Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A51730
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The Man-hunter, or, A due reproof of a malicious libel against the present government entituled, The third and last part of the magistracy and government of England vindicated with reasons for a general act of indemnity.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing M369; ESTC R5950
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18,444
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18
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he will not own K. William to be lawful and rightful King and think his Party strong enough to maintain him in it which appears much more plainly than any thing he lays to the charge of others not only by the above mentioned Reflections upon the present Government and Ministry while he excuses the former but from his holding it fitting that Words alone should be accounted Treason in late Reigns but waving its Pag. 2. Eviction in this for fear of a strained use of such Opinion to ill Purposes Whereas if it were or might be applied to a good purpose for supporting of a former Government or Ministry one would think it might to at least as good purpose be applied now And how well he thinks of the Instruments in the late Revolution any Man may judg when he calls those who were Active in contributing to it or encouraging others Bellowers for Vengeance this 't is plain is the gentle rebuke which he gives both Pag. 6. Parties in the late House of Commons who agreed on Heads under which some should be excepted out of the Act of Indemnity which he will have to bring their Honour in question because while they did this they took care of such as he calls their Servants for all their Excesses upon the Revolution for which he refers to the Act of Parliament To pursue the Enquiry after the Lunatick I may add what less than Lunacy could make him expect to have them damn'd for Republicans who for the sake of the common Good carried it for this King to reign over them and to have it believed that they could not love him as King but Pag. 5. barely as Prince of Orange while they who were for keeping him still Prince of Orange should be thought the only Men that love him as King because he is what they desir'd and labour'd that he should never be By such a mad sort of reasoning the Regency-Men who were for making him Regent or Protector by the Power of the People without Authority from any King are the only Lovers of Monarchy Indeed absolute or despotick Monarchy is the best means to justify their open defiance of all Laws Nor can any King but a Tyrant serve their Turns and yet if he fall into the Hands of any other Faction none more ready than they to rise against him But what Monarch they are for may be known without consulting Prophecies and how much soever this Writer may slight that Collection of Pag. 3. He hath added a little of the Lunatick as appears by his Rhimes Prophecies c. Vid. the Preface to Nostredamus c. Predictions and Concurrence of Events which one would think might surprize and startle the greatest Unbelievers and have had weight with more than Visionairs yet he would do well to answer those Authorities joyn'd to them shewing our present Settlement to be according to the Constitution of this ancient Monarchy and by way of Anticipation silencing the folly not to say Lunacy of the dangerous Suggestion that no Criminals in former Reigus ought to be punished because of the Dissolution of the Contract between the late King and the People of England as if that dissolv'd the Government and every thing were thereby reduced into its primitive State of Nature And I fear some Vindicators of the late Government or of its Ministers will not allow that we yet have any Law or legal Administration A little Reading in those Politicks which he reflects upon might have taught him more Sense out of one of the Ornaments of the present Age. Pufendorf of whose Name and Writings perhaps he knows as little as that Sam. Pufendorf de Interregnis Pag. 267. Post decretum circa formam regiminis novo pacto opus erit quando constituuntur ille vel illi in quem vel in quos regimen caetus confertur And Pag. 282. They who have come together into a Civil Society c. cannot be presum'd to have been so slothful as to be willing to have their new Society extinct upon the Death of a King and to return to their natural State and Anarchy c. the Great Grotius has left behind him a Book of Poems nay that his admirable Treatise of the Truth of the Christian Religion was as he tells his Friend Bignonius at the beginning of it but an account of what he had written in Dutch-Verse Some will think this Writer's own concern transported him beyond all Rules of Sobriety if not to frenzy and raving where he talks of Blood-heunds fretting huffing bouncing while they foam Curses and Execrations Good Gentle soft Sir what is the matter what are you repeating in Pag. 4. your sleep an harangue against the Lord R. Colonel S. Mr. C. or do their Ghosts appear and put you into this disorder or to use your own Epithete is it only a religionary Dream But since the Case of the New-Non-Conformist meeting with a disturb'd Imagination seems to this Gentlemen written by one inspired with Venom and Revenge even the pure Spirit on 't I shall transcribe that passage which Pag. 1. he refers to and leave it to the Reader 's Judgment whether there is in it any one Reflection made by the Writer of that Case or any thing more than a true State of Fact set in a clear Light and thereby perhaps expos'd to the just Abhorrence of all who are not involv'd in the like Guilt or sworn to a Party Dr. Sherlock having declar'd in his Pulpit that he had the advice of Eminent Lawyers for his preaching after the Deprivation incurr'd by the Statute it seemed not improper to enquire what sort of Lawyers would give such advice that the weight of their advice might be the better understood to remove the prejudice of such Authority against the express Words of a Statute Page 10. which the Vindicator cites has this Query Whether another of the Lawyers had not maintained in order to take away Mens Lives that Scribere est agere Writing is an overt Act of Treason New Non-Conf pag. 10. within the 25th of Edw. 3. That though in the Judgment of several Parliaments it has been found needful to have temporary Laws to make WORDS spoken or written OVERT ACTS of Treason yet NO MAN EVER DOUBTED BUT WORDS ALONE may be Acts of Treason within 25 Edw. 3. That how manifest soever the Distinction of kinds of Treason be within the Statute whatever the Opinion of the Lord Coke or the Case of the late or any former Revolution yet NO MAN EVER DOUBTED but a Conspiracy to levy War is a Conspiracy against the Life of the King within that Act. That the meeting where the levying War was discoursed of without proof of the Parties knowing the end of the meeting and a bare Agreement in others of the Company to seize Guards not established by Law were OVERT ACTS within the Statute in a Person against whom no Words or Deeds were prov'd expressing his consent
