and prâ—sperity they began to forget on what conditions they had entered Conquest was a short a compendious Title and without intricacy And now likewise the Church-men were every where agog for changing the Government both of Church and State into absolute Monarchy But the best on 't was the pretences were visible and notorious Besides that the Temporal and Spiritual the Prince and the Prelatical Lord could not agree who should be Supreme Which differences gave breath to the people and put into their hands an opportunity to assert their ancient just Rights and bottom all upon the Parliament again And now since the Great Charter and Petition of Right and the many other declarations what can threaten us Neither the Gunpowder Treason nor the late more sacred invention of a Pensioned Parliament could take effect No room is left amongst us for a standing Army which enslaved the French And our Franc-Archers our Militia continues after the old Model Nor with us as in Germany is the Papist like to bear up against and balance our Protestant Votes in Parliament thereby to render the Constitution useless and unpracticable And it may be hoped we shall never so far give way and be gull'd by Jesuitical artifice to find another division in Religion amongst us that may favour their designs and under other names do their work as compleatly You need not be caution'd to distinguish Plato the Divine from Plato the Philosopher Poets and Divines you know have a particular way of expression and give their thoughts a turn different from that of other people They attribute every thing to God though the whole operation and train of causes and proceedings â—e never so natural and plain before their face the Images they make are often taken in the grossest sense and worshipped by the vulgar and many times the Statesman is willing to contribute to their Idolatry Hence it comes that for the Persians Zoroaster was said to receive his Laws from Horomasis Trismegistus for the Aegyptians from Mercury Minos for the Cretans from Iupiter Charondas for the Carthaginians from Saturn Lycurgus for the Lacedemonians from Apollo Draco and Solon for the Athenians from Minerva Numa Pompilius for the Romans from Aegeria Xamolxis for the Scythians from Vesta and all these as truly as Mahomet had his Alcoran from the Angel Gabriel This sort of Doctrine went currant enough whilst Monkery and Ignorance sat in the Chair but now in an Age of History and humane Reason the blind Traditions go hardly down with us So that Iure Divino at this day makes but a very litigious Title Nor was it consistent with the brevity of a Letter to observe minutely how long the remains of the Roman domination continued amongst us as namely That the Roman was the only authentick Language for judicial matters in Germany till the Reign of Rudolph the first about the year 1287. in England till Edward the Third in France till Francis the First But in Church affairs that old mark of slavery is not yet worn off the spiritual Emperor will remit nothing he still holds his Vassals to the Roman Tongue even in Divine Service onely in England and where the Reformation has prevailed this with the other appurtenances of Roman bondage are no longer necessary Nor is it proper in this general draught to reflect on all the several steps and little dispositions to change in each Nation As how sometimes a practice has prevailed against the form and letter sometimes the form of words has been necessary but the practice obsolete The use in Commissions of the phrase pour en jouyr tant qu'il nous plaira was not known in France till Lewis the Eleventh tryed its vertue which occasioned their Parliament An. 1467. to ordain that notwithstanding the clause tant qu'il nous plaira Offices should not be voyd save only by death resignation or forfeiture as Pasquier in his Recherches informs us But peradventure since it has been so much controverted of late amongst us who are the Three States and the word occurring so frequently in the German Tongue you may expect some account who they be that have the name of States in Germany They express the word States in their own Language and call them Stands and Reich-stands because says Goldastus the Empire stands and rests upon them as upon its basis and pillars Status Imperii dicantur quod in illis ceu membris id est basibus columnis ipsum Imperium stet subsistat Those are said to be Stands who have the right to sit and Vote in the common Assembly of the Empire Hi quidem status Reichs-stands appellantur ideo quod statum locum votandi sedendi in Comitiis Imperii habent hâc quippe unicâ propriâ quasi notâ status ab aliis Imperii subject is secernuntur Arumaeus c. 4. de Comitiis So that all the question is how many several ranks or distinct orders there may be of these Stands From Polybius we have had a particular account of mixt Governments where he calls those that represent the Monarchical the Aristocratical and the popular State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The three governing parts