Historical Collections: Articles and speeches, February-March 1641

A Speech made before the Lords in the Upper House of Parliament in Ireland, March 4. 1640. by Capt. Audley Mervin, at the Impeachment of Sir Richard Bolton, Kt. Lord Chancellor; John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Ger. Lowther, Lord Chief Justice of His Majesty's Court of Common-Pleas; and Sir George Ratcliff, Kt.

My Lords,
'I Am commanded by the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses of theCommons House, to present unto you Ireland's Tragedy; the Gray-headed Common Laws Funeral; and the Active Statutes Death and Obsequies.

'This dejected Spectacle answers but the prefiguin Type of Castor's Murther, wounded to Death in the Senate, and by Brutus his Bosom Friend. Our Casar's Image by Reflection, even the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom, the sole Means by which our Estates and confirmed, our Liberties preserved, our Lives secured, are wounded to Death in the Senate, I mean in the Courts of Justice, and by Brutus too even by those Persons that have received their Beings and Subsistend from them: So that here enters first inseparable Twins, Treason and Ingratitude.

'In a plain Phrase (My Lords) I tender unto you Treason, High Treason such a Treason, that wants nothing but Words to express it.

'To counterfeit the King's Seal, to counterfeit the King's Money, it is Treason; but this dies with the individual Party: To betray a Fort Treason; but it dies with a few Men.

'To betray an Army is Treason;but it dies with a limited Number which may be reinforced again by Politick Industry: To Blow up both Houses of Parliament, is Treason; but succeeding Ages may replant Branches by a fruitful Posterity: But this High Treason, by which I do now again in the Name of the House of Commons, charge and impeach Sir Richard Bolton Knight, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Sir Gerard Lowther, Knt. lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas: john, Lord Bishop of Deny and Sir George Ratcliff, Kt. in its Nature so far transcends any of the former, that the rest seem to be put Petty Larcenies in respect of this.

'What is it to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom? High Treason. What is it with a contumacious Malice to trample under feet the rich Legacies of our Fore-Fathers, purchased with Sweat and Expence I mean the Statute Laws? High Treason. What is it, through an Innate Antipathy to the Publick Good, to incarcerate the Liberty of the Subject under the Iron and weighty Chains of an Arbitrary Government High Treason ! What is it, since his Majesty is the amiable and delightful Pourtraiture of flourishing and indulgent Justice to his Subjects to represent him personated in their extrajudicial Censures and Judgments but to possess if possible) the Heart of his Loyal Subjects of this Kingdom, that he is a bloody and devouring Tyrant, and to provoke the never-dying Allegiance into a desperate and fatal Rebellion? What is it to violate the Grants of many of his Majesty's Progenitors, Kings and Queens of England, confirmed under the Broad-Seal, being the publick Faith of this Kingdom by an extrajudicial Breach, grounded upon the Record? What is it to insert a surreptitious Clause, forged by some servile Brain, in the Preamble of our last Act of Subsidies; by which the King's most excellent Majesty, and the Earl of Strafford are placed in one and the same Sphere, allowing them but equal Influences to nourish the Allegiance of this Kingdom. What is this but to extol other than Regal Authority; and to crucify the Majesty of our Sovereign between the two Thieves of Government, Tyranny and Treason.

'My Lords, having such a full and rushing Gale to drive me into the depth of these Occasions, I can hardly steer and confine my Course within the compass of Patience, since I read in the first Volume of their Brows, the least of these to be the certain Ruin of the Subject; and if proved, a most favourable Prologue to usher in the Tragedy of the Actors, Counsellors and Abettors herein: What was then the first and main Question ? It was the Subversion of the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom. Let then Magna Charta that lies prostrated, besmeared and groveling in her own Gore, disclose her Wounds, as so many pregnant and undeniable Proofs. Mark the Epithet Magna, Κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν, confirmed by Thirty Parliaments in the Succession of Eighteen Kings, the Violation of which hath several times engaged the Kingdom of England in a voluntary Sacrifice; a Charter which imposeth that pleasant and well-becoming Oath upon all Sovereignty, to vindicate and preserve the Immunity thereof before the Crown incircle the Royal Temples. In this Oath of so high Consequence and general Interest, his Majesty doth in a manner levy a Fine to his Subjects Use, for avoiding all fraudulent Conveyances in the Administration of Justice: And this Oath is transplanted unto the Judges, as Feoffees in Trust, appointed between his Majesty and the Subject, and sealed by his Majesty's provident Care, with that Emphatical Penalty, that their Estates and Lives shall be in the King's Mercy, upon the Violation of the same, either in whole or in part: Neither hath the deserved Punishment for the Breach of this Oath, been enacted, as Bugbears to enforce the Obedience of Children.

