fame, (wherein they are jointly concern'd) you have already heard: how unjust and pernicious, a proceeding that was in fo public a cause, has been fufficiently exprefs'd to your Lordships. But this man, adding defpair to our misery, tells us from the Bench, that Ship-Money was a Right fo inherent in the Crown, that it would not be in the power of an Act of Parliament to take it away. Herein, my Lords, he did not only give as deep a wound to the Common-wealth as any of the reft, but dip'd his dart in fuch a poison, that, fo far as in him lay, it might never receive a cure. As by thofe abortive opinions, fubfcribing to the fubverfion of our propriety before he heard what cou'd be faid for it, he prevented his own fo, by this declaration of his, he endeavours to prevent the judgement of your Lordships too; and to confine the power of a Parliament, the only place where this mischief might be redress'd. Sure he is more wife, and learn'd, than to believe himself in this opinion; or, not to know how ridiculous it would appear to a Parliament, and how dangerous to himself, and therefore, no doubt but, by faying no Parliament could abolifh this judgment, his meaning was, that this judgment had abolish'd Parliaments.

This Impofition of Ship-Money springing from a pretended neceffity, was it not enough that it was now grown annual, but he muft entail it upon the State for ever; at once making neceffity inherent to the Crown, and flavery to the fubject? neceffity! which diffolving all Law, is fo much more prejudicial to His Majefty than to any of us, by how much the Law has invefted his royal state with a greater power, and ampler fortune. For, fo undoubted a truth it has ever been, that Kings, as well as fubjects, are involv'd in the confufion which neceffity produces, that the heathen thought their Gods alfo obliged by the fame,* Pareatur neceffitati quam ne dii quidem fuperant. This Judge then having, in his Charge

Livy, lib. 9. c. 4.

Charge at the Affize, declar'd the diffolution of the Law by this fuppos'd neceffity; with what confcience cou'd he at the fame Affize proceed to condemn and punish men? unless, perhaps, he meant the Law was ftill in force for our deftruction, and not for our prefervation; that it fhould have power to kill, but none to protect us! a thing no less horrid than if the fun fhould burn without lighting us; or, the earth ferve only to bury, and not to feed and nourish us. But, my Lords, to demonftrate that this was a fuppofititious impos'd neceffity, and fuch as they could remove when they pleas'd; at the laft convention in Parliament a price was fet upon it," for twelve Subfidies you shall reverse this "fentence." It may be said that so much money would have removed the prefent neceffity; but, here was a rate fet upon future neceffity:" for twelve fubfidies you shall never fuffer neceffity again, you shall for "ever abolish that judgment." Here this mystery is revealed, this vizard of neceffity is pull'd off! And now it appears, that this Parliament of Judges had very frankly and bountifully prefented His Majesty with twelve fubfidies, to be levy'd on your Lordships and the Commons. Certainly, there is no privilege which more properly belongs to a Parliament, than to open the purfe of the fubject: and yet these Judges, who are neither capable of fitting among us in the House of Commons, nor with your Lordships, otherwise than as your affistants, have not only affum'd to themselves this privilege of Parliament, but prefum'd at once to make a present to the Crown, of all that either your Lordships, or the Commons of England, do, or fhall hereafter, poffefs.

And, because this man has had the boldness to put the power of Parliament in balance with the opinion of the Judges, I fhall intreat your Lordships to obferve by way of comparison, the folemn and fafe proceeding of the one, with the precipitate difpatch of the other.

In Parliament, as your Lordships know well, no new law can pafs, or old be abrogated, 'till it has been thrice read with your Lordships, thrice in the Commons' House, and then it receives the Royal Affent : so that 'tis, like gold, feven times purify'd. Whereas these Judges, by this one refolution of theirs, would perfuade His Majesty, that by naming NECESSITY he might at once diffolve (at leaft fufpend) the Great Charter, thirty two times confirm'd by his royal progenitors, the Petition of Right, and all other laws provided for the maintenance of the Right and propriety of the subject. A ftrange force, my Lords, in the found of this word NECESSITY! that, like a charm, it should filence the laws, while we are defpoil'd of all we have; for, that but a part of our goods was taken, is owing to the grace and goodness of the King: for, fo much as concerns these Judges, we have no more left than they perhaps may deferve to have, when your Lordfhips fhall have paffed judgment upon them..

