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DANIEL DEFOE.

[LEGION'S Memorial.]

4pp. 4to, in [We have filled in the blank names of the Original.]

the British Museum; Press mark, 1093 b 35.

MR. SPEAKER,

HIS enclosed Memorial, you are charged with! in the behalf of many thousands of the good People of England.

There is neither Popish, Jacobite, Seditious, Court, or Party Interest concerned in it; but Honesty and Truth.

You are commanded by Two Hundred Thousand Englishmen, to deliver it to the House of C[ommon]s, and to inform them that it is no banter, but serious truth; and a serious regard to it is expected. Nothing but Justice, and their Duty is required: and it is required by them who have both a right to require, and power to compel, viz., the People of England.

We would have come to the House strong enough to oblige them to hear us; but we have avoided any tumults: not desiring to embroil, but to save our native country.

If you refuse to communicate it to them, you will find cause in a short time to repent it!

To R[OBERT H[ARLE]Y Esq., S[peake]r to the
H[ous]e of Common]s.

These

ENG. GAR. VII.

[See p. 567.]

37

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The Memorial.

To the Knights, C[ommon]s, and B[aron]s in P[arliament assembled.

A Memorial

From the Gentlemen, freeholders, and inhabitants of the counties of in the behalf of themselves, and many thousands of

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the good People of England.

GENTLEMEN,

T WERE to be wished you were men of that Temper, and possessed of so much honour as to bear with the Truth, though it be against you especially from Us who have so much right to tell it you: but since even Petitions to you from your Masters, for such are the people who choose you, are so haughtily received, as with the committing the authors to illegal custody; you must give Us leave to give you this fair notice of your Misbehaviour without exposing our names.

If you think fit to rectify your errors, you will do well! and possibly may hear no more of Us: but if not, assure yourselves the nation will not long hide their resentments.

And though there is no stated Proceeding to bring you to your duty, yet the great law of Reason says, and all nations allow that whatever Power is above Law, it is burdensome and tyrannical; and may be reduced by extrajudicial methods. You are not above the People's resentments! They that

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Mayo: AN ABRIDGEMENT OF NATION'S GRIEVANCES. 579

1701.

made you Members, may reduce you to the same rank from whence they chose you, and may give you a taste of their abused kindness, in terms you may not be pleased with.

When the People of England assembled in Convention, presented the Crown to His present Majesty; they annexed a Declaration of the Rights of the People, in which was expressed what was Illegal and Arbitrary in the former reign, and what was claimed, as of Right, to be done by succeeding Kings of England.

In like manner, here follows, Gentlemen, a short Abridgement of the Nation's grievances, and of your illegal and unwarrantable practices; and a Claim of Right, which we make in the name of our Selves and such of the good People of England as are justly alarmed at your proceedings.

I. To raise Funds for money, and declare by borrowing clauses that whosoever advances money on those Funds, shall be reimbursed out of the next Aids, if the Funds fall short; and then [to] give subsequent Funds, without transferring the deficiency of the former, is a horrible cheat on the Subject who lent the money, a breach of Public Faith, and destructive to the honour and credit of Parliaments.

II. To imprison men who are not your own Members, by no proceedings but a Vote of your House, and to continue them in custody sine die, is Illegal, a notorious breach of the Liberty of the People, setting up a Dispensing Power in the House of Commons which your fathers never pretended to, bidding defiance to the Habeas Corpus Act which is the bulwark of personal liberty, destructive of the Laws, and betraying the Trust reposed in you. The King, at the same time, being obliged to ask you leave, to continue in custody the horrid assassinators of his person.

III. Committing to custody those Gentlemen, who, at the command of the People, whose servants you are, and in a peaceable way, put you in mind of your duty, is Illegal and injurious, destructive of the Subject's liberty of Petitioning for redress of grievances; which has, by all Parliaments

D. Defoe.

580 JACK HOWE TALKING BILLINGSGATE. [May 1701. before you, been acknowledged to be their undoubted Right.

IV. Voting a Petition from the Gentlemen of Kent insolent, is ridiculous and impertinent; because the freeholders of England are your superiors; and is a contradiction in itself, a contempt of the English Freedom, and contrary to the nature of Parliamentary Power.

V. Voting people guilty of bribery and ill-practices, and committing them as aforesaid, without bail; and then, upon submission, and kneeling to your House, discharging them, exacting exorbitant fees by your Officers, is Illegal; betraying the Justice of the Nation, selling the Liberty of the Subject, encouraging the extortion and villany of Gaolers and Officers, and discontinuing the legal prosecutions of offenders in the ordinary course of Law.

VI. Prosecuting the crime of bribery in some, to serve a Party; and then [to] proceed no further, though proof lay before you, is partial and unjust, and a scandal upon the honour of Parliaments.

VII. Voting the Treaty of Partition "fatal to Europe, because it gave so much of the Spanish dominions to the French," and not concerning yourselves to prevent their taking possession of it all; deserting the Dutch, when the French are at their doors, till it be almost too late to help them is unjust to our Treaties, and unkind to our Confederates, dishonourable to the English nation, and shew you very negligent of the safety of England and of our Protestant neighbours.

VIII. Ordering immediate hearings to trifling Petitions, to please Parties at elections; and postponing the petition of a widow for the blood of her murdered daughter without giving it a reading; is an illegal delay of justice, dishonourable to the public Justice of the nation.

IX. Addressing the King, to displace his friends upon bare surmises, before a legal trial, or an Article proved, is Illegal, inverting the Law, and making Execution go before Judge

D. Defoe. THE PRINTED VOTES PRICED AT 4D. A SHEET. 581

14 May 1701.

ment contrary to the true sense of the Law, which esteems every man a good man till something appears to the contrary.

X. Delaying proceedings upon Capital Impeachments, to blast the reputation of the persons, without proving the fact, is Illegal and oppressive, destructive of the Liberty of Englishmen, a delay of Justice and a reproach to Parliaments.

XI. Suffering saucy and indecent reproaches upon His Majesty's person to be publicly made in your House; particularly by that Impudent Scandal of Parliaments, J[OH]N H[o]w[E], without shewing such resentments as you ought to do. The said J[OH]N H[0]W[E] saying openly that "His Majesty had made a felonious Treaty, to rob his neighbours," insinuating that the Partition Treaty (which was every way as just as blowing up one man's house to save another's) "was a combination of the King to rob the Crown of Spain of its due." This is to make a Billingsgate of the House, and setting up to bully your Sovereign; contrary to the intent and meaning of the Freedom of Speech, which you claim as a right; is scandalous to Parliaments; undutiful and unmannerly, and a reproach to the whole nation.

XII. Your S[peake]r exacting the exorbitant rate of £10 per diem for the V[ote]s, and giving the Printer encouragement to raise it on the People, by selling them at 4d. a sheet, is an illegal and arbitrary exaction, dishonourable to the House, and burdensome to the People.

XIII. Neglecting still to pay the nation's debts, compounding for interest, and postponing Petitions, is Illegal, dishonourable, and destructive of the Public Faith.

XIV. Publicly neglecting the great work of Reformation of Manners, though often pressed to it by the King, to the great dishonour of GOD, and encouragement of vice; is a neglect of your Duty, and an abuse of the Trust reposed in you by GOD, His Majesty, and the People.

XV. Being scandalously vicious yourselves, both in your morals and religion, lewd in life and erroneous in doctrine,

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