'No, My Lords, the just Execution of it upon their Predecessors, the in Breaches not so Capital, might have warned them to have strangled their ill born Resolutions in the Cradle, before they should more proclaim their Insamy, and petition for their Punishment.

'Witness Sir Thomas Wayland his Banishment, Confiscation of his Goods and Lands, only for his Merceuary Justice contrary to his Oath, who was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas, in the time of Edward I.

'Witness Sir William Thorp, Chief-Justice of the King's-Bench in the time of Edw. 3. who was adjudged to be hanged, because he had broken the King's Oath made unto the People, wherewith he was entrusted; for so was the Interpretation of the Reason entred in the Roll.

Yet, My Lords, though Magna Charta be so sacred for Antiquity; though its Confirmation be strengthned by Oath, though it be the proper Dictionary that expounds meum and tuum, and assigns every Subject his Birtbright, it only survives in the Rolls, but is miserably rent and torn in the Practice.

These Words, Salvo Contenement, live in the Rolls, but they are dead in the Star-Chamber.

These Words, Nullus homo liber disseisitur de libero suo tenemento nisiper judicium parium, live in the Rolls, but they are dead where Property and Freehold are determined by Paper Petitions. These Words, Nullivendemus, nulli defermus Justitiam, live in the Rolls, but are dead when the Suits, Judgments, and Executions of the Subjects are wittingly or illegally retarded, suspended and avoided: Shall we desire to search the mortal Wounds inflicted upon the Statue-Laws? Who sees them not lying upon their Death-Beds, stabb'd by Proclamations, their Primitive and Genuine Tenures escheated by Acts of State, and strangled by Monopolies?

'Will you survey the Liberties of the Subject ? Every Prison spews out illegal Attachments and Commitments; every Pillory is dyed with the forced Blood of the Subjects, and hath Ears, though not to heard yet to witness this Complaint. Do you doubt of the defacement of the amiable Offices of his Majesty's most transplendent and renowned Justice and Grace? Let then that Microcosm of Letters Patents, confirmed under his Majesty's and his Predecessors Broad-Seal of the Kingdom, being the publick Faith thereof, and yet unchristned by frivolous and private Opinions, rise up in Judgment. Let the abortive Judgment of the Tenure in Capite, where no Tenure was express'd; nay, let the Heretical Trayterous Opinions, where the Tenure was express'd, yet to drown in all by Markets and Fairs, granted in the same Patents, rise up on Judgment.

'What Glass hath this unhappy divided Kingdom from his Majesty Presence and Audience to contemplate the fair and ravishing Form of his Royal Intentions in, but in the clear and diaphanous Administration of his Justice ? And what do these traiterous and illegal Practices aim at, but in Affront to his Majesty, (which we most tenderly resent) and Discontent to his Subject, to multiply, as by a Magick Glass, the Royal Dispensation of his Favours, into the ugly and deformed Visage of their Suppression of the Liberties, Devastation of Estates, and Deprivation of the Lives of his Loyal Subjects; so that it may be said, Regali capit cervivem consul equinam Jungere sic vellet variasque inducere plumas.

'My Lords, These ought to be considered with as serious and attentive an Ear, as they were practised by mischievous Experiments. Enquire of the Netherlands, why their Fields are grown fertile by the Inundation of Blood: why the pensive Matrons solemnize too too frequent Funerals of their Husbands and Issue; and they will answer, That it was for the Preservation of their Laws, which Tyranny would have innovated. This Kingdom personated in the Sable Habit of a Widow, with dishevelled Hair, seems to petition your Lordships, that since the a Mother to most of us, yet certainly a Nurse unto us all, that you would take some Order for a Redress of her Tyrannical Oppressions.

'These Persons impeach'd, resemble the opacous Body of the Earth interposed to eclipse that Light and Vigor, which the Solar Aspect of Majesty would communicate unto his Subjects.

'They initate the Fifth Sepia, that vomits a dark Liquor out of the Mouth, to cloud the Waters for her securer Escape.

'They are those to whom the Keys have been committed, yet the have barred the Door to them that knock'd.

'They are those unnatural Parents, that give their Children Stones instead of Bread, and Scorpions for Fifth.

