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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50735	The speech of Sir Audley Mervyn, knight, His Majesties prime Serjeant at Law, and speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland delivered to His Grace James Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the 13 day of February, 1662, in the Presence-chamber in the castle of Dublin : containing the sum of affairs in Ireland, but more especially, the interest of adventurers and souldiers.	Mervyn, Audley, Sir, d. 1675.	1662 (1662)	Wing M1893; ESTC R904	35,291	43

THE SPEECH OF Sir Audley Mervyn Knight His Majesties Prime Serjeant at Law And Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland Delivered to His Grace JAMES Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the 13 day of February 1662. in the Presence-Chamber in the Castle of Dublin Containing the Sum of Affairs in Ireland But more especially the Interest of ADVENTURERS and SOULDIERS C R HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Printed at DUBLIN And Reprinted at LONDON by J. Streater by Speciall Order 1662. The SPEECH of Sir AUDLEY MERVYN Knight His Majesties Prime Serjeant at Law and Speaker of the House of COMMONS in Ireland Delivered to JAMES Duke of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the 13 day of February 1662. in the Presence Chamber in the Castle of Dublin May it please your Grace ACcording to the ancient Priviledges of our House We have been humble Suitors for this Access into the Royal Presence and your private Spirit which knows not how to deny prevails so in your publick Capacity that even for this your Graces particular condiscention I am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled to present you their most Submissive acknowledgment And surely this present Solemnity of the House attending your Grace may carry the signification of a Hand in the Margent to point out something more then of ordinary observation This with us is as a sheet-Anchor which is never made ready but when we discern a cloud perchance it is yet no bigger than a mans Hand but by the best Judgment we can make of it it is like to over-cast the Horizon of this Kingdom This makes this Address of that Importance that the House thought not fit to entrust it to the bare expressions of a Speaker had he been of the greatest abilities therefore have they committed it to this Instrument that it might remain as a Record of their Endeavours that the hard Fate and Ruine of an English Interest in this Kingdome might not bear date under the best of Kings under so vigilant a Lord Lieutenant under the first and if not prevented like to be the last Protestant Parliament that ever sate in ●his Kingdome It would confound Astrologers to observe such Planets such masculine Planets ascending in Conjunction in the Houses of their Exaltation and yet this Kingdom not to be Planet-struck There is a time to speak and a time to hold our peace This this is the Critical time God calls us to it when Religion the establisht Religion is in danger to be undermined by casting the predominancy of temper upon a Popish Interest And believe it Sir whatsoever delusive Tenents have been broached a late the contrary hath been written in Letters of bloud not in his Majesties Kingdoms onely but wheresoever the Papal power was exalted That persons professing the Reformed Religion are but Tenants at Will for their Lives and For unes and through Centuries of Ages it appears That as their Fleeces grow they are shorn till a time of slaughter be appointed His Majesty He hath called us by his Writ to no other end but to offer up our humble Advice Nè quid detrimenti respublica capiat And if ever the advice of Subjects may be serviceable to their Prince this is the time when this poor miserable and unfortunate Kingdom fruitful by the bloud of English and plac't as a greedy grave to bury their treasure in from age to age is upon its new module It is now in its Mintage and our care must be that the Miter be not stampt instead of the Crown It is not long since the sale of this Kingdom was offered to the Miter as his Majesties Interest was prostituted to every Roman Catholick power so that it may be said of Ireland as Jugurtha said of Rome O venalem Hiberniam ●●ox perituram si modò emptorem invenerit Did I say his Majesty call'd Us May his Majesties days be long and prosperous Were we weltring in our bloud We must hold water whilest he washes his Hands in Innocency The Country calls Us and were they not assured We would speak for them doubtless but your Grace had heard them speak for themselves by their humble Petitions for the Alarum that Hannibal is at the Gates is hot throughout the Protestant Plantations We are his Majesties Great Council the grand Inquest of the Kingdom and We dare appeal to your Grace how We have spent our time We understand the usual proceedings in Parliaments