it Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan which say they are Iews and are not for they lye I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and know that I have loved thee Well Sir I am sorry my Tender of peace is so scornfully rejected upon the misapplication of such Texts of Scripture as equally and indifferently serve all Parties or are nothing to the present purpose You must not be angry if I strike the first blow rather than suffer you to take your own opportunity to knock me o th head When the cause comes to be tryed before equal Umpires you will be judg'd out of your own mouth that challeng'd Liberty which you wou'd not grant For you have transgrest the great Rule of Righteousness not to do to others what you wou'd have done unto your self Upon these terms the pretences to Liberty are destroy'd But if the Wisdom of any State shall confine their Indulgencies to Pious Obedient and Charitable Dissenters I cannot perceive the prejudice which difference in speculations and disputable Points can do in Religion or the Power of the Magistrate But at the same time I cannot but admire the admirable Temper and Moderation which is shew'n in the Church and Goverment of England That requires nothing necessary to Salvation but the acknowlegement of the Ancient Creeds That teaches nothing but what is Pious and Charitable Whose Lyturgy is Grave Wise and Holy whose Rites are few and material Whose Laws are full of Candor and Compliance allowing freedom to any Five Dissenters together to worship God in their own way Whose true Sons and Subjects are the greatest Favorers of Christian Liberty which are in the World And I pray God to give all people that disown it Wisdom to understand it THE Publisher to the Reader HAving I must own not without Pleasure read the following Papers and believing they might in several Instances I do not say all give som satisfaction to others and contribute to the Public Good for which I perswade my self even those Notions that seem most od and impracticable were intended I resolved to make them public But was check't again by calling to mind That he from whom I in some sort extorted them oblig'd me not to discover him Nevertheless considering I might do the One without the Other I pursued my former Resolutions yet taking this further care That even the Printer should not know from whence they came And now let me tell you whatever you shall think of this Discourse 'T is the Issu of a sober Brain tho perhaps a little too much inclin'd to Humor and rigid Vertu and not so agreeable or smooth as you would have had it if my Friend had dressed it for the eyes of any other besides my self to whom he sent it Sheet by Sheet and having writ it in less than eight of the last Holy-dayes you may believe had I allowed more time it would have come even to me reviewed As it is I make it yours and assure you what ever Censure you pass upon Him or Me we shall both be unconcern'd As Complesance made it mine so a good Intention of serving my Country makes it yours For my self I do not aim at being Richer or Greater The Patrimony left me satisfyed and invited my unambitious Mind to the Retirements of a privat Life which I have made easie by innocent Recreations Company and Books It was not my own seeking that I am now plac'd in a more public Station wherein tho perhaps I have done no Good yet I am pleas'd I never did any Hurt having alwayes pursu'd without Passion or Interest what ever my Conscience the best Rule and severest Iudge of Men's Actions convinced me was best As to my Friend he is one has read some Books and more Men thanks God he is that which the World calls a Fool a Good-natur'd Man one that heartily loves all Mankind and has so particular a Zeal for the good of his Country that I believe he would sacrifice his Life to serve it But almost despairing That ever Things will be better than they are and finding by what he has seen abroad That a Man may live more happily in England than in any part of Europe and now grown old by Temper more than Years he has resolv'd chiefly to mind himself whom to enjoy more fully he has bid adieu to all Thoughts of Business to which having never been bred by any Calling he has had the more Opportunities of considering all of improving himself and observing most sorts of Men and as a speculative Philosopher to the Entertainment of Himself and Friends he passes very free Remarks on all Actions and Things he judges amiss and being byass'd by no manner of Interest I am perswaded he speaks his Conscience And he has the good Fortune to make others often conclude He do's not only speak a great deal of Truth but also further satisfies them That it is much easier to find Faults than mend them That there ever were and ever will be Disorders in all Human Societies That there are fewer in that of England than in any other and that they are there more curable Thus much I thought fit to tell you to prevent any Misapprehensions