'Was it to this Purpose that the Royal Authority situated them in these eminent Places, that, like Beacons upon high Hills, they should discover and proclaim each Innovation and Stratagem against the publick wheal they, in the mean time, employ their Fires to a publick Incendary, or like Ignes fatui, sedue the easy and believing Traveller into Pits and unexpected Mires?

'Were they sworn to seal the Damnation, and not the Confirmation of our Liberties, Estates, and Lives ? Shall a Man be censured for perjury in that Breach of his private Faith, and these be justifiable in Treason, aggravated by Perjury against the Crown and publick Faith of the Kingdom? No, My Lords, your grave, judicious, and mature Examination and desered Punishment of these traiterous Proceedings, will speak the times as glorious to Posterity in their Reformation, as now they are lamented in their Persecution.

'The Blood-thirsting Sword of an hostile Enemy by a timely Union and a defensive Preparation may be prevented. The thin ribb'd Carkass of an Universal Famine may have his Consumption restored by a Supply from our Neighbouring Nations.

'The quick-spreading Venom of an infectious Pestilence may be prevented by Antidotes, and qualified by Physical Remedies: But this Catholick Grievance, like a Snake in the most verdant Walks, (for such are the unblemished Laws truly practised) stings us to Death when we are most secure; and, like the King's Evil, can only be cured, by his Majesty's free and gracious Permission of our modest and gentle Proceedings for his Vindication, and our Preservation therein included.

Spencer and Gaveston, who have left their Names monumentally odious, for the evil Counsel they fed the King's Ears with, yet did possibly advance their own Friends; whilst these dart their Envy and Treason as from a common Center, equally touching the Bounds of every Superpersicies: For as concerning the Valid Estates, they have illegally overthrown them; when by your Lordship's Industry the Laws receive their Vigor, they will resume their Confirmation. But the Estates happily in themselves Legal, that they have in an extrajudicial Form established, will haste as speedily to their Dissolution; so, that, Judas like, they betrayed their best Friends with a Kiss.

My Lords, I cannot find in any surviving Chronology of Times, this Season to be parallel'd with all Circumstances; which makes me view the Records amongst the insernal Spirits, to find if, match'd there, I might extenuate their Facts, where first they appear like the false Spirit sent into the Mouth of the Prophets of Achab, to speak Delusions to subvert the Host of God.

'The most vehement and traiterous Encounter of Satan, is lively decyphered in the true Example of Job; where first I observe the Disanalogy; he overthrows not Job's Magna Charta, he disseizes him not of his Inheritance, nor dispossesses him of his Leases, but only disrobes him of some part of his Personal Estate: When he proceeds to infringe Job's Liberty he doth not pillory him, nor cut off his Ears, nor bore him through the Tongue; he only spots him with some Ulcers: Here Satan stays; when these Persons, by their traiterous Combinations, envy the very Blood that runs unsplit in our Veins; and by obtruding bloody Acts, damn'd in the last Parliament, will give Satan Size-Ace and the Dice, at Irish, in enthralling the Lives of the Subjects, by their Arbitrary Judicature. I would not, my Lords, be understood to impute unto Judges an Infallibility, nor in impeaching these, to traduce those, whose Candor and Integrity shine with a more admired Lustre than their white Furs, who like Trophies of Virgin-Justice, stood fix'd and unmov'd in the rapid Torrent of the Times; while these like Straws and Chips play'd in the Streams, until they are devolved in the Ocean of their deserved Ruin. No, my Lords, Humanum est errare; and the Law allows Writs of Error, and Arrests of Judgment; but where there is Crassa ignorantia, against their Oaths, against the fundamental, elementary and known Laws of the Kingdom; nay, my Lords, where it is rather Prameditata malitia, where there is an emulating Policy, who should raze and embezzle the Records in the Practick, that are for the tender Preservation of our Liberties, Estates, and Lives, seeking only to be glorious in a National Destruction, as if their Safety were only involved in our Ruin, there I have Command to pity, but not to excuse them.

'To kill a Judge, quatenus a Judge, is not Treason; but to kill a Judge sitting on the Bench, is Treason; not for that the Law intends it out of any Malice against the Party, but for the Malice against the Law; where then can an intensive or an extensive Malice be more express'd or implyed against the Law, than the practical Dialect of these Persons impeached speaks with a known and crying Accent?

