greater reason to fear for ourselves, our religion, and our country? What should we judge of those who tell us, it is too early yet for England to declare? The enemy has raised his armies, furnished his magazines; and it is too early for us to think of raising a man. The enemy is before our outworks; and it is too soon for us to prepare ourselves to be on our guard. Will not those men tell us, when Holland is lost, it will then be too late? To what purpose, will they say, now do you think of raising forces? Is not the French king master of Holland? Possessed of all their ports? Where will you land them! To what use will you put them? Does not such language as this plainly shew the intention of the authors? Is it not plainly to deliver us blindfold, bound hand and foot, into the enemies' hand? Is not their design now so visible as not to be disguised? Do not some of the party begin to throw off the mask, and tell us, It will not be well with us till our old master* returns, till the government returns to its natural channelt. And are not those that were the very tools and instruments of Popery and arbitrary power in former reigns, and that owe their lives to acts of indemnity in this, industriously represented by some as the patriots of their country; and by a strange kind of paradox, those that have been always hearty for the church, and were for defending of it when others were for pulling it down; that were hearty for the king's accession to the throne, and to his person and government ever since, are presented as betrayers of us, as having sold us to France. Would it not be a piece of rare refined policy, if France could hang up her greatest enemies, under the notion of her dearest friends, and give encouragement to her ancient friends under the notion of being her enemies?

Let us, therefore, while it is yet in our power (as we tender our religion and our country) use our utmost endeavours, by all legal ways, to assist his majesty and his government against all his and our ene mies, both at home and abroad.

• Viz. King James.

Is not this the language of the disaffected to a Protestant succession to this day? who are always plotting to disturb the quiet of that happy government under which we all enjoy our liberty, property, and religion; and combine with the enemies of our Church and State to reduce them to Popery and Slavery, by force of arms; which has been no less than five times threatened or attempted by France, since the publication of this pamphlet in the year 1690. King William and Queen Mary.

THE

Pre-eminence and Pedigree of Parliament.

By JAMES HOWELL, Esq.

PRINTED AT LONDON IN THE YEAR MDCLXXVII.

IAM

AM a free-born subject of the realm of England, whereby I claim, as my native inheritance, an undoubted right, propriety, and portion in the laws of the land; and this distinguisheth me from a slave. I claim also an interest and common right in the high national court of parliament, and in the power, the privileges, and jurisdiction thereof, which I put in equal balance with the laws, in regard it is the fountain whence they spring; and this I hold also to be a principal part of my birth-right. Which great council I honour, respect, value, and love, in as high a degree as can be, as being the bulwark of our liberties, the main boundary and bank which keeps us from slavery, from the inundations of tyrannical rule, and unbounded will-go-government. And I hold myself obliged, in a tye of indispensable obedience, to conform and submit myself to whatsoever shall be transacted, concluded, and constituted, by its authority, in church or state; whether it be by making, enlarging, altering, diminishing, disannulling, repealing, or reviving of any law, statute, act, or ordinance whatsoever, either touching matters ecclesiastical, civil, common, capital, criminal, martial, maritime, municipal, or any other: of all which the transcendent and uncontroulable jurisdiction of that court is capable to take cognizance. Amongst the three things which the Athenian captain thanked the Gods for, one was, That he was born a Grecian, and not a Barbarian. For such was the vanity of the Greeks, and, after them, of the Romans, in the flourish of their monarchy, to arrogate all civility to themselves, and to term all the world besides, Barbarians. So I may say, to have cause to rejoice, that I was born a vassal to the crown of England; that I was born under so well moulded and tempered a government, which endows the subject with such liberties and infranchisements, that bear up his natural courage, and keep him still in heart; such liberties, that fence and secure him eternally from the gripes and tallons of tyranny. And all this may be imputed to the authority and wisdom of this high court of parliament; wherein there is such a rare co-ordination of power (though the sovereignty remain still intire and untransferable in the person of the prince), there is, I say, such a wholesome mixture betwixt monarchy, optimacy, and democracy, betwixt prince, peers, and commonalty, during the time of consultation, that, of so many distinct parts, by a rare co-operation and unanimity, they make but one body

