oath, to the observation of the fundamental laws of his kingdom: tacitly, as by being a king, and so bound to protect as well the people, as the laws of his kingdom; and expressly by his oath at his co'ronation so as every just king, in a settled kingdom, is bound to 'observe that paction made to his people by his laws, in framing his government agreeable thereunto, according to that paction which God 'made with Noah after the deluge: hereafter, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat, day and night shall not cease, so long as the earth remains. And therefore a king, governing in a 'settled kingdom, leaves to be a king, and degenerates into a tyrant, as soon as he leaves off to rule according to his laws. In which case, the king's conscience may speak unto him, as the poor widow said to Philip of Macedon, either govern according to your law, aut ne Rex 'sis, or cease to be king; and though no christian man ought to allow any rebellion of people against their prince; yet doth God never leave kings unpunished, when they transgress these limits. For in that same Psalm, where God saith to kings, Vos dii estis, Ye are Gods, he immediately thereafter concludes, But ye shall die like men. The higher we are placed, the greater shall our fall be; Ut casus sic dolor, as the fall, so the grief; the taller the trees be, the more in danger of 'the wind; and the tempest beats sorest upon the highest mountains. 'Therefore, all kings that are no tyrants, or perjured, will be glad to bind themselves within the limits of their laws, and they that per'suade them the contrary, are vipers and pests, both against them and the commonwealth. For it is a great difference betwixt a king's government in a settled estate, and what kings, in their original power, might do in Individuo vago: As for my part I thank God, I have ever given good proof, that I never had intention to the contrary: and 'I am sure to go to my grave with that reputation and comfort, that never king was, in all his time, more careful to have his laws duly observed, and himself to govern thereafter, than I.

'Just kings will ever be willing to declare what they will do, if they 'will not incur the curse of God. I will not be content that my power 'be disputed upon, but I shall ever be willing to make the reason ap'pear of all my doings, and rule my actions according to the laws.

It

And, afterwards, speaking of the common law of England, which some conceived he contemned, saith to this purpose: That, as a king, ' he had least cause of any man to dislike the common law; for, no law can be more favourable and advantageous for a king, and ex'tendeth further his prerogative, than it doth; and for a king of England to despise the common law, it is to neglect his own crown. 'is true, that no kingdom in the world but every one of them hath 'their own municipal laws, agreeable to their customs, as this king'dom hath the common law. Nay, I am so far from disallowing the common law, as I protest, that, if it were in my hand to chuse a new 'law for this kingdom, I would not only prefer it before any other na'tional law, but even before the very judicial law of Moses, for conve'niency to this kingdom at this time, though in another respect, I must

See this verified in the persons of King Charles the First, and King James the Second, his son and grandson.

say, both our law, and all other laws else, are very inferior to that 'judicial law of God; for no book nor law is perfect, nor free from cor'ruption, except only the book and law of God. And, therefore, I could wish, that some corruptions might be purged and cleared in the common law, but always by the advice of parliaments; for 'the king with his parliament, here, are absolute in making or form'ing of any sort of laws.

First, I could wish that it were written in our vulgar language ;† 'for now it is an old mixed corrupt language, only understood by 'lawyers; whereas every subject ought to understand the law under 'which he lives; for, since it is our plea against the papists, that the 'language in God's service ought not to be an unknown tongue, accord'ing to the rule in the law of Moses, that the law should be written ' in the fringes of the priest's garment, and should be publicly read in 'the ears of all the people; so, methinks, ought our law to be made as 'plain as can be to the people, that the excuse of ignorance may be 'taken from them for conforming themselves thereunto.

'Next, Our common law hath not a settled text, being chiefly 'grounded upon old customs, which you call responsa prudentum– 'I could wish that some more certain were set down in this case by 'parliament; for since the reports themselves are not always so binding, 'but that divers times judges do disclaim them, and recede from the 'judgement of their predecessors; it were good that upon a mature de'liberation the exposition of the law were set down by act of parlia'ment, and such reports therein confirmed as were thought fit to serve 'for law in all times hereafter, and so the people should not depend 'upon the bare opinions of judges, and uncertain reports.