'The Benjamites slung Stones with their left Hands, yet they would not miss an Hair's Breadth: These extrajudicial Proceedings are slung with the left, I mean they are sinistrous, and imprint their Black and Blue Marks more certain and more fatal; so that they may say, Qua regis in Terris nostri non plena laboris ? Though these Things be familiar unto us, yet I cannot but admire how this unproportionable Body of Judicature, should swell up into such a vast and ulcerous Dimension.

'But why should I ? Considering this Excentrick Motion of the Body of the Law, had his Birth obscure, resembling the Tares that were sow'd in the Night-time: But here is the Difference, they were sown by the Enemy in the absence of the Master; but these are sown by the grand Masters themselves purposely, to overtop and choak the expected Harvest.

'Innovations in Law, and consequently in Government, creep in like Heresies in Religion, slowly and slily, pleading in the end a sawcy and corrupt Legitimacy, by uncontroul'd Prescription.

'My Lords, this is the first fitting; and I have only chalked out this deformed Body of High Treason; I have not drawn it at length, left it might fright you from the further View thereof.

'In conclusion, It is the humble Desire of the Commons, that the Parties impeached may be secured in their Persons, sequestred from this House, from this House, from the Council-Table, and from all Places of Judicature (as being Civiliter mortui) that they may put in their Answers, to the Articles ready now to be exhibited against them, and that all such further Proceedings may be secretly expedited, as may be suitable to Justice, and the Precedents of Parliaments; so his Majesty may appear in his trium phant Goodness and Indulgence to his People, and his People may be ravished in their dutiful and chearful Obedience and Loyalty to his Majesty; your Lordships may live in Records to Posterity, as the instrumental Reformers of these corrupted Times; and the Kingdom and Commonwealth may pay an amiable Sacrifice in Retribution and Acknowledgment of his Majesty's multiplied Providence for our Preservation herein.

Articles of the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses in Parliament assembled, against Sir Richard Bolton, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerard Lowther, Kt. Lord-Chief Justice of His Majesty's Court of Common-Pleas, and Sir George Ratcliffe, Kt. in maintenance of their Accusation, whereby they stand charged with High Treason.

• 1. That the said Sir Richard Bolton, Kt. Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerard Lowther, Knt. Lord Chief Justice of his Majesty's Court of Common Pleas, and Sir George Ratcliffe, Knt. intending the Destruction of this Realm, have traiterously considered and conspired together, to subvert the fundamental Laws and Government of this Kingdom; and in pursuance thereof, they and every of them have traiterously contrived, introduced and exercised an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law, throughout this Kingdom, by the Countenance and Assistance of Thomas Earl of Strafford, then Chief Governor of the Kingdom.
• 2. That they and every of them, the said Sir Richard Bolton, Kt. Lord Chancellor or Ireland, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerard Lowther, Kt. Lord Chief Justice of his Majesty's Court of Common-Pleas, and Sir George Ratcliffe, Kt. have traiterously assumed to themselves, and every of them, Regal Power over the Goods, Persons, Lands, and Liberties of his Majesty's Subjects of this Realm; and have likewise maliciously, persidiously, and traiterously given, declared, pronounced, and published false, unjust, and erroneous Opinions and Judgments, Sentences and Decrees, in extrajudicial manner against Law; and have perpetrated, practised, and done many other traiterous and unlawful Acts and Things, whereby as well divers Mutinies, Seditions, and Rebellions have been raised; as also many Thousands of his Majesty's Liege People of this Kingdom, have been ruined in their Goods, Lands, Liberties, and Lives: And many of them being of good Quality and Reputation, have been utterly desamed by Pillory, Mutilation of Members, and other infamous Punishments; by means whereof, his Majesty and the Kingdom have been deprived of their Service in Juries and other publick Employments, and the general Trade and Traffick of this island, for the most part destroyed, and his Majesty highly damnified in his Customs and other Revenues.
• 3. That the said Sir Richard Bolton, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerard Lowther, and Sir George Ratcliffe, and every of them, the better to preserve themselves and the Earl of Strafford in these and other traiterous Courses, have laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliaments, and the ancient Course of Parliamentary Proceedings: All which Offences were contrived, committed, perpetrated, and done at such times as the said Sir Richard Bolton, Sir Gerard Lowther, and Sir George Ratcliffe, Knights, were Privy Counsellors of State within this Kingdom, and against their and every of their Oaths of the same; and at such times as the said Sir Rich. Bolton, Kt. was Lord Chancellor of Ireland, or Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer within this Kingdom, and Sir Gerard Lowther, Kt. was Lord Chief Justice of the said Court of Common-Pleas, and against their Oaths of the same, and at such time as the said Lord Bishop of Derry was actually Bishop of Derry within this Kingdom, and were done and perpetrated contrary to their and every of their Allegiance, and several and respective Oaths taken in that Behalf.

