Reasons humbly offer'd against the bill entituled An act for the sale of the forfeited estates This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription B09847 of text N24623 in the English Short Title Catalog. Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 5KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2018 B09847 Wing R525D ESTC N24623 ocm 62369621

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this text, in whole or in part. Please contact project staff at eebotcp-info(at)umich.edu for further information or permissions.

 Early English books online text creation partnership. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 2, no. B09847) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 188104) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English Books, 1641-1700 ; 2855:16) Reasons humbly offer'd against the bill entituled An act for the sale of the forfeited estates 1 sheet ([1] p.). s.n., [S.l. : 16--?] Caption title. Date of publication suggested by Wing (2nd ed.). Reproduction of original in: Sutro Library.

Header created with script mrcb2eeboutf.xsl on 2016-01-28.

Manually keyed and coded text linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines available at TCP web site (http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/docs/)

 eng England and Wales. -- Parliament -- Early works to 1800. Estates (Law) -- England -- Early works to 1800. Broadsides -- England -- 17th century. eebo Reasons humbly offer'd against the bill, entitled, An act for the sale of the forfeited estates. n/a 1690 3 863 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2014-07 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2014-08 Sampled and proofread 2014-08 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2015-03 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion
REASONS HUMBLY OFFER'D Against the BILL , Entituled , An ACT for the Sale of the Forfeited Estates .

BY this Bill the Commissioners are empower'd to summon all Persons whatsoever ; which Words are so general , that Peers are not exempted .

The Penalty for not appearing is 40 l. and the Party is to be Imprison'd till Payment thereof .

Whoever appears , and refuses to be examin'd upon Oath , is to be Imprison'd till he submits to such Examination .

That the Peers should be subjected to such Summons , Penalty , Examination , and Imprisonment upon Neglect or Refusal , is contrary to a Fundamental Rule of the Common Law , which allows no Capias against a Peer , and guards him from being imprisoned for any Debt , or Sum of Money .

And besides , the very Jurisdiction of the House of Lords is infringed by this Bill .

Our antient and known Constitution makes them the Dernier Resort ; but this Bill makes the Judgment of the Delegates final , without any Appeal to the House of Peers .

As the Jurisdiction of the Commissioners will be extraordinary , so will the Nature of the Evidence , upon which they determine Claims , be very unequal .

The Witnesses , who swear to support a Claim , are to be lyable to the Punishments of Perjury ; but they are not so , who swear against it . What Perjury , what Oppression this my produce , may rather be imagin'd than express'd .

Another Hardship upon the Claimants is , that the Commissioners may refuse all Affidavits relating to the Title , tho' made even before the Judges in London .

But had they been bound to take Affidavits made before the Judges as Evidence , yet that wou'd not have been sufficient to have prevented great Injustice being done ; for the Forfeited Estates lying at such a Distance as Lancashire , Durham , and Northumberland , many of the Witnesses for the Claimants may be uncapable , thro' Age and Infirmity , to come up to London to make such Affidavits , or to be examin'd viva Voce .

This Bill is likewise prejudicial to innocent Reversioners , where the forfeiting Persons are barely Tenants for Life , without any Power to commit Waste ; for tho' the Reversioner hath duly enter'd and justly recover'd his Claim , yet , doubtless , the Purchasers of the Estates for Life having but an uncertain Term , will be tempted to commit Waste to harrass both the Land and Tenants , to the great Loss of the Reversioner .

And farther ; Joynturesses , Protestant-Mortgagees , Annuitants , and several honest innocent Creditors , have already suffer'd too much ; for tho' two Years Rents have been already receiv'd from the Estates out of which they claim , and they have been so long kept from their Debts and Subsistance , yet this Bill makes them no Compensation , nor does it provide for their being reimburs'd the Charges of Prosecuting their just Claims .

Nay , the Protestant-Mortgagees , whose Securities have been thus impaired , are , when they are put into Possession , to remain Perpetual Bailiffs to the Estates , since they have not by this Bill , Liberty to foreclose .

Over and above all these Hardships , there is One which affects every Body , who hath any Claim before the Commissioners .

The Publick has provided a handsome Allowance for the Commissioners , and those employed under them , and for all incident Charges ; and yet their Officers have exacted exorbitant Fees , and no Care is taken in this Bill to prevent that Grievance .

When an Act passed in the Reign of King Charles the Second , for Determining Differences about Re-building London , ( after the Fire ) none but the Judges were thought proper to compose the Judicature ; and those Great Men , the then Lord Keeper Bridgman , and Chief Justice Hales , who drew the Act , inserted a Clause to fix the Fees .

If such Care was then thought necessary , sure it is so now , when many of the Claimants are indigent Persons , nay Infants , who are so far from being able to bear a great Expence in Prosecuting their Right , that they are now destitute even of Subsistance .

To conclude ; It may without any Reflection upon the present Commissioners , be humbly presumed , that the Judges , who are Persons of known Integrity and Learing , Men skilled in the Prerogative Law , and conversant with all Matters relating to Forfeitures , and as skilful in Discovering Frauds , are as fit as the Commissioners to be erected into a Judicature to determine in a summary Way these Claims , reserving an Appeal from their Judgments to the House of Lords .

All which is humbly submitted .

REASONS HUMBLY OFFER'D Against the BILL , Entiled , An act for the SALE of the Forfeited Estates .