DIE Martis, 9 die Septembris.

PRAYERS, by Mr. Bridge.

Ds. Grey de Warke, Speaker.

Answer from the H. C.

Doctor Aylett and Doctor Heath return with this Answer from the House of Commons:

That concerning the preparing of Propositions for Peace, they will take the same into present Consideration: That they agree to the Alterations in the Ordinance concerning the granting of the Fifth Part to Malignants Widows: (Here enter it.) And also they agree to the Ordinance for setting out One Thousand Horse and Dragoons, out of London, with the Alterations: (Here enter it.) As to the Business of John Hancok, Three Papers from the Admiralty, and the Petition of Lucretia Barkley, they will send an Answer by Messengers of their own.

The Lord Robertes reported from the Committee of both Kingdoms at Derby House; videlicet,

Derby Forces and Col. Rossiter's to join Col. Pointz.

"Ordered, That the Letter from Derby, of the Fourth Instant, be reported to both Houses; and that this Committee hath given several Orders for sending up the Darbyshyre Forces to Colonel General Poyntz, which are not obeyed; that the Warwicke and Coventry Forces are not yet come up; and that there are also wanting Five Hundred of Colonel Rossiter's, that were appointed to that Service; and to desire the Houses will be pleased to enjoin them to come up to Colonel General Poyntz speedily, and to be more careful in obeying the Orders of this Committee; otherwise great Prejudice may come to the Public Service."

Hereupon it is (fn. *) Ordered, That the Forces of Darbyshire, and the Forces under Colonel Rossiter, do advance and join with Colonel General Poyntz, according to the Orders and Directions from the Committee of both Kingdoms; and that this House enjoins them for the future to be more careful in obeying the Orders of the said Committee; (fn. †) otherwise great Prejudice may come to the Public.

Next, a Letter from the Lord Wharton was read, and the Papers inclosed; videlicet,

Letter from L. Wharton in Scotland, with an Account of the M. of Montrose's Proceedings there, and desiring Arms for the Northern Counties.

"For the Lord Gray of Warke, Speaker of the House of Peers pro Tempore.

"May it please your Lordships,

"We are very sensible of our Stay here near Three Weeks, without doing any Thing in the Business we have in Charge from you: Notwithstanding that we have continually solicited the Committee of Estates to have a Meeting with those that are appointed by the Parliament of Scotland to treat with us, we cannot as yet obtain it; and therefore Yesterday we wrote a Letter; whereof I send your Lordship a Copy inclosed, unto which we have not yet received any certain Answer, save that they told us that they would endeavour by the best Means they could to procure a Committee to meet with us as speedily as might be, but could not define any certain Time: It is confidently reported, that Lieutenant General Leislie is come on the North Side Tyne, with Five Thousand Horse and Dragoons at the least; and we do not hear that Montrosse stirs with the Body of his Army from about Hamilton, where he stays, and assumes a Power unto himself over that whole Kingdom, having summoned a Parliament to sit down at Glascoe the 20th of the next Month. We hear that the Lord Ogleby, who was lately released from Edinburgh, is gone with a Party of Horse into Niddesdaill, to raise Forces in those Parts. If it would please the Houses to send down Arms and Ammunition to Newcastle, for the Use of the Northern Counties (of which they are in very great Want), they might be thereby enabled to do the Parliament some Service. This is all I have for the present to trouble your Lordships with; and rest,

Barwicke, 3d of Sept. 1645.

"My Lords,

"Your Lordships most humble Servant,

"P. Wharton."

The inclosed:

Letter from the Committee of Parliament in Scotland, to the Scots Commissioners, pressing them to give a Meeting.

"Right Honourable,

"We did write unto your Lordships on Tuesday 26 of the last Month, that a certain Time and Place might be appointed for our Meeting with you; but have not received any Answer at all concerning the Certainty of either. This is the Eighteenth Day since our Arrival at Barwicke, where we have stayed at your Desire; and though the last sad Accident may have occasioned many Distractions amongst you, and hitherto prevented our Meeting; yet, we doubt, those that sent us to you will think the Time long we have been here, without any Progress in their Business. And since, without a Meeting, our longer Stay here can be no Ways useful to you, nor serviceable to those that sent us, we have thought of advertising them of our Return, unless a speedy Time of Meeting be appointed; which, we conceive, may stand with your Lordships Conveniency to be at Barwicke, because of your former Desire for our abiding here. We have sent your Lordships Copies of Two Letters, in which is included the News we have by the Post. And so we remain

"Your Lordships most humble Servants,

Sept. 2d, 1645.

