THAT State or City which would preserve it self in good Order, and free from the disturbances of Ill Government, must cherish the just Im­peachments and Accusations of the People, against those who contrary to Law, through Ambition, Avarice, Pride, Cruelty, Oppression, Ex­tortion, Violation or Corruption of Law, &c. seek to destroy their Liberties, Properties and Right, which have long been a very severe Judgment over this Nation. But now by God's Mercy, the Extraordinary Goodness of Our King, and Your Great Prudence, We hope to see the many Grievances (which this Land Mourns under) redressed; Illegal proceedings punish'd; and Oppression so discoun­tenanced, that succeeding Times shall not dare to barter Justice for Gold, nor sacri­fice our Priviledges to Riot, nor truck away the Liberty of their Countrey for a little Court Holy-Water.

The Nation being thus redrest and secured against Tyranny and Oppression, &c. it will not only divert God's Judgments which hang over its head, but greatly im­prove their Riches, increase the Inhabitants, and thereby much lessen the burthen of Taxes, &c.

It cannot sure be censured as unseasonable (because always just and necessary) to remind this Honourable House, in whose power only the Remedy lies, of an eminent Inconvenience to the Nation, which is the Sale of Publick Offices; In reference to which, I shall chiefly confine my self at present to the Honourable City of Lon­don, the Envy of Europe, Rome's Terrour, England's Heart, where the Vital Spi­rits circulate, and the Grand Pattern by whose Measures smaller Corporations are apt to make their Precedents.

That which I therefore humbly offer to Consideration is, That 'tis Dishonourable and of very dangerous Consequence, to Expose publick Offices and Places to Sale. For it deflowr's the Virgin Purity of Justice by stopping the Avenues that lead to her Palace, with Mercenary Encumbrances, Exposes the Purchasers to almost inevitable [Page 2]Temptations, and gives an inlet and plausible Colour for desending Injustice, Bribery, Extortion and Oppression. But to double and treble the value, to manage them for the best advantage of the Seller, and to put him upon the Rack of Improvement too; what is it but to bespeak the unfittest Men, either through want of Honesty or Experi­ence that we can meet with, to manage these Affairs and Places in which Justice, Reason and Prudence, require the most upright and most judicious persons that can be procured.

Because the Fees of Attorney's, Clerks, Serjeants, Goalers, &c. in the Courts of London are vastly raised, through the increase of Injustice, by reason of the too fre­quent, malicious and impertinent Actions, and general Corruption among them: Yet no Magistrate ought from thence to raise the value of an unlawful Sale, because he finds a numerous sort of People thriving and doing well, by living and doing ill. And the same Reason holds against the Keepers of Prisons, who would never give such Excessive Rates for their Places; nor could they live at such an extravagant height of Pride were they not wicked Grinders of the Poor; Men that lay the whole de­sign of their Advantage upon the Calamities of the Miserable; at which the Magistrate may truly be said too too much to connive, who suffers his Coffers to be fill'd with these Golden Temptations, because he sees them cloathed so rich, and grow so Fat upon the Ruines of the Unfortunate; which is quite contrary to the Office of the true Magistrate, who ought to have a careful Eye upon the growth of Oppression, to curb and remove the Exorbitancies of Injustice, and to Sear away the proud Flesh of Ava­rice and Rapine, and not to sell Impunity to the Evil-doer. Therefore it is not to be question'd, That whoever receives Money for any publick Place, such Person does but receive a publick Bribe, which only Custom, and perhaps too common Con­nivance justifies. For never any Man, came to any Office by Money, but he was forced to exercise his Authority wickedly and unjustly▪ He that buys must sell, or he loses by the Bargain Which makes the publick Offices of London, like Briars, to which Sheep re­pairing for shelter, lose a Lock.

If an Appeal be made to Holy Scripture, there is most certainly no Learning under the Sun so Chymical, that can extract the least drop of Authority from thence, for the Sale of publick Justice or its Dependencies; but excessive penalties it may find e­nough, upon all manner of Extortion, and upon all those that connive at, and suffer it; so severely menaced, and so truly threatned by Him that never fails to perform, that nothing but a fatal Irony can excuse the contempt and neglect thereof, as if the Ears of Profit could not hear the Cries of the Poor for the thundering Noise of God's Judgments, so severely denounc'd on their behalf. However they who require more particular satisfaction, may read that Excellent Oration of the Prophet Samuel, which he made upon the Resignation of his Government.

