but of late a new and extrajudicial way hath been taken, of declaring matters to be nuisances; and divers have thereupon been questioned, and if they would not compound, they have been fined; if they do compound, that which was first prosecuted as a common nuisance is taken into the King's protection and allowed to stand; and having yielded the King money, no further care is taken whether it be good or bad for the commonwealth. By this a very great and public trust is either broken or abused. If the matter compounded for be truly a nuisance, then it is broken to the hurt of the people; if it be not a nuisance, then it is abused to the hurt of the party. The particulars mentioned were:-First, the commission for buildings in and about this town, which heretofore hath been presented by this House as a grievance in King James' time, but now of late the execution hath been much more frequent and prejudicial than it was before. Secondly, commission for depopulation, 22" which began some few years since, and is still in hot prosecution. By both these the subject is restrained from disposing of his own. Some have been commanded to demolish their houses; others have been forbidden to build; others, after great trouble and

vexation, have been forced to redeem their peace with large sums, and they still remain, by law, as liable to a new question as before; for it is agreed by all that the King cannot license a common nuisance; and although indeed these are not such, yet it is a matter of very ill consequence that, under that name, they should be compounded for, and may in ill times hereafter be made a precedent for the Kings of this realm to claim a power of licensing such things as are nuisances indeed.$8

The seventh great civil grievance hath been, the military charges laid upon the several counties of the kingdom; sometimes by warrant under his Majesty's signature, sometimes by letters from the council table, and sometimes (such had been the boldness and presumption of some men), by the order of the Lord Lieutenants, or deputy-lieutenant alone. This is a growing evil; still multiplying and increasing from a few particulars to many, from small sums to great. It began first to be practised as a loan, for supply of coat and conduct money; and for this it hath some countenance from the use in Queen Elizabeth's time, when the lords of the council did often desire the deputy-lieutenants to procure so much money

to be laid out in the country as the service did require, with a promise to pay it again in London; for which purpose there was a constant warrant in the exchequer. This was the practice in her time, and in a great part of King James'. But the payments were then so certain, as it was little otherwise than taking up money upon bills of exchange. At this day they follow these precedents in the manner of the demand (for it is with a promise of a repayment), but not in the certainty and readiness of satisfaction.

The first particular brought into a tax (as he thought) was the muster master's wages, at which many repined; but being for small sums, it began to be generally digested; yet, in the last Parliament, this House was sensible of it, and to avoid the danger of the precedent that the subjects should be forced to make any payments without consent in Parliament, they thought upon a bill that might be a rule to the lieutenants what to demand, and to the people what to pay. But the hopes of this bill were dashed in the dissolution of that Parliament. Now of late divers other particulars are growing into practise, which make the grievance much more heavy. Those mentioned were

these: 1. Pressing men against their will, and forcing them which are rich or unwilling to serve, to find others in their place. 2. The provision of public magazines for powder, and other munition, spades and pickaxes. 3. The salary of divers officers besides the muster master. 4. The buying of cart-horses and carts, and hiring of carts for carriages.

The eighth head of civil grievances was the extrajudicial declarations of judges, whereby the subjects have been bound in matters of great importance without hearing of counsel or argument on their part, and are left without legal remedy, by writ of error or otherwise. He remembered the expression used by a former member of the House, of a "teeming parliament." This, he said, was a teeming grievance ; from hence have issued most of the great grievances now in being. The ship-money-the pretended nuisances already mentioned-and some others which have not yet been touched upon, especially that concerning the proceedings of ecclesiastical courts.

The ninth general head was-that the authority and wisdom of the council table have been applied to the contriving and managing of several monopolies, and other great griev

ances. The institution of the council-table was much for the advantage and security of the subject, to avoid surreptitious and precipitate courts in the great affairs of the kingdom. But by law an oath should be taken by all those of the King's council, in which, amongst other things it is expressed that they should for no cause forbear to do right to all the King's people. If such an oath be not now taken, he wished it might be brought into use again.

It was the honor of that table, to be, as it were, incorporated with the King; his royal power and greatness did shine most conspicuously in their actions and in their counsels. We have heard of projectors and referees heretofore; and what opinion and relish they have found in this House is not unknown.24 But that any such thing should be acted by the counciltable which might give strength and countenance to monopolies, as it hath not been used till now of late, so it cannot be apprehended without the just grief of the honest subject, and encouragement of those who are ill affected. He remembered that in tertio of this king, a noble gentleman, then a very worthy member of the Commons' House, now a great lord and eminent counsellor of State, did in this place