Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A37299
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A word without doors concerning the bill for sucession
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J. D.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing D49; ESTC R204396
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8,789
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4
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same kind in different Countreys I shall begin said he with that of the Roman Empire which though it be the first in dignity among Christian Princes yet it is so restrained and limited by the particular Laws of the Empire that he can do much less in his State than other Kings in theirs He can neither make War nor exact any Contribution of Men or Money but by the consent of all the States of the German Diet And as for his Children and Relations they have no Interest or pretence to succeed but only by Election if they shall be thought Worthy Nay the chiefest Article the Emperour swears to keep at his admission to that Honour is That he shall never endeavour to make thy Dignity of the Empire Heriditary to his Family In Spain and in France the Priviledges of Kings are much more eminent both in Power and Succession their Authority is more absolute every Order of theirs having the validity of a Law and their next of blood does ordinarily inherit though in a different manner In Spain the next Heir cannot succeed but by the approbation of the Nobility Bishops and States of the Realm In France the Women are not admitted to succeed let them be never so lineally descended In England our Kings are much more limited and confined in their Power than either of the two former for here no Law can be made but by consent and Authority of Parliament and as to the point of Succession the next of kin is admitted unless in extraordinary cases and when important Reason of State require an alteration And then the Parliaments of England according to the Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm have frequently directed and appointed the succession of the Crown in other manner than in course it would have gone of which I shall give you some Examples in order But first let us look abroad and see how things have been carried as to this point in other Countreys Amongst the Jews the Law of Succession did ordinarily hold and accordingly Rehoboam the Lawful Son and Heir of Soloman after his Fathers decease went to Sichem to be crowned and admitted by the People and the whole body of the People of Israel being there gathered together did before they would admit him their lawful King make unto him certain propositions for taking away some heavy Taxes that had been imposed on them by his Father Solomon which he refusing to gratifie them in and following the advice of young men Ten of the Twelve Tribes immediately choose Jeroboam a Servant of Rhehoboam's a meer stranger and of mean Parentage and made him their King and God approved thereof as the Scriptures in express words do testifie for when Rhehoboam had raised an Army of One hundred and fourscore thousand men intending by force of Arms to have justified his Claim God appeared unto Semajah and commanded him to go to Rhehoboam and to the House of Judah and Benjamin saying Return every man to his House for this thing is of me saith the Lord. So that since God did permit and allow this in his own Commonwealth which was to be the pattern for all others no doubt he will approve the same in other Kingdoms whenever his service and glory or the happiness of the Weal-publick shall require it The next Instance I shall give you shall be in Spain where Don Alonso de la Cerda having been admitted Prince of Spain in his Father's life-time according to the Custom of that Realm married Blancha Daughter of Lewis the first King of France and had by her two sons Named Alonso and Hernando de la Cerda but their Father who was only Prince dying before Alonso the ninth then King he recommended them to the Realm as lawful Heirs apparent to the Crown But Don Sancho their Fathers younger Brother who was a great Warrier and sirnamed El Bravo was admitted Prince and they put by in their Grandfathers life-time by his and the States consent and this was done at a Parliament held at Sogovia in the year 1276 And in the year 1284 Alonso the 9th being dead Don Sancho was acknowledg'd King and the two Princes Imprisoned but at the Mediation of Philip the third King of France their Uncle they were set free and endowed with considerable Revenues in Land and from them do descend the Dukes de Medina Celi at this day and the present King of Spain that is in possession descendeth from Don Sancho In France Lewis the 4th had two Sons Lothairin who succeeded him and Charles whom he made Duke of Lorrain Lothairin dying left an only Son named Lewis who dying without Issue after he had reigned two years the Crown was to have descended on his Uncle Charles Duke of Lorrain But the States of France did exclude him and chose Hugo Capetus Earl of Paris for their King and in an Oration made by their Embassadour to Charles of Lorrain did give an account of their Reasons for so doing as it is related by Belforest a French Historian in these very words Every man knoweth Lord Charles that the Succession of the Crown and Kingdom of France accoâ—â—ing to the ordinary Rights and Laws of the same belongeth unto you and not unto Hugh Capet now our King But yet the same Laws which do give unto you such Right of Succession do judge you also unworthy of the same for that 〈◊〉 have not endeavoured hitherto to frame your life according to the prescript of those Laws nor according to the use and Custom of the Kingdom of France but rather have alied your self with the Germans our old Enemies and have accustomed your self to their vile and base manners Wherefore since you have abandoned and forsaken the Ancient Virtue Amity and sweetness of your Countrey your Countrey has also abandoned and forsaken you for we have chosen Hugh Capet for our King and have put you by and this without any scruple in our Consciences at all esteeming it far better and more just to live under Hugh Capet the possessor of the Crown with enjoying the ancient use of our Laws Customs Priviledges and Liberties than under you the next Heir by blood in Oppressions strange Customs and Cruelty For as they who are to make a Voyage in a Ship on a dangerous Sea do not so much respect whether the Pilot claims Title to the Ship or no but rather whether he be skilful valiant and like to bring them in safety to their ways end even so our principal care is to have a good Prince to lead and guide us happily in this way of Civil and Politick life which is the End for which Princes are appointed And with this Message ended his Succession and Life he dying not long after in Prison And now I shall come home and give you an Instance or two in England since the Conquest and so conclude William Rufus second Son of William the Conqueror by the assistance of Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury who had a great