Being thus Banished from the Commonwealth of Israel, this Tenent finds no better Entertainment among the Heathen, with whom we find these two Maxims, like two Golden Pillars supporting the most flourishing, and most Victorious Cities in the VVorld, which Aristotle hath not been a little Industrious to maintain. First, That the Sale of Offices is the greatest wrong that can be offer'd to a Commonwealth. Second­ly, That Money ought not to buy those Places, which may, nay ought to be the Reward of Virtue, and are the fittest means to supply the Necessities of Good Men. The Sale of Offices in the flourishing times of the Athenians was abominated, and by the Lacede­monidns exploded as a Crime: and the Roman Empire in its Increase and flourishing Condition, fined and punished those that sought Offices unjustly; and they then first fostred Dissention among themselves, and their own Destruction, when they brook'd so patiently the Sardonic Scoff of Jugurth, All things at Rome are to be had for Money.

Certainly, the Persian Cambyses had been too severe, when he flead one of his Judges for Extortion, had he sold him his Place, much more had he farm'd it to him at a rack Rent: Nor can we believe the same Judge's Son would have given an ex­acted sum to sit upon his Father's Skin, which he was forc'd to receive for his Cushi­on, being placed in his Father's Room, to terrifie him from the same Offence, which the King then told him would deserve the same Punishment.

I might here repeat more of History, but my design is not Prolixity. To ascend then from History to Reason, we meet with a Thesis fairly bordering upon the Law of Nature, as undeniable as Truth it self; That there is nothing arms a Purchaser [Page 3]with a more confident defence of his unjust Dealings, than Money given for an Em­ployment. It makes him that he blushes not to be accused of Rigor and Extortion, to be arraigned for Violence, nor values he the Frowns of Magistracy, while with a daring Forehead he is able to upbraid his Superiour, telling him, he had not his Place for Nothing, but paid soundly for it, and therefore hopes he shall not be debarr'd from making the best Advantage of what he has purchas'd at so dear a Rate. A Thing so obvious, that reprove him never so sharply, never so severely, it seems Collusive and meerly Combination, so little does it signifie. For turn him out of Pos­session, and the Succeeding Chapman is discouraged. Nor does the Judge himself escape the smutty censure of Self-Interest and Partiality, that he only removes the old One in hopes of a better bargain from a Successor, that must be worse because he gives more for it. Here Justice may be said to be throughly Blind, while the Seller and Abetter throw away the Vail of Impartiality, and press down their Eyelids with their own Fingers. Thus, First rate Offences, Misdemeanours of the upper Form, must be conniv'd at and palliated, for fear of spoiling the Market. As for Peccadilloes, and petty Oppressions, they are little or not at all regarded. Yet these are the little Ver­mine that insensibly devour the Poor and Needy, that have most need of Succour. VVhat is the difference between the Canker that indiscernably consumes, and the de­structive speed of Aqua Fortis? They both destroy: But the Canker far more in­sensibly, as being less attended by the hand of Care and Preservation. A Misde­meanour of Three Hundred Pound makes a great Noise; yet proves perhaps but singly fatal, when the same Sum divided into Crown Rapines shall destroy as many indi­vidual necessitous Families, impoverished before and altogether helpless, without creating any other sounds but those of neglected Lamentations. So that the Sale of such Offices is positively against the Tenth Commandment; as also against the several Laws of the Land (as hereafter will appear). For what greater Injury can a man do his Neighbour, than to deprive him of the greatest Right that is due to him? To debar him of that Justice which ought to be afforded him in his Extremity? And not only in this manner to injure his Neighbour, but his poor Neighbour too, the particular Client of God himself? For remedy of which the Supreme Legislator made no Law, but fre­quent Admonitions, as if Man could not be guilty of so great an Impiety as to rob the Spittle, which is an accumulated Murther. It is injurious to him that sells: for how can he reach forth his hand to receive the free boons of Mercy from the God of Pity and Compassion, while polluted with the Price of Rapine, Violence and Injury?