of the Common-wealth So the King the Senate and the Ephori at Sparta the Consuls the Senate and the Tribunes at Rome were there the Three States and had each their particular shares in the Government The like seems to have obtain'd in France under the names of the King the Peers and the Third State Nor did the power of the Clergy how great soever otherwise make any new distinct Order but they were mixt and included with the other States as their Learned Archbishop Claude Seisselle in his Treatise of the French Monarchy shows us In Germany how the Government has been shared and who have had a right of Voting in old times we may learn from what has before been cited out of Tacitus the Rex the Principes and the Omnes denote the Three States who had their several shares and right of Voting in the Government The same distinction continued still under the Western Empire Hincmar at the yearly Assembly or generale placitum under Charlemain does comprehend all under the terms of Seniores and Minores So that the Emperor the Seniors and the Commons seem to have then been the Three States Senior which the Germans exprest in their Ealdermen we may suppose was a word grew currant in the Provincial or vulgar Roman about that time and afterwards was diversifyed into Sieur and Sire and Sir and Monsignior and Monsieur and was ordinarily applyed to Men in great Office Cum Seniori urbis nunciata fuissent c. Seniores loci illius c. Nihil per me feci nisi quae mihi a Dominis nostris Senioribus Imperata sunt c. Tempore Senioris nostri c. ex parte Senioris mei Caroli c. These and the like passages in Gregory Turonensis may show the extent of the word and that
A General Draught and Prospect OF GOVERNMENT IN EUROPE And Civil Policy SHEWING The Antiquity Power Decay OF PARLIAMENTS WITH Other Historical and Political Observations relating thereunto In a LETTER Dimidium plus toto Medium non deserit unquam Coeli Phoebus iter radiis tamen omnia lustrat Claud. London Printed for Tho. Benskin in Greens-Rents near Fleetbridge 1681. THE CONTENTS TOo narrow conceptions of Parliaments Civilians Instruments of servitude Common Lawyers how biassed My Lord Cook 's Etymologies Holy Scripture teaches not Politicks Caesar in the Gospel Europeans particularly love Liberty Arbitrary sway inconsistent with a civil people The Gospel disposes not to slavery Power not Titles makes a King Declining power casts the greatest shadow Modern French Parliament in Scarlet Robes The English without Pontificalibus jupiters Scepter what Pastors of a mâ—re excellent species than the flock King a Politick Creature Mixt Government ordinary in Europe In Asia and Africa Tyrannical Og the King of Bashan Land of Gyants Excellency of Kingly Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyclopses rul'd without Parliaments Tyrants ordinarily men of great Vertues Tarquin the proud left off the use of the Senate Authority of the Senate lost Emperors but tenants at will to the Army The Common Council in Gaul and Britain The German people and Laws transplanted The Government in Germany Pharamond What Names for the Common Council in England France and Germany Curia Hoss Reichs Versamblung Conventus Placitum Synodus Dyet Parliament Populus Principes often used for the same Assembly Hundreds Sheriffs Iuries Queen Edburga Germany the source of our people and Laws Charlemain governed by annual Parliaments What power they had in his time Succession referred to the Parliament The Elector Princes Fallacies of an Aristocracy The Golden Bull. Aristocracy when begun in the Church English Laws in danger Pretences of Conquest Magna Charta In Germany Title by the Sword Imperial Crown Lex Regia Civil Law The French insensibly enslaved The English Arms in France The project of a new sort of Parliament It some check upon the King The Clauses Mandato Regis expresso Mandato expressissimo mandato Regis Lewis the Eleventh his Character La Royauté hors du page Remonstrances for the Parliament Abhorrers The War called le bien publique Alexander Sforza his advice Finesse Franc-archers laid aside Adventuriers Soldiers Guard of Switzers establisht The Parliamentary changed into a Military Government Improbe factum Different times require different Laws Radamanthus his way of judging Kings most reserved when they had no bounds The Venetians How they dealt with their Princes What the ordinary policy in Germany The Emperor adorned with Titles The Jura Majestatis where Count Palatine Iudge when the Emperor is Impeacht The Legislation where Religion War and Peace Iurisdiction The Princes Furstenrecht Chamber at Spires Taxes Chief Magistrates Electors What they assume Flowers of the Imperial Crown Tarquinius Priseus his Artifice The Emperors of old time came to the States Maximilian The Regiment instituted Their Platform Charles the Fifth His new Model The Assembly of the Deputies They managed by Ferdinand the Second The Privy Council Expedients Reason of State The Iesuits like not a mixt Government Turken-stewer or Aid against the Turk Caesar