VII. 339.]

to treat with the rebels in Ireland.

267

majesty might be reasonably disobliged from those covenants 1643.

on his part.

338. Upon these considerations, after two months' delay, to see whether yet the Parliament would take care of them, and having received fresh importunities and advices from thence, about the end of July the King writ to the Lords Justices in July 31. Ireland that they should issue out a commission under the Great Aug. 31. Seal of Ireland to the lord marquis of Ormonde, to treat and conclude a cessation of arms with the rebels upon such articles and conditions as he should judge most reasonable, and, during that cessation, that such agents as they should make choice of should have access to his royal person, to present their own propositions for peace: so careful was the King not to infringe that Act of Parliament, which many understood to be dissolved by themselves, there being no colourable clause in it by which it was not in his majesty's own power to make a cessation; and the peace itself he respited in such a manner that he might receive advice and concurrence from the Parliament, if they would not decline any farther consideration or care of that kingdom.

339. Hereupon the lord marquis of Ormonde, being then only general of the horse there', entered upon a treaty with Aug. 26. commissioners authorized by the council at Kilkenny, to whose June 202. jurisdiction the rebels had committed the whole government of their affairs; and articles of cessation being prepared for a year, and perused and approved by the Lords Justices and Council, without whose advice the marquis would not proceed, and all the principal officers of the army having given it under their hands, (being present likewise at the treaty,) that it was most necessary for the preservation of that kingdom that a cessation should be made for a year upon those articles and conditions; and the rebels undertaking to pay to his majesty's use thirty thousand and eight hundred pounds sterling within a short time, whereof fifteen thousand eight hundred pounds in ready money, and the other fifteen thousand pounds one half in money and the other half in good beefs at thirty pounds the

1 [Altered from being the lieutenant general of the King's army there.'] [Rushworth, III. ii. 545.]

2

268

A cessation of arms in Ireland.

[VII. 339. 1643 score; a cessation of arms was concluded by the marquis, and Sept. 15. published with the articles and conditions by the Lords Justices

and Council of Ireland, to begin on the fifteenth day of September, and to continue for the space of a whole year.

340. This cessation was no sooner known in England but Sept. 30. the two Houses declared against it, with all the sharp glosses upon it to his majesty's dishonour that can be imagined, persuading the people that the rebels were now brought to their last gasp, and reduced to so terrible a famine that, like cannibals, they eat one another, and must have been destroyed immediately and utterly rooted out, if, by the popish counsels at Court, the King had not been persuaded to consent to this cessation. It is one of the instances of the strange, fatal misunderstandings which possessed this time, that, notwithstanding all the caution the King used in meddling at all with the business of that kingdom from the time of the rebellion, and the clear discovery of all particular reasons, grounds, and counsels, when he found it necessary to interpose in it, the calumnies and slanders raised to his majesty's disservice and dishonour made a more than ordinary impression upon the minds of men, and not only of vulgar-spirited people, but of those who resisted all other infusions and infection. And posterity, no question, will inquire from what rise or spring this disadvantage flowed; to which inquiry I can apply no other satisfaction, (besides the disease of the time, which imputed all designs to designs upon religion, and whatsoever was done by Papists to the zeal of the Queen on the behalf of her own religion,) than that the chief managers and conductors of their counsels found it necessary to aver many things of fact upon their own knowledge, (by which they found the understanding of men liable to be captivated,) which in truth were not so: as I found by some sober men, at such times as there was occasion of intercourse and conference with them, that they did upon such assurance believe that the King had done somewhat in that business of Ireland, (some having avowed that they had seen his hand to such and such letters and instructions,) which, upon as much knowledge as any man can morally have of a negative, I am sure he never did.

VII. 342.] Remonstrance of Parliament thereon.

269

341. I shall here insert, as the most natural and proper 1643 evidence of the state of Ireland at the time of the cessation, and of the unanswerable motives which prevailed with the King to consent to it, two letters; the one, of expostulation from July 4. the two Houses to the Lords Justices and Council, which was received by them after the cessation [was] agreed on, though seeming to be sent before; and the answer of that Board thereunto; with the contents whereof the King, nor any of his Council attending on him, was not at all acquainted till long after their delivery. The letters were in these words:

342. To our very good lords, the Lords Justices and Council for the kingdom of Ireland.

'Our very good lords,

"The Lords and Commons in Parliament have commanded us to let you know they have seen your letter of the tenth of June, directed to the Speaker of the House of Commons, accompanied with an Act of State, in the preamble whereof is an expression to this effect; that your present difficulties are occasioned through the failure of the Houses of Parliament in England, who undertook the charge of this war. This letter and Act of Council were sent by his majesty from Oxford, to whom they believe you have sent copies of both, and have just cause to suspect that there is an impious design now on foot to sell for nought the crying blood of many hundred thousands of British Protestants, by a dishonourable, insufferable peace with the rebels, and then to lay the blame and shame of this upon the Parliament; a plot suitable to those counsels that have both projected and fomented this unparalleled rebellion for those who contrived the Powder treason intended to lay it on the Puritans. And although they cannot think your lordships intended to further this design by this expression, yet they have cause to believe you have forgotten the present condition of this kingdom; the supplies they have sent thither of all sorts, even in the midst of their own wants: what relief going thither hath been taken away both by sea and land, and by whom; and what discouragements have been given them in return: so that as your lordships do truly observe the Protestant party in that city desirous to contribute in all things towards preservation of that kingdom, and that all the opposition therein is from those of the Popish party, so ought you justly to conclude that the Protestant party in this kingdom have contributed, and are still endeavouring to contribute, moneys, ammunition, victuals, and other necessaries, for the saving of that kingdom, and that the Popish and malignant party here, now in arms against the Parliament and kingdom, have not assisted in the least measure this pious work, but on the contrary do hinder and oppose the same. Neither should your lordships conceive that only the charge of that war was referred to, and undertaken by, the Parliament, as if their part were to be your bankers, only to provide moneys for you to spend, and were not to advise and direct the managing of the war, although an Act of Parliament

