andS. X. Auall. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



115 



This answer is signed by Popham and Coke, and 

 seems to show that at an earlier period he enter- 

 tained opinions still more strongly in favour of the 

 prerogative than he did when he gave his quali- 

 fied assent to tlie imposition on currants. 



These facts and arguments seem to me to prove 

 that the men who led the government into an 

 illegal and unconstitutional course, did it with 

 honest intentions, and without any idea of the 

 true nature of their proceedings. 



S. R. Gardiner. 



The author of this argument was Sir James 

 Whitelock, well-known for his work upon plurali- 

 ties, the MS. of which I have now before me, in 

 addition to his Liber Famelicus. The cause of 

 the king's displeasure was in Whitelock's op- 

 position in parliament to the king's impositions 

 without their assent; and who presaged boldly 

 " the ill that afterwards befell him " in acting 

 upon the advice of his Attorney-Generals, Noy in 

 England and Davies in Ireland ; and to the latter 

 alone must be attributed entirely the great mis- 

 take committed by that monarch (Charles I.) in 

 attempting under this illegal form of taxation to 

 raise money for his own purposes. 



In order to set the matter at rest, I have in my 

 collections a very ancient original MS. dedicated 

 " To the Kings most excellent Maiestie," of which 

 the following is the title : — 



"An Argument upon the Questions of Impositions, 

 Divided and digested into Sundry Chapters. By S"" John 

 Davies Knight Serjeant at h&w, his Ma" Attorney Gene- 

 rail and of his learned Councell for the Kingdom of Ire- 

 land. Qui vectigal vectigal, cui tributum tributum." 



The dedication to the king states : — 

 " This question in laying impositions uppon Merchan- 

 dizes ought not to have beene made or moved at all ; 

 howbeit being it hath been stirred and debated in Parlia- 

 ment, it is now become an Argument of such dignity and 

 Importance as the best able amongst your servants 

 learned in the law may well imploye their best learning 

 in the discussing thereof: ffor my part though I find 

 myselfe unable to handle this noble question as the 

 weight and worthiness thereof requireth, yet have I 

 uppon sondrye occasions, arising in the course of my ser- j 

 vice collected such Notes, and drawne together such ma- j 

 terialls as may bee of usejn the building of a fortresse in j 

 the defence of this prerogative. And sure I am that if 

 yo'^ maiestie will vouchsafe to cast yo'' eye uppon theis ! 

 coUeccons, that yo' judgement will make a far better use | 

 and applicacon thereof then I who haue gathered the 

 same can possibly doe. Theis little sparkes of knowledge 

 being taken into yo'' maiesties consultation will instantly 

 multiplie and rise into a flame, and so give a great light 

 for the clearing of this question. This learning wch in 

 my hands is but a spade, in yo"^ Maieties hand will 

 become a scepter. I haue onely like the poore Indian 

 digged upp the Oare Myne wch being brought into the 

 King's Mynt and refined there becomes part of the Royall 

 Treasure. 



" ' Ornari res ipsa negat contenta doceri.' 



The best light I can give it is * Lucidus Ordo ' by breaking 

 it into ' Capita rerum,' and casting it into a playne and 



natural method. It is somewhat long and in Multiloquio 

 non deest peccatum, saith Solomon — It is also mixt with 

 some reasons of state wherein a Comon lawyer may 

 easily make a Soelesisme : yet such as it is, my zeale to 

 advance your Maiesties service hath moved mee to pre- 

 sent to yo"^ Ma*'"', with all humbleness and with some 

 hope that theis dutifuU paines shall purchase a pardon for 

 the errors therein comitted 



" By yo'' Ma'' unprofitable 



" Servant and humble Subiect 



" Jo: Dauies." 



This MS is divided into thirty-two chapters, 

 and is written upon a hundred leaves on both sides 

 save the fourth page, the dedication being pre- 

 fixed to the title ; the paper on which it is written 

 has a water-mark of a crescent upon an Italian 

 urn. The blaze of light thus then unhappily 

 struck very shortly afterwards fed the flames of 

 civil discord, which ended in that unfortunate and 

 ill-advised monarch's losing not only his crown 

 but his life, and eventually his family the throne 

 of this kingdom. 



May it therefore still prove indeed a beacon 

 which should not soon be lost sight of, and that 

 by Sir John Davies Charles I. was led to com- 

 mit this great mistake in the question of imposi- 

 tions without the sanction and autiiority of his 

 parliament, which Warwick, Hampden, Sidney, 

 Pym, and others so resolutely and successfully 

 opposed. J. W. Pycroft. 



[This work by Sir John Davies was published in 1656, 

 entitled The Question concerning Impositions, Tonnage, 

 Poundage, Customs, §-c. fully stated and argued from 

 Keason, Law, and Policy : dedicated to King James in 

 the latter end of his reign. By Sir John Davies, His then 

 Majesties Attourney Generall. Lond. J65G, 8vo. Carte 

 (^Hist. of England, iv. 191.) appears to have seen the- 

 original MS. of this treatise in the author's handwriting ; 

 but from his transcript of a passage there is a slight vari- 

 ation. Another manuscript, with the same title as our 

 correspondent's copy, is in the Harl. MS. 6241, consisting, 

 as in the printed work, of thirty-three chapters. — Ed.] 



Publication of Banns (2"'' S. x. 18. 79.) — 

 Clearly it has been through a little officiousness on 

 the part of the Queen's Printers that doubts have 

 arisen about the proper time for publishing banns 

 of marriage. In the church I attended at Lon- 

 don, I know we had two old Prayer-books in the 

 choir, of the end of the eighteenth or beginning 

 of the nineteenth century, in which the rubric at 

 the commencement of the Marriage Service dis- 

 tinctly laid down that "the Banns of all that are 

 to be married together must be published in the 

 church three several Sundays, during the time of 

 Morning Service, before the sentences of the Of- 

 fertory, or of Evening Service (if there be no 

 Morning Service) immediately after the Second 

 Lesson." 



I have not the books now by me, and therefore 

 cannot say decidedly that these are the precise words, 

 but at all events the time of publication is most 