and the Electors combine against the Diet. The Roman Decemviri The States wanting to themselves Differences about Religion The Protestants out-voted The German Dyet encumbred French in a manner defunct The former from Charles the Fifth This from Lewis the Eleventh The English Parliament still vigorous Legereté of the French The English steady Dance not after the French Politicks Magna Charta Petition of Right Annual Parliaments Uncertainty of Historians Records not accurate Forms fallacious Civilians breath a Forreign ayr Rules of common Law too short Divines no Statesmen Kingly Race may degenerate Sons of Hercules Tasso The Emperor Aurelian His account of Cabals Parliaments necessary Cyclopean presumption Hesiod's proverbial paradox Cyrus moderate Cambyses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romulus torn in pieces Roman Civil Empire fell to Barbarians Charlemain Austrians influenced by Iesuits The French Court's Correspondence with Avignon Potestate absolutâ Mortified by the English Arms. Lewis the Eleventh Standing Army English generosity Conquest a compendious Title Gunpowder-Treason Pensioned Parliament Not subject to the mischiefs in France or Germany Division in Religion avoyded Poets and Divines regard not second Causes Jure Divino Latin Service a mark of Roman slavery Iudges durante beneplacito The Three States Stands Reich-stands Why so called Who they are The Three governing parts of the Common-wealth in Polybius The Three States of Sparta Of the Romans Of France The Clergy a mixt State with the Laiety The Three States of Germany according to Tacitus According to Hincmar in Charlemain's time Seniors who When Hereditary Proclamations to call the States Particular Writs when first used Imperial Cities Electors when a several State The Clergy never a distinct State in Germany The Emperour one of the States Charlemain a German Sacri Imperii Minister Tricks of State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SIR SEE the effect of your commands The want of time of Books and assistance in this my retirement make me very uncapable of the undertaking But my obedience and performance with a Kid will I hope be accepted when I cannot sacrifice an hundred Bulls Without farther Ceremony or Introduction according to my apprehension when we enquire into the Authority and Nature of Parliaments our thoughts should be raised above all prejudice and particularities we should not conceive of them as of some Creature form'd and nourisht under this or that Constitution but have a Notion as large and general as is that of Government of Civil Society We must not be confin'd to the Writers of this or that Age or Countrey but consult the Universal reason and sense of humane kind where Civil Government has been exercised Much less is any particular profession or Faction of Writers to be the only Authors of Credit with us in this enquiry Our knowledge must be something digested and an impartial result from a consideration of all as well Times and Countries as Writers and Customs The Civilians with their Bartolus and Baldus are not to dictate to us on this occasion These were bred out of the corruption of the Roman liberty and were instruments of servitude from the beginning Their work was by hook and crook to rap and bring all under the Emperours power that was their study that their Province But they were always ignorant of the practises of better times and utter strangers to the just Rights of a Free-people their Rules and their Maxims were in effect no other than so many stripes so many marks and items of Slavery to the Subjects Then for the Municipal Lawyers of every Nation they also are educated under too narrow a dispensation to think justly in these matters The Letter is their sphere where they show their activity even sometimes to the perverting
Almighty from those words Let us make Man Those words in the plural number to them seemed to import as if God summon'd a Parliament of the Trinity to consult upon that arduous affair Our Christian Poets have taken the same liberty and fancied this as an Image of Greatness where could be no accession to the wisdom and omnipotence But again Homer whom Plato in his Book of Laws mentions as a Prophet and one who reveals those things concerning Government by inspiration which are not by humane knowledge to be attain'd to shew the utmost inhumanity and barbarity of the Cyclopses and their Government tells us They neither held Parliaments for Counsel nor had right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He joyns Parliament and right as of late days Guicciardine does Parliament and Liberty as if Parliament Right and Liberty were to stand and fall together And indeed amongst the Greeks how many persons excellent otherwise have been branded for Tyrants and Monsters and made odious to all posterity because they affected a more singular and unbounded power than was consistent with the Customs and Constitutions of their Country Nor was this Policy less known or practiz'd by the Latines