valiant or cowardly, in counsel or in execution? And that, which they call invention, is, for the most part, nothing but a simple imitation in deeds, or words. Thus, printing and guns, which, we believe, were invented within these two or three hundred years, are found to have been in use, among the Chinese, above twelve hundred years. So saith Terence of speech, Nihil est jam dictum, quod non dictum sit prius. Our very thoughts, though they be innumerable, yet, if they were registered, would be all found ancient.

The third said, That nature is so much pleased with diversity, which is nothing else but a kind of novelty, that she hath imprinted a desire of it, in all things here below, and, it may be, in things above also; for they are pleased in their work, and the supreme and universal causes produce us these novelties. Thus, the different periods of the heavens make new aspects, and new influences, not only every year, but also every month, every day, yea, every moment. The moon, every quarter, shews a several sort of face; and particularly, when she sends all her light towards the sun, she is called new. The sun, at his rising, is new, and so he appears incessantly to some country or other in the world; in each of which he makes new seasons, and, amongst the rest, spring, because it is the most pleasant time, is commonly called, in France, le renouveau, because it renews all things; the air decking itself with a more chearful light, the trees cloathing themselves with leaves, the earth with greenness, the meadows being enamelled and embroidered with new flowers. The young man, that feels the down upon his chin, acknowledgeth his mossy beard to be new; upon his wedding-day, he is a new married man; it is a pretty new case to his bride, to find herself made a woman; her great belly and lying-in are also novelties to her; the little infant then born is a new fruit; his first sucking is new; his teeth, at first coming, are new. And so are all other conditions of clerkship, and priesthood, and widowhood, and almost infinite others. Yea, many things, that seem not at all to be new, yet are so, as a river seems very ancient, and yet it renews itself every moment; so that the water, that now runs under the bridge, is not that which was there yesterday, but still keeps the same name, though it be, altogether, other indeed. We ourselves are renewed from time to time, by our nourishment's continual restoration of our wasted triple substance. Nor can any man doubt, but that there are new diseases, seeing nothing is written of them in the books of the ancients, nor of the remedies to cure them, and that the various mixtures of the qualities which produce them, may be in a manner innumerable; and that both sorts of pox were unknown to the ancients. But this novelty appears yet better in men's actions, and divers events in them, which are, therefore, particularly called news. Such are the relations of battles, sieges, takings of towns, and other accidents of life; so much the more considerable, by how much they are ordinarily less regarded. It were also too much injustice to go about to deprive all inventors of the honour due to them, maintaining, that they have taught us no new thing. Do not the sectaries and heresiarchs make new religions? Moreover, who will make any question, whether we have not reason to ask, what new things Africa affords now-a-days, it having been so fertile

in monsters, which are bodies intirely new, as being produced against the laws of nature. And, when the King calls down money, changeth the price of it, determines its weight, is not this a new ordinance? In short, this is to go about to pervert, not only the signification of words, but also common sense, in maintaining, that there is nothing new; and it had not been amiss, if the regent, who printed such paradoxes in a youthful humour, had never been served with new laid eggs, nor changed his old cloaths, and, if he had complained, answer might have been made, That there is nothing new.

The fourth said, That there are no new substances, and, by conse quence, no new substantial forms, but only accidental ones; seeing nothing is made of nothing, or returns to nothing; and, in all the other classes of things, there are no new species, but only new individuals, to which monsters are to be referred, Yea, the mysteries of our salvation were always in intellectu divino: Which made our Saviour say, that Abraham had seen him. And, as for arts and inventions, they flourished in one estate, whilst they were unknown in another, where they should appear afterward in their time. And this is the sense, wherein it is true, that There is nothing new.

THE

PREROGATIVE OF PARLIAMENTS
IN ENGLAND*,

Proved in a Dialogue between a Counsellor of State, and a Justice of Peace.
Written by the worthy Knight,

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

Dedicated to the King's Majesty, and to the House of Parliament now assembled. Preserved to be now happily, in these distracted Times, published, and printed 1640. Quarto, containing seventy-four Pages.

