Die Jovis 23° Januarii, 1689. The Houfe was put into a Committee to confider of the Bill, entituled, An Act to refiore Corporations to their ancient Rights and Privileges. The Houfe was refumed, and the Earl of Mulgrave reported, That the Committee of the whole House have been upon the first enacting Clause in the Bill; and it is the Opinion of the Committee, that the Words [declared, and were and are illegal] fhould not ftand in the Bill. Contents 3851 Then this Queftion was put, whe Proxies Not Cont. 39343 Proxies ther to agree with the Committee in leaving out those Words? It was resolved in the Affirmative. Memorandum, That the Lords following, before the putting of the abovesaid Question, desired Leave to enter their Diffents if the Question was carried in the Affirmative, and accordingly they do enter their Diffents as follow: ift, That there hath been only two Cafes cited, in all the Law Books, towards the maintaining the Surrender of Corporations, viz. Dyer 273. 282. The Opinions in these Cases are not upon Argument, the first of them, as appears by the Book, needed, and had an A&t of Parliament to confirm it, being denied to be Law, in my Lord Coke's 3d Report, in the Dean and Chapter of Norwich's Cafe, 44 Eliz. The other of them denied to be Law by the Judges of the King's-Bench in Fulcher and Heywood's Cafe in 2 Charles I. in Palmer's Reports; and by the exprefs Authority of that Cafe, and the exprefs Refolution of the Judges in that Cafe, a Corporation cannot, by Surrender, diffolve itself. 2dly, Because that Beda, in the Time of Henry V. and the Corporation of Newbury, did furrender to that King, which was not allowed, but the House of Commons call'd upon them to fend up Members, notwithstanding the faid Surrender; and until they petitioned the faid House, setting forth their Inability of fupporting that Charge, they were not excufed; but the House, allowed their Petition, and they have fent none fince. 3dly, The Surrenders in Debate being for the Intent and Purpose of Returning fuch Parliament Men whom the King should appoint, was for the Subverfion of the Laws Laws and Liberties of England, and introducing of Pupery and Arbitrary Government; and that the putting out thefe Words feems to be the justifying of the mot horrid Action that King James was guilty of during his Reign; and, we humbly conceive, a denying the chiefeft Grievance mentioned in King William's Declaration when he was Prince, and the greatest Inducement for the People's taking up Arms in Defence of their Liberties and Properties, and Proteftant Religion, and the eftablishing this King upon the Throne. Bolton, Bedford, Vaughan, Stamford, Sidney. Die Sabbati 5° Aprilis, 1690. Report was made from the Committee of the whole House upon the Bill declaring the Acts in the last Parliament of full Force, and for recognizing their Majefties to be King and Queen, That the Committee had fat on the firft enacting Clause in the Bil, and have made these Amendments therein, viz. in the 2d Sheet in the ift Line, after (declared) they have added (adjudged) and in the 12th Line they have left out the Word (adjudged) and they defire the Concurrence of the House therein. Contents 30 Then the Question was put, whether this Houfe agrees with the Committee in this Report? It was resolved in the Negative. Leave having been given to any Lords to enter their Diffents, if the Question was carried in the Negative, we whofe Names are hereafter written do enter our Diffents for thefe Reasons following: 1, Because there appears to us no Reason to doubt of the Validity of the laft Parliament, the great Objection infifted upon being the Want of Writs of Summons, which we take to be fully answered by the State the Nation was in at that Time, which made that Form impoffible, fuch Exigencies of Affairs having been always looked upon by our Ancestors (however careful of parliamentary Forms) to be a fufficient Reason to allow the Authority of Parliament,notwithstanding the fame,or other E 3 Defects Defects in point of Form; as the Parliament which fe Henry I. and King Stephen on the Throne; the Parliament held 28 Edward I. the Parliament fummoned by the Prince of Wales 20 Edward II. the Parliament fummoned 23 Richard II. the Parliament held 1 Henry V F. and the Parliament held 28 Henry VI. the A&ts of which Parliaments have been held for Law. 2dly, Because the rejecting this Claufe muft neceffarily difturb the Minds of the greatest Part of the Kingdom, for if those be not good Laws, all Commiffioners, Affeffors, Collectors and Receivers of the late Taxes are not only fubject to private Actions, but to be criminally profecuted for one of the highest Offences against the Conftitution of the Englih Government, viz. the levying Money on the Subject without lawful Authority; all Perfons who have lent Money, upon the Credit of those Laws, will be in dread of their Security, and impatient to get in their Money; all Perfons concerned in levying the prefent Taxes will be fearful to proceed; all Perfons who have accepted any Offices or Employments Ecclefiaftical, Civil or Military, will be under the Apprehenfion of having incurred all the terrible Forfeitures and Difabilities of the Act of 25 Charles II. cap. 2. and all who have any way concurred to the Condemnation or Execution of any Perfon upon any Act of the late Parliament, will think themselves in Danger of being called to an Account for Murder. 