None of the antient Kings of Italy or Rome exercis'd other Government than by Parliament till Tarquin the Proud with much Stratagem and Artifice attempted a new way But how fatal did he find that innovation Afterwards that the Caesars usurped the Empire when their power was the highest they affected to have all done in the name of the people and Senate Neque tam parvum quicquam neque tam magnum publici privatique negotii de quo non ad Patres Conscriptos referrebatur And notwithstanding the antient Liberty and Government was so run down yet on some occasions the authority of the Senate would be exerting itself They declared Nero an Enemy of the State and their Sentence had its effect Nor could the delight of humane kind Titus though so far engaged in love and honour stem the authority of the Senate in favour of his dear Berenice but was forced to dismiss her because they forbad the Banes And in effect the power of the Senate once gone that of the Emperors signified little the giddy Souldiers broke all Rules and Measures They mutinied and made and unmade Emperours where and when and whom they had a mind to So that the Emperour was onely Tenant at will to the Army Our Botchers of History shew a jolly Succession of Monarchs on their file for Britain in those days But Caesars Commentaries are of much better Credit who represents the Government of Gaul and Britain as muchwhat the same in his time says he of Britain Summa Imperii bellique administrandi Communi Consilio permissa est Cassivellano c. The chief Command and Conduct of the War was by the Common Councel committed to Cassivellaun Compare these words with what he writes of the Gauls l. 7. Re in Controversiam deductâ totius Galliae Consilium Bibracte indicitur eodem conveniunt undique frequentes multitudines suffragiis res permittitur ad unum omnes Vercengentorigem probant Imperatorem Here the Counsel of all Gaul by reason of the War put it to the Vote who shall be their General and it was carried with a nemine contradicente for Vercengentorix And 't is beyond dispute that their Government continued the same in the times of which Dion Cassius and Tacitus write Nor is their uniformity so strange considering the Authority of the Druyds and their correspondence in both Nations When the English and French came from Germany to people Britain and Gaul the German Liberty and moderate sway were transplanted with them and still the Common Councel had the main stroke in all weighty affairs for to that Policy had they also been educated The Scheme of the German Government appears in these passages of Tacitus De minoribus rebus Principes consultant de majoribus Omnes In lesser matters the principal men onely in the greatest affairs all consult Elsewhere he says of them Vbi Rex vel Princeps audiuntur Authoritate suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate Where the King or Prince are heard for the reasons they bring to perswade rather than for any Authority to command Hereby 't is manifest that in Germany also the people had their share in debating and directing all affairs of moment When therefore the French under Waramond or Pharamond came to settle and mix with the Gauls whatever other differences might happen in point of Government they were agreed before hand both resting upon the same Basis the Common Councel Accordingly in those first days we find them making their Kings and again upon occasion unmaking them by general consent Hence come these Phrases so frequent in Aimoinus Sigebert Engenhardus and the other Writers of those times Consensu Francorum Electione Francorum Secundum Morem Francorum in Regem electus c. On the other hand Franci regno deturbant a Francis repudiatur depositus ac detonsus in monasterium detrusus est a Francis in Monachum tonsuratur c. Where we may note that our Authors intend by their per Francos as much as per consensum Francorum or secundum morem Francorum which is by the Common Counsel and not in any unusual mutinous and tumultuous way as some might object Nor are we to imagine the Government presently altered so often as we find the Historians varying their phrase We must now and then be content with such words as the Monks of those times were pleased to coyn for us and have new barbarous Names for the same old Civil Constitution Whether they speak of Germany of the French or of our Nation they indifferently diversifie and employ for the same common assembly amongst others the appellations and circumlocutions following Sometimes they call it Curia and Curia Imperialis and Curia Regalis Curia solennis generalis Curia magna Curia Concelebranda patrum solenni curia coctu Curia Roncaliis jampridem indicta coïret say their Poets Which is expessed in the German Tongue by Hove Koniglicher Hove grossen Hoff. Elsewhere it is call'd Congregationes which the Germans render Reichsversamblung Sometimes it is call'd Concilium Principum totius Germaniae Concilium Concilium generale Gunther says Concilium Procerum toto de corpore regni Convocat And the Monk of Paderborn who liv'd about eight hundred years ago in his Annals of Charles the Great Anno 772. Et Rex Wormatiam Carolus collegit in urbem Francorum proceres ad Concilium generale Imperialia Concilia postquà m cessavere omnes pene deformitates introductae sunt says Cardinal Cusan Elsewhere these were called Conventus Conventus generalis Conventus Imperatorem Convenire generaliter populum suum praecepit Habuit populi sui generalem Conventum Habitoque juxta Morem Conventu generali The Monk of Paderborn thus versifies Anno 775. Ad Duriam vicum properant nam rege jubente Illic