1

270

The Lords Justices' answer to

[VII. 342. 1643 hath invested them with that power; which they must assume and vindicate as the means to save that kingdom, and shall bring to condign punishment those there who in this conjuncture of affairs have advised the commission to hear what the rebels can say or propound for their own advantage; the letters to divest their committee of an authority given them by both Houses; and that advised the late alteration of government there; as enemies to the weal of both kingdoms, and fautors of that rebellion. In the last place, we are forbidden to tell you what supplies of money, victuals, ammunition, and other necessaries, are in good forwardness to be sent over, for the support of the officers and soldiers there, and by whose incessant care, lest they should seem to answer that scandal by excuse, which deserves an high resentment. This being all we have in command for the present, we bid your lordships farewell, and remain

Your lordships' friends to serve you,

Grey of Warke,

Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore;

William Lenthall,

Speaker of the Commons' House in Parliament.

343. The Lords and Commons will examine the demeanour of the ships appointed to guard those coasts; and might have expected a copy of Mountroe's letter to colonel Crawford, which came to your hands before the tenth of June, and [haply 1] would discover the treasons of the rebels sent by your enemies to destroy you, as well as a complaint of those sea-captains sent by your friends to defend you; whose neglect and misdeeds are notwithstanding to be punished, according as their demerits shall appear.

Westminster, the 4th of July, 1643.'

344. To our very good lord, the lord Speaker of the right honourable the Lords' House of Parliament in the kingdom of England; and to our very loving friend, William Lenthall, esq. Speaker of the honourable Commons' House in Parliament in the said kingdom.

'Our very good lord, and Mr. Speaker of the Commons' House in Parliament, "Your joint letters of the fourth of July last, directed to us, were so long in coming as they came not to our hands until the sixth of October. By those your letters you signify, that the Lords and Commons in Parliament have commanded you to let us know that they have seen our letters of the tenth of June, directed to the Speaker of the House of Commons, accompanied with an Act of State, in the preamble whereof there is an expression to this effect; that our present difficulties are occasioned through the failure of the Houses of Parliament in England, who undertook the charge of this war to which expression, it seems, exception is taken, and interpretations made thereof far otherwise, we are sure, than was intended by us, and, as we conceive, otherwise than the true sense of those words can bear. It is true that when we were necessitated to set on foot the new imposition raised here, in nature of an excise, towards keeping this army from perishing by famine, it became necessary to express, (in the Act of Council whereby we ordered it,) the reasons inducing us to set on foot here a thing 1 ['haply,' Lords' Journals, VI. 120. 'happily,' MS.]

VII. 346.]

the letter from Parliament.

271

so unknown to his majesty's laws and gracious government, and the difficul- 1643 ties wherewith we contended which did necessitate that resolution; and in expressing those difficulties we used that expression, to shew whence our difficulties were occasioned; and that we have therein declared the truth, we crave leave to mind you of some particulars.

345. 'If we should look so far back as to repeat the substance of many despatches sent from this Board since the beginning of this rebellion; some to our very good lord, the Lord Lieutenant of this kingdom; some to the lords and others, members of both Houses, his majesty's commissioners for the affairs of this kingdom; and some to the Speaker of the Commons' House of Parliament there; it would prove a voluminous work; and therefore we forbear to look farther back into those despatches than to the time when the committee, sent thence hither, were here; who, at their arrival here in the end of October 1642, brought with them some money and provisions, but far short of that which the necessities of this army required, and indeed so inconsiderable in respect of those necessities, as even before that committee departed they saw the money they had brought wholly issued, and the high and unavoidable necessity of a further speedy and plentiful supply of money and other provisions. By letters from this Board of the twentieth of January 1642, and directed to the Speaker of the Commons' House of Parliament there, it was signified thither, that the provisions of victuals here were then at the very bottom; that that committee then here had certified thither those wants; that if a personal supply of victual arrived not here very speedily, the army could not subsist, but must have been constrained to disband, to the loss of this kingdom, and utter destruction of the few subjects here: that the want of treasure here to pay the army enforced this Board to issue victual to the common soldier, and others, towards their pay, which did the sooner exhaust the magazines of victual; that the captains and other officers, not having relief that way, were reduced to great extremities, as had been formerly often represented thither; and therefore this Board, by the said letters, then moved, that treasure might be sent us speedily, so to redeem the officers from the calamities they suffered, and this Board from their unsupportable clamours, and to enable the payment, in some part, in money to the common soldier; so to make the victual we then expected to hold out the longer.

346. It was also by those letters then advertised thither, that the extremities of the officers of the army had begotten so much discontent 1642 amongst them, as divers colonels and others of them presented at this Dec. 17. Board a Remonstrance, whereof a copy was then sent enclosed in the said letters; which Remonstrance did exceedingly trouble and perplex us, lest it might beget such distractions amongst us as might give too much advantage to the rebels. But after full debate thereof at this Board, it was here directed, that, in present to render some subsistence to the officers until Jan. 5. treasure arrived forth of England, every man in this city should bring in half of his plate, to be paid for it when treasure arrived; whereupon some plate was brought in, and applied towards the army. This Board did also signify by those letters, that without some speedy relief forth of England the burden here was become too heavy to be borne; and therefore, in discharge of our duty to God, to our gracious sovereign, to that kingdom and