concerning the Persons who are the occasion of this Trouble or Diversion call it what you please The CONTENTS 1. STate Affairs not fit to be discoursed by privat men Page 7 2. Of the Rise of Parliaments 11 3. Origin of Government with a brief account of Laws Revenues Trade and Natural Religion 12 4. A new Method of Electing Members Objections against this Present Parliament and their Answers 29 5. Of Lawes c. 37 6. Of better restraint of Offences than Punishment by death 48 7. Of Courts of Iudicature 60 8. Of Liberty Property and Religion 73 9. Differences in the last nor hurtful nor restrainable 81 10. How Toleration may be safely granted 92 11. How to prevent Divisions among Christians and to make all really not nominaly such 99 12. To Regulate and Reform the abuses of the Press the inconveniencies of Printing as now managed 104 13. The Intrest of England in Reference to France 116 14. Reasons why the King did not declare War against that Crown 119 15. The King's Care of Ireland to prevent French Designs 140 16. Of an Union between England and Ireland or the Repealing Poynings Act. 143 17. Of Taxes to make them great and perpetual most for the Peoples ease and common good 148 18. That 100 l. formerly was in Real value equivalent to 300 l. now and in use to 3000 l. With the reasons of the disparity 161 19. The dangers of not perpetuating apportioning and applying the Revenue to the particular charge and uses of the Crown or State and the advantage of doing so 166 20. The Objections against perpetuating the Revenue considered and removed 167 21. That French or any other Commodities are better Restrained by height of Duty than absolute
two following in sixty-five and seventy-one blowing up the Feuds on both sides pretending to take part with each but not really purposing it with either Having the same Desine of weakning both Parties as the Brittains formerly had in throwing a Bone of Contention between the Picts and Scots that they might in the end be the better able to overcom both In the mean time the French King gain'd an opportunity of building Ships of War and training up Seamen of which he was before destitute so that had not these Quarrels and our late Civil Wars given him a pretence of increasing his Maritin Power we might stil even by threats of burning the Ships upon the Stocks or in the Harbors as did Queen Elizabeth have kept that People under and our selves from fear But since by unavoidable Accidents the Dice are so thrown as that the Fore is lost let 's use the best of our art and skill to retreive an After-Game There is no need to attempt the proof of what is as evident as the Sun at Noon-day That the French King has a Power great enuff considering the present Circumstances of Europe to make him hope and al others dread his effecting that old Define which has bin the end of al Actions of that Crown for many years past which before he coud put in Execution his great Obstacle and Rival the Spaniard was to be removed out of the way in order to which he judg'd necessary to fortify himself with some Allyes and engage others Newters But foreseeing it was the interest of England and Holland to oppose the one and assist the other and therfore despairing to prevail upon either he contriv'd to make both fall out not long after he took the advantage of unexpectedly invading the Spanish Netherlands even while his Agent then in Spain was perswading that Crown of his Masters good intentions to continue in intire Peace and Amity with them The consequence of which we wisely foreseeing occasion'd our setting on Foot the Tripple League in the year 1668. by which a stop was put to his further Progress And now perceiving himself disapointed he makes various Attempts in the Years 1669 and 1670 to invite England to break that Alliance But finding his fineness Vain he oblicly endeavors it by renewing the old and inventing new grounds of Quarrels by such Agents and Pensioners in the State of Holland as his wealth had purchas'd which at last made them commit such insolence against the Honor of this Crown and the Interest of the People in point of Trade as brought upon 'um the last fatal War into which he no sooner drew the Hollanders than he rush'd into the very Heart of their Country This sudden event made them confess their Error and our King the sooner to conclude a Peace The Parliament was then and since very desirous His Majesty shoud ingage with the Dutch and Spaniards against France and without doubt he knew it woud be his interest so to do but not at that time For tho the undoubted Prerogative of the Kings of England intitle them to make War and Peace he did not wave the former because the Parliament urged it as the malicious suggest but because he saw it not convenient 'T is tru the Kings of England have bin pleas'd to advise in such matters with their Parliaments But that was an Act of Grace and condescension and ought not now if at al to be insisted on so as to