A SPEECH Delivered by Sir AUDLEY MERVIN Knight, His Majesty's PRIME SERGEANT AT LAW, AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE of COMMONS; TO His Grace JAMES Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, IN THE PRESENCE CHAMBER in the Castle of Dublin, The Seventh of November, 1665.  
DUBLIN, Printed by John Crook Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty: reprinted at London, and are to be sold at the Ship in Saint Paul's Churchyard. 1665.   

May it please your Grace.  
THE House of Commons retaining a fresh and grateful memory of the repeated advantages devolved upon them by their Addresses to your Grace, have commanded me in all humility to present unto you this Instrument now in my hand, being entitled, A Declaration of the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses in the Commons House of Parliament assembled.  
The Importance of it voted it, as to be performed with no less Solemnity then by the attendance of the whole House, with their Speaker, upon your Grace; so, to embalm it for Posterity, and that by Survivorship it might speak when they were silent, That it should be Entered in the Journal of their House. This premised, with a due respect to the Sands in your Grace's Hourglass (that are not to be estimated in gross, but by retail) whispers unto me this Caution, Not to light my Candle to the Sun, or to fully the Margin of their Text with any Gloss of my own; as also not to entrench on that time that measures the safety of a Kingdom: I shall therefore keep up my Sails brailed, and only spread a Mizzen to keep me from falling off from the Sense of the House upon three Considerations that were before them, which divides this Instrument into three essential parts.  
First, The Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, lawfully by the Kings Writ Assembled in Parliament, knew themselves to be the Grand Inquest of this Kingdom, who in discharge of their Duty had two things in their prospect; first, such occurrences at large as were conusable by them during their recess; and secondly, the present constitution of their House: To them intent on the first of these there was a Presentment made, That certain Persons, not capable of a Definition; for they want the specifical difference of a Rational Soul, and if of a Description, it would swell the Period in too great a bulk; I will therefore follow the words of a Presentment, That certain WICKED Persons, not having the Fear of God before their eyes, but being seduced by a Diabolical instigation, had traitorously combined and confederated to raise a new Rebellion against his Majesty's Crown and Dignity: Had we consulted Reason only we must have suppressed our belief of it, and endorsed an Ignoramus, but except we will dismember ourselves, and not own our ears at their Trial, and our eyes at their Execution, we must find it Billa vera.  
Treason, Sir, is so comprehensive a Crime, that aggravations cannot heighten it, or excuses lessen it; and the Laws of God, of Nature and Nations have ever raised the strongest boundances to prevent the inundation of it, especially such a Treason as would invert the use of Arms, and alienate the hearts of Subjects to the subversion of that Government, for the preservation whereof only they can be lawfully exercised and intent: This turns our Cordials into poison, and our waters into blood; Kings being God's Vicegerents upon Earth, nay in Holy Writ styled Gods, the Laws have allowed that Analogy, that in reference to this Crime we are to be accountable for our thoughts; and since S. Austin tells us, Inanis est illa Legum Censura nisi divine Legis imaginem gerit, this judgement of our Law is founded on the Word of God, who lodgeth the Crown and Sceptre of our King in that security, that he will issue Summons to the Birds of the Air to give in Evidence thoughts rebellibus against the Throne: Observable is the Roman Law reported by Tacitus, Qui dubitant disciverunt; To scruple, doubt, or hesitate in performance of our Allegiance, was Treason unpardonable, Apostasy inexcusable.  
The House more distinctly considered this in two instances of that Design, To surprise His Majesty's Castle, And to seize your Grace's Person.  