The Sale of the Keepers Places of Ludgate, Newgate, with the Compters, &c. and the unexpressible extravagant Extortion they make thereby, brings me to urge this Mat­ter a little closer; which are at Who gives most? An hainous Demand in the Barter of those Shops of Cruelty! A strange piece of absurd Severity! To sell the Freedom of a Captive; An Usurpation certainly beyond Law (to sell that little Liberty which the Law has left a Prisoner) to the disposal of a Turnkey. The Law makes him a Cap­tive to his Creditor, and the Magistrate afterwards surrenders him up for Money a Slave to his worse than Argier-Keeper? Shall the Publick Houses built at the Cities Charge be sold for private Lucre? So that every Room in a prison becomes a shop of Barbarism and Arbitrary Power, where the chief Basha of Iniquity Exercises an in­humane Tyranny, and squeezes the very Faeces and Caput Mortuum of a perish'd E­state as long as the least drop will come, by the same Art as they fetch Oyl out of Bricks; first heating the poor Prisoner in the Fire of his threatning Indignation, and then quenching him again in the sweet show of a little Favour, while any moisture of Gain appears.

Here then lies the force of the Dilemma; Either a Prisoner for Debt may be injured in Prison, or not. Either the Injuries repeated, are Injuries, or none. If the Ne­gative be allow'd; then all that has been already said has been to no purpose, and Holy Writ might have been more sparing of its Exhortations. If the Affirmative be asserted, then he that sells a Goaler's Place, &c. sells the Liberty, the Estate, the Person, nay, the very Lives of the Prisoners under his Jurisdiction, seeing that through the Cruelty of their Keepers so many poor people have been stript to their naked Skins, and when all was gone, have been suffocated in Holes and Dungeons, to the loss of many of their Lives, Dishonour of our Nation, and Scandal of the Chri­stian Religion.

But the Civil Law, to which our own has nothing repugnant, informs us in the very words of that great Lawyer Ʋlpian, That a Prison is a place of Restraint, and not of Punishment. That a Prison, where there is Hunger and Thirst is no Prison, but a place of Torture. That no severe or bad Usage is there to be admitted, where the Person in debt remains, not as a Slave, but only as a pledge and security for the Creditor's satisfaction. For which reason the Emperour Honorius affirmed, that it was the principal Duty of a Judge, to be frequently inform'd by the prisoners them­selves of the state of their Captivity, that no Office of Humanity might be wanting to men lockt up in Confinement. And so merciful were those Times, that if a prisoner died in Prison, the Law presum'd it the fault of the Keeper, who was not to deny either Food or Bedding to the person in Custody.

But purchas'd Cruelty is now grown so bold, that if poor Men pay not Extortio­nary Fees and rack't Chamber-rent, they shall be crouded into Holes and Common­sides, to be devour'd by Famine, Lice and Diseases. Which being so undeniable, I appeal to the Tribunal of Justice it self, by what Law, or by what Authority, not claiming under the bad Title of Illegal Custom, any Sheriff, who is the immediate Goaler himself, and ought to receive the Custody of the Prisoner Gratis, can so un­kindly presume to sell the Deputation of any Man's Liberty and Life to the Comptrol of sordid and imperious Avarice.

I would fain know, by what surmise of Common Sense a Keeper of a Prison, can de­mand a Recompence or Fee from a Prisoner for detaining him in Prison? There is an Admission-Fee, he cries. Alas! How is man fallen from the Image of God and his Rea­son, to believe that any Person can deserve a Reward for only opening the door of Mise­ry and Destruction to annoy his Neighbour and common Friend? For being so kind as to admit him into the horrid Grave of Imprisonment? There is a Dis-mission Fee too, but this altogether as absurd, to demand Money for letting him go that the Law has set free; for opening the Door to let him out of Custody whom the Receiver ought not to detain. For his Care in the Interim, let them pay him that set him at work. The Prisoner is no way beholding to him for his Care: for 'tis that which he desires to be without. There­fore saies the Civil Law in this Case, if there be any thing due to a Keeper, it is due from the Creditor, whose duty it is to afford Nourishment and other Supports of Life to him whom he keeps in Prison; and therefore the Keeper might refuse to take the Prisoner into Custody, till he had bargain'd with the Creditor for the Prisoner's Main­tenance, as may be observed out of the Antient Volumns of the most Learned Civili­ans. But now such is the Confidence of a Purchaser, that to regain his purchase Mo­ney, and maintain himself and his Family besides in Luxury, Pride and Idleness, he sells his Taphouse at prodigious Rates; so that where poor men ought to have best and cheapest, they have the worst in Quality, and the smallest in Quantity, which makes the price excessive. He Farms his Beds to meer Harpies, and his great Key to such pieces of imeprious Cruelty as are the worst of Mankind. And it is a shame to repeat the daily Insolencies and Indignities, which the Prisoners and their Friends are forc'd to receive at their hands. But see, I pray! whither will not lewd Prece­dents at last lead us? It will perhaps be thought impertinent to dispute a Goalers de­mands for admitting us into his loathsome Mansions, when even the Common Hang­man, no doubt encouraged by such Examples, will scarce give a Malefactor a Cast of his Office without a Bribe, demands very formally his Fees, forsooth, of the Per­son to be executed, and higgles with him too as nicely as if he were going to do him some mighty kindness.