deny the King that liberty which as a Man he cannot want that of examining and approving or disapproving what his great Council shoud advise For no man in his Wits wil dream the Lords and Commons have a power of imposing what they please upon the King when without his Assent they have neither Power nor Right to make any Act. The King considered That Peace is the happiness of a Kingdom That War being a real evil is never to be undertaken but to avoid a greater That his Treasures were exhausted by the War just finisht That his People had not recover'd their losses by the Plague Fire and Wars and therfore were unable to bear the Burden of heavy Taxes which of necessity must have bin imposed to carry on a new one for which great preparations ought to be made both of Men Mony and Shipping the former were no less wanting than the last much impaired and diminish't He consider'd That the French King had not only bin amassing great Treasure for many but had also bin three years training up an Army in al the Disciplines of War That it was necessary before one King entred into a War to compare his own and the others strength whether with Ten he were able to meet him with Twenty Thousand That he ought to make Alliances and to have cautionary Towns before we declared our selves Enemies That so great a desine was not to be made public before things were Ripe least the Dutch and French might clap up a Peace and that potent King turn against us the fury of his Arms for whom certainly in those circumstances we shoud have bin a very unequal match I am perswaded That these with other much wiser considerations not obvious to every man convinced the King A War was on no score at that time seasonable And to this Opinion I am mov'd by my sense That the King coud not but reflect That when the French King had subjected al the rest of Europe he woud not fail to ad England to his Conquests in which our Kings losse must needs be greater than his Subjects For it is unreasonable to think that tru Policy woud let the French King suffer any of the Royal Family especially the King of England and France at whose Title and Arms-bearing he is not a little offended to outlive the loss of the Crown since he coud not but believe they woud be perpetually endeavouring the regaining their own Right For tho subjection be unequal to al 't is not so intolerable to any as to those us'd to govern And therfore t is an idle and and senseless inconsiderat fancy to imagin the King and Duke coud forget their own Interest or be Frenchifi'd upon any promise or bargain as is maliciously insinuated that they might be more absolute which can't possibly be in their thoughts or wishes Who know that between Kings or States Covenants are binding no longer than convenient that the French King has ever shewn that his Interest only or his Wil is the Rule of convenience That he that makes War for his Glory has more ambition to put his Chains upon Princes than on the People his thoughts are as large as any of the Roman Emperors and they esteemd it a greater Glory to lead one King in Triumph than many thousands Subjects of several Kingdoms And it is not to be suppos'd that the natural strength and situation of England can be a sufficient Defence against the Power of France when to that he has already is added that of
all the rest of Europe unless you can dream they may have a Fleet greater than all and may at once resist by those Walls the Invasion of others and defend their Merchant-men at Sea which if not don without an Invasion by spoiling the Trade England will be destroy'd or which is altogether as bad be render'd very poor and inconsiderable And that this has bin his Majestyes sense may be guess'd by the Progress he has made since the War mediating a Peace as best became a good King and giveing his Subjects an opportunity of enriching themselves and inabling them to bear the necessary Taxes by ingrossing most of the Trade of Europe and at length finding his endeavours ineffective he prepar'd himself to resist the French desines by force by providing a Fleet and knowing that he that fights with another must have skil at the same Weapons he suffer'd such of his Subjects as were willing but on capitulations to return when he pleased to serve either the Confederates or the French not only to be fitted to lead others but also to understand the new Arts of fighting which are greatly alter'd from what they were in former times The King having thus prepared things I hear he is so far from being backward to declare War with France that he wil gladly do it if his Parliament wil but find out a sufficient means for carrying it on effectually which I apprehend must not be ordinary for that the War if undertaken is like to be of long continuance And you wil guess that 't is no longer to be delay'd if you wil but bring before your Eyes the danger we and all Europe are expos'd to by comparing the present Power of France with what it was in the