Counsellor.

NOW, Sir, what think you of Mr. St. John's trial in the Star

Chamber? I know that the bruit ran that he was hardly dealt withal, because he was imprsioned in the Tower, seeing his dissuasion from granting a benevolence to the King was warranted by the law.

Justice, Surely, Sir, it was made manifest at the hearing, that Mr. St. John was rather in love with his own letter; he confessed he had

This is the 287th article in the Catalogue of Pamphlets in the Harleian Library.

seen your lordship's letter, before he wrote his to the Mayor of Marlborough, and in your lordship's letter there was not a word whereto the statutes, by Mr. St. John alledged, had reference; for those statutes did condemn the gathering of money from the subject, under title of a free gift; whereas a fifth, a sixth, a tenth, &c. was set down, and required. But, my good lord, though divers shires have given to his Majesty, some more, some less, What is this to the King's debt?

Couns. We know it well enough, but we have many other projects. Just. It is true, my good Lord; but your lordship will find, that when by these you have drawn many pretty sums from the subjects, and those sometimes spent as fast as they are gathered, his Majesty being nothing enabled thereby, when you shall be forced to demand your great aid, the country will excuse itself, in regard of their former payments.

Couns. What mean you by the great aid?

Just. I mean the aid of parliament.

Couns. By parliament I would fain know the man that durst persuade the King unto it; for if it should succeed ill, In what case were he?

Just. You say well for yourself, my Lord, and perchance, you that are lovers of yourselves, under pardon, do follow the advice of the late Duke of Alva, who was ever opposite to all resolution in business of importance; for if the things enterprised succeeded well, the advice never came in question: If ill, whereto great undertakings are commonly subject, he then made his advantage, by remembering his country council: But, my good Lord, these reserved politicians are not the best servants, for he that is bound to adventure his life for his master, is also bound to adventure his advice: 'Keep not back counsel,' saith Ecclesiasticus,' when it may do good.'

Couns. But, Sir, I speak it not in other respect, than I think it dangerous for the king to assemble the three estates; for thereby have our former kings always lost somewhat of their prerogatives. And, because that you shall not think, that I speak it at random, I will begin with elder times, wherein the first contention began, betwixt the kings of this land, and their subjects in parliament.

Just. Your Lordship shall do me a singular favour.

Couns. You know that the King of England had no formal parliament till about the eighteenth year of Henry the First, for in his seventeenth year, for the marriage of his daughter, the king raised a tax upon every hide of land by the advice of his privy-council alone. But you may remember how the subjects, soon after the establishment of this parliament, began to stand upon terms with the king, and drew from him by strong hand, and the sword, the great charter.

Just. Your Lordship says well, they drew from the king the great charter by the sword, and hereof the parliament cannot be accused, but the Lords.

Couns. You say well, but it was after the establishment of the parliament, and by colour of it, that they had so great daring; for before that time they could not endure to hear of St. Edward's laws,

but resisted the confirmation in all they could, although, by those laws, the subjects of this island were no less free than any of all Europe.

Just. My good Lord, the reason is manifest; for while the Normans, and other of the French that followed the conqueror, made spoil of the English, they would not endure that any thing but the will of the conqueror should stand for law; but, after a descent or two, when themselves were become English, and found themselves beaten with their own rods, they then began to savour the difference between subjection and slavery, and insist upon the law, Meum & Tuum; and to be able to say unto themselves, Hoc fac & vives; yea, that the conquering English in Ireland did the like, your Lordship knows it better than I.

Couns. I think you guess aright: And to the end the subject may know, that, being a faithful servant to his prince, he might enjoy his own life, and, paying to his prince what belongs to a sovereign, the remainder was his own to dispose; Henry the First, to content his vassals, gave them the great charter, and the charter of forests.

Just. What reason, then, had King John to deny the confirmation? Couns. He did not, but he, on the contrary, confirmed both the charters with additions, and required the Pope, whom he had then. made his superior, to strengthen thein with a golden bull.

