Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A69635
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The speeches of the Lord Digby in the High Court of Parliament, concerning grievances, and the trienniall Parliament.; Speeches. Selections.
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Bristol, John Digby, Earl of, 1580-1654.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing B4774; ESTC R2652
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8,164
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28
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Caracter to have made a Kingdome happy then for these 12 yeares last past so it is most certaine that there hath not bin in all that deduction of ages such a Conspiracie if one may so say of all the Elements of mischiefe in the second Caracter to bring a flourishing Kingdome if it were possible to swift ruine and desolation I will be bold to say Mr. Speaker and I thanke God we have so good a King under whom we may speak boldly of the abuse of his power by ill Ministers without reflexion upon his person That an Accumulation of all the publique Grievances since Magna Carta one upon another unto that houre in which the Petition of Right past into an Act of Parliament would not amount to so oppressive I am sure not to so destructive a height and magnitude to the rights and property of the Subject as one branch of our beslaving since the Petition of Right The branch I meane is the judgement concerning Ship-money This being a true representation of England in both aspects Let him Mr. Speaker that for the unmatcht oppression and enthralling of free Subjects in a time of the best Kings raigne and in memory of the best Laws enacting in favour of Subjects liberty can find a truer Cause then the ruptures and intermission of Parliaments Let him and him alone be against the setling of this inevitable way for the frequent holding of them 'T is true Sir wicked Ministers have bin the proximate causes of our miseries but the want of Parliaments the primary the efficient Cause Ill Ministers have made ill times but that Sir hath made ill Ministers I have read among the Laws of the Athenians a forme of recourse in their Oaths and vows of greatest and most publique concernment to a three-fold Deity Supplicum Exauditori Purgatori Malorum depulsori I doubt not but we here assembled for the Common-wealth in this Parliament shall meet with all these Attributes in our Soveraigne I make no question but he will gratiously heare our Supplications Purge away our Grievances and expell Malefactors that is remove ill Ministers and put good in their places No lesse can be expected from his wisdome and goodnesse But let me tell you Mr. Speaker if we partake not of one Attribute more in him if we addresse not our selves unto that I meane Bonorum Conservatori we can have no solid no durable Comfort in all the rest Let his Majesty heare our Complaint never so Compassionatly Let him purge away our Grievances never so efficaciously Let him punish and dispell ill Ministers never so exemplarily Let him make choyce of good ones never so exactly If there be not a way settled to preserve and keep them good the mischiefes and they will all grow againe like Sampsons Locks and pull down the House upon our heads Beleeve it Mr. Speaker they will It hath bin a Maxime among the wisest Legislators that whosoever meanes to settle good Laws must proceed in them with a sinister opinion of all Mankind and suppose that whosoever is not wicked it is for want only of the opportunity It is that opportunity of being ill Mr. Speaker that we must take away if ever we meane to be happy which can never be done but by the frequencie of Parliaments No State can wisely be confident of any publique Ministers continuing good longer then the Rod is over him Let me appeale to all those that were present in this House at the agitation of the Petition of Right And let them tell themselves truly of whose promotion to the management of affaires doe they think the generality would at that time have had better hopes then of Mr. Noy and Sir Thomas Wentworth both having bin at that time and in that businesse as I have heard most keen and active Patriots and the later of them to the eternall aggravation of his Infamous treachery to the Common-wealth be it spoken the first mover and insiister to have this clause added to the Petition of Right that for the comfort and safety of his Subjects his Majestie would be pleased to declare his will and pleasure that all his Ministers should serve him according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realme And yet Mr. Speaker to whom now can all the inundations upon our liberties under pretence of Law and the late shipwrack at once of all our propertie be attributed more then to Noy and those and all other mischiefes whereby this Monarchy hath bin brought almost to the brinke of destruction so much to any as to that Grand Apostate to the Common-wealth the now Lievtenant of Ireland The first I hope God hath forgiven in the other world and the later must not hope to be pardoned it in this till he be dispatcht to the other Let every man but consider those men as once they were The excellent Law for the security of the Subject enacted immediatly before their coming to imployment in the contriving wherof themselves were principall Actors The goodnesse and vertue of the King they served and yet the high and publique oppressions that in his time they have wrought And surely there is no man but will conclude with me that as the deficience of Parliament hath bin the Causa Causarum of all the mischiefes and distempers of the present times so the frequencie of them is the sole Catholique Antidote that can preserve and secure the future from the like Mr. Speaker let me yet draw my Discourse a little nearer to his Majesty himselfe and tell you that the frequencie of Parliament is most essentially necessary to the power the security the glory of the King There are two wayes Mr. Speaker of powerfull Rule either by Feare or Love but one of happy and safe Rule that is by Love that firmissimum Imperium quo obedientes gaudent To which Camillus advised the Romans Let a Prince consider what it is that moves a people principally to affection and dearnesse towards their Soveraigne He shall see that there needs no other Artifice in it then to let them injoy unmolestedly what belongs unto them of right If that have bin invaded and violated in any kind whereby affections are alienated the next consideration for a wise Prince that would be happy is how to regaine them to which three things are equally necessary Renistating them in their former liberty Revenging them of the Authors of those violations And secureing them from Apprehensions of the like againe The first God be thanked we are in a good way of The second in warme pursuit of But the third as essentiall as all the rest till we be certaine of trienniall Parliament at the least I professe I can have but cold hopes of I beseech you then Gentlemen since that security for the future is so necessary to that blessed union of affections and this Bill so necessary to that security Let us not be so wanting to our selves let us not be so wanting to our Soveraigne as to forbeare to offer unto him this powerfull this everlasting Philter to Charme unto him the hearts of his people whose vertue can never evaporate There is no man Mr. Speaker so secure of anothers friendship but will thinke frequent intercourse and accesse very requisite to the support to the Confirmation of it Especially if ill offices have bin done between them if the raysing of jealousies hath bin attempted There is no Friend but would be impatient to be debarred from giving his Friend succour and reliefe in his necessities Mr. Speaker permit me the comparison of great things with little what friendship what union can there be so comfortable so happy as between a gracious Soveraigne and his people and what greater misfortune can there be to both then for them to be kept from intercourse from the meanes of clearing misunderstandings from interchange of mutuall benefits The people of England Sir cannot open their Eares their Hearts their Mouthes nor their Purses to his Majestie but in Parliament We can neither heare him nor complain nor acknowledge nor give but there This Bill Sir is the sole Key that can open the way to a frequencie of those reciprocall endeerments which must make and perpetuate the happinesse of the King and Kingdome Let no man object any derogation from the Kings Prerogative by it We doe but present the Bill 't is to be made a Law by him his honour his power will be as conspicuous in commanding at once that Parliament shall assemble every third yeare as in commanding a Parliament to be called this or that yeare there is more of Majestie in ordaining primary and universall Causes then in the actuating particularly of subordinate effects I doubt not but that glorious King Edward the third when he made those Laws for the yearly Calling of Parliament did it with a right sence of his dignity and honour The truth is Sir the Kings of England are never in their glory in their splendor in their Majestique Soveraignty but in Parliaments Where is the power of imposing Taxes Where is the power of restoring from incapacites Where is the legislative Authority Marry in the King Mr. Speaker But how in the King circled in fortified and evirtuated by his Parliament The King out of Parliament hath a limitted a circumscribed Jurisdiction But wayted on by his Parliament no Monarch of the East is so absolute in dispelling Grievances Mr. Speaker in chasing ill Ministers we doe but dissipate Clouds that may gather againe but in voting this Bill we shall contribute as much as in us lyes to the perpetuating our Sun our Soveraigne in his vesticall in his noon day lustre FINIS