Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	restrain_v	2,948	5	9.3714	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37474	The speech of the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Warrington, Lord Delamere, to the Grand Jury at Chester, April 13, 1692	Warrington, Henry Booth, Earl of, 1652-1694.	1692 (1692)	Wing D883; ESTC R24883	10,473	34

The Lord DELAMERE's SPEECH TO THE Grand Jury at CHESTER APRIL 13. 1692. THE SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY Earl of WARRINGTON Lord Delamere TO THE Grand Jury at Chester APRIL 13. 1692. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1692. THE SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY Earl of WARRINGTON c. Gentlemen of the Jury THE Preservation of the Publick Peace is the Occasion that hath called us together at this time in which no man can be remiss or negligent when he considers that his particular Interest as well as his Duty doth indispensably oblige him to do what in him lies to support it In order to this that which is now more especially expected from us at this time is 1. To Enquire into the Neglects of those in whom the Law hath reposed any Trust And 2. To discover those who have broken or violated the Laws that such Criminals may be brought to condign Punishment And since the Execution of the Laws is our proper business and that the Laws should have their course is absolutely necessary to the Being of the Government therefore it may not be impertinent as I conceive at this time to say something of the Nature of Government and particularly of our own Constitution or rather it seems necessary to take all occasions to explain it considering what variety of Opinions there are amongst us of that which is or ought to be the Supreme Authority or Power in England Many Wise and Learned men have written of the Nature of Government and given excellent Definitions of it but of all others the Learned Aquinas seems to me to have done it in the fewest and plainest words says he It is a rational Ordinance for the Advancing of the Publick Good And next to him is Plato whose words are these Government or Law says he is to Preserve the huge and indigested Lump of a Multitude and to bring all Disorder into Proportion so as to become a Harmony Several others have spoken to the same purpose which I omit because I will be as little tedious as I can But two things are observable from hence 1. That Order and Peace is or ought to be the end of every Government 2. That in every Government there is some particular Principle that runs through the whole Scheme of that Constitution and as that Principle is followed or neglected so accordingly it goes well or ill with the Publick that is When those who are intrusted with the Executive Power do pursue that Principle every thing moves regularly and the Government is firm and stable but when they steer by any other Measures the State doth unavoidaby fall into Disorders and Convulsions So that whoever he be that is placed at the Head of the Government if he desires to have the Hearts and Prayers of his People whilst he lives and that After-Ages shall bless his Memory it is necessary 1. That in general he resolve to Govern well And 2. Throughly and rightly to apprise himself of that Principle that is the Soul of the Government or at least that he be advised by such as are most likely to know it and will give him faithful Counsel otherwise he will be like a Traveller that in the Night misses his way upon some large Plain wandring he knows not whither and is more like to meet with some disaster than to find his way Having said this it is natural for you to expect that I should tell you what that Principle is which is the life and foundation of this Government If I am not much mistaken and I am verily perswaded that here I am not I take it to be this 1. That every Subject of England hath so clear a Property in his Life Goods and Estate and every thing else which he lawfully Possesses that they nor any of them can be taken from him nor ought he to be disturbed in the enjoyment of them without his voluntary Consent or for some Offence against the Law 2. And in the next place That there be not a failure of Justice that is that no man be left without Remedy where his Right is concerned and that every Criminal be Punished according to the demerits of his Offence I am apt to believe that every man will think that this is very agreeable to natural Reason and then I do not see how it can be inconsistent with the Prerogative of the Crown though I know that not very long since and I fear yet there are some who carry the Prerogative much higher than it ought in placing it above the Law But nothing save the iniquity of the times and the depravity of such mens Manners could support or give countenance to so senseless a thought for they are very ignorant of the nature of Prerogative if they think it is a Power to do hurt and not to do good Certainly the King's Prerogative is to help and relieve the People where the edge of the Law is too sharp and keen and not a Power by which he may Oppress and Destroy his Subjects Men are to be Governed by a Power that is guided by Reason unless we can suppose that they have no more understanding and are of no greater value than the Beasts that perish It was said by one who was a very competent Judge in the case as I remember it was Sir John Fortescue That it is a greater Power in a Prince to be restrained by Law from Oppressing than to have an Absolute Regal Power And says another The Way of Governing must be both Right and Clear as well as is the End and how this can be expected when a King is guided by no other Rule than that of his unbounded Will and Pleasure I do not see any more than a man can depend upon the Weather Do not all examples of it that ever were prove that Absolute Power and Oppression are inseparable and as naturally proceed the one from the other as the Effect doth from the Cause 'T is a Riddle to me how that Prince can be called God's Ordinance who assumes a Power above what the Law hath invested him with and useth it to the Grieving and Oppressing of his Subjects May not the Plague Famine or Sword as well be called God's Ordinance since one no less than the other is sent by him for the Punishment of that People whom he so visits We may reasonably suppose that Order and Peace are much rather the end of Government than Oppression and Violence because God is a God of order and when he sent the greatest Blessing upon Earth it was Peace and though God was often very wroth with the Kings of Israel and Judah for their Idolatries yet the Innocent Blood they shed and the Violence and Oppression which they committed provoked him more highly and with his severest Judgments he always testified his Displeasure against it I could run out into a large Discourse upon this Subject but I will stop here because I am