For which, the said Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses do impeach the said Sir Richard Bolton, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerard Lowther, Kt. Lord Chief Justice of his Majesty's said Court of Common-Pleas, and Sir George Ratcliffe, Kt. aforesaid, and every of them, of High Treason against our Sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity.

And the said Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, by Protestation, saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Richard Bolton, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerard Lowthey and Sir Geo. Ratcliffe aforesaid, and every of them; and also of replying to their, and every of their Answer and Answers, which they and every of them shall make to the said Articles, or any of them, and of offering Proof also of the Premises, or of any other Impeachment or Accusation as shall be them exhibited, as the Case shall, according to the course of Parliament, require.

And the said Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, do pray that the said Sir Richard Bolton, Kt. Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerard Lowther, Kt. Lord Chief Justice of the said Court of Common-Pleas, and Sir George Ratcliffe, Kt. and every of them, be put to answer all and every the Premises; and that all such Proceedings, Examinations, Tryal, and Judgment, may be upon them, and every of them, had and used, as is agreeable to Law and Justice.

A Schedule of some part of the Grievances of this Kingdom, voted in the Lords House of Parliament in Ireland, the 18th of February, 1640. to be transmitted to the Committee of the same House attending his Majesty in England, to pursue for Redress for the same.

• 1. That the Nobility of this Kingdom have not been Taxed Assessed, in their Subsidies in this Parliament, and the last preceding Parliament, equally or proportionably to the Lords in England nor answerable to their Estates and Engagements: But excessively rated beyond their Abilities to bear, and beyond all Example in any of his Majesty's Dominions.
• 2. That the Peers of the Realm have been restrained of late, even to close Prison, not being impeached of Treason or other capital Offence.
• 3. That the Proxies of Peers have of late been limited unto such Persons only as the Chief Governor nominated (few or none excepted) and License of Absence granted to none but on those Terms; by Reasons whereof, even in this Parliament, Four or Five Noblemen could out-vote all the Temporal Nobility present.
• 4. That such Noblemen as have Titles of Honour in this Kingdom, and no Lands, have Vote in Parliament.
• 5. The late Proclamation restraining Peers, and others to go into England, to present themselves before their Liege Lord, or otherwise without License; and therefore an Act of Parliament to be propounded, to prevent the like hereafter.
• 6. The general and apparent Decay of Trades, occasioned by the new, and illegal raising of the Book of Rates and Impositions, as 12 d. a-piece Custom for Hides, bought for 3, 4, or 5s. and other heavy Impositions. upon Native, and other Commodities, exported and imported: By Reason whereof, and of extream Usage and Censures, Merchants are beggar'd, and both disenabled and discouraged to Trade, and some of the Persons who gain thereby, are often Judges and Parties; and that in Conclusion, his Majesty's Profit thereby is not considerably advanced.
• 7. The Arbitrary Decisions of all Civil Causes and Controversies, by Paper Petitions before the Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Deputy, or other Chief Governor, and infinite other Judicatories, upon References from them derived, in the Nature of all Actions determinable at the Common Law, not limited unto certain Time, Season, Cause, or Thing whatsoever; and the Consequences of such Proceedings, by receiving immoderate and unlawful Fees, by Secretaries, Clerks, Pursuivants, Serjeants at Arms, and otherwise; by which kind of Proceedings, his Majesty loseth a considerable Part of his Revenue upon original Writs, and otherwise: The Subject loseth the Benefit of his Writ of Error, Bill of Reversal, Vouchers, and other legal and just Advantages in the ordinary Course, and Courts of Justice are thereby declined.
• 8. The Proceeding in Civil Causes, at the Council Board, contrary to the Law, and great Charter, and not limited to any certain Time or Season.
• 9. The extrajudicial Avoidings of Letters-Patents of Estates, of a very great Part of his Majesty's Subjects under the Great Seal, the Publick Faith of the Kingdom, by private Opinions, delivered at Council-Board, with out legal Evictions of their Estates, contrary to the Laws, and without Precedent or Example, of any former Age.