to begin at Grievances and conclude with Supplies We have inverted the Order and applyed our selves hitherto in settling a constant Revenue for his Majesty and granting other Temporary ayds far above our abilities yet far less then what his Majesties goodness may challenge from us There hath been an imitable contention as I may say between the King and his Parliament here if it were possible for a Subjects to out-do such a King We would but 't is possible for a King and he hath out-done us and therefore vaeh illis Wo be to them that in this Conjunction would undo us both It must be therefore a forc't Put that presseth us on to this address and our moderation even in it will appear Cuncta prius tentanda It is in the body Politique as it is in the natural he brawny and fleshy members can admit a discontinuity of parts though not without pain yet without danger But the apple of the eye is so tender that the least dust is offensive to it We enjoy the benefit of many good and wholsom Laws But the Act of Settlement is the Law of Laws it is the Magra Charta Hiberniae this is the apple of the eye and must be Printed with this Motto Nemo me impune lacessit Our strength lies in this as Sampsons in his locks if those be cut we are as weak as others when the Philistins shall fall upon us in the execution of other Laws whether Mint and Cummin in this we fulfill the weightyer things of the Law Your Grace well remembers that strugling twins in the Womb of this Act never Prince that sat upon the Throne endured so many pongs and throws to give his Protestant Subjects a Birth and Life as CHARLES the Second did And We shall never forget the fainting expectations of the People for this Bill of Settlement when every ones Soul look't out at the Casements of his eyes as Sicera's mother with a Why are the wheels of his Charirt so long a coming But now Sir with as great a sorrow We behold the driving of the Chariot to belike the driving of Joh● the Son of Nemish that drove furiously We come not this day to reflect upon the Commissionrs for executing the said Act This House hath a great respect for that Court it had part of our breath to give it life and we are under the greatest obligations to admire his Majesties goodness and favour to his Protestants I shall neverforget the expression

almost be any business that I can have more care of I might now take up some of your time in expressing my detestation of Rebellions in general and of this in particular To conclude I conjure you by all that is or can be dear to you and me that laying away all Disputes you go on chearfully and speedily for the reducing of Ireland In his Majestiees answer to a Petition of the Parliament his Majesty delivereth himself thus exact collect p. 34. We cannot but thank you for this care and your chearful ingagement for the suppression of that Rebellion upon the speedy effecting whereof The Glory of God in the Protestant Profession the safety of the Brittish there our Honour and that of this Nation so much depends all the Interests of this Kingdom being so involved in that business c. In his Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects publisht with the advice of his privy Council it is thus declared viz. And our hope is that not onely the Loyalty and good affections of all our loving Subjects will concur with us in the constant preserving a good understanding betwixt Us and our People but at this time their own and our Interest and lamentable condition of our poor Protestant Subjects in Ireland will invite them to a fair intelligence and unity amongst themselves that so we may with one heart intend the relieving and recovering that unhappy Kingdem where those barbarous Rebels practice such inhumanities and unheard of outrages upon our miserable People that no Christian ear can hear without horrour nor Story paralel And a few lines after follows these words viz. Whereas We acknowledge it a high Crime against Almighty God and inexcusable to our good Subjects of our three Kingdoms if we did not to the utmost imploy all our powers and faculties to the speediest and most effectual assistance and protection of that distressed People And we shall now conjure all our good Subjects of what degree soever by all the bonds of love duty and obedience that are precious to good men to joyn with us for the recovery of the Peace of that Kingdom c. In His Majesties Message sent by the Lord Chamberlain to the House of Peers it is thus said His Majesty being very sensible of the great miseries and distresses of His Subjects in the Kingdom of Ireland which do daily increase so fast and the bloud which hath been alreddy spilt by the barbarousness and cruelty of those Rebels crying out so loud c. And in his Proclamation of the 1. exact collect 34. of Jan. 41. inter caetera We have authorized our Justices of Ireland and other our chief Governour or Governours and General or Lieutenant General of our Army there and do hereby accordingly require and authorize them and every of them to prosecute the said Rebels and Traytors with Fire and Sword as persons who by their high Disloyalty against Us their lawful and undoubted King and Sovereign have made themselves unworthy of any Mercy or Favour c. In an answer of his Majesties are these words viz. His Majesty being more tender in that particular which hath reference to Ireland as being most assured that he hath been and is from his Soul resolved to discharge his duty which God will require at his hands for the relief of his poor Protestant Subjects there and the utter rooting out of that Rebellion Exact Collect. 