A Word without Doors Concerning the BILL for SUCCESSION SIR I AM very sensible of the great Honour you were pleased to do me in your last which I received immediately after our late unhappy Dissolution but could have wished you would have laid your Commands on some more able Person to have given you Satisfaction in the matter you there propose relating to the Duke who you seem to insinuate was like if the Parliament had continued to have received hard measure I must Ingenuously confess to you I was not long since perfectly of your Opinion and thought it the highest Injustice imaginable for any Prince to be debar'd of his Native Right of Succession upon any pretence whatsoever But upon a more mature deliberation and enquiry I found my Error proceeded principally from the false Notions I had took up of Government it self and from my Ignorance of the practises of all Communities of Men in all Ages whenever self-preservation and necessity of their Affairs Obliged them to Declare their Opinion in Cases of the like Nature To the knowledge of all which the following Accident I shall Relate to you did very much contribute My Occasions obliging me one day to attend the coming of a Friend in a Coffee-house near Charing-Cross there happened to sit at the same Table with me two Ingenious Gentlemen who according to the frankness of Conversation now used in the Town began a Discourse on the same Subject you desire to be more particularly informed in and having Extolled the late House of Commons as the best number of Men that had ever sate within those Walls and that no House had ever more vigorously maintained and asserted English Liberty and Protestant Religion than they had done as far as the Nature of the things that came before them and the Circumstances of time would admit to all which I very readily and heartily assented they then added That the great Wisdom and Zeal of that House had appeared in nothing more than in Ordering a Bill to be brought in for debarring the Duke of Y. from Inheriting the Crown A Law they affirmed to be the most just and reasonable in the World and the only proper Remedy to Establish this Nation on a true and solid Interest both in Relation to the present and future times To which I could not but Reply That I begged their Pardon if I differed from them in Opinion and did believe that how honestly soever the House of Commons might intend in that matter yet that the point of Succession was so Sacred a thing and of so high a Nature that it was not Subjected to their Cognizance That Monarchy was of Divine Right That Princes Succeeded by Nature and Generation only and not by Authority Admission or Approbation of the People and consequently that neither the Merit or Demerit of their Persons nor the different influences from thence upon the People were to be respected or had in consideration but the Common-wealth ought to Obey and submit to the next Heir without any further Inquisition and if he proved a Worthy Vertuous and Just Prince it was a great Happiness if Unjust Barbarous and Tyrannical there was no other Remedy but Prayer Patience and an intire Submission to so difficult a Dispensation of Gods Providence I had no sooner ended my Discourse but one of the Gentlemen that was the most serious in the Company seeing me a Young Man gravely Replyed That he could not but be extreamly concerned to hear that such pernicious Notions against all Lawful Government had been Taught in the World That he believed they were in me purely the effects of an University-Education and that it had been my misfortune to have had a very high Church-man for my Tutor who had endeavoured as it was their constant practise to all Young Gentlemen under their Care to Debauch me with such Principles as would enslave my Mind to their Hierarchy and the Monarchical part of the Government without any Regard at all to the Aristocratical and Popular and that fat Parsonages Prebendships Deanaries and Episcopal Sees were the certain and constant Rewards of such Services That the place we were in was a little to Publick for Discourses of this Nature but if I would accept of a Bottle of Wine at the next Tavern he would undertake to give me juster measures adding it was pity so hopeful a Gentleman should be tainted with bad Principles My Friend coming in at the same time proved to be one of their particular Acquaintance and both he and I readily complied with so Generous a motion We had no sooner drank a Glass round but the Old Gentleman was pleased to renew his Discourse and said It was undoubtedly true that the inclination of Mankind to Live in Company from whence come Towns Cities and Common-wealths did proceed of Nature and consequently of God the Author of Nature So likewise Government and the Jurisdiction of Magistrates in general which does necessarily flow from the living together in Society is also of Nature and Ordained by God for the common good of Mankind but that the particular species and forms of this or that Government in this or that manner To have many few or one Governour or that they should have this or that Authority more or less for a longer or a shorter time or whether ordinarily by Succession or by Election All these things he said are Ordained and Diversified by the particular positive Laws of every Countrey and are not Establish'd either by Law Natural or Divine but left by God unto every Nation and Countrey to pitch upon what Form of Government they shall think most proper to promote the common good of the whole and best adapted to the Natures Constitutions and other Circumstances of the People which accordingly for the same Reasons may be altered or amended in any of its parts by the mutual Consent of the Governours and Governed whenever they shall see Reasonable cause so to do all which appears plainly both from the diversity of Governments extant in the World and by the same Nations living sometimes under one sort of Government and sometimes under another So we see God himself permitted his peculiar People the Jews to live under divers Forms of Government as first under Patriarchs then under Captains then under Judges then under High-Priests next under Kings and then under Captains and High-Priests again until they were conquered by the Romans who themselves also first lived under Kings and then Consuls whose authority they afterwards limited by a Senate by adding Tribunes of the People and in extraordinary emergencies of the Commonwealth they were governed by Dictators and last of all by Emperors So that it 's plain no Magistrate has his particular Government or an Interest of succession in it by any Institution of Nature but only by the particular Constitution of the Commonwealth within it self And as the kinds of Government are different so also are the measures of Power and Authority in the