APPENDIX Containing fome Reflections upon his Lord fhip's Candor, Sincerity, Erudition, and ftrong Reafon- Bv M. E. If you take away the Law, all Things will fall into 723761 7 5 37 61-129 PREFACE T HE Loud Pretences a Party in this Nation continually make to Liberty and Property, the Laws and Conftitutions of their Country, have provok'd me to fearch whether Reafon or Noife is moft on their fide, in this fearch I confirm'd my felf every step I went, more strongly in my Opinion, that these Men acted and thought Diametrically oppofite to the Good of their Country, that they offer'd the greatest Violation to the Laws of God and Men in their Notions of Govern ment. The Word Parliament made fuch a terrible found as wou'd Intimidate a Perfon of Small Refolution and Courage, and make him forego the Argument even thro' Fear. A Stranger to the Controverfy wou'd Imagine, that Parliaments were as Antient at least, as the Flood, and that a Houfe of Commons was preferv'd in Noah's Ark: But alas, I found their Power, and their Being of a much later Date. They were rais'd by our Kings to Ballance a House of Lords, and may, for ought I know, be a very Auguft Body. But however, the Lords were before • 'em, and Kings before 'em all. I cannot find any Reafon to think the Commons were call'd before Henry ift: who was A uns undoubtedly an Ufurper. But then, as Sir Robert Filmer has obferv'd, only a confus'd Number were fuffer'd to come. But the Regular fending Members by Election and the King's Writ, did not Commence till Henry 3d. The Houfe of Lords was much more Antient, and was call'd the Great Council of the Nation, and the Council of Barons, which confifted of Temporal. Lords and Bishops. Thofe therefore who strenuously affert the Antiquity of Parliaments, and fix 'em to the time of William the Conquerour, if not higher; I fay, thefe Men muft either prove the Commons were in Parliament before Henry ift, or they must grant that an Houfe of Commons Antiently was not effential to a Parliament, and that the House of Lords was fuch without them. But if we Examine what thefe Lords were in whom are suppos'd to be the Supream Power of the Nation, even they were the Creatures of the King, they were Created by him, and enjoy'd all their Honours and Privileges by bis Favour: So that to affert the Superiority of fuch a Parliament, is abfurd, and this Argument alone is fufficient to prove Kings to be more Antient than Parliaments, who were only call'd together by himself. If we Recur to Antiquity, we shall find that the Clergy form'd one of the States of the Kingdom, and were call'd to Confult in Cafes Cafes of Emergency, when a House of Commons had no Being. Nor were they diftinguish'd with the Characteristicks of the Supream Power, when 39 Members of that House were Profecuted by Indictment in the King's Bench, for Departing without Licenfe from Parliament in Defiance of the King's Prohibition. This was 1, 2, of Philip and Mary; the Subftance of the Information I shall give the Reader in English, because it will contribute. to clear the Dispute: We find in the Inftitutes p. 4. c. 1. The Information was drawn. up by the King's Attorney: That whereas a Parliament of our Sovereign Lord and Lady was then held at Westminster, in the First and Second Year of their Reigns, in which it was forbid by our Lord and Lady, in the fame Parliament, that any Perfon there-to Summon'd fhou'd not depart from Parliament without Special Leave or Licenfe from our faid Lord and Lady; nevertheless, certain Perfons, viz. Thomas Denton, de Com. Ox. &c. were Summon'd to the faid Parliament; but in Contempt of our faid Lord and Lady, and of the good of their Country, they departed from the faid Parliament without Leave or License from our faid Lord and Lady, to the great Detriment of this Kingdom, and have given thereby an ill Example to Pofterity; the Attorney demands that a legal Process Thou'd be Iju'd forth to make A 2 the |