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THere is a Book newly put forth by Mr. Stubbe, intituled, A Letter to an Officer, &c. which in brief comes to this, That he would have a select Senate for Life, consisting of In∣dependents, Anabaptists, Fifth Monarchy-men and Quakers; for which he is pleased to quote Deut. 23. that he would have all such as adhered unto the Parliament against Sir G. Booth, to be inrolled as the people of England: That he would
have all the rest of the people of England to be Holo••••, Gi∣be••niter or Paysams. This Book I have read; and I have heard a Tale of one; who, to get something, pretended the shewing of a strange Bea••••, an Horse and no Horse, with the Tayl standing where the Head should stand: which when all came to all, was a Mare, with her Tayl ty'd to the Manger; the lively Emblem of an Oligarchy. Mr. Stubbe pretending to shew his Learning, takes those things (as it were changing the sex of them) which I have written, and in his writings turns their tails unto the Manger. Now this, as to the un∣learned Reader, is that upon which it is to no purpose to move any controversie; and as to the learned, I need no more then appeal, whether in their proper stables, or in the best Authors, the heads of them stand, as I have set them, or the tails as Mr. Stubbe hath set them. Only let me say, That as to a select Senate (understanding thereby a Senate not elected by the people) there is no more of this in all story, then the Senate of Rome only. Whence it is undeni∣able by any man of common understanding, that a select Senate bringeth in a select interest, that a select interest causeth feud between that select interest, and the common interest, and so between the Senate and the popular Assem∣bly; which coal in England it is fitter for such as Mr. Stubbe and his Patrons to blow, then for such as understand story, Government, or common honesty. But their Reasons who decry the possibility or plausibility of such Acts or Orders as these, it pleaseth him to call high Rodomontado's. Now which are the higher Rodomontado's, these, or those which he useth in flourishing the Justitia of Anagon, (a patch in a Monar∣chy, which his design is to translate by a select Senate, in∣to a Commonwealth) I leave any man to judge, even by the testimony of his own Authour Blanca, and in a place ci∣ted by himself, though not so well rendered. Our ancestors (saith Blanca) have three ways secured our liberties; by the Justitia, by the great POWER of the Ricos hombres (now he speaks) and by the priviledge of the union. The first was a civil and forensick curb (a gown) the second was a domestick, and more restraining one (I think so the purse, and thence the
power) the third popular and warlike, an excellent Militia, Now let any man say, even after Blanca, if without the No∣bility, in whom was the balance of this Monarchy; and their retainers and dependants, of which consisted the Militia, this Court of the poor Gown-man called Justitia, must not have been a very likely thing to restrain a Prince; or consi∣der whether without this same Mummery of the Arragoni∣ans, Houses of Peers and of Commons in other Monarchies, have not every whit as much restrained their Kings, and more, seeing this toy (as at every election of the Magistrate called Justitia, it received not breath but from a King) was blown away by a King. His other instances, as the thirty six Curators of the Publick appointed unto Lewis the eleventh of France, by the three Estates, and the twenty five select Peers, given unto King John of England, were like shifts, and had less effect. Security in Government must be from entireness of form; and entireness of form, must be from soundness or rightness of foundation. But Mr. Stubbe founding himself upon the Authority of Aristotle, That the Western parts are not capable of a right Commonwealth, is declaredly for a wrong Commonwealth in England. He minds not, that Venice, for the capacity, is a righter Commonwealth then was ever any in Greece; nor that the present State of England, is of a far different, if not a quite contrary nature to that of the We∣stern parts, in the time of Aristotle.