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the Exchequer, but Guildhall, to be issued thence by certayn Lords and Commons named in the Act. I can
not deny but, reading this, to have beene startled at it,
and then agayn to have beene confirmed in my opinion
our purses would bee shreudly searched. I rememberd to
have seene many Petitions in Parlyament,1 ye the
members
might not bee Assessors nor Controullersof what they
gave, but never any one to inable them to meddle wth a
peny of ye guift; neither did they take upon them, at a
tyme too the Parlyament was high enough,2 the rewarding
their owne Clark or other, but by petitioning the
King to doe it. Wee doe easily submit, in. poynt of arbiterment,
to an other's judgment what will bee fit for us
to give a third; but few will oblige themselfs to stand
to what one thinks fit to receive himself. And whereas
the Ephori in Greece, the Tribuns in Home, the Curatores
in England (as Mat. Westminster seemes to call
them),3 did grapple to themselves what made their power
insupportable, and proved in ye end their mine, so I confesse
I apprehended the howse of Commons might grow
no lesse burthensome to the people of this nation.
9. And heere (if I may bee permitted to digresse a
little) I dare boldly affirme in the auntient way of supplying
the Prince by Parlayment truely followed, there is
the least possibylity of hurt to ensue to any particular
person, and ye most advantage to ye publick of any constitution
of State tyme did ever produce. The Commons (wthout whom no law is) beeing trusted wth the
Kingdome's
purse, not to expend it themselves (for then their
aymes might bee sometymes extravagant, and they too
lavish in their expences), but to give it an other, who by
sworn officers did distribute it in ye kingdome's service,
so as the guift comes absolutely to the Prince's Coffers wth
1
Rot.Parl .22 Ed. III. No.24; 45 Ed.III. No.43; 13 Hen. IV. No. 10;
2 Ric. II. at West., No. 51; 6 Hen. IV. No. 9, with divers more.—T.
2 Rot. Parl. 11 Rich. II. No. 21; vide 21 Ric. II. No,
76.—T.
3 Mat. West., anno 1245, p. 330-28,—T,
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