3

politick (like that sheaf of arrows in the emblem) one entire concentrical piece; and the results of their deliberations, but as so many harmo nious diapasons arising from different strings. And what greater immunity and happiness can there be to a people, than to be liable to no laws, but what they make themselves? to be subject to no contribution, assessment, or any pecuniar levy whatsoever, but what they vote, and voluntarily yield unto themselves? For, in this compacted politick body, there be all degrees of people represented; both the mechanick, tradesmen, merchant, and yeoman, have their inclusive vote, as well as the gentry, in the persons of their trustees, their knights and burgesses, in passing of all things. Nor is this sovereign superintendent council an epitome of this kingdom only; but it may be said to have a representation of the whole universe; as I heard a fluent well-worded knight deliver in the last parliament, who compared the beautiful composure of that high court to the great work of God, the world itself. The king is as the sun, the nobles the fixed stars, the itinerant judges and other officers, that go upon messages betwixt both houses, to the planets; the clergy to the element of fire; the commons to the solid body of the earth, and the rest of the elements. And, to pursue this comparison a little further: as the heavenly bodies, when three of them meet in conjunction, do use to produce some admirable effects in the elementary world; so when these three states convene and assemble in one solemn great junta, some notable and extraordinary things are brought forth, tending to the welfare of the whole kingdom, our microcosm.

He, that is never so little versed in the annals of this isle, will find, that it hath been her fate to be four times conquered. I exclude the Scot; for the situation of his country, and the quality of the clime, hath been such an advantage and security to him, that neither the Roman eagles would fly thither for fear of freezing their wings, nor any other nation attempt the work.

These so many conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings, many disturbances and changes in government; yet I have observed, that, notwithstanding these tumblings, it retained still the form of a monarchy, and something there was always, that had analogy with the great assembly, the parliament.

The first conquest, I find, was made by Claudius Cæsar; at which time, as some well observe, the Roman ensigns and the standard of Christ, came in together. It is well known what laws the Roman had; he had his comitia, which bore a resemblance with our convention in parliament; the place of their meeting was called Prætorium", and the laws which they enacted, Plebiscitat.

The Saxon conquest succeeded next, which were the English, there being no name in Welch or Irish for an Englishman, but Saxon, to this day. They governed by Parliament, though it were under other names, as Michel Sinoth, Michel Gemote, and Witenage Mote.'

There are records above a thousand years old, of these parliaments, in the reigns of King Ina, Offa, Ethelbert, and the rest of the seven kings, during the heptarchy. The British kings also, who retained a

• The Senate or Parliament House.

† ¿. e. The voluntary acts or laws made by the representatives of the People.

great while some part of the isle unconquered, governed and made laws by a kind of parliamentary way; witness the famous laws of prince Howel, called Howel Dha (the good Prince Howel) whereof there are yet extant some Welch records. Parliaments were also used after the heptarchy, by King Kenulphus, Alphred, and others, witness that renowned parliament held at Grately, by King Athelstan.

The third conquest was by the Danes, and they governed also by such general assemblies (as they do to this day) witness that great and so much celebrated parliament, held by that mighty mo narch Canutus, who was king of England, Denmark, Norway, and other regions, 150 years before the compiling of Magna Charta; and this the learned in the laws do hold to be one of the specialest, and most authentick pieces of antiquity we have extant. Edward the Confessor made all his laws thus (and he was a great legislator) which the Norman conqueror did ratify and establish, and di-, gested them into one intire methodical system, which, being violated by Rufus (who came to such a disastrous end as to be shot to death in lieu of a buck, for his sacrileges) were restored by Henry the First, and so they continued in force till King John, whose reign is renowned for first confirming Magna Charta, the foundation of our liberties ever since; which may be compared to divers outlandish grafts set upon our English stock, or to a posy of sundry fragrant flowers: for, the choicest of the British, Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman laws, being culled and picked out, and gathered, as it were, into one bundle; out of them the aforesaid Grand Charter was extracted: And the establishment of this great charter was the work of a parliament.

