omnium pertinet; ad singulos proprietas.' So that
although it be most true that her majesty hath over ourselves and our
goods 'potestatem imperandi,' yet it is true, that until that power
command, (which, no doubt, will not command without very just cause,)
every subject hath his own 'proprietatem possidendi.' Which power and
commandment from her majesty, which we have not yet received, I take it,
(saving reformation,) that we are freed from the cause of _necessity_.
And the cause of necessity is the dangerous estate of the commonwealth,"
etc. The tenor of the speech pleads rather for a general benevolence
than a subsidy; for the law of Richard III. against benevolence was
nevei conceived to have any force. The member even proceeds to assert,
with some precaution, that it was in the power of parliament to refuse
the king's demand of a subsidy; and that there was an instance of
that liberty in Heary III.'s time near four hundred years before. _Sub
Fine_.]

[Footnote 31: NOTE EE, p. 266 We may judge of the extent and importance
of these abuses by a speech of Bacon's against purveyors, delivered in
the first session of the first parliament of the subsequent reign,
by which also we may learn that Elizabeth had given no redress to the
grievances complained of. "First," says he, "they take in kind what
they ought not to take; secondly, they take in quantity a far greater
proportion than cometh to your majesty's use; thirdly, they take in an
unlawful manner, in a manner, I say, directly and expressly prohibited
by the several laws. For the first, I am a little to alter their name;
for in stead of takers, they become taxers. Instead of taking provisions
for your majesty's service, they tax your people 'ad redimendam
vexationem;' imposing upon them and extorting from them divers sums of
money, sometimes in gross, sometimes in the nature of stipends annually
paid, 'ne noceant,' to be freed and eased of their oppression Again,
they take trees, which by law they cannot do; timber trees which are
the beauty, countenance, and shelter of men's houses; that men have long
spared from their own purse and profit; that men esteem for their use
and delight, above ten times the value; that are a loss which men cannot
repair or recover. These do they take, to the defacing and spoiling of
your subjects' mansions and dwellings, except they may be compounded
with to their own appetites. And if a gentleman be too hard for them
while he is at h