Unfortunate, Fortunate Castle! Unfortunate to be the level mark in the eye of every Rebellion: Thus the Dam paced on the three and twenty of October, 1641. and now the Colt ambles; such, such a Colt, that had not your Grace in breaking of it broke the neck of it, would in a small tract of time become a resty and stubborn Monster: what was this but a complicated malice in one act to disarm all His Majesty's good Subjects, to arm Traitors, to take the children's bread and give it to Dogs, to make the Asylum of Innocency to be the Seat of Rapine, and the Palace of the King to be a Den of Thiefs? But Fortunate art thou yet; for thou hast taken them that would have taken thee; and those that by seizing thy dear Duke's Person would have beheaded thee, thou bearest their heads as Trophies of thy Victory; did I say, Sir, they would seize your Person! I fear I am in some mistake; did they behold your Brow either smooth or rough, Love or Fear would have restrained them; Tigers would have fled you upon the first account; Lions have fled you upon the last: May not I take up the expression of Tully against Catiline, Nihil hic te ora, nihil hic tc vultus moverunt? Can they imagine, that Spirit which courted Dangers, and espoused Miseries in defence of his Great Masters Rights, would tamely have surrendered up that Royal Fort, and Ensigns of Royalty? Can they dream, that those Officers and Guards under whose vigilancy the Golden Fleece had been secure, were all dreaming, or if awake, would have presented them with their matches put out, to have pinioned your arms, which so carefully had supported theirs? They knew you were Gold in the Mine (Honourable by many Streams of ancient and untainted Blood); they knew also this Gold was heightened by the Stamp of Royal Authority: I have read Witchcraft so improved, as that they could transfer tortures from the Effigies to the Person represented: Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft; why then this were to stab the King in Effigy: But had they enjoyed a temporary Success, could they think that no voice would sound out one Revengeful Obsequy, That this day a great Prince was fallen in Ireland, And shall Abner die so? But, Sir, on recollection, maugre these considerations, it is too true they would have seized your Person, and in that all ours: O precipitate desire of Innovation! that held the dark side of the Lantern unto our Reason, and the light side to our Passion: I conclude this with the well borrowed Caution of our House, Fear God and the King, and meddle not with those that are given to change: Sad and fatal would this change have proved; our wounds were scarce scarified, the cheeks of the Widows and Fatherless scarce dry, the bones and sculls silently declaiming against Rebellions in every Field, this would have forced us to re-act the Tragedy of our miseries upon a new Scene and Theatre of blood. This last word puts me in mind of the Ringleader of this Plot to blood, of whom as it was said of Nabal, Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; so of him, Blood was his name, and blood was in his heart, and the Swadle-band of this design was blood. A sad change! to metamorphose Heavenborn Monarchy into Hellborn Anarchy and confusion, the restored Peace and Glory of the Church into relapsed Schisms, Heresies and Blasphemies; the reverence of our Laws into the mock Pageantry of High Courts of Justice; the pleasure of our Liberties into the anguish of servitude; and our Manna into the Garlic and Onions of Egypt: Fear God and the King, and meddle not with those that are given to change.  
Mercy and Justice are the Cement of humane Societies; these Conspirators have sinned against both: Sentence was executed against some whom His Majesty left to the judicature of his Parliament; Mercy was enjoyed by all whom he had reserved to the judgement of his own breast; so that these persons will not hearken to the rod, and are deaf to the Charmer charm he never so sweetly. A desperate presumption! whilst this Kingdom were dividing Lands forfeited for Rebellion, to persuade the people that the readiest way to secure them was to engage in a new one: I have observed, Dead vermin hanged up in warrens will banish Creatures of the same species from the place: what thought these men became of the faculties of a Rational Soul in man? This was the height of imbittered Nature, to blow a Trumpet of Sedition while the hand was yet writing on the wall Mene Mene Tekel, etc. Thus again they harken not unto the rod: And let me ask, was not Ireland now feeding upon Benjamins' Mess of Royal care and favour; nay some of those persons dipping their Sop in that Mess, and yet resolved to betry him? was not this Kingdom's womb pregnant with the firstborn of our Hopes, the Act of Setlement, derived from no less a Parentage then the breath of the Royal Assent, and would these men baptise it Ichabod, and cause our Glory and Happiness to end in shame and misery? Though the Setlement of Ireland be later, the care of it arose equally early in His Majesty's thoughts with the interests of his other Kingdoms, witness the twin-bearing date of this Parliament with the Parliament of England, and His Gracious Continuance of it: the delays evidence the Intricacy, and engage us to the larger return of our Affections, Duties and Obedience, for the Expense of His Majesty's patience: And unnecessarily discontented Spirits might and ought to have copied so fair and so authentic an Original: Thus might they have concluded against their Phanatique distempers from the Topics of Reason; or were they void of that, yet they might have strangled their ill-begotten Resolves from the Topics of Sense: were they not Eye-witnesses of the clear and diaphanous dispensation of Justice through the texture of that Government committed by His Sacred Majesty to your Grace; were they not Ear-witnesses of that Discourse delivered by your Grace, and Printed in the richest Volume, the Affections of a people, in which every Period was perfumed with Grace, and the Branches of it laden with Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver? Can the most dissolute Roman Spirit be restrained by saying Cato looks on? It is below my Commission, and truly my Nature, to flatter; but truth blusheth not to aver, A greater than Cato is here; for what he spoke speculatively at the best, your Grace maintained it practically in the worst of times, viz. 