Conventus populi generalis habetur Elsewhere Venit ad fontes fluvii cui Lippia nomen Conventum fieri Procerum jussit generalem Anno 775. Publicus in Paderbrunon Conventus habetur Most commonly it was called Placitum Compendii placitum generale habuit Aimoinus Rex Pipinus habuit placitum suum in Nivernis Regino An. 773 and An. 777. Tenuit placitum in loco qui dicitur Paderbrunnon Abbas Stadensis in Chr. An. 811 Imperator habito placito c. And the aforesaid Monk Anno 770. Conventum placiti generalis habere Cum ducibus se velle suis denunciat illic Regino calls it Synodus An. 770. Carolus habuit Synodum in Wormatiaâ 771. Habuit Synodum ad Valentinianos 772. Synodum habuit in Wormariâ 775. Habuit Synodum in villâ quae dicitur Duria 780. In Lippa Synodum tenuit Convenerant multi Episcopi Abbates Principes ad Imperialem Synodum Trithem Abb. Afterwards in Germany Diet was the name that generally prevailed as that of Parliament in France and England Now these Quotations and Authorities shew not only that by all this variety of Names were understood the same Common Councel but that the Principes Proceres Primores Duces Patres c. imported no more in truth nor signified other manner of Men than the very same with Populus And the same Assembly by one Writer barely called Populus or Conventus populi is by another stiled Conventus procerum Conventus principum c. which those terms secundam morem juxta morem more solenni ut solebat more fully demonstrate which seem to refer and send us back to Tacitus Consultant de majoribus omnes This I the rather note because I find Mr. Petty amongst many other his excellent Memorials observing the like in old Records of Parliament where those somewhere called Populus and Vulgus and the Commons are otherwhiles dignified with the gay additions of Noble Most Noble Most Illustrious Most Gracious Seigniors Monseigniours and Sires the Commons And likewise for that some unwary and superficial Readers from this root have propagated and improved many Errours of pernicious consequence to our ancient and Fundamental Policy and Government The French incorporating and growing one people with the former Inhabitants had a much easier Province they setled and pursued their Native Customs and Forms of Government nor met with that difficulty and opposition which in this Nation attended the English and Saxons These had a much harder game to play These could in no wise fix or find any sure footing without first clearing their way and driving the Britains up by themselves into a corner of the Land And after much tumbling and bustle we find them formed into a Heptarchy How regularly they mov'd as to Civil Affairs how closely they followed their Country-Customs or where they innovated and varied from their German Forms and Policy in those dark times is hard to be traced Some footsteps however appeared then which remained to posterity as the division of the Countrey into Hundreds after the German manner described by Tacitus Besides the other Royalties in the people as that of appointing Sheriffs and choosing Annual Magistrates the jurisdiction and power of life and death by our Juries c. And even before all came united under one Monarch we find the people interposing their Authority and for the miscarriages of Queen Edburga providing that thereafter No Queen shall sit by the King nor have the Title of Queen but be called only the Kings Wife Gens itaque occidentalium Saxonum Reginam juxta Regem sedere non patitur nec etiam Reginam appellari sed Regis conjugem permittit c. Asser. Menev. Mals But I shall not repeat what Cambden and Selden and our other Antiquaries have collected on this occasion but Germany being the source both of our people and Laws I choose rather petere fontes And thence it may be concluded how far we do stare super vias antiquas and continue firm upon the old bottom When the People and Senate of Rome had transferred all their right upon Charles the Great or Charlemain as the French call him and Germany was made the seat of the Western Empire one might think if there could be an opportunity of introducing a new form of Policy this was the time Yet Charles so victorious so august so great the like in no age before him or since ever known on this side the Alps notwithstanding all that power and fortune and the Imperial Crown that adorn'd him his Language was still the high German and his Government did still in the old Parliamentary way go on and prosper Therefore we find