This, for the neglect of their oaths, and betraying that public trust, which for the confervation of our laws was reposed in them: now, for the cruelty and unmercifulness of this judgment. You may please to remember that in the Old Law they were forbid * to feethe a kid in his mother's milk; of which the receiv'd interpretation is, that we should not use that to the deftruction of any creature, which was intended for its preserva¬ tion. Now, my Lords, GoD, and Nature, has given us the fea as our best guard against our enemies; and our fhips, as our greatest glory above other nations: and how barbarously would these men have let-in the fea upon us, at once to wash away our liberties, and to overwhelm, if not our land, all the propriety we have therein making the supply of our navy a pretense for the ruin of our nation! For, obferve, I beseech you, the fruit and confequence of this judgment; how this money

* Exodus xxiii. 19.

money has profpered, how contrary an effect it has had to the end, for which they pretended to take it. On every County a fhp is annually impos'd: and, who would not expect but our feas, by this time, fhould be covered with the number of our fhips? Alas! my Lords, . the daily complaints of the decay of our navy tell us how ill Ship Money has maintained the fovereignty of the fea: and, by the many petitions which we receive from the wives of thofe miferable captives at Algiers, (being between four or five thousand of our country-men) it does too evidently appear that, to make us flaves at home, is not the way to keep us from being made slaves abroad : So far has this judgment been from relieving the prefent, or preventing the future neceffity, that, as it changed our real propriety into the fhadow of a propriety; fo, of a feign'd, it has made a real, neceffity!

A little before the approach of the Gauls to Rome,while the Romans had yet no apprehension of that danger, there was heard a voice in the air, louder than ordinary, The Gauls are come: which voice, after they had fack'd the city, and befieged the Capitol, was held fo ominous, that

Livy relates it as a prodigy. This anticipation of neceffity seems to have been no lefs ominous to us; these Judges, like ill-boding birds, have call'd neceffity upon the State, in a time when, I dare fay, they thought it themselves in greatest security. But, if it seem fuperstitious to take this as an omen, fure I am, we may look on it as a caufe, of the unfeigned neceffity we now fuffer: for, what regret, and discontent, has this judgment bred among us? And as when the noise, and tumult, in a private house, grows fo loud as to be heard into the streets, it calls-in the next dwellers, either kindly to appease, or to make their own use of domeftic ftrife: so, in all likelihood, our known discontents at home have been a concurrent cause to invite our neighbours to visit us; so much to the expenfe, and trouble, of both these kingdoms. N 4

And

+ Lib. 5. c. 32.

And here, my Lords, I cannot but take notice of the moft fad effect of this oppreffion, the ill influence it has had upon the antient reputation, and valor, of the Englif nation. And no wonder! for, if it be true that I oppres fion maketh a wife man mad; it may well fufpend the courage of the valiant. The fame happened to the Romans, when, for renown in arms, they moft excell'd the reft of the world: the ftory is but fhort; 'twas in the time of the Decemviri; and I think the chief troublers of our State may make up that number. The Decemviri, my Lords, had fubverted the Laws, fufpended the Courts of Juftice, and (which was the greatest grievance, both to the Nobility and People) had for fome years omitted to affemble the Senate, which was their Parliament. This, fays the historian, did not only deject the Romans, and make them despair of their liberty; but, caused them to be less valued by their neighbours. The Sabines take the advantage, and invade them; and now the Decemviri are forced to call the long-defir'd Senate; whereof the people were fo glad, that Hoflibus belloque gratiam habuerunt. This affembly breaks up in difcontent: nevertheless the war proceeds: Forces are raised, led by fome of the Decemviri, and with the Sabines they met in the field. I know your Lordships expect the event: my author's words of his country-men are these, † Ne quid ductu atque aufpicio Decemvirorum profperè ufquam gerere-· tur, vinci fe per fuum atque illorum dedecus patiebantur : they chose rather to fuffer a present diminution of their honor, than by victory to confirm the tyranny of their new masters. At their return from this unfortunate expedition, after fome diftempers and expoftulations of the People, another Senate, that is, a fecond Parliament, is call'd: and there the Decemviri are queftion'd, depriv'd of their authority, imprifon'd, banish'd, and

fome

Ecclef. vii. 7: *Liv. Lib. 3. c. 8. Hoftibus bel loque gratiam habendam, quod folitum quicquam liberæ civitatis fieret. + Idem. Lib. 3. c. 42.