to Mr.Carte,

by a Gentle

man of

five to the nobility and gentry), in confideration of an excife (UU) on liquors,

to

(6) Letter from Breda (b). Had thefe confiderations occurred to the mind of the gentleman who occafioned them, he would never, doubtlefs, have talked in the way he has p. 111. 8vo. done. But they were not to be found amongst his colLond. 1743 lections. Charles received a favour, a mighty fa

Cambridge,

vour, in being called home, placed on a throne, and amply provided for: - the people nothing but a fecurity from the effects of their folly, in restoring him with, out terms, conditions, or limitations. On which fide then was the favour? who was most under obligations? The act however, as things were, was wife, neceffsary, and popular.

(UU) The king confented to the abolishing the court of wards and liveries, in confideration of an excife.] The feudal law was, very probably, introduced by the Saxons; but, certainly, fully established by William the Norman. In many refpects it was favourable to liberty; in others, a yoke of intolerable flavery. • Tenure by homage, fealty, and efcuage, is to hold by knights fervice,' fays Littleton; and it draweth to it ward, marriage, and relief.' That this was a grievous burthen on the nobility and gentry, will not be doubted by fuch as know, that the king, in virtue of this tenure, had the wardship of all infant heirs male, and the benefit of their eftates till they arrived at the age of twentyone years of female heirs, till they were fixteen years, if they fo long remained unmarried and the power of marrying both the one and the other, to whom he

pleased

to be paid chiefly by the common peo

ple.

pleafed as alfo a year or half a year's rent, on their being at age, for their relief: at which time they were. to fue out their livery; which was attended with many hardships and inconveniences.

In the time of Henry VIII. a court of wards and liveries was erected; which produced multitudes of complaints, by reafon of its rigorous proceedings. The owners of these lands were very fenfible of their bad condition: but there was no remedy. The crown was in poffeffion of a very great power: and the crown was unwilling to part with it, but upon valuable confiderations. When the caufe of Charles I. declined, the court of wards, of courfe, was laid afide, and no proceedings were held in it: confequently, the poffeffors of lands by tenure of knights fervice, by much the most numerous in the kingdom, were liable to mighty forfeitures. This the parliament was aware of; and this they were determined to guard against. An act of parliament therefore was framed for taking away all military tenures, with their various incidents, fruits, and dependencies attending them; and turning them into free and common focage (c). This was an enlargement of the liberty of the subject; and an acquifition of great con- II. c. 24. fequence to the nation, or rather to that part of it which poffeffed the honors, manors, tenements, and hereditaments released from the feudal tenure. --- But the parliament, though they took care of themselves, left the lower clafs of people as they were; yea, put them in a worse condition, on account of the fubjecting them to an excife as the price of the great mens

freedom.

(c) Stat. 12 Caroli

ple. This, however, was looked upon

as

freedom. If the court of wards bore hard on the poffeffors of manors, lordships, and royalties; thefe, in their turn, bore as hard, perhaps harder, on their own tenants, and treated them with equal or greater feverity.-'The • Norman conqueft and tyranny,' fays Mr. Wall, in his letter to Milton, dated, Causham, May 26, 1659, ' is continued upon the nation, without any thought of removing it. I mean the tenure of lands by copyhold, and holding for life under a lord, or rather, tyrant of a manour: whereby people care not to improve their land by coft upon it, not knowing how foon themfelves, or theirs, may be outed it; nor what the ' house is in which they live, for the fame reason: and they are far more enflaved to the lord of the manour, than the rest of the nation is to a king or fupream (d) Premagistrate (d).' ------ The observation is strong, just, face to the ftriking, and very obvious. It was, however, taken Iconoclaftes, no notice of. On the contrary, to hinder tenants of manors from claiming or expecting any relief, it was exprefsly inferted, in the act for abolishing the court of wards, that this act, or any thing therein contained, 'fhall not alter or change any tenure by copyhold of 'court-roll, or any services incident thereunto.' So cautious was the legislature of the rich, fo unmindful of thofe in lower circumftances, who are conftantly as it were under the harrow, and liable to forfeitures and feizures, even for no real damages, through ignorance or inadvertency, on their own parts; or the power, craft, and infolence of thofe under whom they thus precarioufly hold what they poffefs for valuable confiderations.

2d edition of

p. 6. 4to.

Lond. 1756.

as a favour; and his majesty received

for

tions.

But this was not the worst. The people of all ranks and degrees were obliged conftantly to pay for that freedom from the feudal tenure, which, by this act, the rich and the great, and they alone, were intitled to or availed by. What was it to the lower ranks of Englishmen, by what tenure their fuperiors held thofe lands which gave them fo much power or preheminence? What were they the better for their being changed from military fervice, into free and common focage? If they were not bettered thereby, nor by any thing in the act relating to it, as evidently they were not it was highly unjust and unreasonable that they fhould be excifed, in order that the eftates of noblemen and gentlemen fhould be exonerated of burdens to which they had been liable from the Conqueft. — Yet, plain as all this was, it is faid, in the body of the act, And now, to the intent and purpose that his majesty, ⚫ his heirs and fucceffors, may receive a full and ample recompence and fatisfaction, as well for the profits of the faid court of wards, and the tenures, wardships, liveries, primer-feifins, oufter le mains, and other the premiffes and perquifites incident thereunto; and for all arrears any way due for the fame; as alfo for all and all ⚫ manner of purveyance and provifions herein before• mentioned, and intended to be taken away and abolifhed; and all fums of money due, or pretended to be due, or payable for and in respect of any compofitions for the fame be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that there fhall be paid to the kings majefty, his heirs and fucceffors, for ever hereafter, in

6 recom

for it the acknowledgments of the house

of

recompence, as aforefaid, the feveral rates, impofitions, duties, and charges herein after expressed, and in manner and form following.' &c. The people then, that their betters might be at eafe, were loaded, by this act, with an excife on ale, beer, cyder, perry, mead, vinegar, ftrong waters, coffee, tea, chocolate, and sher

bet. But laws are made by the Rich; who too often have confulted their own benefit, more than that of the public; and preferred their particular and private intereft, to the ease and tranquillity of the community : which, beaft of burden like, has tamely fubmitted to be loaded and loaded, ad infinitum.

This remarkable bill did not pafs the house of commons without great oppofition. November 21, 1660,' fays a certain writer, the commons went again on the bufinefs of the court of wards; when Sir Heneage Finch opened the debate, by moving, that the annual income to be fettled on the king, in lieu thereof, might be raised by an excife on beer and ale, and to take away purveyance alfo. And that half of this excife might be fettled for the king's life, and the other ⚫ half for ever on the crown. This motion was feconded by Mr. Bunckley and Mr. Pierepoint; but Sir John Frederick, Mr. Folliffe, Sir William Vincent, Mr. Annefley, and fome others, fpoke against it. The laft-named gentleman, faying, that if this bill was carried, every man, who earns his bread by the sweat ' of his brow, muft pay excife to excuse the court of • wards, which would be a greater grievance upon all, ⚫ than