THE SPEECH OF Sr Edw: Turnor Kt. Speaker of the Honourable House of COMMONS, TO THE KING'S Most Excellent Majesty, And both Houses of PARLIAMENT; Delivered at Oxford, on Tuesday the One and thirtieth day of October, 1665. at the Prorogation of the Parliament.   royal blazon or coat of arms 
C R  HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT 
LONDON: Printed by John Bill and Christopher Barker, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, 1665.  
CUM PRIVILEGIO.   

THE SPEECH OF Sr. Edw. Turnor, Kt. Speaker of the Honourable House of COMMONS, TO THE KING'S Most Excellent Majesty, And both Houses of PARLIAMENT, Delivered at Oxford, on Tuesday the 31. of October, 1665. at the Prorogation of the Parliament.  
May it please Your most Excellent Majesty,  
THe Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament, in obedienc● to Your Majesties Writ of Adjournment, came cheerfully to this City of Oxford, to receive Your Royal Commands: And when Your Majesty was pleased to speak to them, and acquaint them with Your great Expenses this Summer, and the continuing Insolences of the Dutch, They were so inflamed with an Affection and Zeal for Your Majesty's Service, that they could not suffer the least Puncto of time to pass, before they had made a Return suitable to their Engagements, That they would assist Your Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes, against the Dutch, or any others that should assist them, in opposition of Your Majesty:— Tibi nos, tibi nostra suppellex— ruraque servierint.  
The English Man useth to speak, as he writes; and the English Parliament, to speak as they think: No Security upon Earth can be greater than the Engagement of your Two Houses of Parliament. Sed quid verba audiam, dum facta videam? As a Demonstration of their Fidelity, I am commanded to present unto Your Majesty this Bill, whereby they have given You for a present Supply, Twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds, to be levied in two years; to begin from Christmas next, by Quarterly Payments, added to the former Royal Aid.  
And to the end Your Majesty's Occasions may be supplied with ready Money, before this additional Aid can be raised, We have by this Bill prepared an undoubted Security, for all such Persons as shall bring their Money into the Public Bank of Your Exchequer. As the Rivers do naturally empty themselves into the Sea, so We hope the Veins of Gold and Silver in this Nation, will plentifully run into this Ocean, for the Maintenance of Your Majesty's just Sovereignty on the Seas.  
Great Sir! When first We besought Your Majesty to correct the Insolences, and to repair Your Subjects against the Rapines of the Dutch; We did reasonably suppose, That the Justice of Your Majesty's Demands, would, at least, have had a fair and ingenious Reception: But the Dutch resolved, with Machiavil, to keep by Force what they had got by Wrong, and to return their Answer by the Thundering voice of their Canon. The Great GOD of Hosts, to whom Vengeance belongs, hath eminently appeared in Your Majesty's Quarrel, and sharply rebuked the insolence of that proud People, whose heart is hardened even to destruction.  
'Tis true, our sins do cry aloud, as well as theirs; but God is pleased in mercy to correct us himself, whilst by our hands he doth punish them, and make them fly before us. I hope this mercy will invite us to a National Repentance: And if God be with us, who then can be against us?  
We cannot but take notice of the Sordid defection of some English Fugitives, who have traitorously joined wi●● the Dutch, both in their Counsels and Actions, against your Majesty, and this their native Country: We therefore have prepared a Bill, whereby they are enjoined to return by a day, and answer to the Law, or else they shall be attainted, and be subject to the Pains and Penalties of Condemned Traitors.  
It hath been an old observation, that Scandalous Live make Scandalous Ministers; and this most frequently falls out in Cities and Corporate Towns, where are little or no praedial Tithes, and therefore the Preachers for mere want are forced to chant such tunes as may best please the Rich men in their Parishes: For prevention of this for the future, there is a Bill prepared for the uniting of small Churches and Chapels in Cities and Towns Corporate, by the consent of the Patron, reserving all other Parochial rites distinct as they were before.  
