THE SPEECH Of the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD Chancellor OF IRELAND Made as he was one of the LORDS JUSTICE'S in their Name and behalf of the opening of the PARLIAMENT there, the 8th. of May 1661.  
LONDON, Printed, for Abel Roper at the Sun in Fleetstreet, over against St. Dunstan's Church. 1661.   

The Lord Chancellor's SPEECH.  
My Lords and Gentlemen,  
WE the Lords, Justices, who have the Honour to represent his Majesty's most Royal Person this day in Parliament, are glad after so great disorders, Tumults, and Confusions which have been for many years pasts in all parts of this Kingdom to see this goodly appearance, and Assembly met together in this orderly and beautiful manner. To see the most Reverend Fathers of our Church settled in their former Stations, and remitted to their ancient and undoubted right: To behold our Judges as at the first, and our Councillors as at the beginning.  
I am sure if the wisest Daniel amongst us had two years since foretold us of this day, and of those great things which our eyes have seen, and which we have heard with our ears, which are now come to pass, and that our Captivity should be so soon at an end, we should have given little credit unto him: nay, I doubt me if an Angel had been sent to proclaim these glad tidings unto us, whether we should have believed him; For the things we see fulfilled this day before our eyes are above humane reason, They are Mirabilia Dei, The wonders of God Almighty, and aught to be marvellous in our Eyes.  
Add unto this which is the height and compliment of the solemnity of the day, That we do not represent this day the Person of a Tyrant or Usurper as some of late have done, but the Person of our natural Lord and King, Charles' the second, by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland King, and that you are by a legal Power, derived from him, called together to advise with him, De arduis & urgentibus Regni Negotiis  
We are also glad to see the general Convention of Ireland turned to a Parliament, and the Mortality of the one swallowed up in the Immortality of the other, and why so? because though the general Convention of Ireland for the time it contained, acted very worthily, yet it could not do the work which is intended, For neither the Convention, nor his Majesty's gracious Declaration, nor any thing but a Parliament could complete the great work which is to be done.  
It is true that the Convention had excellent conceptions tending to the good of the Kingdom, and brought many of them to the birth, but it wanted strength to bring forth, and therefore it was one of their humble Desires by their Commissioners unto his Majesty, That a Parliament might be called with convenient speed for the putting of several things (which they presented to his Majesty) into Laws for the good of this Kingdom, and thus this Phoenix was contented to be consumed with the ardent affection which it bore to its Country, That out of the ashes thereof another more excellent than itself might spring, as it is at this day.  
This might serve in general for a reason why this Parliament was called, but I shall in a more particular manner give you the reasons of it, and that very briefly, summa sequar vestigia Rerum, and leave the fuller Declaration thereof to my Lord Primate of Ardmagh, appointed Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore.  
The main and fundamental occasion of calling you together at this time, is to settle every man's meum & tuum, which are are the great concernments of this world, in such a way as every man may know which is his Meum & tuum.  
You well know that these are the things which occasion most differences in this world, This is made most commonly the ground of War betwixt Princes, and of all differences in civil societies, and how hard a thing it is to do this you cannot but apprehend, when as at present there is that incertainty of men's Estates in this Kingdom, as hardly can any man say This or that Land is mine own; and uncertainty we all know is the mother of Contention, and men's minds are seldom quiet until their Estate be settled: The Law saith, that the Freehold cannot be in abeyance, except in one only case; But as the condition of affairs now is in this Nation, the Freehold is in abeyance in most men's cases: What is that namely, as the great Master of our Law saith, in consideratione Legis, in consideration of the Law, and must be settled by a Law (there being first, Matura consideratione habita) before there can be any settlement.  
The first sort of men who ought to be secured and settled in their just possessions are the Adventurers. I say just possessions, for if the foundation which is now to be laid be not right, the superstructure cannot be firm or lasting, Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; and certainly there is all the reason in the world that these men should be secured in their just possessions, For these were Adventurers indeed, for when there was no visible means for the relief or recovery of almost lost Ireland, when the Northern Rebels were rampant in the field, and like a Land-flood carried all before them, when the Town of Tredah, which was the only Bulwark left betwixt us and them, was besieged with twenty thousand of them, when Dublin the Metropolitan City of this Kingdom was threatened with a siege, and the whole Land as it were in a flame round about us; when we could hear nothing but the rattling of Drums, the found of Trumpets, the neighing and trampling of Horses, and the noise of Cannons; when a common destruction threatened every English man in this Kingdom; when we could hear in every place the word of Command given, Kill, kill, etc. And no difference made of age or sex, Then did these noble Adventurers open their purses, and sent relief unto us, when all was in a manner lost, and ought not these men to be performed with in a fitting way, according to the solemn undertaking in the Statute of xvii. Caroli. No man will or can in Reason speak against it.  
The next sort of men that are to be provided for, are the Soldiers, and these were Adventurers indeed, for they carried their lives in their hands, and adventured themselves and all they had in our Quarrel, and for our preservation, and amongst these those Worthies commonly called the forty nine men, who stood in the breach, and made good their ground until they were seconded out of England by those Forces which came from thence; These must not be postponed as they were in the Usurpers time, but special regard must be had of them, as of those who did undergo the brunt and fury of the Rebels.  
The Adventurers without these could do little, and the Soldiers without the Adventurers purse would not do much, For who goeth to War at his own charge, But the Adventurer and Soldier joining together, did carry on this great work, and aught to be satisfied in a reasonable and fitting manner.  
There is another sort of people who are not to be forgotten, Namely, the old Protestant and innocent Papist, whose right is to be inquired into, For it is a Maxim in our Law, That androit ne poit morier, an ancient right cannot die.  