Days of Francis the First and observing what he was then able to do when assaulted by Charles the Fifth who was not only Emperor but had all the Power of Spain the Seventeen Provinces of Naples Sicily Sardinia the Dukedom of Milan and the Riches of the West-Indies who was as Wise Couragious and Fortunat a Captain as most Ages of the World have known one who manag'd his own Councils like Alexander in every Action appear'd at the Head of his Army who had above a hundred Thousand wel disciplin'd Men led by many great and experienc'd Commanders who was able by a mighty Naval Power to begirt France on both sides from Flanders and from Spain Yet at that time France Courting the same Mistriss the universal Monarchy was so powerful a Rival that he durst not attempt his removal out of the way of his Ambition without the aid and assistance of Henry the Eighth the Pope and several Princes of Italy nor even then did he think himself secure til he had drawn to a defection Charles Duke of Bourbon the most considerable Prince of France And yet after all he was forc'd to clap up an Accommodation on Terms sufficiently advantageous to that Crown If so mighty a Power and so united coud not prevail against Francis the First How unlikly is it to resist Lewis the Fourteenth a much greater Prince when that Power is now so much lessen'd by being broken and divided into several Hands When the Emperor gives himself up more to Devotion than Martial or State-Affairs When the King of Spain is a Youth of Sixteen and when the Seventeen Provinces are canton'd between the Spaniard and the States General When these several Divisions and Interests occasion long Debates different Opinions and slowness in Preparation and Action When all that was formerly manag'd by one single Head is by these Accidents brought under the Conduct of several Governors of whom it 's possible som may prefer their privat Advantages to the Interests of their Masters This has made som Conjecture the French King has open'd more Gates with Silver Keys than by Force of Arms and has induc'd others to conclude That the Confederates wil hardly be able to defend the Remainder of the Spanish Netherlands another Campagne if not assisted by the joynt Power of the rest of Europe This you wil easily believe not to be ill grounded if you consider the present Greatness of France Lewis has about four times the Revenu Francis had and at least four times the Army Nay rather all his People are now in a manner Souldiers 'T is not only scandalous but a vain attempt for any Gentleman there to make Court for a Wife before he has serv'd a Campaign or two nor are any of the Nobless sufferd to live at ease in the Country that do not go or send som of their Sons to the War These practises enabl'd him last summer in fifteen days to send forty-five Thousand Gentlemen with their Servants at their own Charge to raise the Siege of Charleroy And to make the Monarchy more absolute Matters have bin so order'd that their Parliaments are become ordinary Courts of Iustice and have no other Laws than the Edicts of the Prince's wil And if at any time he condescends in Formality to assemble the three Estates who had in Francis the First 's time the Power of Parliaments 't is but to tel them by his Chancellor the King Wils you do thus or thus you are not to advise or dispute but immediatly ratify his Commands which accordingly are obey'd as the Effects of a Despotic Power In the beginning of the Year 1665 he was not able to man out twenty Ships of War and now he has about two hundred He has not only vast Treasures heaped together but the Strings of all the Purses of his Slaves rather than Subjects in his own hands If without any Assistance he has already gain'd Lorrain Franche Comte a great part of Flanders and no inconsiderable Footing in Germany and Sicily and in the beginning of the last Campaigne three such strong Holds as Valenciennes St. Omer and Cambray the weakest of which most men thought woud at least have made him whole a Summers work what wil he not be able to compass against the rest of Europe when he has got the accession of Germany and all the Low-countryes to that already too boundless Power by which he has fetter'd his own People and subjected them to an absolute Vassalage Wil other Nations expect better Terms than he has given his own 'T is wel if he wil allow them even Canvas and Sabows But above all what can England hope having for many years forc'd him to check the Reins of his Ambition and is I presume at this time ready to put on the Caveson Books have already bin printed shewing his pretentions to this Country which tho weak and silly may help to spur him on in the pursuit of his Glory Nor can less be expected from those who by a Confederacy with the late Usurpers gave an opportunity of taking away the Life of the first Charles and of pursuing that of the Second to whom his own Cousin German unhospitably deny'd the continuance of a retreat when the
