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	parliament_n	writ_n	2,706	5	9.7417	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53079	A letter from an old Common-Council-man to one of the new Common-Council for this present year 1682, for this honourable city of London	D. N., Old Common-Council-man.	1681 (1681)	Wing N9; ESTC R9745	8,134	4

A LETTER From an Old COMMON-COUNCIL-MAN to one of the New Common-Council for this present Year 1682. for this Honourable City of London SIR YOUR First business as of all such Courts is wont and ought to be an Enquiry into the Qualifications of the Elections else to make Laws before you know whether you are the proper Persons that are Lawfully Elected to make them will but invalidate all you do if it shall appear that there are any considerable Number among you that are not duly Qualified Now the First Enquiry of Qualifications in Common-Council uses to be Whether there be any that are not Qualified as the Law requires and if they be suspected and named they may be questioned as far as the Court thinks fit and if not Qualified as by Law they ought then they are to withdraw as was the case of some worthy Members in Sir Robert Clayton's Year The Second Enquiry of Qualification especially if there be any Objections or Petitions is to look into all Vndue Elections and to appoint a Committee to hear the Complaints and make Report to the Court and then pass such Judgment upon those Elections as to that Court shall seem just and right Under this Head there may possibly some Disputes arise touching the Power of determining the Right of Election whether it rest in the Lord Mayor singly or Mayor and Aldermen jointly or in each Alderman in his several Ward or in the Inquests of the several Wards or in none of them definitively or whether the sole Power be not in this very Court it self jointly made up of Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council men in Common-Council Assembled Touching which Debates I here offer you my thoughts thus When the King Issues out his Writ for Choice of Parliament-men once I never knew any City Corporation or County come to the King to complain of Vndue Elections and pray a New Writ either before or after the Sheriff hath made his Return but the Cities Corporations or Counties that are aggrieved go to the Parliament only and to no Court or Person else whatsoever to have Relief according to the Merits of the Case and there and no where else Justice is done Why then should not these Greater Lights rule the lesser and be Precedents for the Common-Council of the Great Metropolis of England whose Proceedings influence many times all the other Parts of England in some Affairs Why shall any lessen your Right by Petitioning or Receiving Petitions from any of your Wards in matters legally determinable no where but by this Court I am of Opinion that when once my Lord Mayor hath issued out his Precept he hath done all that he is to do in the Case And that my Lord Mayor singly and my Lord Mayor and Aldermen jointly are bound up by the Returns of every Inquest of Sworn men who do make their Returns upon their Oaths according to ancient Custom the Monday after Epiphany and not before And my Lord Mayor either singly or jointly with the Aldermen hath no power to alter the Return of any one Member after the Inquest have delivered it upon their Oaths under their Hands and Seals Indented How unwarrantably have those acted then who have desired New Precepts for New Elections and determined old Elections before the Inquest have made any Return at all For the Return from the Inquest of the Names of Common-Council-men duly Chosen in every Ward is as Natural and as Customary and Legal a way for Return of Common-Council-men to serve in Common-Council for this City as the Return of Members to serve in Parliament for England for the several Counties is legally by the Sheriffs Return under their Hands and Seals and no otherways whatsoever For both are done by Indenture Therefore you are obliged to maintain the Power of the Common-Council to determine the Right of the Returns of the Elections by your Inquests as well as the Parliament do maintain this Right of determining Elections tho' chosen by the Kings Writ and Returned by the Kings Sheriff Else if you yield this Right to a Lord Mayor singly or Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen Jonitly Then you give the Lord Mayor and Aldermen a greater Priviledge then his Majesty claims or exercises Another Qualification that may come in question before you is whether the Elections in some Wards were made by such Electors as have Right of Electing It is objected that the Election in some Wards was over-ruled by the Votes of Vnfree-men and by the Votes of such as pay no Scot nor bear no Lot and by the Menaces of Officers c. whereby the Inhabitants were over-aw'd and not left free in their Election as they ought to be In such Cases there ought to be a new Election in such Wards or at least a Remedy provided against it for the future For these Three things are not only contrary to Reason Equity and the Interest of the City but also positively against an express Declaration of Common-Council made long since and still unrepealed and in full force being part of a Report from a Committee appointed to examine some Questions that then arose about Elections of Common-Council and which was Confirmed by Common-Council Which I here recite Verbatim as far as it relates to this Matter viz. That the Number of Common-Council-men which are or shall be appointed for each Ward in this City ought to be all FREELY Chosen every Year in the Wardmote by such Inhabitants of the several Wards respectively who are FREE-MEN of this City and do pay SCOTT and bear LOTT and by the greater Number of them and not otherwise Consider well of this Ancient Precedent and do that which shall be found fit for future Regulation For if you admit of Vnfree-men to be Electors the Consequence may be this Such Unfreemen will undoubtedly incline always to chuse such as shall favour Unfree-men in all the Laws that are made and so in time this may Increase their Party to so great Number in Common-Council as may level all your Priviledges and render Vnfree-men equal to the Free-men may Perhaps set up themselves and then Vote all Free-men out As I understood was the Case of the City of Dantzick in the Baltick Sea The Government of that City had been in Hands only of such Majestrates as were the Calvinists But the Sect of Lutherans increasing and growing Rich the Lutherans Petitioned the Government that there might be One or Two of their Opinion admitted into the Council of Majestracy but the Calvinists strennously opposed it as Dangerous if not Impious and so the Lutherans were for a long time kept out Yet as last the brisk Sons of the Calvinists being Inamoured with the Beautiful Daughters of the Lutherans fell by Legal Matrimony into their Nuptial Beds and then made Interest to get one Lutheran into the Government then Two at last the Majority and then they quickly Voted the Calvinists should no more be Elected and so the Government fell wholly