If Naboth's Vineyard should fall unto any man's lot, it had been better for him to be without it, We must not rob Peter to pay Paul, as the common saying is.  
You are now made Judges of this matter, and in a word your work is suum cuique tribuere, which is the highest work of Justice, and it is for this end you were called together, and if that you will follow those heavenly Rules given by the most Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of Down, in his warning Sermon, which I wish were imprinted in all your hearts, you cannot do amiss. His Majesty hath in his great wisdom shown you by his Declaration the way to go thorough this great work, which if he had not done you would find it a most difficult work, and Bills are in preparation for you to that purpose: God grant you wisdom and understanding to do that which becometh wise and sober men. His Majesty's gracious Declaration must be the corner stone of this great structure, but this stone must be polished, squared and fitted for the building, for nihil est ex omne parte perfectum. And now that I have in brief declared unto you the reasons of calling this Parliament, I should leave it to my Lord Primate of Ardmagh to be further amplified and so to conclude; But in brief let me put you in mind of some of those great things which his Majesty hath done for us, since his most happy Restauration.  
First, Whereas the General Convention of Ireland did by their Commissioners present unto his Majesty three and twenty humble requests for the wellbeing of Church and Commonwealth in this Kingdom, his Majesty denied them none of their requests, but either granted them in terminis, or what he did not, his Majesty referred to his Lords, Justices and Council to grant.  
Secondly, when the Convention had all they desired thus granted to them, His Majesty hath held out unto us by his most gracious Declaration much more than the general Convention of Ireland desired.  
Thirdly, His Majesty hath left the disposing and distributing of all his Royal Escheats and forfeited Lands in Ireland, which I am confident are more than all his Predecessors, Kings and Queens of England have had since the Conquest, to be distributed by honourable Commissioners, Secundum equum & bonum, which I pray God they may do to the satisfaction of all Interests; His Majesty hath reserved none of those Lands to himself, no not so as for Forests, Chases, Parks, or like uses, which he might justly and lawfully do.  
Fourthly, his Majesty hath been graciously pleased to grant us a Parliament to begin as on this day, which if that he had denied us, all his Concessions to the Convention, all his Grants comprised in his Declaration, and that vast and unparralled Concession of all his forfeited Lands in this Kingdom had fallen to the ground and come to nothing, for none of those could be settled but by Parliament, wherein we are to observe the circumstance of time, when our Parliament was to begin, namely on the very day when the Parliament in England was to begin, as if his Majesty had an equal care of both Kingdoms, like Royal Queen Dido, who said to Aeneas, Tros teriusque mihi nullo discrimine agitur, or did conceive that the Parliament of England could not settle the business of Ireland, as indeed it cannot.  
Fifthly, His Majesty hath given us all his Revenue in this Kingdom, certain and casual, and whatsoever may be called his towards the maintenance and keeping of the Army in Ireland; this his Majesty could do without a Parliament, and therefore ex gratia speciali has done it.  
Lastly, His Majesty, notwithstanding so great debts contracted by in him foreign parts abroad during his banishment, hath sent us very lately out of his own private Purse twenty thousand pounds at one time, and thirty thousand pounds at another time to pay part of the Army for our ease, whereby his people here might be eased of part of the Charge of the Army, and if his Majesty could have done more, he would have done it.  
Will you know what hath been done by the Lords Justices in order to this, truly it is very fit that you should be made acquainted with it, and therefore I shall in brief give you an account thereof.  
The Army is now modelled according to the establishment sent by his Majesty out of England; and in order thereunto they have in the first place disbanded an entire or whole Regiment of Dragoons and Officers.  
Secondly, they have reduced forty Troops of Horse to thirty.  
Thirdly, the Officers of one hundred and six Foot Companies are reduced to sixty six.  
And lastly, they have disbanded 1650. private soldiers which will be a very great ease to the Country, but I must tell you withal that there are twenty three months' Arrears due to the Army, whereof eight months since his Majesty's Restauration.  
And now it is time for us to recollect ourselves, and to consider, Quid retribuimus; what return shall we make to his Majesty for all this his goodness, You know whose saying it is; That to whom much is given, from them much is expected. And now I confess I am at a stand:  
His Majesty hath given us more than I can express, and forgiven to us more than I can set forth unto you, But whether he hath given or forgiven most I cannot determine with myself, Only this, That in forgiving he hath given, and if he had not forgiven first, he could not have given, nor were we persons capable to receive.  
Hath he not passed by the greatest wrongs that could have been committed against a sacred Majesty, even Rebellion of all sides, which is as the sin of Witchcraft; Nay hath he not rewarded many of his open and known Enemies in a high measure, to the amazement of the world, and the great regreat of his best and most Loyal Subjects, Hath he not forgiven you these great arrears of rent due unto him during his banishment, for the payment made by you to usurpers hands, could be no discharge unto you of what was justly due to the Lord Paramount, as my Lords the Judges will tell you; All that you have, your Lives and Estates were very lately at the King's mercy, and you could not call any thing your own: If you should give him all you have, you give him but what was his own before, but his Mercy hath triumphed above his Justice, and blessed be God for it, Therefore let your hearts be enlarged, and remember in due time to give to our Royal Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and be sure to give unto God the things that are Gods, Remove all heresies and profaneness out of the Church for except the Church which is the Pillar of Truth be placed right, the whole structure will inevitably come to the ground; But I fear that I am entering upon the Province of another man whose proper work is to enlarge himself on this subject, and to begin where I leave; I mean my Lord Primate of Ardmagh, Who is appointed by his Majesty to be Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore. Which I shall leave (with the Dismiss of you to your own House to choose a Speaker) to his Lordship.  
FINIS.