him every year with his Parliament Eginhardus who was his Son-in-law and Chancellour says of him Rex sic ad publicum populi sui conventum qui annuatim ob regni utilitatem celebrabatur ire sic domum redire solebat And Aimoynus l. 4. c. 74. Generalem Conventum quotannis habuit And to these Parliaments under God so far as humane reason may judge does Hincmar Archbishop of Rheims and Chancellour in those times ascribe his happy Reign Secunda divisio qua totius Regni status anteposito sicut semper omnipotentis Dei judicio quantum ad humanam rationem pertinebat conservari videbatur haec est consuetudo tunc temporis erat ut non saepius sed bis in Anno duo placita tenerentur unum quando ordinabatur status totius Regni ad anni vertentis spacium quod Ordinatum nullus eventus rerum nisi summa necessitas quae similiter toti Regno incumbebat mutabat in quo placito generalitas universorum majorum â—am Clericorum quam Laicorum conveniebat alterum cum Senioribus tantum praecipuis Consiliariis All this seems but a Paraphrase upon the passage afore-cited out of Tacitus as to the Form of Government The Princes and Seniors are for the matters of less weight the former here mentioned was the generale placitum which the Germans more particularly call Die jahrlicke versamblung the yearly Assembly Whose business he tells us was to order the state of the Kingdom He shows us likewise how binding these their Ordinances were and not to be contraven'd unless upon the utmost necessity not a suggested invisible Courtnecessity but quae toti regno incumbebat a necessity that lay upon the whole Kingdom In effect the Parliament Ordered and he Executed their Orders his Office was the Administration Amongst other particulars we find him in Parliament adjusting the matter of Succession as Eginhard and the Abbot of Staden An. 813. informs us of which the Monk of Paderborn An. 813. Vnde Duces ac Primores solenniter omnes Atque Magistratus ad Concilium generale vndique collegit Natoque suo Ludovico Cunctorum cum consilio jus omne regendi Tradidit Imperii Successoremque paterni Imposito designavit Diademate Regni And accordingly his Son Lodowic by general consent of Parliament did succeed him post mortem patris
Imperatorial Discipline is to them for Scepter and Civil Policy The Germans An. 1441. were for excluding them from all Offices and places of trust Limnaeus l. 1. de jure publ Our common Lawyers are for comparing and measuring by their rule what is antecedent and above their rules and comparisons Christs Kingdom is not of this world nor ought the Divines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to meddle in this Political Province In the general notion Monarchy or Kingly Government is the most easie and the most excellent But corruption coming into the world neither the Sons of Iupiter nor the Sons of Hercules found perfection entayled upon them nor were exempt from their share of humane frailty Many says Tasso are servants by fortune who are naturally Princes some again though descended from an hundred Kings are yet born to be slaves and maugre all their high race of Royal Progenitors will be commanded and governed and managed by a Minion or a Mistress These are really and indeed slaves but are not judged such because the people who onely look on the outside judge of mens conditions as in Plays where he is call'd a King who clad in purple and glistering with Gold and Gems does personate Agamemnon if he does not represent him well he has the name of King nevertheless onely 't is said The King was out in his part or The King acted his part scurvily And Flavius Vopiscus in Aurel. Caes. tells us Aurelius Caesar dicebat Colligunt se quatuor aut quinque atque unum Concilium ad decipiendum Imperatorem capiunt dicunt quod probandum sit Imperator qui domi clausus est vera non novit cogitur hoc tantum scire quod illi loquuntur facit judices quos sieri non oportet amovet a republicâ quos debebat retinere quid multa ut Dioclesianus ipse dicebat Bonus cautus optimus venditur Imperator Aurelâ—us Caesar was wont to say Four or five get together about the Emperor all their consult is how to cheat him what they say is to be Law the Emperor who is shut up from other Counsel never knows the true state of things but is forced to understand just so much onely as they tell him he makes Iudges who the least of all should be turns out of Commission those who ought to be the quorum in a word according to Dioclesian's saying the Emperor so good so wary and so too too good is bought and sold before his face If then it be true that he who is of Royal Extraction clad in Purple and called a King is not always naturally such it was wisdom certainly most seasonable to find the means that might correct and as it were ensure Nature against the impotence and Tyranny of the Minion or Mistress which Tasso mentions And if the observation of Aurelius Caesar be just that Cabals are so pernicious and that four or five persons who get the Prince into their hands and possession shall abuse and cheat and betray