haughty Opinion he conceives of his being the only Person qualify'd for the Goverment of more Worlds than one declares his Resolutions of admitting no Rivals in Soverainty looking upon all other Princes but as so many smaller Stars or wandering Planets compar'd with him the Sun from whom after the antiquated and justly exploded Opinion of som Philosophers they are to receive their borrowed Light or Power as it shal please his Mightiness to dispense So that Crowned Heads Princes and Republics as wel as their Subjects are to expect the same meat that of Slavery and tho that be not sweet yet the sawce wil be sorer poinant to all tho perhaps a little differenc'd The former may be allow'd Golden while the later are to be manacled with Iron-Chains In order hereunto his Ambition has made him resolve the Conquering of the World after the Example of Alexander whose Title of Great as an earnest of his future Hopes he has already assum'd He has vow'd to make himself as Famous to Posterity by his Sword tho not by his Pen as Caesar has don That Paris shal give Law to the Universe as Rome once did and that the Ocean shal yield no less to the Sene than formerly it did to Tyber Now if England which alone is able to do it prevents the Execution of these vast Purposes what can we expect but that one time or other he wil seek a Revenge and notwithstanding his Promises and solem Confirmations of Peace try against us the success of his Arms and by numbers endeavour for this mighty Insolence to chastise those for whom even their own Histories wil convince them they are Man to Man a very unequal Match The dis-banding his Forces for the present is far from being a security since he may raise them again at his Pleasure Nor indeed do I imagin he wil discharge his Armies since that were to give them an opportunity of Rebelling for which he is sensible his People are sufficiently prepar'd and only want either Domestic Heads and Partisans or Forrein Assistance to rescu themselves from Tyranny and Oppression And is it fit while so potent and so near a Monarch is in Arms that we shâ—ud stand with our hands in our Pockets No I am perswaded tho a present Peace shoud be concluded that the King and his Ministers wil think it for the common safety and the particular Interest of England not only to enter with the Confederats into a strict Allyance offensive and defensive but also to put themselves into a Posture of War both at Sea and Land The end of War is Peace but a Peace with France seems to me to be the beginning of War or at least a Preparation for One and I must ingenuously profess tho War be a great Evil yet from all Appearances I dread the Consequences of a Peace more for that without great care it wil be of the two the most fatal to England But this Consideration as most fit I leave to my Superiors and wil only ask You whether before we engage in a War abroad it be not fit To secure a Peace at home To reconcile by Toleration our Differences in point of Religion That the French Emissaries or others may not be able to strike Fire into the Tinder already prepared for the least Spark It must not be forgot That to divert or disable Queen Elizabeth from assisting France or defâ—nding Holland Phillip the Second of Spain incouraged and assisted Tyrone to Rebel in Ireland That in the long War between Us and France it was the frequent Practice of that Crown to incite the Scots to make Incursions upon us And I presume it wil be consider'd Whether some ambitious Men of that Kingdom may not influence the People to favor or side with a Prince who maintains great numbers of their Nation by the Considerations that they are now but a Province that England denyes them an equal Freedom in Traffic That they may have better Terms from the French in that and Religion in which by denyal of Liberty they seem dis-satisfy'd Tho such persons can't possibly work on the Wise the considerative of the People yet sure it were not improper to study a course to prevent the unthinking Croud the Rabbles being deluded by such fals and groundless pretensions which in my Opinion are with more care to be provided against in Ireland where 't is said those and other Motives may be urged For there are computed to be in that Kingdom about eleven hundred thousand persons of which 800000 are Irish and of them above 10000 born to Estates dispossest these for their losses and others for restraint in matters of Religion are discontented not considering their own Rebellion occasion'd their Ruin by their Murmurings I perceive let the Sentence be never so just it wil not hinder the condemn'd from railing against the judg That besides their suffering in Estate and Religion they are yet further beyond the Scots renderd uncapable of injoying any Office or Power Military or Civil either in their native or any other of their Princes Countryes Their folly having thus reduced them to a condition more like that of Slaves than Subjects many of the