A letter from a Parliament man to his friend, concerning the proceedings of the House of Commons this last sessions, begun the 13th of October, 1675 Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 1621-1683. 1675 Approx. 16 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 6 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A59474 Wing S2896 ESTC R228447 13024286 ocm 13024286 96666 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A59474) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 96666) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 400:8) A letter from a Parliament man to his friend, concerning the proceedings of the House of Commons this last sessions, begun the 13th of October, 1675 Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 1621-1683. [3], 7 p. s.n.,] [London : 1675. Attributed to the Earl of Shaftesbury. Cf. NUC pre-1956. Signed: T.E. Place of publication from Wing. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng England and Wales. -- Parliament. -- House of Commons. Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1660-1688. 2005-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-01 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-06 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-06 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A LETTER FROM A Parliament man TO HIS FRIEND , Concerning the Proceedings of the House of COMMONS this last Sessions , begun the 13th of October , 1675. Printed in the Year , 1675. A LETTER from a Parliament man To his FRIEND , Concerning the Proceedings of the House of COMMONS this last Session , &c. SIR , I See you are greatly Scandalized at our slow and confused Proceedings . I confess you have cause enough , but were you but within these Walls for one half day , and saw the strange Make and Complexion that this House is of , you would wonder as much that ever you wondred at it : For we are such a pied Parliament , that none can say of what Colour we are ; for we consist of old Cavaliers , old Round-haeads , Indigent Courtiers , and true Country Gentlemen ; the two latter are most numerous , and would in probability bring things to some Issue , were they not clogged with the humerous uncertainties of the former . For the old Cavalier grown Aged , and almost past his Vice , is damnable Godly , and makes his doating Piety more a Plague to the World , than his youthful Debauchery was : For he is so much a By got to the Bishops , that he forces his Loyalty to strike Sail to his Religion , and could be content to pare the Nails a little of the Civil Government , so you would but let him sharpen the Ecclesiastical Tallons ; which behaviour of his so exasperates the Round-head , that he on the other hand cares not what Increases the Interest of the Crown receives , so he can but diminish that of the Miter : so that the Round-head had rather enslave the Man , than the Conscience ; The Cavalier rather the Conscience than the Man , there being a sufficient stock of Animosity as proper Matter to work upon . Upon these therefore the Courtier mutually plays : For if any Anticourt motion be made , he gains the Round-head either to oppose or absent , by telling them , If they will joyn him now , he will joyn with them for Liberty of Conscience . And when any Affair is started on the behalf of the Countrey , he assures the Cavaliers , If they will then stand by him , he will then joyn with them in promoting a Bill against the Fanatiques . Thus play they on both hands , that no Motion of a publick nature is made , but they win upon the one or other of them ; and by this Art gain a Majority against the Country Gentlemen , which otherwise they would never have : Wherefore it were happy that we had neither Round-head , nor Cavalier in the House ; for they are each of them so Prejudicate against the other , that their sitting here signifies nothing but their Fostering their old Venome , and lying at Catch to snap every advantage to bear down each other , though it be in the destruction of their Countrey . For if the Round-heads bring in a good Bill , the old Cavalier opposes it ; for no other reason , but because they brought it in . So that as the poor English Silk-weavers , are feign to hire a French-man to Sell their Ribbons : So are the Round-heads a Cavalier , to move for those Bills they desire should pass ; which so sowers the Round-head , that he revenges that Carriage upon any Bill the Cavalier offers ; and the Rage and Passion of the one and other , are so powerful , that it blinds them both , that neither perceives the Advantage they give the Courtier , to abuse both them and their Countrey too : so that if either of them do any Good , it is only out of pure Envy against the other . Thus you see how we are yoaked , and seeing this , you may cease your admiration that we offer at all , and do just nothing . Nor is this Division alone of the House all we have to lament ( for Death , that common Cure , does now every day lessen this evil ) but that which is more our misery , is , that those Gentlemen who are truly for the Good of their Country , will not be perswaded to stand upon the sure Basis of Rational Principles ( like Workmen too presumptive of their Judgments that will not Build by rule ) but rather affect the most loose standing on the Sandy foundation of Heat and Humour : By reason of which they often do as much harm as good , and yet perceive it not ; this is the sore evil we are under . For I would not doubt the Countries carrying it from the Court in every Vote , let the Courtiers use all the Art they could , would the Country Gentlemen but give themselves the trouble to enform their understandings a little , and not suffer themselves to be hurried by a heedless Inadvertency into vulgar Notions . Which , if well examined , are directly contrary to their honest intentions ; For lack of which they totally mistake their Interest , fall foul on their Friends , support their Enemies , and carry on the designs of the Court , whilst they aim at the Service of their Countrey . For if they would take the pains but to think what is the greatest Enemy in the World , that English Law and Liberty always had , still hath , and ever must have ; It may be the result of such a thought would say , it was Encroaching Prerogative . Well , if then they would but beg from themselves but so much seriousness , as to think this second thought , to check this Prerogative , which is so dangerous an Enemy to our Laws and Liberties , peradventure that thought would answer , In suppressing all they could its Creatures and Dependants , and supporting such , whose Interest it is to keep Prerogative within its just bounds . Now could they be prevail'd with but to think a third thought , it would Land them at the full and satisfactory Solution of the Question , and will hold in every thing . But I will put it in a Case wherein we are most apt to Err , and wherein we reckon it no less than Piety to play the Fool , to the end you may see how miserably we are cheated and abused , by sucking in the untried Notions that Education , the Arts of others , or our own Ignorance have imposed upon us . The third thought therefore