of it and because it is the most censured by some of the English from an apprehension that what of this Nature passeth into an Act at Edinburgh may be drawn into President at Westminster But that every one may judge of it and what shall be offered in the Vindication of the Necessity and Justice thereof I shall present the Reader with a Transcript of the Vote The King and Queens Majesties considering that the Estates of this Kingdom have by their Vote declared their Sense and Opinion That such as have in the former Evil Government been grievous to the Nation or have shewed Disaffection to the happy Change by the Blessing of God now brought about or have been Retarders and Obstructers of the good Designs of the said Estates in their Meeting are not fit to be imploy'd in the Management of the Affairs of this Kingdom Do with Advice and Consent of the Estates of Parliament now Assembled Statute and Ordain That no Person of whatsomever Rank or Degree who in the former Evil Government have been grievous to the Nation