Gentry go frequently into other Kingdoms but most into France who may possibly be incouraged to return to move the People to a new Sedition especially if they can give them assurance of forrein Assistance The King wisely foreseeing this directed in 1673. his late vigilant and prudent Vicegerent the Earl of Essex to disarm the Irish Papists and netwithstanding the exact execution of that command it s said that his Majesty intends to put himself to the further Charge of increasing his Army in that Kingdom beyond what now it is and to appoint a considerable Squadron of Ships to guard and defend its Coasts from any Attempts of Invasion without which there is not the least fear of any intestine Commotions This with the charge he has bin at in Erecting a new Fort in the Harbor of Kinsale the most likely place to prevent the entring of any Forrein Power into that Country shews he has bin watchful to secure himself and People against the French desines And now I touch upon Ireland I have heard som say that it is not only convenient but necessary to unite that Kingdom to this To make a new division of Shires To send only so many Members to Parliament as coud no more join to out-Vote us than Cornwal and Devonshire with two or three other Countyes But I see not if they were thus made one wherein their interest woud be different from ours many rather think they woud be losers by the Bargain Others fancy Pointings Act shoud be repeal'd that at first tho a trick it was necessary but now is not all the power and almost all the Land being devolved upon such as are mediatly or immediatly English and Protestants And that by an easy contrivance they might be still oblig'd to a dependence on the Crown
of Places with exquisite skil and vast expence made and defended together with the strongest Cittadills are now taken Then the charges of Arms Amunition Bows and Arrows serving insteed of fire Arms were inconsiderable That now France has in constant pay above a hundred and twenty som say above two hundred thousand fighting Men whose standing Army in former times exceeded not ten thousand nor so many but on particular occasions Then a single Battle or at most a Summers expedition put an end to a War no long nor formal sieges to spin out the Quarrel Now the whole seene is changed from what in those days it consisted in Courage and Strength of body into that where Patience in Fatigue Dexterity in Wit and Mony in Purse shal make the Coward and the Weak an equal Match at least for sinewy and gigantic force There is no doubt but as many of the English as luxury and idleness have not softned into Effeminacy have stil as great Valour and Resolution but they are to consider that their old Enemys the French are not the same they formerly were That they finding their first Sa Sa or brisk onset woud not do the Feat and wanting Courage to rally Nature having deny'd them bodily strength but to supply that defect having given them Wit to use Stratagems have quite changed the Scene of War and taken their leave of the old way of venturing body to body That in Queen Elizabeth's time thirty Ships such as perhaps exceeded not our third and fourth rate Frigats were the Fleet which gave Law to the biggest part of the World the Sea and without the help of Storms doubted not to have overcom the too arrogantly styl'd Invincible Armada That in those days few besides the Kingdom of Spain and State of Venice had any Ships of War That France and Holland were then very weak and all four unable to contend with us That now the Swedes Danes Hamburghers Ostenders and Algerines c. have considerable Fleets That the States of the united Provinces have much more Shipping than the French King who yet has upwards of two-hundred Men of War and many larger than most in Europe and is every day building more and lest he shoud yet have further need I have an account he has lately countermanded about fifty Sail of St. Maloes and Haven de Grace Merchant-Men of considerable Force bound to New-found-Land If then his Power be so vastly increas'd that as he gives out he has Cash for five years Charge and Provisions and Forrage for two That his ordinary Revenu in France not to speak of his new Acquisitions amounts by the most modest Computation to above nine Millions sterling per annum and his Country being Rich and the Power in his own Hands he may at any time raise what more he pleases Is it not then necessary to consider our own strength and by sufficient supplies at Home as wel as Allies abroad secure our Necks against that Yoke with which he threatens to inslave all Europe Nor wil it be amiss for the Subject to observe That the French by fomenting our Quarrels forein and domestic have bin the main occasions of the great Taxes and Impositions necessary Appendages of the former under which the English Nation has groand for these last forty Years even the Ship-Mony had its Rise from the Affronts their Pride and Insolence threw up on us and