perswaded that what I have already said is sufficient to convince any one who is unprejudiced That an Absolute Power is so far from being the Right of the King of England that the exercise of such a Power is Unlawful in any King I know very well that in the late Reigns this Doctrine would not have been endured to have said then less than this would have cost a man his Head For whoever would not then comply with Arbitrary Power was called a Factious man and an Opposer of the Government but is it not nonsense or very near a-kin to it to call that Seditious that is for bringing things into Order and for maintaining the Laws and supporting the Government Arbitrary desires never did any King good but have ruined many It shook King Charles the Second's Throne and tumbled down his next Successor and though such Kings are left without excuse when Ruined yet I may say they are not only in the fault for their overthrow is in a great measure occasioned by those who Preach up and advise the King to Arbitrary Power Did not other People cocker up and cherish Arbitrary Notions in Kings minds though such Conceptions might sometimes get into their heads yet they would never fructifie nor come to perfection if they were not cultivated by Parasites who make their Court that way in hopes to raise themselves tho with the hazard of their Master's Crown A●● befel the late King James whose Male Administration rendered him unmeet to sway the Scepter And I am very well satisfied that the Judgment upon him was just for unless a People are decreed to be miserable which God Almighty will never do except thereto very highly provoked by their Sins certainly he will never so tye up their hands that they shall not be allowed to use them when they have no other way to help themselves Several Artifices were made use of in the Two late Reigns for the introducing Arbitrary Power and Popery one of which was to insinuate into the minds of the People that the Succession of the Crown was the Chief Pillar of the Government and that the breaking into it upon any pretence whatsoever was no less than a Dissolution of the whole Constitution and nothing but Disorder and Confusion could ensue This Doctrine was boldly then Preached up and prevailed with many and obtained no less than if the Crown had been setled in that Family by an Ordinance or Decree dropt down from Heaven and that every one of that Line or Race had been distinguished from the rest of Mankind by more than ordinary virtues and endowments of Mind and Body But we know not of any such Divine Revelation and happy had it been for this Nation if that Family had been so signal for its Justice and its Piety we might then have prayed That there might not want one of them to sit upon this Throne to all Ages How much this Nation is obliged to that Family we very well remember for the Wounds they gave us are not yet healed Election was certainly the Original of Succession for as the living more safely and with the freer Enjoyment of their Goods was the Original Cause that people associated themselves into a Nation or Kingdom so for the better attaining that End they did set over themselves the best and wisest of their brethren to be their Rulers and Governours and this Administration was trusted in one or more hands according to the Temper and Disposition of the Person in which Authority they continued either for their lives or for one year or for some other stated Period of time Where the Government was under a King he usually held it for life and then upon his Decease the people proceeded to a New Election till at last it fell into the hands of some very excellent Person who having more than ordinarily deserved of his Countrey the people as well in Gratitude to him as believing they could not expect a better Choice than in the Branches that would grow out of so excellent a Stock entailed that Dignity upon him and his Posterity And this seems to be the most Natural and Lawful Rise of Succession I do not deny but some Successions have arisen from Force but that was never lasting for it could not subsist or seem Lawful any longer than there was a Force to support it Now when Princes come to the Crown by the first way of Succession I mean by the Consent and Approbation of the People does not that plainly imply That they ought to use that Power for the Good and Advantage of their Subjects and not to their hurt and enjoy the Crown only upon that condition No man would ever suffer a Monster to inherit his Estate and Kings are no more exempted from the Accidents of Human Nature than their meanest Subjects and it is every days practice in private Families to exclude those that will waste their Estates and ruin the Family and if the reason will there hold good then it is so much the stronger in the Descent of the Crown by how much the good of the whole Kingdom is to be preferred to that of one Family Nor is Succession so very Ancient in England as some people may apprehend Till the time of William the First commonly though falsly called the Conqueror it was look'd upon as a very precarious Title the next in Succession could make but little reckoning on the Crown further than his good Inclinations and Sufficiencies to sway the Scepter did recommend him to the Affections of the People It being then very common not only to break into the Succession but even to set aside all that Family and Line whenever it was known that the Publick might suffer by their being at the Head of the Government the Publick Good being the only Rule and Consideration that governed that Point William the First declared upon his Death-bed and that is a time when men do seldom prevaricate That he did not possess the Crown by an Hereditary Right William the Second must be allowed by all people to come in by Election because Robert his Elder Brother was alive and survived him Next to him was Henry the First who also came in by Election because his Eldest Brother Robert was yet alive and this Henry in his Charter acknowledged that he owed his Crown to the Mercy of God and the Common Council of the Realm King Stephen Henry the Second Richard the First and King John all came in by Election so that till Henry the Third there is scarce to be found any President of Succession and since his Reign the Succession hath been broken into several times and the Crown shifted from one Family to another by Act of Parliament and being so transferred by that Authority it is the greatest proof that can be that Succession is a very feeble Title without something else to support it and I think I may say Defective For says one of great Authority never did