Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	king_n	law_n	levy_v	3,963	5	11.2983	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58389	Reflections upon two books, the one entituled, the case of allegiance to a King in possession the other, an answer to Dr. Sherlock's Case of allegiance to sovereign powers, in defence of the case of allegiance to a King in possession, on those parts especially wherein the author endeavours to shew his opinion to be agreeable to the laws of this land. In a letter to a friend.		1691 (1691)	Wing R734; ESTC R200522	45,353	73

lookt into the Law that it were idle to quote Authorities for it I will add in the third place as a thing not improper to be observed That it would be a very hard thing before E. 3's time to prove a certain Hereditary Succession The best Historian will find but few Instances of that kind from the Conquest till the time of the making of this Statute So that the defect of Hereditary Title could not be a thing forgotten or slipt over as out of the minds of King or People Yet I can't perceive any thing in this Statute to lead to such a distinction as is now made tho it was made as a Rule for the Subject from which he might learn how he might demean himself in those great matters with safety There is not so much as an Hint that the trying who has the just Right and Title to the Crown whether He who is owned by the States of the Kingdom and has the full Government and administration of all Affairs or another who a thoughtful busie man that can't content himself in the private station wherein God Almighty has placed him but must make himself a Judge of the highest matters will be fancying ought to be there I say That the trying that Point should be left to a Jury of 12 men as it must be should a private person be proceeded against for an attempt upon the Possessor in order to the restoring the dispossessed Prince If it be true that it is not Treason by that Law for a private Subject to attempt any thing against the King in possession in behalf of him that of Right by Hereditary Succession ought to be King This would be an hard Interpretation of a Statute made in the time of a King who obtained possession of the Kingdom by a War levied against his Father and a forced Resignation after the Arms of those who took part with him were successful In which taking up Arms against the King in possession notwithstanding all that might justifie it in Reason of State and Prudence he was sensible that the Laws of the Land would not bear his friends out and therefore thought fit in the first year of his Reign to have an Act of Parliament passed to indemnifie them against ordinary legal proceedings for what they had done This he lookt upon as necessary tho at the same time he thought the Cause in which those who fell in the War died so just in it self that he made a new Law on purpose to save them from suffering in their Estates For we find in the same year there was a Statute made to entitle the Executors of those who were Slain in his Quarrel in the pursuit against his Father to Actions to recover their Testators Goods Lawyers account Co-temporaneam Expositionem the best interpreter of the Sense of Statute-laws I would fain have the Author or any one else who would confine the words Seignior le Roy in that Statute to Lawful and Rightful King by Hereditary Succession only to shew any thing leading to that Interpretation in the History of that time or any of the Kings Reigns before that Where it was ever heard of before that Act that Allegiance was due to the uncrowned unsubmitted-unto Right Heir Nay I will go farther Where in any publick Record before that Statute there does appear a damning of the Title of such a King after a Submission of the People to him in favour of him that was nearer in Blood Whether the several Predecessors of E. 3. who had not a legal Title by Hereditary Succession are not called Kings in the Statutes of almost every year of his Reign and all their Acts unquestioned If there were nothing extant to direct the Subjects to the contrary and the King himself so often told them that those whom I must call Kings de Facto only were Kings without any addition the very letter of this Statute it would instead of being an Ease and Relief to the People have proved according to the present Interpretation the greatest Snare that was possible 'T was easy for them to see and know who exercised the Kingly Office under whose Administration they had the benefit of the Laws and by whose Authority all Judicial Proceedings took their Course They might too without any great difficulty learn who were the visible Attendants on the Throne the King 's near Relations his Wife Son and Daughter The Throne is but one and they saw who possessed that The name King is a name of Office which consists in Exercise that too was as plain to them The words of the Statute seem as plain 'T is Treason to compass or imagine the Death c. of the King Would it not now be a very great hardship to put it upon a private Person to seek an hidden Sense in plain Words and at the peril of his Life and Family to make himself judge of all the Difficulties which may arise upon our Constitution which what it is in all points never was or will be agreed upon Whether this Person that is so expresly within the words of the Statute may not hereafter appear to have been wrongfully possessed And upon that apprehension to put the poor Man under an Obligation of laying himself for the sake of a Nation open to the Vengeance of one who has the plain words of the Law on his side and Power to back it To put him under a necessity of being a Sacrifice to his own private Opinion against the publick acknowledgement of the Body of the People in a case wherein common Sense and the Wisdom of all Governments forbid the admitting a private Person to be a Judge nay won't endure its being made the Subject of a nice and curious Inquiry But I perceive by Defence f. 6 7. That it is one main ground of our Author's Opinion and whereon he principally relies That the Law does not look upon the King de Facto to be King but accounts him that is dispossessed and de Jure ought to be so to be so and he calls upon Dr. Sherlock for Authorities to prove the contrary This explains the two first Lines of his Book where he makes it the description of a King de Jure That he is the Person that has the Regal Authority The Doctor had asserted That the King de Facto was King as a self-evident Proposition and I should think my self very safe in my Proposition still were I in the Doctor 's case without any other proof But I will for once comply with the Author's Request and refer him to a very ingenious Book called The Case of Allegiance to a King in Possession where he may find a great many unanswerable Authorities to that purpose e'en as many as ever there were Revocations or Repeals of the Acts of such Kings There they declare That the Vsurper was in fact King but not in right and after they have done so unless there can be two Kings they have left no other