Victrix causa Deis placuit, sed victa Catoni.   
Was it easy for to transform so great and understanding a people to become Idols, That in seeing they should not see, and in hearing they should not hear? would they have us resigned our sense, that the Government reigned Snares, when we felt the influence of it as the dew upon the tender grass; that the Sky was overcast, gloomy, and ominous, when the Solar rays of Majesty, reflected through your Government, begot a new, verdant, and lasting Spring? I appeal to the greatest Prophet amongst us, durst he foretell that some future lustres of years could have restored this Kingdom to that beauty and progressive estate of perfection as now it enjoys, when they surveyed it in that Chaos your Grace entered upon it? I pass by your patiented and willing divorce (after a long Exile) from this your Native Country to attend the public Setlement of this Kingdom; whilst you laid aside the one, where did we then lodge our fears? In your Grace's breast: where were our Remedies prepared for His Majesty's approbation? Much, much in your Grace's wisdom: And when the execution of the Act of Setlement could not well proceed further without manifest inconveniency, you espoused the further care of it, and left all to follow that: you made (I may say) a League offensive and defensive with it; if it shifted its station, you shifted yours; if it travelled in the pestilence, you forsook it not; if it were in storms, you bore up with it; and I hope we shall have cause to say you are returned with your arms laden full of Sheaves: I will shut up this with one question: Did your Graces own Estate pray in aid of any Act? yes truly; but it was only the Acts of your own Loyalty and Sufferings: why then I correct myself, it did not; for they were well known to your Great Master, who writes Injuries only upon the Sand, but far lesser Merits than yours in Marble. I confess Sir I can find your Soul and Spirit throughout the Act, your Name in a place or two, but there rather to Give than to Receive: But had you made your little finger greater than the loins of your Predecessors (though this Kingdom never found you in the rushing Wind, but in the gentle Gales) must the Outcry be, To your Tents O Israel? and must we seek Reformation from Powder and Bullet, which as a great Cardinal termed it is 
—— Ratio ultima Regum?   
Or if we will pretend only to Petition His Majesty, I say what means the Neighing of the Armed Horses! Non bene conveniunt, Petitions and Armed Troops; and certainly the Devil was Master of the Ceremonies when Petitioners were brought with drawn Swords to approach the Throne.  
These Considerations, with many more, gave the first part of this Declaration its rise, That as being the Representative of all the Commons in this Kingdom, to declare their abhorrence and detestation as of all Conspiracies, Plots, Designs, Confederacies, and Insurrections whatsoever, against His Sacred Majesty, and His undoubted Rights of Government, though palliated with never so specious Pretences, or guilded with glorious Titles; so to declare them to be Treason and Rebellion in the highest degree: And we are assured, Sir, that all His Majesty's faithful and loyal Commons of this Kingdom will, as we are bound to perform the Trust reposed by them in us, perform the Promises made by us in this our Declaration in their behalf; we are in a sort their Godfathers, and we do solemnly vow to fight under the Banner of CHARLES the Second, His Heirs and Successors, against the World and all the World, against the Flesh and all manner of Flesh, against the Devil and all his Instruments: Sir, I cannot omit this last Champion, it being an unquestionable truth, That never was there a Rebellion in which the Devil did not lead the Van, ordered the Battle, and drew up the Rear.  
