THAT State or City which would keep it's self in good Order and free from Ruine, must cherish the just Impeachments, and Accusations of the People, against those who contrary to Law through Ambition, Avarice, Pride, Cruelty, Oppression, Violation, Extortion or Cor­ruption, &c. seeks to destroy their Liberties Properties and Right; and though after an unwelcome and unexpected Desolution of our Wise State Physitions; yet, by God's Mercy, goodness of our King, and Prudence of a Parliament to as­semble at Oxford; we hope to see an unseperable Union betwixt his Majesty and his People, and the many grievances (which this Land Mourns under) redressed; illegal proceedings punisht; and Oppression so discountenanced that succeeding Times shall not dare to Barter Justice for Gold, nor Sacrifice our Priviledges to Riot, not truck away the Liberty of their Country for a little Court Holy Water.

The Nation being redress't and secured against Tyranny and Oppression, &c. will never seek after other Liberty, but rejoyce under his most Sacred Majesty, and Ho­nourable Parliament. It cannot sure be censured as unseasonable (because always just and necessary) to remind (for I presume not to instruct) those in whose power the remedy lies, of an eminent inconvenience to the Publick, which is the Sale of Offices; concerning which, I shall chiefly refer my discourse 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 sinaller Corporations are apt to make their Presidents.

That which I offer to consideration is, That 'tis dishonourable and of very ill consequence to expose Publick Offices and Places to Sale. For it deflow'rs the Vir­gin purity of Justice by stoping the Avenues that lead to her Pallace, with Merce­nary [Page 2]encumbrances, exposes the Purchasers to almost inevitable Temptations, and gives an inlet and plausible Colour for defending Injustice, Bribary, 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, the greatest Knaves or Fools, that we can meet with, to manage these Affairs and Places in which Justice, Reason and Prudence, require the Honestest and most upright Persons that can be procured.

Because the Fees of the Atturnies Clarks, Sarjeants, Goalers, &c. in the Courts of London have increas'd, 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 sort of People thriving and doing well, by living and doing ill. And the same reason holds against the Keepers of Prisoners, who would never give such ex­cessive Rates for their Places; 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 Magistrates are supposed too too much to connive, who suffer their Cof­fers to be fill'd with these Golden temptations, because he sees them cloathed so Rich, and and grow so sat 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 seare 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, but infallibly asserted, That whoever receives Money for any Place, whereof the Sale is not to be warrented, does but re­ceive a Publick Bribe, which only custome, and perhaps too common connivance justifies. For never any Man, saith Tacitus, ever came to any Office by Money, but he was forced to exercise his Authority wickedly and unjustly. He that buys must sell, or he looses by the Bargain. Which makes the Pubilck Offices of London, like Bry­ers to which Sheep repair for shelter, loose 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 it's Dependancies; but excessive Penalties it may find enough upon all manner of Extortion and upon all those that connive at, & suffer It; so severely menaced, and so truly threatned by him, that never sails to perform, that nothing but a fatal Irony can excuse the contempt and neglect thereof, as if the Ears of the profit could not hear the cries of the Poor for the thundring noise of God's judg­ments; to severely denounc'd on their behalf. However they who require more particular satifaction, may read that excellent Oration of the Prophet Samuel, which he made upon the resignation of his Government.

Being thus banished from the Common-wealth 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 World, 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 mony ought not to buy those Places, which may, nay ought to be the reward of Virtue, and are the sittest means to supply the necessities of good Men. The Sale of Offices in the flourishing Times of the Athenians was abomina­ted, and by the Lacedemonians expleded as a Crime: And the Roman Empire in its increase and flourishing condition, Fined and Punish'd those that sought Offices In­justly; and they then first bred dissention among themselves, and their own destru­ction when they brook'd so patiently the Sardoni scoff bf Jugurth, All things at Rome, are to be had for Money.

Certainly, the Persian Cambyses had been too severe, when he Flea'd 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 Judges Son would have given an exacted Sum to sit upon his Father's Skin, which he was forc'd to receive for his Cushin 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; unless any one should be so Hardy as to deny the Truth of what is here set down, or otherwise at­tempt to shadow and be smear this Truth with Varnish of self-designing Rhetorick, [Page 3]or Logical distinctions. Nor can he be other than some contentious or interested Person, who will oppose the experienc'd Precedents of so many Wise, Illustrious, and Potent Law-givers.

To rise 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 with a more confident defence of his unjust dealings, than Money given for an Imployment. It makes him that he blushes not to be accused of Rigour 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 debar'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 Commination, so little does it signifie. For turn him out of Possession, and the succeeding Chapman is discouraged. Nor does the Judg himself scape the sinutty 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 Abbetter 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 Peccadillo's, and petty Oppressions, they are little or not at all regarded: Yet these are the little Vermin that insensibly devour the poor and needy, that have most need of succour, What is the difference between the Canker that undiscernibly con­sumes, and the destructive speed of Aqua fortis? They both destroy: But the Can­ker far more 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 Half-crown-Rapines shall destroy as many individual necessitous Families, impoverish'd 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 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 Chart 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 Spital, 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 pitty and compassion, while polluted with the price of Rapine, vio­lence and injury?