And lastly, there be in the law contrary reports and precedents; and this corruption doth likewise concern the statutes and acts of 'parliament, in respect there are divers cross and cuffing statutes, and 'some so penned as they may be taken in divers, yea contrary senses. And, therefore, would I wish both those statutes and reports, as well in the parliament as common law, to be once materially reviewed ' and reconciled.

And that not only contrarieties should be scraped out of our books, 'but that even such penal statutes, as were made but for the use of the 'time, (for breach whereof no man can be free) which do not now agree with the condition of this our time, might likewise be left out of our books, which under a tyrannous and avaricious king could 'not be endured.

And this reformation might, we think, be made a worthy work, ' and well deserves a parliament to be set of purpose for it, &c.'

And as to the point of grievances he tells them, That there are two 'special causes of the people's presenting grievances to their king in 'time of parliament.

First, For that the king cannot at other times be so well informed 'of all the grievances of his people, as in time of parliament, which

In England. This has been lately enacted by the Parliament.

is the representative body of the whole realm. Secondly, The parliament is the highest court of justice, and therefore the fittest place where divers natures of grievances may have their proper remedy by the establishment of good and wholesome laws: wherein he ' addresses himself especially to the lower house, who, as representing 'the body of the people, may as it were both opportunè and inoppor'tunè, in season and out of season; I mean either in Parliament, as a body, or out of parliament as private men, present your grievances 'unto me.

'I am not to find fault that you inform yourselves of the particular grievances of the people: nay I must tell yon, ye can neither be just nor faithful to me or to your countries, that trust and employ you, 'if you do not; for true plaints proceed not from the persons employ'ed, but from the body represented, which is the people. And it may very well be, that many directions and commissions, justly given forth by me, may be abused in the execution thereof upon the people, and yet I never receive information, except it come by your means at such a time as this is.'

To which we may add what he saith to his son, in his Basilicon Doron, p. 155, 156, of his works, viz.

FOR the part of making and executing of laws, consider first the 'true difference betwixt a lawful king and an usurping tyrant, and ye 'shall the more easily understand your duty herein; for contraria 'juxta se posita magis elucescunt. The one acknowledgeth himself ordained for his people, having received from God a burden of govern'ment, whereof he must be accountable; the other thinketh his people ordained for him, a prey to his passions and inordinate appetites, as the fruits of his magnanimity. And, therefore, as their ends are directly contrary, so are their whole actions, as means whereby they press to attain to their ends. A good king thinketh the highest honour to consist in the due discharge of his calling, employeth all by study and pains to procure and maintain, by the making and execu'tion of good laws, the welfare and peace of his people; and, as their 'natural father and kindly master, thinketh his greatest contentment 'standeth in their prosperity, and his greatest surety in having their 'hearts, subjecting his own private affections and appetites to the weal ' and standing of his subjects, ever thinking the common interest his 'chiefest particular; whereby the contrary, an usurping tyrant thinking his greatest honour and felicity to consist in attaining per fas aut nefas, to his ambitious pretences, thinketh never himself sure but by the dissension and factions among his people, and counterfeiting the saint, while he once creep in credit, will then, by inverting all good 'laws to serve only his only private affections, frame the common 'weal ever to advance his particular, building his surety upon his 'people's misery; and in the end, as a step-father and an uncouth hireling, make up his own hand upon the ruins of the republic; ' and, according to their actions, so receive they their reward.

For a good king, after a happy reign, dieth in peace, lamented by his subjects, admired by his neighbours, and, leaving a reverence

'behind him on earth, obtaineth the crown of eternal felicity in 'heaven. And, although some of them (which falleth out very rarely) 'may be cut off by the treason of some unnatural subjects, yet liveth 'their fame after them, and some notable plague faileth never to ' overtake the committers in this life, besides their infamy to all pos 'terities hereafter.

