House of Lords Journal Volume 5: 9 December 1642

DIE Veneris, videlicet, 9 die Decembris.

PRAYERS.

Earl of Manchester appointed to be Speaker this Day.

Servants of the King, Prince, and Duke of York, Leave to repair to them.

Ordered, That all the King's Servants in ordinary, the Prince's and the Duke of Yorke's Servants, shall have Leave to go to the King, Prince, and Duke of Yorke; but are not to return again to London during the Continuance of the War; and shall be searched, that they shall not carry neither Horse, Arms, or any Ammunition, nor Store of Monies.

Conference to be had with the H. C. about it.

To have a Conference with the House of Commons concerning this Order, that so it may not cross any Order which they have made.

Petition of Sir J. Mountgomery, and others, about the Irish Army.

A Petition from Sir James Mountgomery, &c. was read; (Here enter it.) "That they have petitioned the King in Behalf of the miserable Condition of Ireland; they have an humble Desire, to have Leave to present to this House a Copy of the said Petition, and the King's Answer to the same; and also to present some Remedies appearing unto them for the present Preservation of that Kingdom;" and this House gave Leave to have them (fn. 1) presented.

The Petitioners were called in, and (fn. 1) presented the said Copy, which was read, in bæc verba: videlicet, (Here enter it.)

The King's Answer.

Next, His Majesty's Answer was read. (Here enter it.)

Remedies proposed.

Next, was read the Remedies, which they offer for the Preservation of that Kingdom. (Here enter it.)

Report concerning the Dispute between the Earl of Warwick and Mr. Prideaux, about the Inland Post Office.

The Lord Grey reported, from the Committee appointed to take the Accompts of the Inland Letter Office, "That Phillip Burlamachi hath brought in an Accompt, which is somewhat intricate and imperfect; therefore the Committee thinks fit that they may be audited by an Auditor:" Hereupon this House Ordered, That the Committee shall hereby have Power and Authority to call such Persons as they shall think fit, to audit the said Accompts; and also shall have Power to give Order for the bringing the Books of Accompts, to give a full Understanding of the Business; and, in Case they shall be denied, that then they shall have Authority of this House to seize them.

Committee to consider of Propositions to settle the Peace of the Kingdom.

It was moved, "That this House would take into Consideration, how to take away the Distractions, and compose and settle Peace in this Kingdom;" and it was Ordered, That a Committee of all the Lords now present, or any Five of them, shall meet To-morrow Morning, at Nine of the Clock, to consider of Propositions of Peace, for the Maintenance and Securing of Religion, the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom, and report the same to this House.

Message from the H. C. for a Conference about a Declaration to be sent into The Low Countries;

A Message was brought from the House of Commons, by Sir Rob't Pye, Knight:

1. To desire a Free Conference, concerning a Declaration to be sent to The States of the Low Countries.

Agreed, To give a present Conference, in the Painted Chamber, as is desired.

and with an Order about Carisbrook Castle.

2. To desire their Lordships Concurrence in an Order for putting Twenty Men into the Castle of Carisbrooke, (fn. 2) in the Isle of Wight, to have the Entertainment of Eight Pence per Diem, to continue till the House shall take further Order.

Agreed.

Answer.

The Answer was returned to the Messengers as abovesaid.

The House of Commons being come in the Painted Chamber, this House was adjourned during Pleasure, and the Lords went to the Conference; which being ended, the House was resumed.

Petition of Sir J. Mountgomery, and others, about Succours for the Army in Ireland.

"To the High and most Honourable Court of Parliament.

"The humble Petition of Sir Ja's Mountgomery and Sir Hards Waller, Knights and Colonels; and of Colonel Arthur Hill, and Colonel Audley Mervin, in the Behalf of themselves and others, Commanders in His Majesty's Army in Ireland;

"Most humbly sheweth,

"That we, your Petitioners, by a particular Trust devolved from considerable Parts of the Army in Ireland, have these Six and Twenty Weeks attended for some timely Succours to be dispatched unto that deplorable Kingdom; and finding, to our unspeakable Grief, that the Distractions of this Kingdom afforded us (fn. 3) but weak Hopes of any competent Supplies; as we did, in a tender Resentment of the bleeding Condition thereof, petition the High Court of Parliament, so, by Licence first obtained from the Committee of Safety, out of the same Sense, in all Humility, we address'd ourselves unto His Majesty, whose Gracious Answer we received in Writing, and His Commands to publish the same.