Nor are the laws of this island only, and the freedom of the subject, conserved by parliament; but all the best policed countries of Europe have the like. The Germans have their Diets, the Danes and Swedes their Ricks Dachs; the Spaniard calls his parliament Las Cortes; and the French have, or should have, at least, their Assembly of Three States, though it be grown now in a manner obsolete, because the authority thereof was, by accident, devolved to the king. And very remarkable it is how this happened; for when the English had taken such large footing in most parts of France, having advanced as as far as Orleans, and driven their then King Charles the Seventh, to Bourges in Berry, the Assembly of the Three States, in these pressures, being not able to meet after the usual manner, in full parliament; because the country was unpassable, the enemy having made such firm invasions up and down through the very bowels of the kingdom; that power, which formerly was inherent in the parliamentary assembly, of making laws, of assessing the subject with taxes, subsidiary levies, and other impositions, was transmitted to the king, during the war; which, continuing many years, that intrusted power, by length of time, grew, as it were, habitual in him, and could never after be re-assumed, and taken from him; so that, ever since, his edicts countervail acts of parliament: And that which made the business more feasible was, that the burthen fell most upon the commonalty (the clergy and nobility not feeling the weight of it) who were willing to see the peasant pulled

• William the Second, son and succesor to the Conqueror.

down a little; because, not many years before, in that notable rebellion, called La Jaquerie de Beauvosin, which was suppressed by Charles the Wise, the common people put themselves boldly in arms against the nobility and gentry, to lessen their power. Add hereunto, as an advantage to the work, that the next succeeding king, Lewis the Eleventh, was a close, cunning prince, and could well tell how to play his game, and draw water to his own mill; for, amongst all the rest, he was said to be the first that put the Kings of France, hors de page, out of their minority, or from being pages any more, tho' thereby, he brought the poor peasants to be worse than lacquies.

With the fall, or, at least, the discountenance of that usual Parliamentary Assembly of the Three States, the liberty of the French nation utterly fell; the poor roturier and vine-yard man, with the rest of the yeomanry, being reduced ever since to such an abject asinine condition, that they serve but as sponges for the king to squeese when he list. Nevertheless, as that king hath an advantage hereby one way, to monarchise more absolutely, and never to want money, but to ballast his purse when he will: So there is another mighty inconvenience ariseth to him and his whole kingdom another way; for this illegal peeling of the poor peasant hath so dejected him, and cowed his native courage so much, by the sense of poverty (which brings along with it a narrowness of soul) that he is little useful for the war: Which puts the French king to make other nations mercenary to him, to fill up his infantry; insomuch, that the kingdom of France may be not unfitly compared to a body that hath all its blood drawn up intothe arms, breast, and back, and scarce any left from the girdle downwards, to cherish and bear up the lower parts, and keep them from starving.

All this seriously considered, there cannot be a more proper and pregnant example than this of our next neighbours, to prove how infinitely necessary the parliament is, to assert, to prop up, and preserve the public liberty and national rights of the people, with the incolumity and welfare of a country.

Nor doth the subject only reap benefit thus by parliament, but the prince, if it be well considered, hath equal advantage thereby; it rendereth him a king of free and able men, which is far more glorious than to be a king of slaves, beggars, and bankrupts; men, that by their freedom, and competency of wealth, are kept still in heart to do him service against any foreign force. And it is a true maxim in all states, that it is less danger and dishonour for the prince to be poor, than his people: Rich subjects can make their king rich, when they please; if he gain their hearts, he will quickly get their purses. Parliament increaseth love and good intelligence betwixt him and his people; it acquaints him with the reality of things, and with the true state and diseases of his kingdom; it brings him to the knowledge of his better sort of's ubjects, and of their abilities, which he may employ accordingly upon all occasions; it provides for his royal issue, pays his debts, finds means to fill his coffers: And it is no ill observation, The parliamentary-monies (the great aid) have prospered best with the kings of Eng

+ Minors.