Thus far the House proceeded upon the Inspection of this Skeleton at large (we praise God that by your Grace's Prudence and Vigilancy we can call it a Skeleton); but upon a more particular Anatomy of it, what shall I say, Sir! Grief and Horror seizeth upon my Tongue; and yet, 
Infandum domus ipsa jubet renovare dolorem.   
Were it not too late I would humbly request you the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, to order some Boanerges to speak this part; or may I not yet obtain the Indulgence allowed to Archytas, commanded to repeat an unpleasing Passage, wrote it upon the Wall. But methinks I hear the voice, To the Orders of the House: From your Grace therefore I humbly beg, (for to your Grace only I am commanded to apply myself) that I may express it in Hieroglyphics: Sir, the Ostrich laid her Eggs in the eagle's Nest; The Frogs crept into one of the King's Palaces: Caesar is wounded in the Senate: The College of Disciples, and Judas one of them. If so, that no Societies are privileged from some Corruptions, Parliaments must not be styled Triumphant whilst the Church is Militant: And if in two, the least of Numbers, and those cemented by Holy Rites of Matrimony, the Bride may be unchaste, (her shame, though the Bridegroom's misfortune) than Sir some Persons who were called by the King's Writ, capacitated with a Trust from a well-believing People, to be Members of our House, have been found to be engaged in that Plot, so odious and destructive to all good men. Sir, this justly alarmed us to find Death in the Pot, That the Fountains of Waters were become brackish, That part of the Magazine was on Fire, and that the Leprosy was amongst the Physicians. Sir, we had before us at that time many Bills, and matters of weighty importance, even that comprehensive Bill that is to bring a Sabbath to this Kingdom; but the House laid all aside, as judging no Law could prosper that was blasted by their Breath; unfit Persons were they to advise His Majesty, who after deep Wounds, scarce scarified by application of Royal Mercy, had conspired against him: Is Death therefore in the Pot? the House voted to take out the wild Gourds; the King's Writ was to gather Lentils: Is there Brackishness in the Waters? Cast in Salt; be pleased to observe, Sugar will not do it: Is the Magazine a sire? Separate that part: Is a Physician Leprous? (Dio mi guarda del Medico rangoso) Put him out of the Congregation.  
Treason among Crimes is as the Plague among Diseases; but an Infant Infected warrantably immures the Family, though Noble and Numerous: Would our Gracious Sovereign lent a quick Ear, we doubt not but some Spirits would have unhappily improved this Crime of some, so to the disadvantage of us all, as that we might have found our Door shut up with a Red Cross and a Miserere upon it: But to all such His Majesty's Answer would be returned with a frowning Brow, 
Parcito paucorum crimen diffundere in omnes.   
And therefore after many, yet necessary Prorogations, His Majesty hath Assembled us again; nay, and not only so, but increased our Number by Additional Boroughs Created, and Impowered by Letters Patents to return Burgesses, some of whose eminent Abilities we enjoy at this day; and none increaseth the Number of His Enemies: And truly, Sir, did not Justice to ourselves require, against whose Reputation and Honour they have so highly offended, our Duty and Allegiance to His Sacred Majesty demands us that we should not only purge our House, but since His Majesty's Courts of Justice have already attached the Conusance of their Crimes, that we should rend them from ourselves, and leave them to the Justice of the Laws.  
In order hereunto we have already aired our House with some preparatory Votes, and have appointed a short day for sharper Physic. It is not my intent to draw this Beast at length, my pencil was only designed for water colours work; truly, Sir, it is so, I rather desire we may wear it on our breasts, to remember it with indignation, then for Ornament to a Room; I have only shown the tract of the foot, that we may know ex ungue Leonem, and by Hercules his foot to make the Calculation of his other dimensions: I have only pointed at a little cloud, but such a one as would have overcast the Horizon of three Kingdoms. But God be praised the Cloud is overblown, and the Dragon killed.  