72. Thus far this glorious Martyr and these are but few of many But Sir If any shall object To what purpose serves this A Rebellion is not disputed neither is there any that ever questioned His Majesties abhorrence of it I answer Though several Pamphlets swarm to fasten the rice of the Rebellion upon the Protestants and that we drew the first blood and much of the like stuff yet these places are not quoted to that purpose it is but to shew how unreasonably His Majesty is denied to be a party in discovering who were guilty of that Rebellion so horrid and odious to all Christians to use His Majesties words in another place Exact Collect. 71. when especially this very tryal of Innocency and Nocency is the onely way prescribed by the Act to vest the Lands in the King and is to supply the defect of Attainder and Offices to be found which must be in the Kings name or that any Commissioners can strain the Act and Qualifications to let Nocency be shrouded under Innocency and Treason to become merit Besides it is to be observed the Actors Abettors c. of the Rebellion in Ireland notwithstanding this jubilee of Indulgences under our gracious Sovereign stands yet unpardoned the punishment being left to the execution of this Act and shall the King be excluded in the tryal and not made party I shall say no more but certainly those that are of that opinion differ much in judgement from his late Majesty and his Majesty that now is who inherits his Fathers Vertues with his Throne Besides I shall put your Grace in minde that the Agents of the Roman confederate Catholicks of Ireland amongst other their desires in writing desired that his Majesties Council at Law might be at large and indifferent but it would not be granted I shall further offer the judgement of the Parliament in England Decemb 41. in their third Proposal to his Majesty viz. That you would be pleased to forbear to alienate any of the forfeitod and escheatod Lands in Ireland which shall accrew to your Crown Exact Collect. 2. by reason of this Rebellion that out of them the Crown may be better supported and some satisfaction made to your Subjects of this Kingdom for the great expences they are like to undergo in that War I do not infer that his Majesties necessities or Revenues must be supplied or setled by the confiscation of innocent persons Estates God forbid we should put that leavon into the Kings Treasury or such Mandrakes into the pot But Sir God sorbid on the other side that Nocents Nocents in so high a degree should for want of evidence that the Law allows in the Kings behalf should be made Innocents whereby his Majesties Revenue so considerately setled in this Kingdom should be reduced to nothing and so the Protection we enjoy by his Majesties Army for so is our condition in this Kingdom be dissolved and to compleat the misery the Protestant Families turnd out to the open Sky to entertain him whom upon the accompt of Rebellion his Sword had conquered It is further worthy of consideration that his Majesty is not onely concerned in his Revenue but by a strict decreeing of just forfeitures answers a debt his Majesty hath been pleased to take upon himself by his Letters from Breda to the Army here under the Command of the Duke of Albermarl The payment of that part of the Army in England drew vast Treasures whilest the forfeited Lands here by a due execution of the Act will discharge that debt Be

the Kings Plaintiff and the Defendant claims by Feoffment and to prove it duly executed desire some depositions taken at York might be allowed the Court refused it because the original of the depositions were gone so as the King must fight with weapons assigned him by his adversary Godbolt 439. so if the Plaintiff cannot find his witnesses to give testimony viva voce then he is as it were dead unto him and his depositions in an English Court betwixt the same parties may be read to the Jury It is further observable that in Tryals the Law allows evidence according to the necessity of the subject matter If the Lord distrain for Escuage and the Tenant pleads that he was with the King in Scotland it shall be tried by the Certificate of the Marshal of the Kings Host Littelt sect 102. If in avoydance of an Outlawry it is alledged he was at prison