3dly, Becaufe to leave a Doubt touching the Validity of the laft Parliament, is to fhake all the Judgments and Decrees given in the House of Peers, or in WestminsterHall, during this Reign; and to bring a Question upon the whole Courfe of judicial Proceedings. 4thly, Because if the Authority of the laft Parliament be not put out of the Queftion, the Authority of the prefent Parliament can never be defended, for the Statute of 5 Eliz. cap. 1. makes the Election of every Member of the House of Commons abfolutely void, if he enter into the Houfe without taking the Oath of Supremacy, which no one Perfon having done, there is an End of this Houfe of Commons: And by the Statute made zo Car. II. if any Peer or Member of the House of Commons prefume to fit and vote without first taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, before the Speaker of of the respective Houses, he does not only forfeit Five Hundred Pounds, and become as a Popish Recufant, and disabled to take a Legacy, to hold any Office or Place of Trust, to profecute any Suit, to be a Guardian, Executor or Adminiftrator, but is made for ever incapable to fit and vote in either House of Parliament; and confequently this can be no Parliament, nor any who have fat in either House be capable of fitting in Parliament hereafter. 5thly, Because to leave room to doubt of the Authority of the laft Parliament, is to shake the Succeffion of the Crown established by it, and the Credit and Authority of all Treaties made with foreign Princes and States by King William, as the undoubted King of these Realms; fo that if the laft was no Parliament, and their Acts no Laws, this is our Cafe: The Nation is engaged in a War without the Confent of Parliament, the old Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance remain in Force, and the Nation forced, under Colour of Law, to fwear Fidelity to King William, though they can never act as a lawful Parliament without taking the Qaths of Allegiance to King James: All Judgments and Decrees in the House of Lords, during the late Parliament, are of no Force; great Sums of Money have been levied, without Confent of Parliament, and Men have been put to death, not only without, but against Law; which is the worst Sort of Murder: Laftly, the King upon the Throne, the Peerage of England, and the Commons freely elected by the People, have been Parties to all this: The Peers and Commons now affembled are under a perpetual Difability, and the Nation is involved in endless Doub s and Confufions, without any legal Settlement or Poffibility to arrive at it, unlefs a Parliament be fummoned by King James's Writ, and the Oaths of Allegiance taken to him. Boulton, Bedford, Suffolke, Menmouth, Delamer, Oxford. Newport, Die Martis 8° Aprilis, 1690. Hodie za vice leta eft Billa, An Act for recognizing the King and Queen, and for avoiding all Queftions touching the Acts made in the Parliament affembled at Westminster the 13th Day of February, 1688. The The Question was put, whether this Bill fhall pass? Before the Question was put, feveral Lords defired Leave to enter their Diffents, if the Question was carried in the Affirmative. Diffentient' 1f, Because, we conceive, that faying, (It is enacted by the Authority of this prefent Parliament, that all and fingular the Acts made in the laft Parliament were Laws) is neither good English nor good Sense. 2dly, If it were good Senfe to enact for the Time paft, it must be understood, on this Subject, to be the declaring of Laws to be good which were passed in a Parliament not called by Writ in due Form of Law, which is deftructive of the Legal Conftitution of this Monarchy, and may be of evil and pernicious Confequence to our prefent Government under this King and Queen. Huntingdon, Somerset, Rochefter, Scarsdale, J. Jermyn, Tho. Menev', Dartmouth, Weftmoreland, H. London, P. Winchefter, Wigorn'. W. Landaffe, W. Afapb, The foregoing Reasons were ordered to be expunged, but the above may be depended upon as a genuine Copy. Die Jovis 10° Aprilis, 1690. The Reasons in the Proteftation mide the 8th Inftant against fome Words in the Bill for recognizing King William and Queen Mary being read, were, upon the Question, feverally ordered to be expunged out of the Journal. Leave having been asked and given for entring Diffents, if the Questions were carried in the Affirmative: Diffentient' Whereas the Questions for expunging the Reasons of our Proteftation April the 8th, were carried in the Affi mative; and whereas these Reasons were only against fome Words in one Clause in the Bill entitled, An Act for recognizing King William and Queen Mary, and for avoiding all Queftions touching the A&ts made in the Parliament affembled at Westminster the 13th Day of Fe bruary |