THE PETITION OF THE COMMITTEES for IRELAND to His MAjESTY. WITH HIS MAJESTY'S ANSWER OF THE 1. Decemb. 1642.  
Printed by His MAJESTY'S Command at OXFORD Decemb. 15. By LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the University. 1642.   

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, The humble Petition of Sir JAMES MONTGOMERY, Sir HARDS WALLER Knights and Colonels, and of Colonel ARTHUR HILL, and Colonel AUDLEY MERVIN, in the behalf of themselves and others Commanders in Your Majesty's Army in Ireland.  
May it please Your sacred MAjESTY,  
WE Your Majesty's most humble Subjects being entrusted from considerable Parts of Your Majesty's forces in the Kingdom of Ireland, to petition Your Majesty and Your Parliament for supplies, And finding that Your Majesty had committed the care and managing of that War to Your Parliament here, we addressed Ourselves unto the same, whose sense of Our miseries, and Inclination to redress appeared very tender unto us, but the present distempers of this Your Majesty's Kingdom of England (to our unspeakable grief) are grown so great, that all future Passages by which comfort and life should be conveyed unto that gasping Kingdom, seem totally to be obstructed so that unless Your gracious Majesty, out of Your singular wisdom and fatherly care, apply some speedy remedy, we Your distressed and Loyal Subjects of that Kingdom must inevitably perish. Our condition represents unto Your Majesty the estate of all Your Majesty's faithful Protestant Subjects in Ireland, the influence of Your Princely favour & goodness so actively distilled upon Your Kingdom of Ireland, before the birth of this monstrous Rebellion there, and since the same so abundantly expressed in Characters of a deep sense, and lively resentment of the bleeding Condition thereof, gives us hope in this their deplorable extremity to address ourselves unto Your sacred Throne, humbly beseeching, that it may please Your gracious Majesty, amongst Your other weighty cares so to reflect upon the bleeding condition of that perishing Kingdom, that timely relief may be afforded, otherwise Your Loyal Subjects there must yield their fortunes a Prey, their Lives a sacrifice, and their Religion a scorn, to the merciless Rebels powerfully assisted from abroad. Whilst we live we rest in your Majesty's Protection, if our deaths are signed in that Cause, we will die in Your obedience, and living and dying ever pray for Your Majesty's long and prosperous Reign over us.  


Montgomerie.  
Hards Waller.  
Arthus Hill.  
Au. Mervine.     

At the Court at OXFORD, this first of DECEMBER. 1642. HIS Majesty Hath expressly commanded me to give this Answer to this Petition.  
THat His Majesty, since the beginning of that monstrous Rebellion, hath had no greater sorrow then for the bleeding Condition of that His Kingdom; And as He hath by all means laboured that timely Relief might be afforded to the same, and consented to all Propositions (how disadvantageous soever to Himself) that have been offered Him for that purpose, and not only at first recommended their Condition to both His Houses of Parliament, and immediately of His own mere Motion sent over several Commissions, and caused some Proportion of Arms and Ammunition (which the Petitioners well know to have been a great support to the Northern Parts of that Kingdom) to be conveyed to them out of Scotland, and offered to find Ten thousand Volunteers to undertake that War, but hath often since pressed by many several Messages, that sufficient Succours might be hastened thither, and other matters of smaller Importance laid by, which did divert it, and offered, and most really intended in His own Royal Person to have undergone the danger of that War, for the defence of His good Subjects, and the Chastisement of those perfidious and barbarous Rebels; and in his several Expressions of His desires of Treaty and Peace, hath declared the miserable present Condition, and certain future loss of Ireland, to be one of His principal Motives, most earnestly to desire that the present Distractions of this Kingdom might be composed, and that others would concur with Him to the same End; So His MAjESTY is well pleased that His Offers, Concurrence, Actions and Expressions are so rightly understood by the Petitioners, and those who have employed them (notwithstanding the groundless and horrid Aspersions which have been cast upon Him:) But wishes that instead of a mere general Complaint (to which His MAjESTY can make no Return but of Compassion) they could have digested, and offered to Him any such Desires, by consenting to which He might convey (at least in some Degree) comfort and life to that gasping Kingdom, preserve His distressed and loyal Subjects of the same from inevitably perishing, and the true Protestant Religion from being scorned and trampled on by these merciless and Idolatrous Rebels. And if the Petitioners can yet think on any such, and propose them to His MAjESTY, He assures them that by His readiness to consent, and His Thanks to them for the Proposal, He will make it appear to them, that their most pressing personal Suffering cannot make them more desirous of Relief, than his Care of the true Religion, and of His faithful Subjects, and of that Duty which obliges Him to his Power to protect both, renders Him desirous to afford it to them.  
FINIS.