deserving servants: for when bonour comes to be at so mean a rate as to be sold, there is no great man will look after it. 3. It is the way to make a man more studious for lucre and gain, than of sufficiency of virtue; when they know that they shall be preferred to titles of honour according to the heaviness of purse, and not for the weightiness of their merit. 4. It introduceth a strange confusion, mingling the meaner with the more pure and refined inetal. 5. Lastly, It is a prodigious scandal to this nation, (as the house of commons think).

"For Examples and Precedents, I ain confident there are none; and your lordships can look for none, because it is not parallelled to any precedent. But certainly it is now a fit time to make a precedent of this man, this great Duke, that hath been lately raised to this transcendent height in our sphere; who thinketh he cannot shine enough, unless he dim your lordships honours, in inaking the same contemptible through the sale of it, by the commonness of it.

"Yet I am commanded further to observe another step of unworthiness in this gentleman, who hath not only set honour to sale by his agents, but compelled men likewise, unwilling, to take titles of Honour upon them. For the particular, that noble gentleman that this concerns, I am commanded to say of him from the house of commons, That they conceive of him, that he was worthy of this honour, if he had not come to it this way; they can lay no blame upon him, that was constrained to make this bargain to redeem his trouble. But we must distinguish of this, as divines do betwixt the active and the passive usurers; they condemn the active, speaking favourably of the passive. "And I must here observe to your lordships, by the direction of the house of commons, That it seems strange to them, that this great man, whom they have taken notice of to be the principal patron and supporter of the semipelagian and a popish faction, set on foot to the danger of the church and state, whose tenets are Liberty of Free-will, though somewhat mollified; that a man, embracing these tenets, should not admit of liberty in moral things: and that he should compel one to take honour and grace from a king whether he will or no; what is that, but to add inhumanity and oppression, to injury and incivility.

But here I must answer a precedent or two, which may be by misunderstanding enforced against me: 5 H. 5, there was Martin and Babington, and others, which were chosen to be sergeants, and they did decline from it out of their modesty, and doubted that their estates were not answerable to their place: yet upon the charge of the warden of England, they accepted it, and appeared to their writs. Likewise there is a writ in the register, that many, by reason of the tenure of their lands, may be compelled to be made knights. But this makes rather against, than for this faction: for it is true, that this is the wisdom and policy of the common-law, that those that be thought

fit men for employment, may be drawn forth to be employed for the good of the commonwealth, where otherwise they would not take it upon them: but that any man, for his gain, should force a man to take degrees of Honour upon him; certainly this is beyond all precedents, and a thing not to be exampled, either in our nation, or any other.

"And further, I am commanded to tell your lordships, That it is dangerous, that if a great lord, by his power or strength, may compel a subject to take such honours, why may he not compel them as well to take his lands at what price he will, and to sell them again as he thinks fit; yea, to marry his children as it pleaseth him? The consequence of this is great, if that it be well considered; and they conceive that it is of so great a consequence, that if it be not stopped, it may come in time to make way for a dangerous subversion, and demonstrates a great tyranny of a subject, under a most wise, most gracious, and most moderate king.

"And thus, my lords, I have done with the first Article allotted to my Charge, and so I proceed to the next.

"My lords; Before I enter into the enforcement of this Article, I shall, by way of protestation from the house of commons, do in this, as I did in the other Article. And first, for the king's majesty, under whom we are now happily governed and placed, I must, by their direction, say, for his honour and our comfort, and, with humble acknowledgment, confess, that since his coming to the crown, there have been men of as great parts and learning advanced into places in church and commonwealth, as any have been heretofore. And then for the first of those lords, whose names are mentioned in this Article, I must say, that they do not intend to reflect at all upon him; nay, they think his person so worthy, as to be advanced to as high a place, without any price at all, and that he ought to have kept it longer, if those that shuffled in those times, had not shuffled him out.

"Now to the matter of this Article, which is the Sale of Places of Judicature, being an offence: and to prove this, is all one as to make the glass clear by painting of it. The grounds whereon I shall go, shall be laid open; Magna Charta, chap. 29. The words are these: 'Nulli

vendemus, nulli negabimus justitiam.' It may be said, this comes not close to my purpose; yet, by your lordships favour, I shall make it good, that it doth, and I shall begin with the latter of the two first, Nulli negabimus;' for if any that hath power or favour with the king, should procure him to delay the making of judges, when there were judges to take it, it will not be denied, that they do their best endeavour to make the king break his word; for if any use their favour about the king to procure places of judicature for money, they do what in them lies to make justice saleable; for it is plain, that he that buys must sell, and cannot be blamed if he do sell.