This being a time wherein Your Majesty needs great Supplies, We held it our duty to ease the People in some unnecessary Expenses; and therefore we have prepared a Bill for the more effectual proceeding upon Distresses and Avowryes for Rents; another to avoid Circuity of Actions; and a third, to lessen the charge of necessary Suits in Law. There is an ancient fee received in ●our Majesty's Courts of Law, called Damage ●leere, or Damna Clericorum, which is the tenth ●eny of such Damages as are there recovered in many actions: This was first introduced for the encouragement of Clerks, to employ themselves, to the study of drawing special Plead, which are grown so familiar by the dis-use of Real actions, that the Fee now is looked upon as a grievance: especially when the Plaintiff is forced to pay it upon the signing of his Judgement, and perhaps the Defendant is not able to answer any part of the Execution: therefore we have prepared a Bill for the regulating of this for the present, and after seven years to take it quite away.  
Tacitus hath a saying, Such as are false in their love, are true in their hate; And this Rule we find verified in our Nonconformists. Whilst they were in the Bosom of the Church of England, they were like inward Vapours; and inward Bleedings, always oppressing and strangling the Body of the Church; and now they are Ejected and Excluded from their Ministerial Function, they have more malice, and no less opportunity to propagate their Principles, than they had before. Some of them are objects of pity, they submitted their Reason to their Leaders, of a higher Classis, who failed them in their hopes, and left them to the rigour of the Law: These poor creatures have seen their error, and feel the smart, and would live peaceably; but their Jesuitical Leader keep up their spirits, and Herd with 〈◊〉 in Cities and Corporate Towns, where, by pretence of Persecution and Self-denial, they move the pity of good natured people, and with their Charity keep up their Party, lessen the Maintenance of Conforming Ministers, and spread their Contagion amongst the Youth of the Nation: For the prevention of this growing mischief, we have prepared a Shiboreth, a Test to distinguish amongst them who will be peaceable, and give hopes of future Conformity, and who of malice and evil disposition remain obdurate. The one we shall keep amongst us with all Love and Charity; the other we shall exclude from Cities and Corporate Towns, like those that have an infectious Disease upon them.  
It is not unusual for the Commons, at the close of a Session of Parliament, by their Speaker to present a Petition to their Sovereign: and with Your Majesty's leave, I am now commanded that Service.  
We do with all humble thankfulness to God, acknowledge our great happiness, that we are governed by a Prince, whose Prudence in Counsel, whole Valour in Action, and whose Fatherly Care in Protection of his People, is eminent through all the world: and it is no● the least mercy, both to Your Majesty and Your People, that God ●…h blessed You with a Brother so like Yourself.  
The name of His Royal Highness is already Enrolled amongst the Heroes of other Nations; but this His Native Country had not so great experience of Him, till Your Majesty was pleased in this Summer's Expedition to trust Him with the Conduct of the most Royal Fleet that ever sailed upon the British Seas; wherein He shown that Prowess, and that Prudence, and by the blessing of Almighty God, was Crowned with that Success against the Dutch, that we cannot pass it by in silence, and yet we are at a loss how to express our Thanks both to Your Majesty, and to Him: I am commanded therefore to beseech Your Majesty, that You will vouchsafe to let us make a Present to You, of a Month's Tax, to come in the Rear, after the Four and twenty Months of Your Majesty's Royal Aid, and that Your Majesty will be pleased to bestow it upon His Royal Highness.  
And now, Great Sir, I have no more, but to beseech Almighty God, who hath so miraculously preserved Your Royal Person, and Your two Houses of Parliament from all Sickness, and Contagion, during this Session, that he w●ll be pleased to send Health throughout the Nation, that he will Crown all Your Designs against your Enemies with Victory and Success, and give Your Majesty a long and Happy Reign over us.   

LONDON, Printed by John Bill and Christopher Barker, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, 1665.