Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	absolute_a	government_n	king_n	3,052	5	4.0464	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44188	A letter to Monsieur Van. B---- de M---- at Amsterdam, written anno 1676	Holles, Denzil Holles, Baron, 1599-1680.; Beuningen, Koenraad van, 1622-1693.	1676 (1676)	Wing H2462; ESTC R803	7,531	8

overthrow the Common Doctrine in the Politicks that Money is the Sinews of War which he says is not true I think it is true as to England as well as in the Roman Common-wealth but in Holland where you have a small Territory and your Foundation is Trade Money and Industry which produceth no Martial Genius in the Natives nor permits leasure and where your Armies consist of Mercenaries which will ever be found much weaker than the Native Militia there Money may be the Sinews of War The Union of England and Scotland is a mighty Accession of strength to England for besides that Scotland was always a dangerous Back-door to England that mischief is not only removed but such a Member added as by reason of Vicinity naturally compounds one entire Body of a great Kingdom and this strength would better have appeared if it had at any time since the Union fallen under a Prince of a Martial Genius as in time to come it will fall under a Vigorous Administration But to make what I said to you above more clear that the Government of England is weak I will a little discourse of the Nature of it England then is a Government Compounded and mixt of the three Principal kinds of Government A King who is a Sovereign qualified and limited Prince and the three Estates who are the Lords Spiritual and Temporal compounding the Aristocratical part of the Government and the Commons in Parliament with an Absolute delegated power making the Democratical part the Legislative Authority is in the King and the three Estates the power of leavying Money in the Commons and the Executive power in the King but to be administred by Ministers sworn and qualified which is the Reason of those two grand Maximes in the Law of England first that the King of England is always a Minor and secondly that he can do no wrong Now the Foundation this Government was first built and stood upon was the Ballance of Lands and England being a Kingdome of Territory not of Trade it always was and ever will be true that the Ballance of Lands is the Ballance of Government and this Maxim of the Ballance is to the Politicks what the Compass is to Navigators the Circulation of Blood to Physitians Guns to an Army and Printing to Learning The Proportion this Ballance held in the Government was formerly in the King Church and Nobility above two Thirds and in the whole People not one Third So that if we divide the times of this Government into two General parts as it naturally divides it self from the Norman Conquest to the time of Henry the 7 th and from Henry the 7 th to the present time then I say in the first part of it the Strength of the Government lay in the middle or Aristocratical part as it ought to do for a King must be supported either by a Nobility or an Army and by this means the two extreams which are the King and People of which extreams a Government can never be compounded to live long were secured by the middle for the Nobility not only supported the Throne but shadowed the People from the Tyranny of the Princes And to give you a clear evidence of the truth of this both that the strength of the Government was in the Aristocratical part and that they kept the Ballance between the King and the People I need only observe that all the Civil Wars that we ever had in England in those times were ever made against the Princes by the Nobility for their encroachments upon the People and they always prevailed against them But Henry the 7 th who was a dark and suspicious Prince and an entertainer of fortune by the day rather than of any great fore-sight as my Lord Bacon observes of him observing upon his coming to the Crown how great an over-Ballance the Nobility had been to the Prince made way by Laws and other means for the Nobility to make alienations of their Lands and so in seeking to cure one mischief he procured a far greater which though it did not shew it self presently yet in short time after it began to shake the Foundations of the Throne And from this time the Lands began to come into the hands of the People and the times that followed served well to increase this beginning for Henry the 8 th dissolving Abbies and Monasteries all those Lands which were very great came by degrees into the hands of the People so that the greatest part of the Lands of the Antient Nobility and great part of the Lands of the Church were in the hands of the People who now held above two thirds of the whole Lands of England And rherefore this consequence will be clear that the strength of the Government is now in the Democratical part and to confirm this to you by example There hath been one Civil War in England since Henry the Seventh who made that War the Barons No the People made it then it is clear not anly that the People are the strongest part but that they are able to make War with the King Nobility and Church also if there should be another Civil War in England it would not only be by the People but whosoever be the beginners of it the People will prevail as far as human Reason can foresee But now least you should think the compliance of this Parliament with the King a contradiction to what hath been said I will discourse it to you before we go farther touching them This Parliament was chosen in the year 1661 and came in with a change of Government now in all changes of Government there is a violent concussion of the whole Body and the People always pass from one extream to another without being able to stay in the middle England therefore was then in a sick distempered condition now it hath recovered its just Temper and is restored to Health as strong Bodies will work out the Poyson they take by degrees Now this Parliament represented the humors and distempers of the times wherein they were chosen and consequently their Actions were violent and they did many things afterward to be repented of and no doubt had they done what they have done to a designing and Parsimonious Prince he might have taken the advantage of their Hearts to have undone England for what with that great Revenue and all those most mighty Aids they have given him he might have made so great a Bank and annexed so great a Revenue of Lands to the Crown that he might have maintained an Army over-ballanced the Nobility and have Reigned without Parliaments and so have brought England into the same condition with France but these times are over and not like to return I am without all doubt therefore that the profuseness and inadvertency of the King hath saved England from falling into destruction under this Parliament And as this Parliament represented the sickly times in which they were chosen when the Pople of England were