Whereby the contrary, a tyrant's miserable and infamous life armeth in the end his own subjects to become by burreaux; and, although 'that rebellion be ever unlawful on their part, yet is the world so 'wearied of him, that his fall is little meaned by the rest of his sub'jects, and but smiled at by his neighbours. And, besides the in'famous memory he leaveth behind him here, and the endless pain he 'sustaineth hereafter, it oft falleth out, that the committers not only escape unpunished, but farther, the fact will remain as allowed by 'the law in divers ages thereafter.

'It is easy then for you, my son, to make choice of one of these two sorts of rulers, by following the way of virtue to establish your stand'ing?

A

PLEA FOR LIMITED MONARCHY,

As it was established in this Nation, before the late War,

In an humble ADDRESS to His Excellency GENERAL MONK, By a Zealot for the good old Laws of his Country, before any Faction or Caprice,

WITH ADDITIONS.

Optima Libertas, ubi Rex, cum Lege, gubernat.

PRINTED IN THE YEAR MDCLX.

This excellent Tract is said to be written by Sir Roger L'Estrange, and without the heat of Party or Faction, conveys to us a desirable representation of true English Liberty, only to be supported by Monarchy; and the eminent danger it fell into by Anarchy, in the time of the great rebellion, and may properly be recorded as an efficacious Antidote against Republicans and State-levellers.

SIR,

FINDING, by several letters, published in your name, that you

profess a more than ordinary zeal to popular government; and not knowing any thing herein, that can so mislead you, but the glorious pretence of a free state (a notion, which hath even intoxicated many otherwise great and worthy persons) I held it my duty, first, to ac quaint you, how necessary it is to distinguish betwixt the form and

VOL. I.

essence of a commonwealth; the mistake whereof (each for the other) hath proved so fatal in our times*. Next, to examine whether those that surfeited of our kingly government, and longed for novelty, have not, indeed (like the dog in the fable) lost the substance of liberty and happiness, in pursuit of the shadow.

Our fierce champions of a free state will not, I presume, maintain that it is subject to no violations, lest woeful experience confute, and force them to confess, either that a commonwealth may degenerate, or, at least, that this never was a commonwealth; and, as they must renounce their senses, so they must deny the faith of story, which proves that republicks have been sometimes invaded with usurpation, sometimes debauched and embased with oligarchy, mostly by reason of their weakness and divisions, subdued or forced to truckle under their neighbouring princes; always tormented with faction. Neither indeed do they themselves offer any argument but such as, in effect, beg the question, by presupposing great unity in the coalition, great probity in the intention, and great purity in the exercise; which, doubtless, being admitted, we should so little need to differ about forms, that, perhaps, we should scarce need any government at all. The stoutest assertors of monarchy must, likewise, acknowledge, that it, being but earthenware (though the finest and strongest) is subject to divers accidents; for nothing under heaven is perfect. And, when we constitute governments, we must not think to build Babels against the deluge, but imbank against floods, and inclose the best we can against trespassors. This being premised, let us consider these two governments, not metaphysically, in notions abstracted from their subjects (a pastime which our Platonics much delight in) but morally and reasonably, as concrete and adapted to times, places, and persons, viz. our

own.

I might, perhaps, decide the question in few words, by alledging the manifest inclination of the whole people, now, to monarchy; for, as no man can be wronged with his consent, so neither is any to be obliged against his will; and how should a government, founded upon inequality and force, ever subsist without it? Or, a state, which is the meer adjective of an army, become a substantive; beginnings of this kind being so ominous? As reasonably might I object matter of title and foreign pretence; for the same estate with a flaw in the conveyance, or clogged with statutes and judgments, is not surely of like value, as if it had descended clearly from the great-grandfather, and were free both from claims and incumbrances; and one that hath little, yet owes nothing, is likelier to thrive than he who owing vast sums (which he resolves never to pay) dares not walk the streets for fear of serjeants; but my intent is only to shew, that our formert government (as it excellently complied with the laws, genius, and interest of this nation) so it comprehended all the benefits of a commonwealth in great perfection; and this I shall do as briefly as I can.

To shew how it complied with our laws and constitutions, let it suffice that (monarchy, in these nations, being more antient than story or

• Alluding to the days of Anarchy in the grand rebellion.

ti.e, Monarchical.