"May it therefore please your Lordships, in Obedience to His Majesty's Commands, and out of a constant Inclination to observe the Directions of this most Honourable Assembly, we humbly crave Leave to present to your Honours the Copy of our Petition to His Majesty, His Majesty's Answer to us, and also the best and only Remedies appearing unto us for the present Preservation and future Being of that perishing Kingdom; (fn. 4) expecting and humbly praying therein the further Resolutions and Directions of this High Court in a Matter of so great Importance, wherein God's Glory, the interwoven Safety of His Majesty's Dominions, and so much Protestant Blood as yet unspilt, are so highly concerned; their Wants being so pressing, the Power of the Enemy daily increasing, and their Ruin without present Relief inevitable, constrains your Petitioners humbly to beg a speedy Answer, farther Delays being to them as dangerous as a Desertion; and, if further Satisfaction of the particular Condition of every Part of the Army and those distressed Protestants there be desired, your Petitioners are ready to remonstrate the same.

"And, as in Duty bound, shall pray, &c."

Their Petition to the King, for that Purpose.

"To the King's most Excellent Majesty.

"The humble Petition of Sir James Mountgomery and Sir Hards Waller, Knights and Colonels; Colonel Arthur Hill and Colonel Audley Mervin, in the Behalf of themselves and others, Commanders in His Majesty's Army in Ireland.

"May it please Your Sacred Majesty,

"We, Your Majesty's most humble Subjects, being intrusted from considerable Parts of your Majesty's Forces in Your Kingdom of Ireland, to petition Your Majesty and Your Parliament for Supplies; and finding that Your Majesty had committed the Care and Managing of that War to Your Parliament here, we addressed ourselves unto the same, whose Sense of our Miseries, and Inclinations to redress, appeared very tender unto us; but the present Distempers of this Your Majesty's Kingdom of England, to our unspeakable Grief, are grown so great, that all future Passages, by which Comfort and Life should be conveyed unto that gasping Kingdom, seem totally to be obstructed; so that, unless Your Gracious Majesty, out of Your singular Wisdom and Fatherly Care, apply some speedy Remedy, we Your distressed and loyal Subjects of that Kingdom must inevitably perish: Our Condition represents unto Your Majesty the State of all Your Majesty's faithful Protestant Subjects in Ireland. The Influence of Your Princely Favour and Goodness, so actively distilled upon Your Kingdom of Ireland before the Birth of this monstrous Rebellion there, and since the same so abundantly expressed in Characters of a deep Sense and lively Resentment of the bleeding Condition thereof, gives us Hope, in this their deplorable Extremity, to address ourselves to Your Sacred Throne;

"Humbly beseeching that it may please Your Gracious Majesty, amongst Your other weighty Cares, so to reflect upon the bleeding Condition of that perishing Kingdom, that timely Relief may be afforded; otherwise Your loyal Subjects there must yield their Fortunes a Prey, their Lives a Sacrifice, and their Religion a Scorn, to the merciless Rebels, powerfully assisted from Abroad: Whilst [ (fn. 5) we live, we rest in Your Majesty's Protection; and, if our Deaths are signed in that Cause,] we will die in Your Obedience; and, living and dying, ever pray for Your Majesty's long and prosperous Reign over us."

The King's Answer to it.

"At the Court at Oxford, the First of December, 1642.

"His Majesty hath expressly commanded me to give this Answer to this Petition:

