46 ARGUMENT CONCERNING 



upon merchandise and commodities both native and 

 foreign. In my proof of this proposition all that I 

 shall say, be it to confirm or confute, I will draw 

 into certain distinct heads or considerations which 

 move me, and may move you. 



The first is an universal negative : there ap- 

 peareth not in any of the king s courts any one re 

 cord, wherein an imposition laid at the ports hath 

 been overthrown by judgment ; nay more, where it 

 hath been questioned by pleading 1 . This plea, &quot; quod 

 et summa praedicta minus juste imposita fuit, et con- 

 tra leges et consuetudines regni hujus Anglias, 

 &quot; unde idem Bates illam solvere recusavit, prout ei 

 &quot; bene licuit ;&quot; is &quot; primse impressionis.&quot; Bates was 

 the first man &quot; ab origine mundi, for any thing that 

 appeareth, that ministered that plea ; whereupon I 

 offer this to consideration : the king s acts that 

 grieve the subject are either against law, and so 

 void, or according to strictness of law, and yet griev 

 ous. And according to these several natures of 

 grievance, there be several remedies : Be they 

 against law ? Overthrow them by judgment : Be 

 they too strait and extreme, though legal ? Pro 

 pound them in parliament. Forasmuch then as im 

 positions at the ports, having been so often laid, 

 were never brought into the king s courts of jus 

 tice, but still brought to parliament, I may most cer 

 tainly conclude, that they were conceived not to be 

 against law. And if any man shall think that it 

 was too high a point to question by law before the 

 judges,, or that there should want fortitude in them 