they wil yet oblige us to suffer more unless by the joynt force of our Arms and Mony in a round and larg supply for the War we speedily inable our selve's to revenge our past injuries and their present desines and so put it out of their power either by this or any other of their crafty Practises to disturb or hurt us for the future And 't is to be consider'd That as the Expences abroad are much greater so they are likewise at home That an hundred Pound before the eighteenth of Edward the third was equivalent in intrinsic valu to three hundred Pound of our now current Mony their Groat being rais'd to our Shilling That our Expences are not only far greater than they were in those Days but that our necessary Uses require ten times as much as they coud be then suply'd for perhaps no less occasion'd by the discovery of the West Indy Mines the plenty of every Commodity making it cheap than by our own much greater extravagance Whence it is plain that the present Re-venu of the State even for necessary occasions ought to exceed the ancient as thirty does one And since our great Intrest no less than honor lies in securing the Dominion of the Seas and by that our Trade our Fleet must be answerable to that of our Neighbours It wil then allowing the English man to man to be a third stronger than the French seem reasonable to have an Hundred and fifty Ships of War in constant readiness And comparing the charge of the Admiralty by taking an estimat of what it was in Queen Elizabeths time 30000 and in the beginning of King Iames's 1604. 40000 with what it has bin since this Kings Raign which if I mistake not I have bin told by more than your self was offerd to be made out in Parliament to have bin 500000 per annum But granting it was but 400000 it must follow that our Fleet has bin ten times bigger than that of King Iames or that the Charge is now ten times more That if it be yet necessary to inlarge it treble to make it strong enuff that wil increase the ordinary Annual Charge by the first Account to 1500000 by the last to 1200000. And if the Building of thirty Ships require near 600000 p. how much more wil be wanting to compleat the Fleet 150 Sail and to continu building every Year with an allowance of one third less in proportion to the French Kings By which we can not yet reckon our selves secure from the common Foe without a strict Alliance with the Germans Dutch and Spaniards If then the ordinary occasions of our Fleet require thus much and the extraordinary a vast addition the common Expenses in every particular above thirty for one more than in Edward the Thirds time when the Crown had a large Revenu in Lands what wil all need in the extraordinary Accidents of War c. now when these are almost dwindled into nothing But these considerations I leave to the proper Persons yet by the by give me leave to tel you they were never thought of by those Mal-contents who have talk'd loud of the great supplies this King has had This alone Cancels the Obligation he that brags of having don another good turns pays himself and does not only free but disoblige the Recever It woud have argued more ingenuity not to have compared the Subsidies of this Kings Raign with those of his Predecessors without taking notice that perhaps his occasions required more than all theirs did That dureing the eighteen Years He and his Father
what further we shal desire for the better security of our Liberties Properties and Religion why then shoud any think He woud not esteem it his own as wel as People's Interest to consult often and upon all suddain occasions with his Parliament For my own part I shoud rather believe by continuing this so long that he woud not be against their Assembling thrice a Year as by the Grace of former Kings was accustom'd for many Years before and after the Conquest But to put all Iealousies to silence The Parliament in settling and appropriating the Revenu to particular Uses may as they have already begun to do in the Act for building thirty Ships Grant it under a kind of Condition or Proviso viz. That the respective Officers give a ful Account of the Employment thereof unto the Parliament at least once in every three Years Otherwise all farther Leavies of the same to cease c. Having said thus much in general of Taxes I com now to the particâ—lar Branches I have already shew'd the Inconvenience of the Customs c. determining with the King's Life I wil further add That the Book of Rates ought to be Reviewed and in the new one a greater Consideration had of the Usefulness and Necessity of the Commodities in placing the Imposition on them viz. rating all the allow'd Commodities of France much higher than they are raising the Duty of their Wines to be at least equal with that on those of Spain I never yet coud be satisfy'd what induc'd the Compilers of that Book to rate Spanish Wines higher than those of France since the height of Duty is a sort of Prohibition which ought to be more taken