shall be this : Which are most the Creatures and Supporters of boundless Prerogative , Prelates , or dissenting Protestants ? The answer to which must , and can be no otherwise , The Prelates . Well then , if we would now reduce this to Practice , and say , The greatest Friends to Prerogative are the Prelates , the greatest Enemies to our Laws and Liberties is Prerogative . The only way therefore to restrain Prerogative , is to do , What ? To fortifie and strengthen the Yoke of the Prelates over the Neck of the People ? No : ( Surely this were an odd and a barbarous kind of Reasoning ) But to give Liberty to dissenting Protestants , as the best means to keep up the Ballance against boundless Prerogative . For these must and never can be otherwise ( unless by Accident , and by Mistake ) than Friends to Liberty : But the Prelates neither are nor can be otherwise than Creatures to Prerogative , for all their Promotions , Dignities , and Domination depends upon it . The same might be said concerning the only Antient and true Strength of the Nation , the Legal Militia , and a standing Army . The Militia must , and can never be otherwise than for English Liberty , 'cause else it doth destroy it self ; but a standing Force can be for nothing but Prerogative , by whom it hath its idle Living and Subsistance . I could instance also in many other Particulars , but our Inadvertency in this , is demonstration enough how much we are cheated by the common and hackney Notions imposed upon us ; and this is almost the cause of all the Error we commit . For missing our true Footing , you see we have run in the mistaken Notion of being for the Church so long , till we have almost destroyed the State , and advanced Prerogative so much by suppressing Nonconformity , that it 's well nigh beyond our reach or power to put Check to it ; and had not Time , and but an indifferent Observation , shewed us how much we were abused in this matter : And that a Lay-Conformist and a Fanatique can live as quietly and neighbourly together ( would the Prelates but suffer them ) as any in the World , we had ruined our selves past all recovery . For by our Bouying up the Bishops in their harsh and irreconcileable Spirit , in stead of Healing , we have so fed and nourished the Discontents throughout the Kingdom , that I think nothing keeps the Fire from flaming out afresh in another intestine War but the bare circumstance of Opportunity only ; and how long that will be able to restrain Passions that are made Wild by Oppression , is worthy a very serious Consideration ; and therefore there is hardly any thing more a Wonder to wise Men , than to see the Clergie run at this rate upon the Dissenters : wherefore since the Nonconformists have given so large and ample a Testimony of their willingness to live Peaceably , if yet notwithstanding the Clergie will not suffer them to be quiet in their Families and their Houses , I doubt , they may at one time or other , drive them into the Field , and then it may exceed their Divine Art to Conjure them down again ; for he sees but little , that sees not the English Temper is better to be Led than Driven . And therefore I think it would not be more a Vanity , to compel the Ladies to wear Queen Elizabeths Ruff , than to force the Nonconformists to be drest in her Religion . Nor yet are these all the Arts we are under : For we have a Gang that Huff , and bear themselves high on the Countrey side , but earn only for the Court ; these lay out their Craft in putting the House upon little trifling things , and spend and waste the Mettle thereof , upon such pittiful Pickadilloes , as 't is next to a shame for an English Parliament so much as to mention . These start a fierce Dispute about some little Matter , and keep a bluster as if none were such faithful Patriots as they , when they do it on purpose only to while out the Time , and thin the House , by tiring the honest Country Gentry in so tedious , fruitless , and trifling attendance . Do but move things worthy a Parliament ; as that we may have our old known Rights of Annual Parliaments ascertained : That none that are or shall be Bribed by any Place or Office , shall ever sit in this House : That Parliament ought not to be Prorogued , Adjourned , or Dissolved , till all Petitions are heard , and the Aggrievances of the People redressed ; with many things more of as great Importance ; O then , forsooth , their pretended Loyalty ( which in plain English is easily understood ) will not abide such unmannerly and clownish Debates as these , and twenty such little shreds of Non-sense are impertinently urged in stead of Argument . But further , These Country-Court Engines , after they have taken the Measures of the House , at the opening of every Session , by our thanks for the gracious Speech , which being the true Pulse of the House ; if it happen to come so hard as speaks us but saint and cool to the one thing necessary , ( the matter of Money ) then they know what will follow , that the Court will get no Grist that Sessions ; and though the Court in indignation could turn them Home on the Morrow , yet it must consult its Reputation a little , restrain its Resentments , and suffer them to sit about a six weeks , or two months , and then they assure the Court , since they can get no good by them , they shall take no harm ; and therefore to stop them from some worthy Undertaking , they by their feigned Zeal against Court-Corruptions , put them upon Impeaching some Treasurer , Councellor , or Minister of State ; and having spent half our time about this , the rest is spent for the Clergie upon Church-Work , which we have been so often put upon and tired with these many Sessions : Though Partiality unbecomes a Parliament , who ought to lay the whole Body that we represent a like easie , Nonconformists , as well as Conformists , for we were chosen by both , and with that intention that we should oppress neither . To lay one part therefore of the Body on a Pillow , and the other on a Rack , sorts our Wisdom little , but our Justice-worse . You now see all our Shapes , save only the Indigents , concerning whom I need say but little , for their Votes are publickly saleable for a Guiny , and a Dinner every day in the Week , unless the House be upon Money or a Minister of State : For that is their Harvest , and then they make their Earnings suit the Work they are about , which inclines them most constantly as sure Clyants to the Court. For what with gaining the one and saving the other , they now and then adventure a Vote on the Countrey side ; but the dread of Dissolution makes them strait tack about . The only thing we are obliged to them for , is , that they do nothing Gratis , but make every Tax as well Chargeable to the Court , as burthensome to the Countrey , and save no Mans Neck , but they break his Purse . And yet when all is said , did but the Country Gentry rightly understand the interest of Liberty , let the Courtiers and Indigents do what they could , they might yet at last deserve the Name of a worthy English Parliament ; Which that we may do , is not more passionately your desire , than it also is of , Sir , Your most humble Servant . T. E FINIS .