The Sale of the Keeper's place of Ludgate, Newgate, with the Connters, &c. brings me to urge this Text a little closser, and if I am not unhappy to beleive re­port, they were at Who gives most? A hainous demand in the Barter of those Shops of Cruclty! A strange piece of absurd severity! To sell the freedome 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 Majestrate afterwards surrenders him up for Money, a Slave to his worse than Argier-keeper? Shall the Publick Houses builtat the City's charge be sold for private Lucre? So that every Room in a Prison becomes a Shop of Barbar­ism and Arbitary Power, where the Chief Bashaw of iniquity exercises an Inhumane Ty­ranny, and squeezes thevery Faeces and Caput Mortum of a perish'd Estate as long as the least drop will [...]ome, by the same Art as they setch 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 Goalers Place, &c. sells the Liberty, the Estate, the Person, nay, the very Lives of the Prisoners under his Jurisdiction, seeing that [Page 4]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 Christan 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 Creditors 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 dyed 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 a poor Man pay not Extor­tionary Fees and rackt; Chamber-Rent, he shall be thrown 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 Custome, any Sherriff 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 Mans Liberty and Life to the con­troul of for did and imperious Avarice.

I would fain know, for it is a Secret in Nature not to me yet reveal'd, by what surmize of common sence 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 areward, 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 Dimission-Fee too; but this altogether as absurd, to demand Mony 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 beholden to him for his Care: For 'tis that which he desires to be without. Therefore sayes 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 Prisoners maintenance, as may be observed out of the Antient Volumes of the most Learned Civilians. But now such is the confi­dence of a Purchaser, that to regain his Sum expended, he sells his Tap-House at pro­digious Rates; So that where poor Men ought to have best and cheapest, they have the worst in qnality, and the smallest in quantity, which makes the price excessive. He Farms his Sheets to meer Harpies, and his great Key to such a peice of imperious cruelty, as is 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 fee, I pray! Whether will not lewd Presidents 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 Malefacter a cast of his Office without a Bribe, demands very formerly his Fees, forsooth, of the Person to be Executed, and higgles with him as nicely as if he were going to do him some mighty kind­ness.

As to the Civil Government of a Prison, no Argument perswades me to believe, that a Deputy Master is any way useful, otherwise than to see that the Prisoners be secur'd, well provided for and lookt after, as appears by the very Order of Ludgate, where the Prisoners taking their turns of Authority among themselves, far more patiently endure a Domestick, than a Forreign subjection: So that a Master Keeper, the meer Fungus and Toad-stool of a Sherrisss Authority, ought to find some better way to improve the blessing of his Inheritance, than by exposing it to the hazzard of Divine vengeance. There be those that say, the Dignity of the City Magistrate is here­by [Page 5]by 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 their 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 be hold the Scarlet of the Re­ceiver's Majistracy dyed with the blood of helpless innocents, or the Purchase of Extortion? To 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 Sergeants Roguery? Such sights as these perhaps we can only by conjecture guess 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.

The disposal of Goalers Places, and especially the Keepers Place of Ludgate, &c. In the trust whereof the Rich and Honest, not the Needy, and dissolute Designers of Prosit are to be imploy'd, is an Affair to be debated with a tender and charitable consideration, in which Prisons the poor enjoy (or at least ought to do) many Priviledges bestow'd upon them by the Piety of many good Men deceas'd, which are rather to be rescued from past injuries, than to be buried in the ruines of private Interest; nor are the Ashes of the Dead slightly to be disturb'd by oppressive inno­vation.

Seeing then the Common Council of the City of London, who are the Representa­tives of the People of the City, have interpos'd their Just Authority to stop the Pro­gress of so great a clamour to Heaven, as the Sale of Publick Offices, and the Voice of the Just People is the Voice of God, those Men are chiefly to take care how they stop their Ears against that Sacred Sound, whom private advantage leads to make opposi­tion against the same, lest in the day of their own calamity, they cry for Mercy in vain. 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, whereon so many dismal Tragedies of intenstine Discord were Acted. Hear the Reason from the Words of One of her own Poets.

But London has been Bless't with such a continued Calm of Peace for so many Centuries of Years, that never any City yet enjoy'd, so exactly has the perpetual Motion of its Authority in most other things been hitherto pois'd. Were it not great pitty that so harmonious a piece of Politick Government should be now 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 Dam up the Current of her Meum & Tu­um, sell her Seat of Justice, and how will all her splendor be Eclipst; 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 further. Rome was a City, than which there was none in the World more care­full to relieve the Poverty of her Citizens, of which in the Times of her Innocencie she had many. No question but in London there are many good Men that unavoida­bly fall to dacay: 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 Dilainated and Macerated by the hand of Injustice, and for Money to make Slaughter-Houses and Shambles of her Houses of Restraint? For a City so fair­ly deckt with the pretious Jewels of Freedome and Priviledge, to sell the last remains [Page 6]of a Prisoners comfort? They then who have timely consider'd of these things, may well be encourag'd not to flinch from the maintainance of their most Noble enterpri­zes: For it is the duty of every one that possesses a corresponding Talent, to af­ford all the Arms of prevailing Arguments to active power, while employ'd in the Defence of Right and Truth, or he is a Betrayer thereof. This is no effect of Facti­ous Turbulancy, no Disturbance of the Civil Government, but rather a means to ce­ment and strengthen it with the sorce of Right understanding. Morality may Err, and the Pomp of Honour may prove forgetful; he then that only admonishes, and tells where such Errors may prove inconvenient, cannot, for that, be thought to have the less Reverence for his Superiors, or the smaller value for Authority: Ra­ther is he to be accounted the Cities Friend, since he Breaths nothing but what tends to its preservation, and with an unbyast reality desires the increase of its renown, as much as he that with the most Cordial Motives of Interest wishes and prays for its well­fare.