and respective shires, wherein the respective elections are to be made of the respective persons to serve in Parliament for the respective shires, and to the respective Sheriffs of the county where the elections for the boroughs are hereby appointed to be made according to the distribution aforesaid ; and that the respective Sheriffs to whom such writs shall be directed, are hereby authorised and impowered to make or cause proclamation to be made of such writ in all the counties, boroughs, and places respectively, for the making such election and elections, and to issue his warrant to the chief officer of the place, where such election for boroughs is to be made, notwithstanding the same be not within the shire whereof such person is Sheriff, and to cause the elections to be made accordingly; which writs the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal of England, for the time being, shall seal, issue and send forth. Thursday, June, 27th, 1654. Ordered by his Highness the Lord Protector and his Council, that this Ordinance be forthwith printed and published. HENRY SCOBELL, Clerk of the Council. 90. AN ORDINANCE BY THE PROTECTOR FOR ELECTIONS IN IRELAND. [June 27, 1654. Civil War Tracts, Press Mark E 1064, p. 439.] Whereas by the Government of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, publicly declared at Westminster the 16th day of December, 1653, it is declared, that the distribution of the persons to be chosen for Ireland, and the several counties, cities and places within the same, shall be according to such proportions and number as shall be agreed upon and declared by the Lord Protector and the major part of the Council, before the sending forth writs of summons for the next Parliament. And whereas his Highness and the major part of the Council, before the sending forth of any writs of summons aforesaid, did agree and declare the distribution of the persons to be chosen for Ireland, according to the proportions and numbers hereafter mentioned; it is therefore ordained, declared and agreed by his Highness the Lord Protector, with the consent of the Council, that the persons to be chosen for Ireland, and the several counties, cities and places within the same, shall be according to the proportion and number hereafter expressed; that is to say, for the province of Leinster, ten; that is to say, for the counties of Meath and Louth, two; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Drogheda. For the counties of Kildare and Wicklow, two; for the county and city of Dublin, two; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Dublin. For the counties of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny and Queen's, two; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Carlow. For the counties of Westmeath, Longford and King's, two; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Mullingar. For the province of Ulster, seven, that is to say, for the counties of Down, Antrim and Armagh, two; for the towns of Carrickfergus and Belfast, one; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Belfast. For the counties of Derry, Donegal and Tyrone, two; for the towns of Derry and Coleraine, one; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Derry. For the counties of Cavan, Fermanagh and Monaghan, one; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Enniskillen. For the province of Munster, nine; that is to say, for the counties of Kerry, Limerick and Clare, two; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Rathkeale. For the city and county of the city of Limerick and Killmallock, one; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Limerick. For the county of Cork, one; for the towns of Cork and Youghall, one; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Cork. For the towns of Bandon and Kinsale, one; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Bandon. For the counties of Waterford and Tipperary, two; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Clonmel. the cities of Waterford and Clonmel, one; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Waterford. For the province of Connaught, except the county of Clare, four; that is to say, for the counties of Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim, two; and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Jamestown. For the counties of Galway and Mayo, two; and the place For of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Galway. And it is further ordained by his said Highness the Lord Protector, with the consent of the Council aforesaid, that for the effectual and orderly election of the persons aforesaid, to be chosen to sit and serve in Parliament, as in the said Government is declared, several writs under the Great Seal of England shall issue, and be directed to the several Sheriffs of the aforesaid counties and cities, to make the respective elections of the respective persons to serve in Parliament, for the said respective counties, cities, towns and boroughs, according to the distributions hereinbefore declared; which writs the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal of England for the time being shall seal, issue and send forth. HEN. SCOBELL, Clerk of the Council. Tuesday, 27th June, 1654. Ordered by his Highness the Lord Protector and the Council, that this Ordinance be forthwith printed and published. HEN. SCOBELL, Clerk of the Council. 