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pole, that the most wealthy man does carry fo much Money about him.

Thirdly, It is very unreafonable, because it does in a great part disable the person to pay the Fine; for if he be a man that manages his own Affairs, his Writings, that are necessary to make the Security, may be fo difpos'd of, that it will be difficult to come at them; befides, there being a neceffity upon him to have the Money, thofe of whom he is to have it will be very apt to hold him to harder terms, for the World is fo annatural and brutifh, that one man is but too prone to make his Advantages upon the Misfor tunes and Neceflities of another; and that Proverb Homo bomini lupus, is in no Cafe more true than in the bufinefs of Money.

AR

ARGUMENTS

AGAINST

The Dispensing Power.

T

HAT which Sir M.H. forefaw and prophe. cied, is now fulfilled, viz. That our Slavery, whenever it happen'd, was rather to be feared from the Twelve Redcoats in Westminster.

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ball, than from 12000 ftanding Forces: for this Opinion, if from henceforward it fhall be Law, then has our Freedom received a dreadful Wound in the Head: for we shall hold all our Rights and Properties but precarioufly, even no longer than it is the King's pleasure to have it fe.

But be it as it will, and how clear foever it may appear to the Judges, yet at present it does confound the Understandings of all People be fides, becaufe till now it has been hidden from the Eyes of our ableft Sages of the Law, wrapt up in fuch Clouds and thick Darkness, that the moft difcerning of them have not been able to pry

into it; and therefore it paffes all our Underftandings, that this Sett of Judges, who had not Law enough to employ them at the Bar, before they were raised to the Bench, fhould find out the Secret, and give an Abfolute Opinion, for which there is not any prefident to be produced, and therefore fhrewdly to be fufpected that it is not grounded upon Law, no more than thofe Opinions were for which feveral Judges have been banged. The Law of England has ever been reputed to be as plain and intelligible as that of the Jews, which was written on the Palms of their Hands, fave only when Judges are ignorant and needy, and are affured that Parliaments are at a great diftance, and then only are fuch Opinions as those given, for their Ignorance makes them affured, their Poverty makes them leap before they look, and when Parliaments feem very remote, under that shelter they grow bold: But it is to be hoped, that fuch Opinions as these will pafs for Law no longer than the Nation is govern'd without a Parliament, which, sooner or later, will come as certain as that there will be a Day of Fudgment.

Itis ftrange that these Judges fhould understand fo great a Mystery as this, unless there be as great Vertue in a Judge's Gown as was in the Mantle of Elijah; and if fo, how happens it that the fame Spirit has not refted on those who have fate before them on the Bench; but if a double Portion of that Excellent Spirit is refted upon our prefent Judges, that they are able to dive into fo great a Myftery as this, and fee fo much further than any who have been before them, furely they are alfo endowed with the Tongue of Angles, and

so

fo can explain this matter to the Understandings of the People; which in Duty they are bound to do, or elfe in time, with the price of their Heads, they may come to give the true Reasons of this their Opinion:

1. That the Kings of England are Soveraign

Princes.

2. That the Laws of England are the King's Laws.

3. That therefore it is an incident infeparable Prerogative in the Kings of England, as in all other Soveraign Princes, to difpenfe with all Penal Laws in particular Cafes, and upon particular necessary Reafons.

4. That of thefe Reafons and Neceffities the King himself is the fole Fudge; and which is confequent thereupon,

5. That this is not a Trust invested in or granted to the King, but the ancient Remains of the Soveraign Power and Prerogative of the Kings of England, which never was yet taken from them, nor can be.

Therefore in this Cafe fuch Difpenfation being pleaded by the Defendant, and fuch Difpenfation being allow'd by the Demurrer of the Plaintiff, and this Difpenfation appearing upon Record to come time enough to fave the Defendant from the forfeiture, Judgment ought to be given for the Defendant & quod querens nil capiat per billam.

Soveraign Power is of a vaft extent, that is as much as unlimited, and to which no Bounds is or can be fet. That the Kings of England in Parliament have a Soveraign Power, is true; that with the Confent and Concurrence of the Lords

and

and Commons he may do what he will, is without question; and it is as certain, that out of Parliament his Power is limited and confined within certain Bounds and Limits, which he cannot pass without doing violence to Juftice and the Laws; for there are two Powers in the King,the one in Parliament, and that is Soveraign; the other out of Parliament, which may be directed and controuled by the former, and therefore called Poteftas fubordinata, pag. 10. Rights of the People, p. 9. Argument of Property; therefore his Power is Soveraign, only fub modo; for out of Parliament many of his Acts are not only queftionable, but void in themselves, for what he Kingdom, 83. hall do against Law, those Acts

Rights of the

bind no more than if they were a Child's, he cannot command one man to kill another, he cannot pardon a common Nufance, nor an Appeal at the fuit of the Party. And multitudes of the like Inftances might be given; for if the King's power out of Parliament was as great as in Parliament, then there's an end of the Policy of this Government, and the Barons Wars was only to beat the Air.

Roads are called the King's Highway, but the Freehold is in

It is most certain, that till these late days, during which we have been fo very much Frenchified, that the Laws have been more frequently filed or called the Laws of the Land, than the King's Laws; and therefore if the Denomination of them declares the right, the King will be found to have no very strong Title.

the Lord of the Soil, and of the Profits growing there as Trees, &c. Terms of the

Law, $6.

But if they had conftantly been called the King's

Laws,

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