in Burdeaux it shall be tryed by the Certificate of the Major of Burdeux 1 Institut 74 Moor 451. The issue was upon full age and two Church Books were given in evidence But it may be objected That it would seem hard that Depositions taken by usurp●d Authority should be good I answer The same reason that warranted judicial proceedings in those times to be confirmed may allow these onely the reason is stronger in our case because the matter of fact hath been so shifted that the truth can appear no way To this I add That by the Act of Settlement they are allowed the words are these And whereas several of your Majesties Subjects by whom as Instruments the said rebels were totally subdued dyed in the time of your Majesties absence beyond Seas Act Settl p. 2. be pleased to observe this was in the time of the usurped Power for supply of the then pressing necessities and to prevent the further desolation of your Majesties Kingdom here necessitas vincit legem Enquire into the Authors Actors and Abettors of the said Rebellion and War and this was by Offices Examinations c. And after much deliberation amongst themselves and advice from others had thereupon did dispossess such of the said Irish Popish Rebels of their said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments as they found guilty of and to be engaged in the said Rebeltion or War and did withall distribute and set out the said Lands c. Your Grace may observe in this Clause here is the Guilt the Proof the Judgement and Execution concerning the Rebels Lands and the date of those proceedings is during his Majesties absence and yet this is laid as the Ground-work of that Clause which vests the Lands in the King for all the Characteristical Letters of forfeited Lands in the fourth and fifth pages of the Act of Settlement are the manner and ways of seising sequestrating distributing allotting c. of those Lands under that power for either that way must have been observed or otherwise the Irish being a consederated Body associated by Oaths establisht under a Democraty And lastly conquered by Arms must and of right might have been according to the Law of Nations condemned in gross It is to be feared the King will encounter many Deeds and Settlements and lewd Witnesses it is but reason he should defend himself by his own that are just And if out of Acts of Usurped Powers his Majesty set●les the peace of his Kingdoms it is but a part of Royal Chymistry out of poysonous Minerals to extract a Cordial Propos 3. That such Proclamations or any Act of State as have declared any person or persons and their Adherents Rebels before the Cessation in this Kingdom 1643. by his Majesties Authority shall be good Evidence in the Kings behalf against such person ●r persons to the Impeachment of their Innocency before his Majesties Commissioners for Execution of the Act of Settlement A Proclamation is part of the Kings Prerogative and obtains in cases of necessity the force of a Law and is therefore sometimes termed Lex temporis 11 H. 7.33 a If the King proclaim a Tilting to be held and one kills another in that Exercise this Proclamation shall be good by Pleading or Evidence to excuse the Felony The King by Proclamation may inhibit the Subject to go out of the Realm f. n. b. c. 85. c. and if the Subject doth against it it is a contempt and he shall be fined and since it is a Law to fine it will be good Evidence to justifie it It was no time for Sheriffs in the ordinary course or Law to make Proclamations in order to Outlaries when without an Army it was hazardous to march two miles from Dublin His Majesties Proclamation of the 1. Jan. 1641. invites them to lay down their Arms and forbear all further Acts of Hostility Col. 34 Pag. If this Proclamation from Mount-Geball will not take place that from Mount-Gerezzin must And we never yet received an instance that any embrac't those offer of mercy but though his Majesty hung out a white Flag they advanc't one of red I shall onely add this that it seems reasonable that if his Majesty by name declares J. S. to be a Traytor and to be prosecuted with Fire and Sword in such case if any good Subject should destroy the said J. S. he shall be indempnified by the Proclamation why then admit J.S. have escaped to this day I say if no intervenient Act of Grace from his Majesty obviate it this Proclamation may sorely impeach his innocency that might have warranted me to take away his life Propos 4. That where by any Order or Orders of the House of Commons since 1641. and before the first Sessions of this present Parliament any of their Members upon the account of the Rebellion have been adjudged to be rotten Members and fit to be cut off and have Ordered the Speaker of the said House to direct his Letter for the issuing out of Writs to supply their places That such Orders shall be allowed as good Evidence to bar such person or persons of their innocency It is first to be