91. THE HUMBLE PETITION AND ADVICE. [May 25, 1657. Scobell, ii. 378. See Masson's Life of Milton, v. 121.] To his Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging; the Humble Petition and Advice of the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses now assembled in the Parliament of this Commonwealth. We, the knights, citizens and burgesses in this present Parliament assembled, taking into our most serious consideration the present state of these three nations, joined and united under your Highness' protection, cannot but in the first place, with all thankfulness, acknowledge the wonderful mercy of Almighty God in delivering us from that tyranny and bondage, both in our spiritual and civil concernments, which the late King and his party designed to bring us under, and pursued the effecting thereof by a long and bloody war; and also that it hath pleased the same gracious God to preserve your person in many battles, to make you an instrument for preserving our peace, although environed with enemies abroad, and filled with turbulent, restless and unquiet spirits in our own bowels, that as in the treading down the common enemy, and restoring us to peace and tranquillity, the Lord hath used you so eminently, and the worthy officers and soldiers of the army (whose faithfulness to the common cause, we and all good men shall ever acknowledge, and put a just value upon): so also that he will use you and them in the settling and securing our liberties as we are men and Christians, to us and our posterity after us, which are those great and glorious ends which the good people of these nations have so freely, with the hazard of their lives and estates, so long and earnestly contended for: we consider likewise the continual danger which your life is in, from the bloody practices both of the malignant and discontented party (one whereof through the goodness of God, you have been lately delivered from), it being a received principle amongst them, that no order being settled in your lifetime for the succession in the Government, nothing is wanting to bring us into blood and confusion, and them to their desired ends, but the destruction of your person; and in case things should thus remain at your death, we are not able to express what calamities would in all human probability ensue thereupon, which we trust your Highness (as well as we) do hold yourself obliged to provide against, and not to leave a people, whose common peace and interest you are intrusted with, in such a condition as may hazard both, especially in this conjuncture, when there seems to be an opportunity of coming to a settlement upon just and legal foundations: upon these considerations, we have judged it a duty incumbent upon us, to present and declare these our most just and necessary desires to your Highness. 1. That your Highness will be pleased by and under the name and style of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions and territories thereunto belonging, to hold and exercise the office of Chief Magistrate of these nations, and to govern according to this petition and advice in all things therein contained, and in all other things according to the laws of these nations, and not otherwise: that your Highness will be pleased during your lifetime to appoint and declare the person who shall, immediately after your death, succeed you in the Government of these nations. 2. That your Highness will for the future be pleased to call Parliaments consisting of two Houses (in such manner and way as shall be more particularly afterwards agreed and declared in this Petition and Advice) once in three years at furthest, or oftener, as the affairs of the nation shall require, that being your great Council, in whose affection and advice, yourself and this people will be most safe and happy. 3. That the ancient and undoubted liberties and privileges of Parliament (which are the birthright and inheritance of the people, and wherein every man is interested) be preserved and maintained; and that you will not break or interrupt the same, nor suffer them to be broken or interrupted; and particularly, that those persons who are legally chosen by a free election of the people to serve in Parliament, may not be excluded from sitting in Parliament to do their duties, but by judgment and consent of that House whereof they are members. 4. That those who have advised, assisted or abetted the rebellion of Ireland, and those who do or shall profess the Popish religion, be disabled and made incapable for ever to be elected, or to give any vote in the election of any member to sit or serve in Parliament; and that all and every person and persons who have aided, abetted, advised or assisted in any war against the Parliament, since the 1st day of Jan., 1641 (unless he or they have since borne arms for the Parlia ment or your Highness, or otherwise given signal testimony of his or their good affection to the Commonwealth, and continued faithful to the same), and all such as have been actually engaged in any plot, conspiracy or design against the person of your Highness, or in any insurrection or rebellion in England or Wales since the 16th day of December, 1653, shall be for ever disabled and made incapable to be elected, or give any vote in the election of any member to sit or serve in Parliament. That for Scotland none be capable to elect, or be elected to sit or serve in Parliament, who have been in arms against the Parliament of England, or against the Parliament in Scotland, before the 1st day of April, 1648 (except such as have since borne arms in the service of the Parliament of England or your Highness, or given other signal testimony of their good affection), nor any |