"I shall open the evil consequences that depend upon the sale of the places of judicature, or any places of great trust. 1. By this means, unable men shall be sure of the precedence unto places; for they being conscious of their own want of merits, they must be made up by the weight of gold. 2. It must needs hence follow, that suits, contentions, brawls, and quarrels shall be increased in the commonwealth. For when men come to seats of judicature by purchase, they must, by increase of suits, increase their own profit. 3. Men will not study for sufficiency of learning to be able to discharge their places, but how they may scrape together money to purchase places. 4. It will follow, that those that have the best purses, though worst causes, will carry away the victory always. 5. It will follow, that when they be preferred for money to those places, they are tied to make the best of those places, viis et modis:' and then the great man that sold those places to them, must uphold them in their bribery; and he is tied to it, because they are his creatures; nay, further, he is tied to support them in their bribery, to advance their places upon the next remove. 6. And, lastly, when good men, and well-deserving, come to any place, they shall not continue there, but they shall be quarrelled at, so that there may be a vacancy in that place, and then some other shall suddenly step into the saddle, by giving a competent price.

"Upon these and the like reasons, this fact of selling and buying Places and Offices of trust, hath not only been declaimed against by Christians, but also by moral Pagans. Aristotle in his 5 lib. of Ethicks, cap. 8. gives it as a caveat, That no man amongst the Thebans was to take upon him any place of government in the common-wealth, if that he were a merchant, unless there were ten years distance between. And the reason is this, because merchants are used to buying and selling, it is their trade and art to get money, so that their fingers are accustomed to that which they cannot leave, when they come to places of trust and judicature. Nay further in honour of the merchant, he is accounted the wisest merchant that gains most; so that if such comes to offices and places of trust, he thinks it best to advance his profit.

"Next to the Pagans, the popes, a generation full of corruption, yet they, by their bulls, are full of declamation against such. And this is plain by a bull of Pius Quintus, who lays the penalty of confiscation of goods of any that do for money acquire any offices, and condemus them by his papal sentence to be great sinners. So Gregory 13th condemns the like.

"And now to come nearer home, to come to that which will principally lead your lordships, which are the judgments of your ancestors in parliament; wherein it appears by the statute of 5 Hen. 6, that the same statute condemns the seller and receiver, as well as the buyer and giver. It further appears by the preamble of that statute, that such offences were against the

law, and they foresaw the corruptions of those that came into those places by those means, and that it is a hindrance of sufficient and worthy men from those places. And also 2 & 3 Edw. 6, which was likewise cited in the case of the duke of Somerset, by which he was to forfeit his estate, that one thing was for selling of places in the common-wealth for money. And certainly, with your lordships favour, it is most just and probable, that they that profess themselves to be patriots, and shew by their actions, that they aim at their own lucre, and labour to hinder the distributing of justice; it is most just and proper, that those men should return back again to the public treasury of the king and kingdom, what they have by their unsatisfied lucre gotten.

"And so, my lords, craving pardon of you for my boldness, confusion, and distractions, in going through this business, I humbly leare myself to the judgments of your favours and charities, and this great man the duke to your wise censure and justice."

Mr. Sherland enlargeth upon the Twelfth

Article.

Then was read the Twelfth Article.

Before Mr. Sherland entered to open and enlarge upon it, he discoursed in general concerning Honours, mentioned in the preceding Article, and spake as followeth:

"My lords; It hath pleased God, who hath the disposing even of all things in his hands, to cast this service now upon me, who did formerly my endeavour to decline it, considering the weightiness of the business, the greatness of this presence, and my manifold detects, best known to myself: But another that should have with better contentment, I doubt not, performed this service, being fallen now sick, there is a necessity imposed on me by the house of commons, wherein I shall be very plain and short, according to the warning I had; yet I shall deal plainly and faithfully, according to the sense of that house by whose command I now appear: And since I am now thrust as a bush into the gap, I hope your lordships will not expect such a composure and strength of speech which you have had from others of my companions. The subject that falls to my lot to speak of before your lordships, are honour and justice, two great flowers of the crown: I confess myself exceeding unfit and unable to speak of these points before so great an assembly of such persons of so great honour, and such superior judges of this kingdom; hut I must take my lot: it pleaseth your lordships, as in sphere, to take knowledge of the griev ances presented by the commons house, which I desire and hope your lordships will not take presumption.