observed this extends no further then to the Members of their own House And your Grace may remember the Parliament fitting several Sessions after the Rebellion ahd reason to enquire what became of the far greater part of the House they found many English murthered the ways for travelling obstructed for such as survived or otherwise they were engaged in his Majesties service for defence of this Kingdom the Irish they expected after Order upon Order with their names publikely affixt whereupon they did conceive one or more Orders expressing the names of such persons who upon their own knowledge were ingaged in the Rebellion The House of Commons is a considerable Grand Jury it s a good Billa vera they return Their Orders are Records 4 Institut 23. and that appears also by 6 H. 8. c. 16. where the words are viz. And the same Licence be entred on Record in the Book of the

divided among them they would stoop to so sordid a crime as Perjury The Peers of the Realm upon this account pass upon tryals of blood only declaring their Judgments upon their Honour But surely cur case is plain and that they are not only lawful Witnesses but under strong Obligations if any person be indicted of Treason to give in evidence their knowledg in matter of fact Tenant for life and the Remainder over If Tenant for life be indicted for Treason he in the Remainder may be a witness though in that case when one goes to the bough the other goes to the plough Propos 20. Upon motion to the Court that any aged or impotent Person that can give evidence for his Majesty That their depositions be taken by Commission and lodged in the Court to be produc't in his Majesties behalf at the same shall require This is not denyed in the case of the Subject Commissioners to examine in perpetuam rei memoriam are frequent It is but reason to use all good Husbandry for the King and to pickle up such proofs as through age cannot keep long Thus may it please your Grace I have past by those several heads given me in charge by the House humbly to present to your Grace with the instance of some of those many reasons they had under their consideration The conclusion of the Instrument is this viz. These are the particulars which are presented to his Grace and Council as the result of the observations which have been hitherto made upon the late proceedings And that this House humbly desires his Grace that when time and experience shall suggest any thing of like moment with the above particulars his Grace and Council will be pleased to receive them And if any thing herein offered through the strai●ness of time be not sufficiently cleared his Grace and Council would be pleased to admit a Committee of the House of Commons to confer with a Committee of the Board upon the same and that in the interim if any cause to be heard by the Commissioners may receive prejudice under any of these Proposals being undetermined that the Commissioners being ascertained of the same may suspend the hearing of it till his Grace and Councils pleasure be further known It rests only to beg your Graces pardon if in discharging the trust reposed in me I have been enforced to use some words of Discrimination It is against the Inclination nay the Prayers of the House if the Subject matter could dispence with it to avoid them They know the compleat peace of the Kingdom rests not in cessation of Arms but in union of Hearts and they doubt not but under the prudent Administration of his Majesties Authority vested in your Grace we shall arrive to that happiness that it may be said Jam cuncti gens una sumus ah Sir and Sic simus in aevum We complain not of the want of a good Law for the settlement of this Nation upon sure and lasting foundations such that nothing but our sins can subvert If the spirits of all Kings living had been textacted they could not have contributed more to revive a gasping Kingdom than the wisdom of our Royal Soveraign blest with a Divine assistance hath in this Act of Settlement recorded to perfume and embalm his memory to all ages But Sir Corruptio optimi est pessima It is not the Sword but the hand that gives Protection or a Wound with respect to the efficient cause The Law saith All-hail-Protestants of Ireland but if the execution be dissonant we are crucified under a glorious Inscription of Mockery The execution of the Law is the soul of the Law the want of this hath transmitted this never-dying Truth to Posterity That Nulla est ta● misera servitus quam ubi jus est incertum vagum FINIS February 13. 1662. ORdered by the House nemine contradicente That Mr. Speaker having this day so faithfully delivered the sense of this House unto his Grace the Lord Lieutenant Do cause his Speech to be Printed and Published and that it be entred into the Journal of this House Philip Fernely Cler. Parl. I Do appoint Alderman William Bladen to Print my Speech And that none else presume to Print it without my Order AUDLEY MERVYN