Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

ancient liberty. A declaration was published by the king, wherein aspersions were laid upon some mem. bers; but indeed the court of parliament itself was declared against. All which the dejected people were forced to read with patience, and allow against the dictate of their own reason.

The people of England from that time were deprived of the hope of parliaments; and all things so managed by public officers, as if never such a day of account were to come.

I shall for method's sake first of all make a short enumeration of some of the chief grievances of the subjects, which shall be truly and plainly related; as likewise some vices of the nation in general, that the reader may the better judge of the causes of succeeding troubles, during the space of seven or eight years after the dissolution of that parliament, and then give some account concerning the several dispositions of the people of England, and their different censures of the king's government during those years; touching by the way somewhat of the manners and customs of the court of England, and then briefly of the condition of ecclesiastical affairs, and the censures of men concerning that.

*

*

* *

To begin with the faults of the higher powers, and their illegal, oppression of the people, during these eight or nine years, in which parliaments were denied to England, which I briefly touch, referring the

reader to a more full narration in the remonstrance; multitudes of monopolies were granted by the king, and laid upon all things of most common and necessary use, such as soap, salt, wine, leather, sea-coal, and many other of that kind.

66

CLAUD.

Regia privatis crescunt æraria damnis.
By loss of private men th' exchequer grows."

Large sums of money were exacted through the whole kingdom for default of knighthood, under the shadow of an obsolete law. Tonnage and poundage were received without the ordinary course of law; and though they were taken under pretence of guarding the seas, yet that great tax of ship-money was set on foot under the same colour; by both which there was charged upon the people some years near 700,000l. though the seas at that time were not well guarded.

These things were accompanied with an enlargement of forests, contrary to Magna Charta, the foreing of coat and conduct-money, taking away the arms of trained bands in divers counties, disarming the people by engrossing of gunpowder, keeping it in the Tower of London, and setting so high a rate upon it, that the poorer sort were not able to buy it; nor could any have it without licence; whereby seve ral parts of the kingdom were left destitute of their necessary defence.

No courts of judicature could give redress to the people for these illegal sufferings, whilst judges were displaced by the king, for not complying with his will, and so awed, that they durst not do their duties: for to hold a rod over them, the clause, Quamdiu se bene gesserint was left out of their patents, and a new clause, Durante bene placito, inserted.

New illegal oaths were enforced upon the subjects, and new judicatories erected without law; and when commissions were granted for examining the excess of fees, and great exactions discovered, the delinquents were compounded with, not only for the time past, but immunity to offend for the time to come; which, instead of redressing, did confirm and encrease the grievance of the subjects.

By this time, all thoughts of ever having a parlia-' ment again, were quite banished; so many oppressions had been set on foot, so many illegal actions done, that the only way to justify the mischiefs already done, was to do that one greater, to take away the means which was ordained to redress them, the lawful government of England by parliaments.

Whilst the kingdom was in this condition, the serious and just men of England, who were no way interested in the emolument of these oppressions, could not but entertain sad thoughts and presages, of what mischief must needs follow so great an injustice; that things carried so far on in a wrong way,

must needs either enslave themselves and posterity for ever, or require a vindication so sharp and smarting, as that the nation would groan under it; and though the times were jolly for the present, yet having observed the judgment of God upon other secure nations, they could not choose but fear the sequel. Another sort of men, and especially lords and gentlemen, by whom the pressures of the government were not much felt, who enjoyed their own plentiful fortunes, with little or insensible detriment, looking no further than their present safety and prosperity, and the yet undisturbed peace of the nation, whilst other kingdoms were embroiled in calamities, and Germany sadly wasted by a sharp war; did nothing but applaud the happiness of England, and called those ungrateful and factious spirits, who complained of the breach of laws and liberties; that the kingdom abounded with wealth, plenty, and all kind of elegancies more than ever; that it was for the honour of a people that the monarch should live splendidly, and not be curbed at all in his prerogative, which would bring him into the greater esteem with other princes, and more enable him to prevail in treaties; thạt what they suffered by monopolies, was insensible, and not grievous, if compared with other states; that the duke of Tuscany sate heavier upon his people in that very kind; that the French king had made himself an absolute lord, and quite depressed

the power of parliaments, which had been there as great as in any kingdom, and yet that France flourished, and the gentry lived well; that the Austrian princes, especially in Spain, laid heavy burdens upon their subjects.

of

Thus did many of the English gentry, by way comparison, in ordinary discourse, plead for their own servitude.

The courtiers would begin to dispute against parliaments in their ordinary discourse, that they were cruel to those whom the king favoured, and too injurious to his prerogative; that the late parliament stood upon too high terms with the king; and that they hoped the king should never need any more parliaments. Some of the greatest statesmen and privy counsellors, would ordinarily laugh at the ancient language of England, when the word, liberty of the subject, was named. But these gentlemen, who seemed so forward in taking up their own yoke, were but a small part of the nation (though a number considerable enough to make a reformation hard) compared with those gentlemen who were sensible of their birth..ghts, and the true interest of the kingdom; on which side the common people in the generality, and country freeholders stood, who would rationally argue of their own rights, and those oppressions that were laid upon them.

But the sins of the English nation were too great

« НазадПродовжити »