care of in the Trade with France by which we are vast Loosers than in that with Spain which is a gainful one The best Reason I could find is That they did it inconsideratly taking it as they found it left by the long Parliament who by the sense of Revenge for the War were induced so to treat the Spaniard One might have thought the last Impost on French Wines woud have lessen'd their Importation which Colbert the Financer observing it had not don I was assur'd at my Return in August by Fontainbleau that in his Measures for the next Years Charge he valued his Master 100000 on that Account not doubting but the Parliament woud take off that Duty of Wine which woud give him opportunity to put so much on That at this the French King smil'd and said For such a kindnâ—ss he shoud be oblig'd and woud no more cal them Petite maison But I hope notwithstanding his scornful quibble he wil find such sober resolutions in that house as wil set him a madding and that instead of taking off that duty he may perceive more put on which is indeed the only effectual way to prohibit the importation of these vast quantities of French goods by which England is greatly Impoverisht To lessen the Trafic of his People is the first step to lower him which I am perswaded is best don by imposing an excessive high duty upon all the commodities and contriving the Act so that nothing shoud pass duty free this course woud be a better restraint than absolute prohibition And 't is the method he himself has taken in the trade with us which he had long since wholly forbid but that upon examination he found it was driven to above 1600000 l. Advantage to his subjects and loss to those of England this rather yearly increasing than decreasing wil at length quite ruin us if not prevented and yet notwithstanding he imposes upon our cloaths four shillings an Ell as a sumptuary law to oblige his Subjects to the use of their own manufactures The next is the Excise which if equaly imposed were the best and easiest of all taxes To make it so after the manner of Holland it ought to be laid upon all things ready to be consum'd This puts it into the Power of every Man to pay more or less as he resolves to live loosely or thriftily by this course no Man pays but according to his Enjoyment or actual Riches of which none can be said to have more than what he spends tru Riches consisting only in the use But the present Excise is grievous because heavyer on the poor Laborers and meaner sort of People than on the Rich and Great who do not pay above a Tenth of what the others do and considering that most of the Noble and Privat Families out of London Brew their own Drink it falls yet heavier on the Poorer sort and wil at last on the State for the common Brewers do already complain that they dayly lose their Trade many of their Customers even in London Brewing for themselves to save the Imposition To speak the Truth In good Conscience this Branch ought to have been imposed on the Nobles and Estated-Men rather than on the Artificer and Laborers who were very slenderly concern'd in the Grounds of it viz. the taking away the Wardships and Purveyance which was so great an Advantage to the Public especially the Richer That that Act of Grace and Condescension in his Majesty which freed us and our Posterity from great Inconveniences and greater sines of Subjection ought never to be forgotten This Act gave us a greater Propriety and Liberty than ever we had before and must the Poor chiefly pay for the benefit of the Rich Let it not be told to the Generations to com that an Act so unequal was contriv'd by those who study only the public Interest let it then be review'd and either made general on all public and privat Brewers by which the Rich wil stil have advantage of the Poor according to the difference between strong and smal Beer For to allow Public Brewers and prohibit all privat ones as is practis'd in the low Countries woud never be endur'd in England Or rather let it be plac'd on Malt or taken quite off and laid on the Land as a perpetual Crown Rent Or let there be a general Excise the most equal Tax that possibly can be devis'd on all consum'd Commodities of our own growth or imported which ought to be managed by proper Officers the Farming of any part of the Revenu being of evil Consequence as I coud shew at large both to the State and People The Hearth Mony is a sort of Excise but a very unequal one too the smoak on 't has offended the eyes of many and it were to be wisht that it were quite taken away and somthing in lieu thereof given to the Crown less offensive to the peoples senses I have heard many say That an imposition on Licenses for selling of Ale Strong Waters Coffee Syder Mum and all other Liquors and for Victualling-Houses might be as beneficial to the Crown and so order'd as might prevent or discover High-way-Men c. I have read among the Irish Statutes one to this purpose obliging among other things the Inn-keepers c.