The next question is, who killed the Dragon? Let History give a place to S. GEORGE in the Almanac; but let truth give your Grace a place in our hearts, who crushed the Cockatrice's eggs: with humble hearts, hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven, we know our Anchor was within the vail, and to the watchmen of Israel we give the praise. Next we acknowledge and admire the wisdom and goodness of our gracious Sovereign, that separated you to steer this Kingdom that was beating of it out at Sea, whilst his other two Kingdoms road embayed: So, Sir, though you are not the Author, yet you are the Instrument designed by God and our King; and then what shall it be done to the man whom God and the King intent to honour? You were preserved in the Ark of Bulrushes to be a Deliverer; I remember the time when you found the Bulrushes, and God made you an Ark of them; even then, when to promote your Master's Interests you came into London in the disguise of Bulrushes, (you then saw Cromwell, and he saw not you, though he beheld you, which proves him an Idol, that in seeing he did not see) and God of those Bulrushes made you an Ark; for he preserved you in safety: what a Hecatomb of Loyalty would have been of your person, if in that Ark you had not floated above the waters? you put your hand to the Nail, and your right hand to the workman's hammer, with the hammer you smote the Plot, you smote off its head when you had pierced and stricken through the temples of it; at your feet it bowed, it fell, it lay down; at your feet it bowed, it fell, where it bowed, there it fell down dead.  
But, Sir, did not represented Majesty so well seated on your brow silence me, I should acquaint your Grace, that I observed the House of Commons much divided in their Passions in the management of their deliverance; their deliverance was their joy, but the hazard you exposed your Person to make it full and complete, was their grief; you would not be contented that your knowledge of it, and the prevention thereof should bear one date, but you watched personally night and day to encounter those conspirators in the very act: Sir, was this well done, to throw your Person into a throng of bloody hands and desperate hearts? was this an even stake, Nightingales against Hedge-sparrows, and a Flag-ship to bear in to a Squadron of Fireships? Had they lopped your little finger off, though their bodies had lain gasping in heaps, the victory had been theirs, and our eyes would have wept out the bonfires our hands had made: Therefore I am commanded to present 〈◊〉 you the humble Petition and Advice of the House of Commons, That your Grace would measure yourself, not by the Resolves of your Courage, but by the Interest of a People whom you love, and of whom you are dearly beloved.  
Upon the result of all this, I come to discharge the strict command of the House, to let your Grace know, that our hearts are towards the Governor of Ireland, who offered himself willingly for the people. A single tongue (though abler than I dare pretend unto) were too narrow a Channel for such streams of Gratitude to glide through: It may be prudence in me to imitate the Painter, who being required to draw Niobes face, and finding his shadows very feeble to represent the Passions of her Soul, drew Niobes head in a bag.  
But, Sir, be pleased to accept from me, who in their Names humbly tender to your Grace their serious resentment and acknowledgement of that happiness this Kingdom enjoys by the prudent management of that great Trust our Dread Sovereign hath invested you with, and in particular for that Sabbath we enjoy by so great and seasonable deliverance from the consequence of this Plot, so odious to all good men; accept, pray Sir, the tribute of their thanks, as an Earnest and Assurance, that with their Lives and Fortunes they will assist your Grace in vindication of His Majesty's Supreme Authority and Right, let the opposition be hatched in darkness, masked with never so specious pretences, or appear (if our sins should make way unto it) never so formidable with Armed Power.  
FINIS.   

A DECLARATION OF THE KNIGHTS, CITIZENS, and BURGESSES IN THE Commons House OF PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.  