May it please your lordships, the parts of this Charge, as you discern upon the reading of it, are two; the one general, the other particular: The general is perverting the ancient and noble course of attaining to the titles of honour. 2. The other, the compulsion or in

forcement of men unwilling to purchase ho

nour.

"For the first by way of protestation, I am commanded by the house of commons, to say, that they repine not at their advancement upon whom those honours were conferred, but they think them worthy thereof; yet they wish, for their sakes, and the safety of this nation, their virtues had solely raised them, and that they had not been forced and constrained to contribute to this bottomless gulf to attain their titles.

"They complain again of this unworthy way brought in by this great man, they fall upon this in this manner, and found the evils under which the common-wealth suffers, and the causes of them being two principal evils, which are the decay and stopping of the trade, and the termination of honour. In examination of which second evil, the trade and commerce of honour, we have, as the commons do, receive,confitentem reum For he endeavouring to colour the matter says for himself, That he was not the only introducer and first bringer in of this: but they find that he was the first that defiled this virgin of honour so publicly, making an account, that all things and persons should stoop and subject themselves to his vain desires and extravagancy. Now that this commerce of honour is an offence; then to prove what kind of offence it is, is the only thing I shall trouble your lordships with.

1. "And first that it is an offence, I shall draw my first argument from the Nature of Honour; honour is a beam of virtue; now this honour can be no more fixed upon an undeserving person for money, than fire can be struck out of a stick.

2. "From the Subject of Honour, which is merit, for the which no price ought to be paid to any great man by any undeserving person for the same, but their own merit and desert." Then he passed to the Grievances which are caused by the selling of Titles, and they are three. 1. "It is prejudicial to the noble barons of this kingdom. 2. To the king, by disabling him to reward extraordinary virtues. 3. To the kingdom, which comprehends both kings, lords, and people.

"For the first he said, He would not trouble their lordships with recital, how antient, how famous the degree of barons hath been in these western monarchies; He said, the baronage of England hath longer upheld that dignity; and doth yet retain a greater height than in any other nation: they are great judges, a court of the last resort, they are great counsellors of state, and not only for the present, but as lawmakers, counsellors for the time to come; and this not by delegacy and commission, but by birth and inheritance; so that when any man shall be made a member of this great body, who is not qualified for the performance of such noble functions, it must needs be a prejudice to the whole body, and dishonour to the head. As if a little water be put into a great vessel of wine, as it receives spirit and strength

from the wine, so it doth impart some degrees of its own infirmity and coldness to the wine. 2. It is prejudicial to the king: not that it can disable him from giving honour, for that it is a power inseparable, but by making honour ordinary, it becomes as an incompetent reward for extraordinary virtue; when men are noble, they are taken out of the press of the common sort, and how can it chuse but fall in estimation, if honour itself be made a press?

3. "It is prejudicial to the kingdom; the stories and records are full of the great assistance which the crown hath received from the barons, both in foreign and domestic actions, not only by their own persons, but by their retinue and tenants, and therefore they are called by Bracton, robur belli;' how can we now expect the like from such as have no te-` pants, and are hardly able to maintain themselves?

"But this is not all; for the prejudice grows not primitively by defect of that assistance which they might give the state, but positively they have been a great burthen to the kingdom by gifts and pensions already received, and yet stand in need of more for the future support of their dignities. This makes the duke's offence the greater, that in this weakness and consump tion of the commonwealth, he hath not been contented alone to consume the public treasure, (which is the blood and nourishment of the state) but hath brought in others to help him in this work of destruction. And that they might do it more eagerly by inlarging their ho nours, he hath likewise enlarged their necessities; and their appetites. He did second his Charge with two precedents; the first, 28 Hen. 6, in the Complaint against the duke of Suffolk, in the 31st Article of that Complaint this was one of his Charges, that be William de la Pool, duke of Suffolk, had procured one who had married his niece, to be made earl of Kendal, and obtained for him 1,000l. per annum in the dutchy of Guienne; and yet this party was the son of a noble and well-deserving father. So you see this is no new thing for the house of commons to complain, that those that are near the king should raise their kindred to an unne cessary honour; and if that were worthy of pu nishment for advancing of one, then what pu nishment is he worthy of that hath advanced so many?