"P. Wharton.
W. Armyne.
Tho. Hatcher.
Rob. Goodwin.

"To the Right Honourable the Lord Marqis of Argyll, the Earl of Craford Lyndsay, and the rest of the Lords and others of the Committee of Estates of Scotland."

Ordinance for selling Delinquents Estates.

Ordered, That the Committee of the whole House shall meet To-morrow Morning, at Nine a Clock, and take the Ordinance for selling of Delinquents Estates into Consideration, at which Time the Assistants are to attend the Committee; and that the House shall be adjourned until Eleven of the Clock To-morrow.

Ordinance concerning the Revenues of the Northern Counties.

An Ordinance was presented to this House, concerning the Revenues of the Northern Counties, and the Association; and read Once.

Ordered, That the Lords Committees of the Affairs of Ireland shall meet, and attend that Committee.

Ordinance to raise 1000 Horse and Dragoons, in London, &c.

"The Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled do Ordain and Declare, and be it Ordained and Declared, That the Committee for the Militia of London, within the Lines of Communication and Bills of Mortality, shall have Power, and are hereby authorized, to send Five Hundred Horse, and Five Hundred Dragoons, raised, or to be raised, by virtue of an Ordinance bearing Date the 27th of February, 1644, under such Officers as the said Committee of the Militia shall think fit for the Public Service of the Kingdom, and under such Commander in Chief as the Committee of both Kingdoms shall appoint; and the said Committee of the Militia shall have Power to back the said Forces at the End of Two Months next after the Date of this Ordinance: And it is further Ordained, That if any Person or Persons, that are or shall be charged to find Horse as aforesaid, or for the future Safety of the City and Parts adjacent, shall refuse or neglect to provide and send in, within Two Days after Notice thereof given to them in Person, or left at their Dwellings, the said Horse, Rider, Furniture, and Arms thereunto belonging, to the Commissaries in Moorefeilds, there to be listed, valued, and marked, or to send in the Sum of Twelve Pounds to the Committee of Common Council sitting in the Irish Chamber at Guildhall, for them to buy and provide the said Horse, Furniture, and Arms, for the said Public Service of the Kingdom; and, in Default thereof, the said Committee of Common Council, or any Five of them, shall have Power, and are hereby authorized, to fine such Person or Persons, not exceeding the Sum of Twenty Pounds upon any One Person, and, in Case of Non-payment, to imprison the Persons of such Offenders until they have paid the same, or to levy the said Fines by Distress and Sale of the said Offender's Goods, in such Manner and Form as is expressed in an Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament, dated the First of July, 1645, intituled, "An Ordinance for the raising of Twenty Thousand Pounds, to be employed towards, the reducing of Oxford."

"And be it Ordained, That the said Committee of Common Council, or any Five of them, shall have Power, and are hereby authorized, from Time to Time, to impose the Sum of Forty Shillings, to be levied as aforesaid, or Five Days Imprisonment, without Bail or Mainprize, upon every such Person or Persons appointed, or to be appointed, to find Horses and Riders compleatly furnished and armed, in his or their Troop or Troops, who shall neglect or refuse to send forth their said Horse or Horses, compleatly furnished as aforesaid, when and so often as he or they shall be thereunto summoned; which Fines are to be employed by the said Committee for the paying of the Commanders and other Officers of the said Troops: And to the End the aforesaid Five Hundred Horse and Five Hundred Dragoons, with their Commanders and Riders, may be paid during the Time of their being abroad in the said Public Service, and the Owners of the said Horse and Arms secured and satisfied for such Horse or Arms as shall be lost in this Service, or made unuseful; so as the Value of a Light-horse, Furniture, and Arms, exceed not the Sum of Twelve Pounds; and a Dragoon-horse, Furniture, and Arms, exceed not the Sum of Six Pounds; it is Ordained, by Authority aforesaid, That the Committee of Common Council, for getting in the Arrears, sitting at Weavers Hall, London, shall have Power in the City of London and Liberties thereof, and the several Sub-committees of the Militia without the Liberties, and within the Lines of Communication and Weekly Bills of Mortality, shall have Power, and are hereby authorized, to assess the Sum of Ten Thousand Pounds upon such Persons of Ability, as either now inhabit, or have any Trade or Stock going, within the Limits aforesaid, for the Payment of the said Forces: And it is further Ordained, That the said Committee of Arrears, and the said several Sub-committees, shall have Power, and are hereby authorized, to levy the said Ten Thousand Pounds, or any Part thereof, in like Manner and Form as is expressed in the former recited Ordinance, of the First of July, 1645; which Money, so levied, shall be paid to the said Committee of Arrears, whose Receipts, under the Hands of any Two of them, shall be sufficient to enable the said Lenders to demand the same, with Interest, after the Rate of Eight Pounds per Cent. of the Commissioners of Excise, in Manner and Form as hereafter is expressed; and the said Committee of Arrears to issue out the said Money, from Time to Time, for the Payment of the said Forces, by Warrant from the said Committee of the Militia; and shall have Power to deduct such necessary Charges, for the collecting and gathering in of the said Money, as the said several Committees shall think fit, not exceeding Three Pence in the Pound.

