Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/260

 222 Readings in European History and by authority of Parliament holden in the five-and- twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III, it is declared and enacted, that from thenceforth no person should be compelled to make any loans to the king against his will, because such loans were against reason and the franchise of the land ; and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none should be charged by any charge or imposition called a benevolence, nor by any such like charge ; by which statutes before mentioned, and other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge not set by common consentTn Parliament : II. Yet nevertheless of late divers commissions, directed to sundry commissioners in several counties with instruc- tions, have issued ; by means whereof your people have been in divers places assembled and required to lend cer- tain sums of money unto your Majesty, and many of them upon their refusal so to do. . . have been constrained to make appearance before your privy council and in other places, and others of them have been therefore impris- oned, confined, and sundry other ways molested and dis- quieted. . . . III. And whereas also, by the statute called "The Great Charter of the liberties of England," it is declared and enacted, that no freeman may be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his freehold or liberties, or his free cus- toms, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any manner destroyed but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. . . . V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and other the good laws and statutes of your realm, to that end provided, divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause showed ;. . . and whereas of late great companies of soldiers and mariners have been dispersed into divers counties of this realm, and the inhab- itants, against their will, have been compelled to receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn,