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A51131
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The case of Ireland's being bound by acts of Parliament in England stated by William Molyneux.
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Molyneux, William, 1656-1698.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing M2402; ESTC R30063
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64,004
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194
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THE CASE OF IRELAND's Being BOUND by Acts of Parliament IN ENGLAND Stated BY William Molyneux of Dublin Esq Dublin Printed by Ioseph Ray and are to be Sold at his Shop in Skinner-Row M DC XC VIII TO THE KING SIR THE Expedition Your MAJESTY Undertook into England to Rescue these Nations from Arbitrary Power and those Unjust Invasions that were made on our Religion Laws Rights and Liberties was an Action in it Self so Great and of such Immense Benefit to our Distressed Countries that 't is Impossible to give it a Representation so Glorious as it Deserves Of all Your Majesty's Kingdoms none was more Sensible of the Happy Effects thereof than Your Kingdom of Ireland which from the Depth of Misery and Despair is Raised by your Majesty to a Prosperous and Flourishing Condition And we presume most humbly to Implore the Continuance of Your Majesty's Graces to us by Protecting and Defending those Rights and Liberties which we have Enjoy'd under the Crown of England for above Five Hundred Years and which some of late do Endeavour to Violate Your most Excellent Majesty is the Common Indulgent Father of all your Countries and have an Equal Regard to the Birth-Rights of all Your Children and will not permit the Eldest because the Strongest to Encroach on the Possessions of the Younger Especially considering with what Duty Loyalty and Filial Obedience we have ever behav'd our selves to Your Majesty Insomuch that I take leave to Assert That Your Majesty has not in all Your Dominions a People more United and Steady to Your Interests than the Protestants of Ireland Which has manifestly Appear'd in all our Actions and Parliamentary Proceedings since Your Majesty's Happy Accession to the Throne To Relieve the Distress'd has ever been the Peculiar Character of Your Majesty's Glorious Family The United Provinces have found this in Your Famous Ancestors And all Europe has been Sensible of this in Your Royal Person To this End more particularly You came into these Kingdoms as Your Majesty has been pleas'd to Declare And as You have Establish'd the Rights and Liberties of England on a Foundation that we hope can never be shaken So we doubt not but Your Sacred Majesty will have a Tender Care of Your Poor Subjects of Ireland who are Equally Your Subjects as the rest of Your People Pardon I most Humbly beseech Your Majesty my Presumption in Appealing to You on this Occasion Nothing but the Dignity and Weight of the Subject can Excuse my Boldness herein But if That be Consider'd it Deserves the Regard of the Greatest Prince 'T is no less than the Rights and Liberties of one of His Kingdoms on which their Religion their Property their All Depends and which they have Enjoyed for Five Hundred Years past This I think I have clearly shewn in the following Leaves I am sure if my Management thereof were suitable to the Iustice of our Cause our Friends of England can no longer Doubt it At Your Majesty's Feet therefore I throw it and with it the Unworthy Author thereof May it please Your Majesty Your Majesty's Most Dutiful Loyal and Obedient Subject and Servant William Molyneux PREFACE TO THE READER I Have nothing to Offer in this Preface more than to let the Reader know how Unconcern'd I am in any of those Particular Inducements which might seem at this Iuncture to have Occasion'd the following Discourse I have not any Concern in Wooll or the Wooll-Trade I am no wise Interested in the Forfeitures or Grants I am not at all Solicitous whether the Bishop or Society of Derry Recover the Land they Contest about So that I think I am as Free from any Personal Prejudice in this Cause as 't is possible to Expect any Man should be that has an Estate and Property in this Kingdom and who is a Member of Parliament there in I hope therefore 't is a Publick Principle that has mov'd me to this Undertaking I am sure I am not Conscious to my Self of any other Intention I have heard it has been said That perhaps I might run some Hazard in Attempting this Argument But I am not at all Apprehensive of any such Danger We are in a Miserable Condition indeed if we may not be Allow'd to Complain when we think we are Hurt and to give our Reasons with all Modesty and Submission But were it otherwise it would not in the least Affect or Discourage me in an Attempt where I think my Cause Good and my Country Concern'd and where I am fully perswaded the True Interest of England is as Deeply Engaged as the Protestant Interest of Ireland The Great and Just Council of England freely Allowâ—… all Addresses of this sort Tâ—… Receive and Hear Grievances is a great part of their Business and to Redress them is their Chief Glory But this is no to be done till they are laid before them and fairly Stated for their Consideration This I have endeavour'd 〈◊〉 the following Paper What Sâ—…cess it may have I am not veâ—… solicitous about I have Done what I thought was my Duty and Commit the Event to GOD Almighty and the Wise Council of England Dublin Febr. 8. 7 1698. W. MOLYNEUX The CASE OF IRELAND's Being Bound by Acts of Parliament IN ENGLAND STATED I HAVE ever been se fully perswaded of the strict Justice of the Parliament of England that I could never think that any of Their Proceedings which might seem to have the least Tendency to Hardship on their Neighbours could arise from any thing but want of Due Information and a right State of the Business under their Consideration The want of which in Matters wherein another People are chiefly Concern'd is no Defect in the Parliament of England but is highly Blameable in the Persons whose Affair is Transacting and who permit that Illustrious Body of Senators to be Mis-inform'd without giving them that Light that might Rectifie them I could never Imagine that those Great Assertors of their Own Liberties and Rights could ever think of making the least Breach in the Rights and Liberties of their Neighbours unless they thought that they had Right so to do and this they might well surmise if their Neighbours quietly see their Inclosures Invaded without Expostulating the Matter at least and shewing Reasons why they may think that Hardships are put upon them therein The Consideration hereof has Excited me to undertake this Disquisition which I do with all Imaginable Diffidence of my own Performance and with the most profound Respect and Deference to that August Senate The present Juncture of Affairs when the Business of Ireland is under the Consideration of both Houses of the English Parliament seems to require this from some Person and seeing all Others silent I venture to Expose my own Weakness rather than be wanting at this time to my Country I might say indeed to Mankind for 't is the Cause of the whole Race of Adam that I Argue Liberty seems the Inherent Right of all
pag. 47. And in Pilkington's Case aforemention'd Fortescue declared That the Land of Ireland is and at all times hath been a Dominion Separate and Divided from England How then can the Realms of England and Ireland being Distinct Kingdoms and Separate Dominions be imagin'd to have any Superiority or Iurisdiction the one over the other 'T is absurd to fancy that Kingdoms are Separate and Distinct meerly from the Geographical Distinction of Territories Kingdoms become Distinct by Distinct Iurisdictions and Authorities Legislative and Executive and as Rex est qui Regem non habet so Regnum est quod alio non Subjicitur Regno A Kingdom can have no Supream 't is in it self Supream within it self and must have all Jurisdictions Authorities and Praeeminencies to the Royal State of a Kingdom belonging or else 't is none And that Ireland has all these is declared in the Irish Stat. 33 Hen. VIII c. 1. The chief of these most certainly is the Power of Making and Abrogating its own Laws and being bound only by such to which the Community have given their Consent Sixthly It is against the Kings Prerogative that the Parliament of England should have any Co-ordinate Power with Him to introduce New Laws or Repeal Old Laws Established in Ireland By the Constitution of Ireland under Poyning's Act the King's Prerogative in the Legislature is advanced to a much higher Pitch than ever was Challenged by the Kings in England and the Parliament of Ireland stands almost on the same bottom as the King does in England I say almost on the same Bottom for the Irish Parliament have not only a Negative Vote as the King has in England to whatever Laws the King and his Privy Councils of both or either Kingdom shall lay before them but have also a Liberty of Proposing to the King and his Privy Council here such Laws as the Parliament of Ireland think expedient to be pass'd Which Laws being thus Proposed to the King and put into form and Transmitted to the Parliament here according to Poyning's Act must be Pass'd or Rejected in the very Words even to a Tittle as they are said before our Parliament we cannot alter the least Iota If therefore the Legislature of Ireland stand on this Foot in relation to the King and to the Parliament of Ireland and the Parliament of England do Remove it from this Bottom and Assume it to themselves where the Kings Prerogative is much Narrower and as it were Reversed for there the King has only a Negative Vote I humbly conceive 't is an Incroachment on the Kings Prerogative But this I am sure the Parliament of England will be always very Tender of and His Majesty will be very loth to have such a Precious Jewel of his Crown handled rufly The Happiness of our Constitutions depending on a Right Temperament between the Kings and the Peoples Rights Seventhly It is against the Practice of all former Ages Wherein can it appear that any Statute made in England was at any time since the Reign of Henry the Third allowed and put in practice in the Realm of Ireland without the Authority of the Parliament of Ireland Is it not manifest by what foregoes that from the Twentieth of King Henry the Third to the Thirteenth of Edward the Second and from thence to the Eighteenth of Henry the Sixth and from thence to the Thirty-Second of Henry the Sixth and from thence to the Eighth of Edward the Fourth and from thence to the Tenth of Henry the seventh there was special care taken to Introduce the Statutes of England such of them as were necessary or convenient for this Kingdom by degrees and always with Allowance and Consent of the Parliament and People of Ireland And since the General Allowance of all the English Acts and Statutes in the Tenth of Henry the Seventh there have several Acts of Parliament which were made in England in the Reigns of all the Kings from that Time Successively to this very Day been particularly Receiv'd by Parliament in Ireland and so they become of force here and not by reason of any General Comprehensive words as some Men have lately fancied For if by General Comprehensive Words the Kingdom of Ireland could be bound by the Acts of Parliament of England what needed all the former Receptions in the Parliament of Ireland or what use will there be of the Parliament of Ireland at any time If the Religion Lives Liberties Fortunes and Estates of the Clergy Nobility and Gentry of Ireland may be dispos'd of without their Privity and Consent what Benefit have they of any Laws Liberties or Priviledges granted unto them by the Crown of England I am loth to give their Condition an hard Name but I have no other Notion of Slavery but being Bound by a Law to which I do not Consent Eighthly 'T is against several Resolutions of the Learned Iudges of former times in the very Point in Question This is manifest from what foregoes in the Case of the Merchants of Waterford Pilkington's Case Prior of Lanthony's Case c. But I shall not here inlarge farther thereon Ninthly The Obligation of all Laws having the same Foundation if One Law may be Imposed without Consent any Other Law whatever may be Imposed on us Without our Consent This will naturally introduce Taxing us without our Consent and this as necessarily destroys our Property I have no other Notion of Property but a Power of Disposing my Good as I please and not as anotheâ—… shall Command Whatever another may Rightfully take from me without my Consent I have certainly no Property in To Tax me without Consent is little better if at all than down-right Robbing me I am sure the Great Patriots of Liberty and Property the Free Peo Ple of England cannot think of such a thing but with Abhorrence Lastly The People of Ireland are left by this Doctrine in the Greatest Confusion and Uncertainty Imaginable We are certainly bound to Obey the Supream Authority over us and yet hereby we are not permitted to know Who or What the same is whether the Parliament of England or that of Ireland or Both And in what Cases the One and in what the Other Which Uncertainty is or may be made a Pretence at any time for Disobedience It is not impossible but the Different Legislatures we are subject to may Enact Different or Contrary Sanctions Which of these must we obey To conclude all I think it highly Inconvenient for England to Assume this Authority over the Kingdom of Ireland I believe there will need no great Arguments to convince the Wise Assembly of English Senators how inconvenient it may be to England to do that which may make the Lords and People of Ireland think that they are not Well Used and may drive them into Discontent The Laws and Liberties of England were granted above five hundred years ago to the People of Ireland upon their Submissions to the