• 10. The Proclamation for the sole Composition and uttering of Tobacco, which is bought at very low Rates, and uttered at very high and excessive Rates; by means whereof, Thousand Families within this Kingdom, and of his Majesty's Subjects in several Islands, and other Parts of the West-Indies (as their Lordships are informed) are destroyed, and the most Part of the Coin of this Kingdom, is engrossed thereby into Particular Hands; insomuch as their Lordships conceive the Profit arising and engrossed thereby, doth surmount his Majesty's Revenue, certain or casual, within this Kingdom; and yet his Majesty receiveth but very little Profit by the same.
• 11. The unusual and unlawful increasing of Monopolies, to the Advantage of few, to the Disprofit of His Majesty and the Impoverishment of his People, as Starch, Tobacco, Tobacco-Pipes, Soap, Glass, and other Things.
• 12. The late Erection of the Court of High Commission for Causes Ecclesiastical, in these necessitous Times, the Proceedings of the same Court in many Causes, without legal Courses; and yet ever supported as Prohibitions have not been obtained, though legally fought for, and the excessive Fees exacted by the Ministers thereof, and the encroaching of the same upon the Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts of this Kingdom.
• 13. The exorbitant Fees and pretended Customs exacted by the Clergy against the Law, some of which have been formerly presented to the late Lord Deputy, but no Redress had thereupon.
• 14. The Act of State touching the buying of Gunpowder out of his Majesty's Store, which is commonly bad, and, for the most Part, sold at double the Value for which the same is bought in Gross; and the Proclamations restraining Hawking and Hunting within seven Miles of Dublin, and shooting at any living thing within Five Miles of the Nase, whereby neither Noblemen or Gentlemen dare shoot at any Vermin, or other Thing whatsoever that is living, which they conceive to be none of his Majesty's Royal Meaning.
• 15. That by the Powerfulness of some Ministers of State in the Kingdom, the Parliament in its Members and Actions hath not had its natural Freedom.
• 16. That his Majesty's Subjects of this Kingdom have been denied the Benefit of the Statute of Limitation, of 21 Jac. granted by his Majesty in the Fourth Year of his Reign, upon great Advice and Consideration, and then published in all the Courts, and in open Assizes.
• 17. That the Fees taken in all the Courts of Justice in this Kingdom, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, by Officers and Ministers, are so immoderately high, that it is an unspeakable Burthen to all his Majesty's Subjects of this Kingdom, who are not able to subsist, except the same be speedily remedied, and reduced to such Moderation as may stand with the Condition of this Realm.
• 18. That many Hundred Thousand Weight of Linnen-Yarn and Linnen-Cloth have of late been taken away by Force, by Authority of the Chief Governor, from poor, industrious People, for want of breadth, or a certain Number of loose Threads, to the undoing of many Thousands of his Majesty's Subjects.
• 19. And lastly, That the Nobility, Gentry, and Merchants, and other his Majesty's Subjects of this Kingdom, are of late by the Grievances and Pressures aforesaid, and other the like, very near to Ruin and Destruction, and Farmers of Customs, Customers, Waiters, Searchers, Clerks of unwarrantable Proceedings, Pursuivants, and Goalers, and sundry others, very much enriched thereby; and by the slow Redress of these, and other Grievances, under which his Majesty's loving Subjects have some Years past groaned, his Majesty's most faithful and dutiful People of this Kingdom do conceive great Fears, That their Readiness approved upon all Occasions hath not been of late rightly represented to his Sacred Majesty.

The said Irish Committee attending the King, consisted of Four Peers and Twelve Commoners, viz. The Lord Viscount Gormandstone, Lord Viscount Kilmaloe, Lord Viscount Casteloe, and Lord Viscount Baltinglas. The Commons were, out of Lemster, Nich. Plunket, Digby, Richard Fitz-Garret, Nich. Barnewell, Esq; out of Munster, Sir Hardresse Waller, John Welsh, Sir Donnogh Mac-Carti; out of Conaught, Robert Linch, Geofry Brown, Tho. Burke; out of Ulster, Sir Will. Cole, Sir James Montgomery.

The King took these their Grievances into his Royal Consideration, condescending so far to their Satisfaction, as that he heard them Himself, and made present Provision for their Redress.

Upon the Death of Mr.Wandsford, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and Lord Deputy there, under the Earl of Strafford, (for he continued Lord Lieutenant after his Imprisonment) the King nominated the Lord Dillon, and Sir William Parsons, for the Government of Ireland; but finding the Lord Dillon not to be acceptable to the said Committee, placed Sir John Borlace in his Room, who took the Sword, Feb. 9. 1640–1.