State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
History
State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
Trials -- Great Britain
suffrages they may be taken down again. And we will be bold to
say, that no kingdom hath yielded more plentiful experience than
that your native kingdom of Scotland hath done concerning the
Deposition and the Punishment of their offending and
transgressing kings.
It is not far to go for an example: near you--Your grandmother
set aside, and your Father, an infant, crowned. And the State
did it here in England; here hath not been a want of some
examples. They have made bold (the Parliament and the People of
England) to call their Kings to account; there are frequent
examples of it in the Saxons' time, the time before the
Conquest. Since the Conquest there want not some Precedents
neither; King Edward the Second, King Richard the Second, were
dealt with so by the Parliament, as they were deposed and
deprived. And truly, Sir, whoever shall look into their Stories,
they shall not find the Articles that are charged upon them to
come near to that height and capitalness of Crimes that are laid
to your Charge; nothing near.
Sir, you were pleased to say, the other day, wherein they
dissent; and I did not contradict it. But take all together,
Sir; If you were as the Charge speaks, and no otherwise,
admitted king of England; but for that you were pleased then to
alledge, how that for almost a thousand years these things have
been, Stories will tell you, if you go no higher than the time
of the Conquest; if you do come down since the Conquest, you are
the twenty-fourth king from William called the Conqueror, you
shall find one half of them to come merely from the state, and
not merely upon the point of descent. It were easy to be
instanced to you; but time must not be lost that way. And truly,
Sir, what a grave and learned Judge said in his time, and well
known to you, and is since printed for posterity, That although
there was such a thing as a descent many times, yet the kings of
England ever held the greatest assurance of their Titles when it
was declared by Parliament. And, Sir, your Oath, the manner of
your Coronation, doth shew plainly, that the kings of England,
although it is true, by the law the next person in blood is
designed: yet if there were just cause to refuse him, the people
of England might do it. For there is a Contract and a bargain
made between the King and his people, and your Oath is taken;
and certainly, Sir, the bond is reciprocal; for as you are the
Liege Lord, so they Liege Subjects. And we know very well, that
hath been so much spoken of, _Ligeantia est duplex_. This we
know, now, the one tie, the one bond, is the Bond of Protection
that is due from the sovereign; the other is the Bond of
Subjection that is due from the Subject. Sir, if this bond be
once broken, farewell sovereignty! _Subjectio trahit_, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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