"That His Majesty, since the Beginning of that monstrous Rebellion, hath had no greater Sorrow than for the bleeding Condition of that His Kingdom; and, as He hath by all Means laboured that timely Relief might be afforded to the same, and consented to all Propositions (how disadvantageous soever to Himself) that have been offered Him for that Purpose, and not only at first recommended their Condition to both His Houses of Parliament, and immediately, of His own mere Motion, sent over several Commissions, and caused some Proportion of Arms and Ammunition (which the Petitioners well know to have been a great Support to the Northern Parts of that Kingdom) to be conveyed to them out of Scotland, and offered to find Ten Thousand Voluntiers to undertake this War; but hath often since pressed, by many several Messages, that sufficient Succours might be hastened thither, and other Matters of smaller Importance laid by, which did divert it; and offered, and most really intended, in His own Royal Person, to have undergone the Danger of that War, for the Defence of His good Subjects, and the Chastisement of those persidious and barbarous Rebels; and, in His several Expressions of His Desires of Treaty and Peace, hath declared the miserable present Condition and certain future Loss of Ireland, to be One of His principal Motives most earnestly, to desire that the present Distractions of this Kingdom might be composed, and that others would concur with Him to the same End; so His Majesty is well pleased, that His Offers, Concurrence, Actions, and Expressions, are so rightly understood by the Petitioners, and those who have employed them (notwithstanding the groundless and horrid Aspersions which have been cast upon Him); but wishes that, instead of a mere general Complaint (to which His Majesty can make no Return but of Compassion), they could have digested and offered to Him any such Desires, by consenting to which He might convey (at least in some Degree) Comfort and Life to that gasping Kingdom, preserve His distressed and loyal Subjects of the same from inevitable Perishing, and the true Protestant Religion from being scorned and trampled on by these merciless and idolatrous Rebels; and, if the Petitioners can yet think on any such, and propose them to His Majesty, He assures them that, by His Readiness to consent, and His Thanks to them for the Proposal, He will make it appear to them, that their most pressing Personal Sufferings cannot make them more desirous of Relief, than His Care of the true Religion; and of His faithful Subjects, and of that Duty which obliges Him to His Power to protect both, renders Him desirous to afford it to them.

"Falkland."

"The humble Conceptions of Sir James Mountgomery and Sir Hardes Waller, Knights and Colonels, Colonel Arthur Hill, and Colonel Audley Mervin, upon the Result of their Petition to His Majesty, and the Answer to the same.

Propositions of Sir J. Mountgomery, and others, for the Relief of the Army in Ireland.

"Upon our humble Address unto His Majesty, to petition for the Relief of the bleeding Condition of Ireland, His Majesty, after an Expression of His tender Resentment of our Sufferings, gives us in Answer, That to such general Complaints His Majesty can make no Return but in Compassion, and could wish we had digested such particular Desires, that He might have given His Royal Assent, to convey some Comfort, though but in a weak Measure, to the gasping Condition thereof; wherefore, that we might neither seem insensible of His Majesty's Gracious Answer and free Proposals, we have entered into a most narrow Disquisition, to make some Overture, by humble Desires, as may conduce to the restoring the Glory of that Kingdom, and secure the interwoven Dependency of it, with His Majesty's other Dominions; yet, since the managing of the War in that distressed Kingdom hath been committed to the Vigilancy and Power of this Honourable Assembly, and that we acknowledge your pious Inclinations in expressing the same; in all Humility and Reverence of your researched Wisdom, and in a deep Sense of the imminent Ruin to that Kingdom (if not speedily prevented), we offer these our Desires, which if they receive your Approbation, we are most happy; if, for Reasons in State best known to yourselves, they are to be laid aside, then it may (fn. 6) be construed our Zeal, not Presumption:

"1. Since this Kingdom is the Fountain from whence the Streams of Safety must flow, and that the present Distractions have troubled the same; as we earnestly implore the Throne of Grace both for yourselves and us, so we humbly offer unto your grave Wisdoms, as the subordinate Instruments, a happy, blessed, and timely Accommodation here, in which the King and People may rejoice; there being no other visible Way to convey such perfect Health unto that Kingdom, but that it may otherwise immediately be subject to a dangerous Relapse.

"2. If this Kingdom must yet longer be divorced from that prosperous Peace, to which (to the Envy of other Nations) she hath so fortunately been wedded, we humbly desire that such competent Supplies of Monies, Victuals, Cloaths, and Ammunition, may be timely transported to the Army there (without which there is not the least Hopes of longer Subsistance), that such Protestant Blood there yet unspilt, and by your own Commands there employed, may be preserved; that such Garrisons, Sea-ports, Forts, Artillery, and other Warlike Provisions, may be secured, until composed Times may afford such large Supplies as may promise a Reducement of that Kingdom to their due Obedience.

"3. If neither of these can suit with the present Constitution of these Times, we, in a bleeding Foresight of our miserable distressed Condition, humbly desire, that, if a fatal Necessity, for Preservation of all that (fn. 6) is dear to us and our Posterity, enforce such hard and miserable Conditions upon us as may prove inconvenient to that, and in the End to this Kingdom, that you will be pleased to allow them a favourable Construction.

"Thus, labouring in these Streights, we address ourselves unto your approved Wisdoms, for timely Directions in a Matter of so great Concernment."

Adjourn.

House adjourned till 10 ^a cras.