him to his face in spite of all his goodness his caution and Royal Vertues if I say these things be true the necessity of Parliaments cannot be disputed Homer reckoned it barbarity in the degree remotest from all things of God and goodness and a Cyclopean presumption to rule without Parliaments Old Hesiod in his homely way gives an Aenigmatical reproof to those Kings that would be grasping all and be so absolute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said These fools know not how much more the half is than the whole and that a shoulder of Mutton with the love of the people is more worth than the ragoust and the hautgousts and all the French Kickshaws whatsoever Plato tells us that even in Asia they who performed any great Atchievements or enlarged the Empire were those as the grand Cyrus for example who slackened the Prerogative and admitted the people to a share in the Government But such as Cambyses who against all sense and reason stretcht and strutted upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lordly domination brought all again into confusion and ruine Amongst the Latins even the founder of the Roman name Romulus because he took upon himself an Arbitrary power to rule without the Senate they it is thought tore him to pieces insomuch that they left nothing of his body for a spectacle to the rabble as afterwards their Successors unluckily did who kill'd Caesar. The Imperial power that began with the Caesars was onely Magnum Latrocinium one huge horrid oppression Military Government Martial Law barbarous Nations Goths and Vandals over-ran and made havock of the old Civil Roman Empire In Britain Gaul and Germany all this while liberty and a participation in the Government was the common right and inheritance unalienable the Common Councel was the basis and hinge however the administration roul'd Afterwards when Germany gave us people it gave us a German and a free people About An. Dom. 800. Charlemain or Charles the Great united France and Germany under one Head and one Empire pire all Histories are full of his Reign and Actions he rul'd more solenni secundum morem in the old customary Parliamentary way every where The Nations round about submitted and took Laws from him and he submitted all again to the ordinatum the Ordinance of Parliament An annual Parliament was then reckoned the Custom and inviolable right of the people And thus the affairs of State proceeded and this Scheme of Government continued in Germany till the late unhappy divisions about Religion weakning and embroyling the States gave way to the Austrian ambition new projects and Jesuitical artifice so that the Assembly of the States at this day keeps on foot indeed but sick heavy and unweildy The French Court had much sooner learnt the terms de proprio Motu potestate absolutâ by their neighborhood and correspondence with the Pope at Avignon But so long as the English Arms kept them in mind of their Mortality it was no time for them to think of ruling without a Parliament But when Charles the Seventh had sent home the English Lewis the Eleventh with Olivier le diable his Barbars and his cut-throat devils thought no attempt too wicked for them He forsooth was hors du page he wanted not to be led he was past an Infant and a lowd outcry he made against the unmannerly clump-fisted bumpkin Parliament But when the bien publique or War for the publick good hindred him from bringing about his design openly and directly he compast it in effect by slighting the Militia and laying his project of a standing Army In England we have also heard of Minions and Mistresses and Cabals and have had unhappy Princes But the Laws and old Customs of the Land the generosity of the people and the Genius of the Nation have still prevailed and been too strong for all their practises and machinations When the Normans came to the Crown after some years of ease
the Seniores in Hincmar were the same with the Principes in Tacitus Nor did the Signiories become Hereditary till Otho the first his Reign But what most affected the Government and proved of greatest consequence in this affair was the innovations that hapned in Frederic the Third his time for whereas formerly a Proclamation was wont to be issued out for summoning the Assembly whereupon Delecti ex singulis Civitatibus says Aymoinus from every Town and City were chosen the Burgesses and Citizens to go their Representatives to the Assembly Now so many griev'd at the charge neglected the Proclamations that oftentimes the Assembly could not proceed for want of a competent number of Members Wherefore Frederic let the Proclamations alone and instead thereof sent particular Letters to the several Towns and henceforward none took themselves obliged to attend who had not Letters directed to them Many of the poorer Towns were glad to be excused and private Gentlemen left off going so that within a little time the Government was brought into a few hands and every day rendered less and less popular Those Cities that preserved their share