There be those that say the Dignity of the City Magistrate is by the Sale of Offices supported. But with what dishonour do these Men revile the City, and the Magi­strates of the City, at the same time? For so careful is the City to elect Men of E­states proportionable to there Dignity, that there is no need of any sinister Assistance to maintain the City Grandeur. No ill got Gains, but Mercy, Justice and upright Prudence, are the Supports of a City. Is it not a goodly sight to see the Tears of the Poor, congealed by a Frost of neglected Charity and Injustice into a Pearl, glittering in the Ears of such or such a Lady? To behold the Scarlet of the Receiver's Magi­stracy died with the Blood of helpless Innocents, or the purchase of Extortion? To [Page 5]see one of the Chief Punishers of Iniquity drinking Healths of forgetful plenty in Four Hundred Pound Goblets, the price of his own Infamy, and a Serjeant's Roguery? Such sights as these perhaps we can only by Conjecture ghess at, but the All-seeing Eye of Heaven beholds all these Blind Bargains, and it is the same thing whether the Accompt fall heavy on the Receiver or his Offspring.

London is a City whose Government deservedly challenges the Preeminence of any City now flourishing throughout the Universe. Rome the Mistress of the World could not Conquer her self; but oftentimes lay weltring in the Blood of her own Citi­zens; nor could she hinder her own streets from being the Stage, whereonso many dismal Tragedies of Intestine Discord were Acted. Hear the reason from the Words of one of her own Poets.

But London has been bless'd with such a continued Calm of Peace for so many Cen­turies of Years, that never any City yet enjoy'd. Is it not great pity that so harmoni­ous a piece of Politick Government should be disturb'd and disorder'd by violent Usurpation? Rome was only rich with the prey of Rapine, wealthy in the Trophies of successful Ambition: But London shines a famous Pile, Opulent in the Gains of honest Industry. Rome, the Mart of War and Slaughter, London, Caesar's Nobile Emporium. But damn up the Current of her Meum and Tuum, sell her seats of Ju­stice, and how will all her splendor be Eclips'd? Rome had only the dim Lamps of Morality, the obscure Lights of sententious Epicurism and Stoicism to guide and in­struct her: But London enjoys the most Orient Beams, the most unclouded Sunshine of Divine Truth and Doctrine. I am unwilling to urge it any farther. Rome was a City, than which there was none in the World more careful to relieve the poverty of her Citizens, of which in the times of her Innocence she had many. No question but in London there are many Good Men that unavoidably fall to decay: Where could the City bestow her places more Honourably than upon such? What could the City speak more Magnificent in History, than to boast that the very Train of her Magistracy was sufficient to support the chiefest and choicest of her decay'd Members, content with the Lawful and Modest Gains of their Employments? But on the contra­ry what more dishonourable than to sell her poor Citizens to be Dilaniated and Ma­cerated by the hand of Injustice, and for Money to make slaughterhouses and shambles of her Houses of Restraint? For a City so fairly deckt with the precious Jewels of Freedom and Priviledge to sell the last remains of a Prisoners Comfort?

This Honourable House therefore being thus truly inform'd of these Abuses, has from hence sufficient Grounds to make a farther Inspection into these crying Enormi­ties. And from whence can we expect Redress, but from those Noble and Worthy Patriots, who have already made so fair a progress toward a thorough Reformation of the past Miscarriages of a Corrupt and Arbitrary Government. And indeed it would be a Crime to think that They who sit with such a steady resolution to re-esta­blish the long neglected Order of Law and Justice, will omit the utter Eradicating of whatever their Great Wisdoms shall judge pernicious to their Grand Design. So that it would be a high breach of Manners to press the farther Consideration of this affair to this August Assembly, otherwise than by laying before your Honours a short view of those Laws already in force against the Sale of Offices, wherein is also contain'd a recital of the Laws against the Sale of Publick Offices already provided by our Ancestors, as also of the Jaylors and other Officers Fees, with their several Duties to the Prisoners. Which though so strongly penn'd, have hitherto, through the prevailing power of Cor­ruption and Injustice, been little or not at all regarded.

Licensed, May 14, 1689.