AN HONOURABLE SPEECH Made in the parliament of Scotland by the Earl of ARGILE (being now Competitor with Earl MORTON for the Chancellorship) the Thirtieth of SEPTEMBER 1641.  
Touching the prevention of national dissension, and perpetuating the happy Peace and Union betwixt the two kingdoms, by the frequent holding of parliaments.  
LONDON Printed by A. N. for I. M. at the George in FLEETSTREET, Anno 1641.   

MY LORDS,  
WHat was more to be wished on earth than the great happiness this day we enjoy, viz. To see his royal Majesty our Native Sovereign and his loyal Subjects of both his kingdoms so really united, That his Majesty is piously pleased to grant unto us his Subjects our lawful demands concerning Religion and Liberties, and we his Subjects of both Nations cheerfully rendering to his Majesty that duty, affection, and assistance, which he hath just cause to expect from good people, and each Nation concurring in brotherly amity, unity, and concord, one towards the other.  
Oh, what tongue is able to express the honour and praise due to that great and good God, who in these late Commotions suffered not the counsels of either kingdom to despair of the safety of either commonwealth, but through his blessing to their painful and prudent endeavours hath wrought such an happiness for us, That now after the great toil and trouble which we have on both sides so long endured, we may each man with his wife, children, and friends, under his own Vine and figtree (and all under his majesty's protection) refresh himself, with the sweet fruits of peace, which I beseech the Lord of peace to make perpetual to both Nations.  
And to that end my earnest desires are, that all our best studies and endeavours may be employed (for some time) in contriving and establishing such wholesome Laws in both kingdoms whereby (as much as in us lies) the opportunity and occasion of producing the like calamities as lately threatened both Nations may for the future be prevented, if in any age hereafter such Miscreants shall go again to attempt it.  
It is (my Lords) notorious, that the late Incendiaries that occasioned the great differences betwixt his Majesty and his Subjects took much advantage & courage by the too long intermission of the happy constitution of Parliaments, In the vacancy of which they by false informations incensed his Majesty against his loyal Subjects, and by their wily insinuations extorted from his highness' Proclamations for to yield obedience to their innovations in the kirk, and Patents for Projects, whereby the poor Subject was both polled and oppressed in his estate, and enthralled in his conscience: and thus by their wicked practices, his majesty was distasted, and his Subjects generally discontented, in so much, that had not the great mercy of God prevented them, they had made an Obstruction betwixt his majesty and his liege people, and had broken those mutual and indissoluble bonds of protection and allegiance, whereby, I hope, his royal majesty, and his loyal and dutiful Subjects of all his three kingdoms, will be ever bound together. To which let all good Subjects say Amen.  
My Lords, the distaste of his Majesty, nor discontents of his Subjects, could never have come to that height they did (nor consequently have produced such effects) had not there been such an interposition, by these Innovators and Projectors, betwixt his majesty our glorious Sun, and us his loyal Subjects, that his goodness appeared not (for the time) to us, nor our loyalty and obedience to him. For no sooner was that happy Constellation (the Parliament in England) raised, and thereby those vaporous clouds dissipated, but his majesty's goodness, his good Subjects loyalty, and their treachery, evidently appeared.  
Our Brethren of England (my Lords) finding the intermission of parliaments to be prejudicial and dangerous to the State, have taken care, and made provision for the frequent holding of them: whose prudent example My Motion is may be our pattern forthwith to obtain his majesty's royal assent, for doing the like here in this kingdom. By which means his Majesty may in due time hear and redress the grievances of his Subjects, and his Subjects (as need shall require) cheerfully aid and assist his Majesty, And nor only the domestic peace and quiet of each kingdom be preserved, But likewise all national differences (if any happen) may be by the wisdom of the Assemblies of both kingdoms, from time to time composed and reconciled to the perpetuating of the happy peace and union betwixt both Nations.  
FINIS.