158 King Charles the Second's Declaration of Liberty to tender consciences. The authority of Parliaments and the authority of the King. Peers present April 25, 1660, being the first day that the House of Lords sat after its abolition by the House of Commons, February, 1648. Preamble of the Prince of Orange's first Declaration, 10th Oct. 1688. Declaration of the Peers who met at Guildhall, 11th Dec. 1688. Names of the Peers who met at Guildhall, 11th Dec. 1688. Proclamation of 13th Feb. 1688-9, by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London, and others the Commons of the Realm, published and declared William and Mary, Extract from an Essay on the State of the English Constitution, ascribed to MDCCCLI. Price Sixpence, sewed. SODLET No. I.-continued. Queen Elizabeth frees the State from that eating corrosive, a Debt running upon Of what Queen Elizabeth made greater account than of ten Subsidies. Debate respecting the Assessment of a Tax upon Property in the Time of the Different times that the great Question of Parliamentary Reform was brought forward, previously to Mr. Charles Grey's motion of 1793. Reform in the Commons House of Parliament. The three Resolutions moved The Ladies interrupt the business of the House of Commons for two hours. Laws of this Country described-Seventeenth Century. What, not being comprehensible to Persons of ordinary intelligence, is a technical System invented for the Creation of Costs. When the Lawyer will remain quiet in his Cabinet. In defence of what the whole As to a new Law, three things to be considered. Going to Principals for Instructions and Ballotting Boxes. Parliament of 1523. Nothing done or spoken there but that it was immediately blown abroad in every Alehouse. What Topic the House of Commons hears dwelt on with the most Impatience. In what Case the Wealth of the Public will be diminished by a Tax.-Extract from Sir William Petty's Political Arithmetic, first published in 1687. Resolution of the House of Commons that the High Court of Chancery should be forthwith taken away.-Reference to a Committee to consider how Chancery Extract from Lord Chancellor Clarendon's Observations upon the Pope's usurped The Church and Commonwealth two Twins. Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholics.-Opinion of the Marquis of Lans- LATELY PUBLISHED. UPON PARTY. By the Right Honourable EDMund Burke, CONTENTS OF THE APPENDIXES. APPENDIX A.-Lord John Russell's Reign of Queen Anne. Notes of a Conversation with the late John Allen, Esq., Ampthill Park, Autumn PARLIAMENTARY AND POLITICAL MISCELLANIES. NO. I. Notice respecting this Publication. THE present publication has its rise in a suggestion made to the editor in the spring of 1838 by the late Mr. John Allen, "the friend of Lord Holland, who, for the latter and more important part of his life, shared all his thoughts, and never was a day apart from him."* Other occupations prevented the editor from giving effect to Mr. Allen's suggestion, and it had almost escaped his recollection, when it was brought again to his mind by a recent conversation with a distinguished Peer. His Lordship said that members of both Houses of Parliament would, he thought, find a work upon the plan contemplated useful and, possibly, amusing. A perusal of the present number will, it is apprehended, sufficiently explain the plan. 12, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 1st May, 1851. King Charles the Second's Declaration of Liberty to tender Consciences. THE declaration of King Charles the Second-Breda, 14th April, 1660-states that, because the passion and uncharitableness of the times had produced several opinions in religion, by which men were engaged in parties and animosities against each other (which, when they should thereafter unite in a freedom of conversation, would be composed, or better understood) his Majesty did declare a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man should be disquieted or called * Lord Brougham's Hist. Sketches of Statesmen. Third Series, vol. 3, p. 342. [B] in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion, which did not disturb the peace of the kingdom. And his Majesty did declare that he should be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as, upon mature deliberation, should be offered to him for the full granting that indulgence. The Authority of Parliaments and the Authority of the King. CHARLES II., in his letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, dated Breda, 14th April, 1660, states that, in his judgment, he believed Parliaments to be so vital a part of the constitution of the kingdom, and so necessary for the government of it, that he well knew that neither prince nor people could be, in any tolerable degree, happy without them. His Majesty then adds, "And as this is our opinion of Parliaments, that their authority is most necessary for the government of the kingdom, so we are most confident that you believe and find that the preservation of the King's authority is as necessary for the preservation of Parliaments; and that it is not the name but the right constitution of them, which can prepare and apply proper remedies for those evils which are grievous to the people, and which can thereby establish their peace and security; and therefore we have not the least doubt that you will be as tender in, and as jealous of, anything that may infringe our honour, or impair our authority, as of your own liberty and property, which is best preserved by preserving the other." Peers present 25th April, 1660, being the first day that the House of Lords sat after its Abolition by the House of Commons, February, 1648. THE peers who were present the 25th April, 1660, being the first day that the House of Lords sat after its abolition by the House of Commons, February, 1648,* were Edward Montagu, Earl of *Feb. 6, 1648. House of Commons. It was resolved without division that the House of Peers in Parliament is useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished, and that an Act be brought in to that purpose. See Scobell's Acts, Anno 1648, cap. 17. The House of Peers taken away. "Whilst the Commons were thus passing sentence against the Lords, the latter were sitting in their own House; but did nothing more, after prayers, than dispose of a rectory, and then adjourned to ten the next morning. But it proved an adjournment ad longum diem, for they never met again till the Restoration of Monarchy once more established the Peers of this realm in their antient seats and privileges."-Parl. Hist. vol. 3, p. 1285. |