"The second precedent is 17 Edw. 4. There passed an act of parliament for the degrading of John Nevil, marquis Montague, and duke of Bedford; the reason expressed in the act is, because he had not a revenue sufficient for the maintaining of that dignity; to which is added another reason of that nature, that when men of mean birth are called to a high estate, and have not livelihood to support it, it induceth great poverty, and causeth briberies and extortions, imbraceries and maintenance. now my lords, how far these reasons shall lead your judgments in this case, I must leave it to your lordships."

And

Then he read the Twelfth Article, being

the second part of his Charge; the title whereof was, the Exhausting, intercepting and misimploying the King's Revenues.

He made two main branches of this Article. The first concerns Lands obtained from the crown; the second concerns Money in Pensions, Gifts, Farms, and other kind of profit. Touching the Lands he observed four things, "1. The sum of 3,0351. per annum of old rent, besides the forest of Layfield of which we have no value, and we can find no schedule granted by the late king to my lord of Buckingham within ten years past, as appeareth by the several grants vouched in the schedule annexed; and it was in itself a great grievance that in a time of such necessity, when the king's revenues are not able to support such a great charge, that so much land should be conveyed to a private man: this he acknowledged was not the duke's case alone, for others had received divers grants from the king, but none in so great measure.-And because the commons aim not at judgment only, but at reformation, he wished, that when the king should bestow any land for support of honours, that the caution which was wont to be carefully observed | might again return into use; that is, to annex those lands to the dignity, lest being obtained and wasted, the party repair to the king for a new support; by which provision the crown will reap this benefit; that as some lands go out of new grants, others will come in by spent intails. He said he would not trouble their lordships with repetition of the laws heretofore made for preventing the alienation of the king's lands, and for resuming those that had been alienated, nor of the ordinances made in this high court for the same purpose, and fines set upon those that presumed to break such ordinances; he only added as a further enforcement of the grievance, that when the king's revenues be unable to defray public necessities, the commons must needs be more.burthened with supplies.

"2. His second point was, the unusual Clauses which the Duke by his greatness hath procured to be inserted into the Warrants for passing of those Lands, of which two were mentioned; the first, That the casual profits should not be rated in the particulars; the second, That all bailiffs fees should be reprised: Both which are to be proved by the Warrants remain

Lought; so that the king gave he knew not what; For under the proportion of 2,000l., he gives it may be 4,000l. And by this the king did not only sustain great loss for the present, but it opened a way of continual loss, which hath ever since been pursned by all those who have passed lands from the crown. S. The king is hereby not left master of his own liberality, neither in proportion nor certainty; for it might so fall out, that the quantity passed from him, might be treble to that he intended.

"3. The third was, 'The surrender of divers parcel of these lands back to the king, after he had beld_them some years, and taking others from the king in exchange.' Where he noted, That the best of the Lands and most vendible being passed away, the worst lay upon the king's hand; that if he should have occasion to raise money by sale of lands, that course is not like to furnish him. Besides, that in the mean time betwixt the grants and the surrenders, opportunity was left to the duke to cut down woods, to enfranchise copyholds, to make long leases, and yet the old rent remaining still; the land may be surrendered at the same value. Whether this have been practised, he could not affirm, not having had time to examine it; yet he desired the lords to enquire after it, the rather for that the manor of Ġ. in Lincolnshire being dismembered, and 174. of the old rents sold out of it, was by a surrender turned back upou his majesty.

4. The fourth point of this branch was, The colourable Tallies divers parcels of these lands had from the crown in lieu of this surrender, being sold and contracted for by his own agent, and the money received by himself or to his use, and yet Tallies were stricken out, as if it had really come to the exchequer for his majesty's service. This is to be proved by his own officers, by the officers of the exchequer, and by the Tallies themselves, which Tallies amount unto 20,563/. 16s. 8d. Whence he observed, 1. That there ran a trade of falshood toward the king throughout all this his dealing. 2. That this was a device thought upon to prevent the wisdom of parliament; for by this means the grant seems to have the face of valuable purchases, whereas they were indeed free gifts. 3. If the title of those lands should prove questionable, it appearing by record, as if the king had received the money, he was bound in honour to make restitution, and yet the duke had the profit.

"But it may be said, This was the pur