"And the said Lords and Commons do hereby Ordain, That such Persons as shall pay in any Monies by virtue of this Ordinance shall be re-paid the several Sums which shall be by them advanced, out of the Receipt of the Excise, by Ordinance of the 11th of September, 1643; and that no Ordinance nor Assignment which is not already passed upon those Receipts shall precede this Ordinance; and the said Commissioners of the Excise and new Impost for the Time being are hereby authorized to pay, at the End of Six Months, the Interest of so much Monies as shall be advanced by virtue thereof, after the Rate of Eight Pounds per Cent. per Annum; and the Principal Money, and the rest of the Interest after the Rate aforesaid, shall be paid in due Course, unto such Persons as did advance the same, whose Receipts shall be a sufficient Discharge to the Commissioners of Excise, and every of them, in that Behalf, for Principal and Interest, and every Part and Parcel thereof; and shall also pay in Course unto the said Committee for Arrears, or any Two of them, whose Receipt shall be a sufficient Discharge to the Commissioners of Excise for so much Money as shall be certified by Mr. John Smith and Mr. Thomas Richardson, Commissaries, or other such Commissaries for the Time being, to make Satisfaction for such Horse and Arms as shall be lost or made unuseful in the said Service, to the End the said Committee may be enabled to satisfy the said Owners thereof accordingly; and that all Commanders, Officers, Soldiers, Constables, and Headboroughs, within the Limits aforesaid, are hereby required to be aiding and assisting in the due Execution of this Ordinance; and that all Persons acting in the Pursuance of the same shall be saved harmless, by Authority of both Houses of Parliament; and that no Privileged Place or Person, within the Limits aforesaid, shall be exempted from the Power of this Ordinance, except the Peers of this Realm, and Members of the House of Commons, and Assistants of the House of Peers, and Officers and Attendants of both Houses of Parliament respectively, who shall stand exempt from this Ordinance, and all Things therein contained."

Ordinance that no Delinquent's Wife or Children shall have the Benefit of the Fifth Part, who come from the King's Quarters for that Purpose.

"Whereas, by a late Ordinance of Sequestration, it is amongst other Things Declared and Ordained, That the Committees of the several Counties shall have Power to assign Maintenance, out of the Lands of Delinquents, to their several Wives and Children, so as the same exceed not the Fifth Part of the Lands or Goods so sequestered; and whereas, by Occasion hereof, divers Wives and Children of Delinquents may resort hither, only to obtain the said Fifth Part, and may be ready to do ill Offices to the Parliament: The Lords and Commons, to prevent the said Mischief, and others of like Nature, do Ordain, That no Wife, Child, or Children, of Delinquents, who shall come from their own Habitation into the Parliament Quarters, with or without their Fathers or Husbands, from the King's Quarters, shall have, hold, and enjoy, any Fifth Part, by the said Ordinance; and therefore they do Ordain, That all such Allowances hereafter to be made, to Wife or Children, shall be utterly void; and if any such Wife, Child, or Children, shall return from the King's Quarters without Leave of both Houses, the Deputy Lieutenants and Committees of Parliament in the several Counties, or any Two of them, or any of them, are hereby authorized and required to take Care that they be commanded to return back into the King's Quarters; and if they shall not return, upon Command given to them by the Deputy Lieutenants or Committees, or any Two of them, they shall hereby have Power to commit them, until they shall give Security for to return.

"And it is further Ordained, That no Children of any Delinquent shall have any Fifth Part, but such as shall be educated and brought up in the Protestant Religion."

Adjourn.

House adjourned till 11 a Clock To-morrow.

Footnotes