The Man-Hunter OR A due REPROOF of a Malicious LIBEL Against the Present GOVERNMENT ENTITULED The Third and Last Part of the Magistracy and Government of England Vindicated with Reasons for a General Act of Indemnity It is the part of an ill-natured Man or I might rather say scarce of a Man to make a Trade of Hunting People to Death Tullies Offices Sir R. L ' s. Ed. p. 143. Be sure to observe this Duty as inviolable and sacred never to have any thing to do in exposing of Innocent Blood For it is a Crime that no colour in the World can justify for what can be so inhuman as to turn the Faculties of Reason and Eloquence that were given us for the Benefit and Conservation of Mankind to be the Ruine and Destruction of honest Men. ibid. THE Author of the three sham Vindications of the Magistracy and Government of England in his last especially sets up for a Wit in his way of exposing Mens Persons a Lawyer in colouring over the most outragious Attempts upon Mens Lives and Assassinations under Pretext of Law with a false shew of allowable Precedents and a Politician in an awkard Recommendation of a general indefinite Act of Oblivion whereby he would have the greatest Criminals freed even from Marks of Disgrace as if that were possible when such Men â—ag 4. â—g 5. like Cain will ever carry their Marks about them But as he would have the Oblivion indefinite it must be meant in relation to Time as well as Persons and no doubt but he would have all endeavours for the Subversion of the present Government pardoned and yet presses this in such a manner as brings one exception at least in himself whilst he vilifies our happy Settlement as founded on a bottom which makes the pardoning of Criminals in former Reigns necessary for its justification and subsistence and indeed the parting with all the Laws of this Nation not enacted since the Abdication for that if every thing were not â—ag 8. I 'll not â—ention the Arâ—â—â—ent from the â—acancy that â—e Government â—as dissolved â—ery thing reduâ—â—d into its priâ—itive State of â—lature all powâ— devolved into â—â—dividuals and be Particulars only to provide for themselves by a new Contract for if so there 's yet no new consent for Punishment â—f acts done before the Dissolution and consequently Revenge for that is at an end Indemnity therefore ought to be proâ—oted by those who made that Vote for otherwise their Truth may be suspected c. reduced to its Primitive state of Nature upon the breach of the Contract and vacancy of the Throne which was voted by the Convention as the foundation of its Proceedings then the late King had not broken the Contract a total Dissolution of the Government being suppos'd inseparable from such a Breach Nor was there ground for declaring King William and Queen Mary our King and Queen and for the Parliament afterwards to enact that Their Majesties having accepted the Crown were are and OF RIGHT ought to be by the Laws of this Realm our Sovereign Liege Lord and Lady c. †Bill of Rights 1. W. M. Upon this the Observation is very natural that this Gentleman is more concern'd for the Criminals in former Times than for the Honour and Support of this Government What pity is it that the late C. J. died with Reproach and did not live to be cleared by this Advocate that he might put in for a Man of Merit now for his Truth Probity and Vsefulness some no doubt think it were better that he should still be Chancellor than that the Great Seal should be in Commission bearing a resemblance of a Common-Wealth not much unlike the Peoples declaring for King William and Queen Mary for wherever the Power or Title is lodged in more than one they will have it a departure from the Monarchy And thus there must be one Chancellor one Treasurer and the King and Queen must be one Person by a mysterious Union But to return to our Author he not only scandalously reflects upon our Settlement but directly Libels the Bill of Rights which declares That the late King by the Assistance of divers evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employed by him did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom And yet being conscious that at least part of the Charge against evil Instruments would equally fit some who were very active to those ends in the Reign of C. II. while they could keep on the Mask of Service to the Church strongly labours to have it believed that all such Pag. 2. Reflections upon the Servants of former Crowns made by any private Persons proceed from vitiated Sentiments are but the Clamours of Male-contents with the addition of Sareasm instead of Argument and blushless Lies instead of Law and Precedents downright Libels criminal and injurious to common Justice Pag. 2. According to which either the Censure pass'd by the Parliament upon Servants of the late King is not true or else the same things become false if mentioned by private Persons For him to clear his Pretences either to Wit Law or Policy it might be requisite to learn to reason like a Man for he must not fancy that this thinking Age can be impos'd upon with a few glittering Periods hanging together like a Rope of Sand especially when they want a practis'd motion of the Head and Hand a Cadence measur'd to the breath and a tuneful Accent to set them off by the help of which one who can't write common Sense may pass for an Orator in speaking I am sure had he not been better vers'd in Rhetorick than Logick he would never have argued thus For Lawyers to note and report Abuses of Pag. 1. the Law in former Reigns under the pretence of serving Their Majesties is meer Pretence Mark one of the convincing Reasons For first it 's not their Province these Publications are made by them not as Legislators or Judges but as private Persons As if private Persons must stay for Commissions to serve their Countrey in their civil Professions or Studies as well as in the Wars upon ordinary occasions and without such Authority their Services can never be real or really intended To have this pass into a Law indeed would be useful Policy for such times as he is concerned for but at present Men are to seek of the Reason why what a private Person does with the greatest Sincerity and Application of Mind for the Service of his Countrey and Information of Posterity should be but a Pretence meerly because he is a private Person I here give but a taste of his way of Reasoning but shall have occasion to expose it more fully where he would be thought to argue with the greatest Strength But since this false Reasoner and Perverter of Law to the worst of purposes Pag. 4. I 'll plague the Worl no more with writing on