Just. But your honour knows, that it was not long after, that he repented himself.

Couns. It is true, and he had reason so to do, for the barons refused to follow him into France, as they ought to have done; and to say true, this great charter, upon which you insist so much, was not originally granted regally and freely; for Henry the First did usurp the kingdom, and therefore, the better to assure himself against Robert, his eldest brother, he flattered his nobility and people, with those charters: Yea, King John that confirmed them had the like respect; for Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, was the undoubted heir of the crown, upon whom John usurped. And so to conclude, these charters had their original from kings de facto, but not de jure.

Just. But King John confirmed the charter, after the death of his nephew Arthur, when he was then Rex de jure also.

Couns. It is true, for he durst do no other, standing accursed, whereby few or none obeyed him, for his nobility refused to follow him into Scotland; and he had so grieved the people by pulling down all the park pales before harvest, to the end his deer might spoil the corn; and by seizing the temporalities of so many bishopricks into his hands, and chiefly for practising the death of the Duke of Bretagne, his nephew, as also having lost Normandy, to the French, so as the hearts of all men were turned from him.

Just. Nay, by your favour, my Lord, King John restored King Edward's laws, after his absolution, and wrote his letters in the fifteenth of his reign, to all sheriffs, countermanding all former oppressions; yea, this he did, notwithstanding the Lords refused to follow him into France.

Couns. Pardon me, he did not restore King Edward's laws then, nor yet confirmed the charters, but he promised upon hi absolution to do

both: But after his return out of France, in his sixteenth year, he denied it, because, without such a promise, he had not obtained restitution, his promise being constrained, and not voluntary.

Just. But what think you? Was he not bound in honour to perform it?

Couns. Certainly no, for it was determined in the case of King Francis the First of France, that all promises by him made, whilst he was in the hands of Charles the Fifth, his enemy, were void, by reason, the judge of honour, which tells us he durst do no other.

Just. But King John was not in prison.

Couns. Yet, for all that, restraint is an imprisonment, yea, fear itself is an imprisonment, and the king was subject to both: I know there is nothing more kingly in a king, than the performance of his word; but, yet of a word freely and voluntarily given. Neither was the charter of Henry the First so published, that all men might plead it for their advantage; but a charter was left, in deposito, in the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the time, and so to his successors. Stephen Langton, who was ever a traitor to the king, produced this charter, and shewed it to the barons, thereby encouraging them to make war against the king. Neither was it the old charter simply the barons sought to have confirmed, but they presented unto the king other articles and orders, tending to the alteration of the whole commonwealth; which when the king refused to sign, the barons presently put themselves into the field, and in rebellious and outrageous fashion, sent the king word, except he confirmed them, they would not desist from making war against him, till he had satisfied them therein. And in conclusion, the king being betrayed of all his nobility, in effect, was forced to grant the charter of Magna Chartar, and Charta de Forestis, at such time as he was invironed with an army in the meadows of Staynes; which charters, being procured by force, Pope Innocent afterwards disavowed, and threatened to curse the barons, if they submitted not themselves, as they ought to their Sovereign Lord; which when the lords refused to obey, the king entertained an army of strangers, for his own defence, wherewith having mastered and beaten the barons, they called in Lewis of France, a most unnatural resolution, to be their king. Neither was Magna Chartar a law in the nineteenth of Henry the Third, but simply a charter, which he confirmed in the twenty-first of his reign, and made it a law in the twenty-fifth, according to Littleton's opinion. Thus much for the beginning of the great charter, which had first an obscure birth from usurpation, and was secondly fostered and shewed to the world by rebellion.

Just. I cannot deny but that all your Lordship hath said is true; but, seeing the charters were afterwards so many times confirmed by parliament and made laws, and that there is nothing in them unequal or prejudicial to the king; Doth not your honour think it reason they should be observed ?

Couns. Yes, and observed they are in all that the state of a king can permit, for no man is destroyed, but by the laws of the land, no man disscized of his inheritance, but by the laws of the land; imprisoned they are by the prerogative, where the king hath cause to suspect their