in the Government and right of Voting by continuing to send their Representatives to the Assembly are now therefore called Imperial Cities Although the Electoral Princes had a name much sooner yet were they still one and the same State with the other Princes till under this Frederic in the Dyet at Francford An. 1489. they parted and became a particular Assembly and Voted severally and from that time got the name of a distinct State and form'd a new sort of an Aristocratie by themselves Yet all this while the Clergy did never set up for a separate Order in the Common-wealth but always made a mixt State with the Layety mixt they are in the Electoral State and mixt in that of the Princes where the Geistlicher and Weltlicher Ghostly and worldly as they call 'um together with the Counts Barons and other Gentlemen make but one State They have indeed a particular Bench die geistliche Bank to sit upon by themselves save that the Arch-Duke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy onely sit upon it above them Now whether we fix our Notion of the Three States upon the Doctrine of the Ancients as delivered by Polybius or call them the States who have a right of Voting The Emperour is clearly one of the States Nor is it material that the ordinary stile and form of words seem to imply the contrary for if the saying Emperor and the States argues the Emperor himself to be none of the States by the same reason the form so frequent in their Recesses or publick Ordinances chur fursten fursten und Standen that is Elector-Princes Princes and States will exclude the Electors and the other Princes also from being either of them States The Form Emperor and States does no more prove him to be none of the States than with us the saying King and Parliament does imply that the King is no part of the Parliament I shall not trouble you with the disputes what were the bounders of Anstrasia and Newstria or whether by the devolution of this Western Empire Germany was added to France or France to Germany Or whether more properly Charlemain be to be reckoned amongst the French or the Germans His having been born at Ingelsheim as most affirm or at Carolsburg in the upper Bavaria as many believe and his speaking the German Tongue with this testimony of Eginhardus viz. Mensibus juxta patriam linguam nomina imposuit cum ante id tempus apud Francos partim Latinis partim Barbaris nominibns appellarentur Ianuarium appellavit Wintermonat Februarium Horning Martium Lenkmonat c. These I say are urged by the Germans as no mean Arguments But these matters concern not our enquiry If you cannot reconcile the Emperor his being somewhere said to be Sacri Imperii Minister and elsewhere declared to have no Superiour Nisi Deum Ensem but God and the Sword Bartolus tells you De verbis non curat jureconsultus The intention is to be regarded before the words The intention of the States in that Declaration An. 1338. was none other than to exclude the wild pretensions of the Pope to deny a Forreign Jurisdiction not to confess or introduce any new subjection in themselves Limitata ex certâ causâ confessio non nisi limitatum producat effecium But I cannot conclude without some reflection on these frauds a la mode the ruse and finesse which the French so loudly boast at this day Lewis the Eleventh would not have his Son learn more Latin than qui nescit dissimulare nescit Regnare The old Romans had another sort of Spirit we are told in Livy Haec Romana esse Non versutiarum Punicarum neque calliditatis Graecae-apud quos fallere hostem gloriosius dolo quam virtute 't is like a Roman to deal openly and roundly not to practice the Carthaginian Leger-de-main tricks or Graecian cunning whose glory is to circumvent and by fraud not vertue overcome an Enemy The Venetians at this day are commended for the same style Il procedere veramente Regio regli affari publici il negotiare saldo e libero e senza artisicio O duplicita non masquerato non finto ma sincero e del tutto alieno da ogni dissimulatione e fallacia Their proceedings in publick Affairs says our Author is truly Royal they negotiate upon the square frankly and without artifice or double dealing not disguised or upon the sham but sincere and every way far from all dissembling and tricks And indeed the bugie and inganni and little Italian shifts would better become Duke Valentine and the petty Princes than any Kingdom or Commonwealth of true strength and solid reputation The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sophistries and State-pretences of this kind However furbisht up and gloss'd over of late by our politick Brokers were all stale cheats and worn out even in Aristotle's time Thus have I hinted matters to you and onely toucht upon Heads without anticipating your reflections and applications I have not treated you like a stranger but as one thorowly informed before-hand and to whom all those difficulties are familiar which I can onely discover at a distance And after all I must fly from your judgment to your good nature FINIS