WHEREAS certain wicked Persons, of Fanatic and disloyal Principles, disaffected to His Majesty's just and gracious Government, and to the Peace and Settlement of this His Kingdom of Ireland, did in the year of our Lord God, One thousand six hundred sixty three, most Traitorously and disloyally conspire to raise Rebellion in this Realm, and particularly had designed on the 21 day of May in the said year 1663. to Surprise and Take His Majesty's Castle of Dublin, His principal Fort in this His Kingdom, and to seize on the Person of His Grace the Lord Lieutenant, in order to their carrying on their mischievous contrivances, for renewing bloody confusions throughout this Kingdom, from which Evils this Realm, and all His Majesty's Subjects therein, had been then but newly redeemed, and that by the Blessing of God upon His Majesty's Happy Restauration to His Rightful Crowns and Kingdoms. And whereas we look upon those odious Conspiracies as the mischievous Contrivances of some Fanatic and Disloyal Persons, of desperate Fortunes, as well as of desperate and destructive Principles, who endeavoured to amend their own Conditions by the Ruin of others, or to set up something (if they knew what) suitable to the frenzy of their own humours and Imagnations, though at the charge and hazard of others, and at the price of other men's Bloods, whom they laboured to seduce: And whereas that their horrid Conspiracy being (by the Blessing of God upon the watchful Endeavours of His Grace the Lord Lieutenant) discovered and disappointed, divers of the Conspsrators were apprehended, and committed to Prison, and some of them upon fair and equal Trials, according to the Laws of the Land, were (in His Majesty's Court of Chief Place) found Guilty, and by Judgement of Law Condemned, and thereupon were most deservedly Executed: And whereas one of those Persons so justly Executed, and some others also, who were involved in the guilt of that hideous Conspiracy, were Members of the Commons House of Parliament, which we mention with inward sorrow, and grief of heart, and with horror and detestation, to find that any Persons who had the Honour (under the protection of His Majesty's blessed Government) to be Members of this House, and consequently entrusted in those weighty Affairs, which (for the safety and peace of the King and Kingdom) are often deliberated and consulted in this House, should be so ungrateful, nay traitorous and disloyal, as to conspire even against that Government (which in the Duty of Subjects to His Majesty, and the obligation of that Duty heightened by their being Members of this House) they were bound by the Laws of God and Nature to contribute their best Endeavours to preserve and maintain: Yet this Parliament, by occasion of the several necessary Prorogations from time to time, for important causes and considerations, until the 26 day of October, 1665. had not the opportunity of Assembling, and consequently could not declare (as we earnestly desired to do, and as we would have done much earlier if we had been Assembled) our unanimous detestation and abhorrence of that Traitorous Conspiracy. And therefore upon our first Meeting in this House in this Session, although many weighty Affairs lay before us, yet so sensible was this House of that horrid Conspiracy, and that aggravated in that Circumstance, that some of the Conspirators were Members of this House, as we laid all other Affairs aside for the present, and in the first place entered into consideration of that particular: And thereupon this House did and do hereby unanimously declare their just detestation and abhorrence of that vile and odious Conspiracy; and do also declare the deep sense which this House hath of His Grace the Lord Lieutenants great Prudence, Diligence, and Circumspection, as in his timely discovering that hideous Confpiracie, so in his seasonable prevention of the sad, bloody, and dreadful Effects which (if not so prevented) might have followed thereupon throughout this Kingdom; for which his continual watchful Endeavours for the Safety and Peace of the KING and Kingdom, we do return to his Grace the most humble and hearty Thanks of this House, and do assure him of the constant Loyalty of this House to His Majesty, and their humble Obedience to His Grace, whom His Majesty hath in His high Wisdom appointed for the Government of this His Kingdom, and People therein, under the prudent Conduct of His Majesty. And that this House may not fail in any point of Duty to His Majesty, we are fully resolved to make strict Inquiry what Members of this House have been so wicked as to have had any hand in those horrid Guilts, so hateful to God and Man; and for such as shall be found, we shall take such course for the just prosecution of them, as may manifest the Actions of this House to be equal and agreeable to the Declaration we have herein made, as of our just detestation and abhorrence of such foul Crimes, so of our bounden Duty and unfeigned Loyalty to His Sacred Majesty. And to the end this our Declaration may be delivered over to Posterity, and to testify to the World the true sense we have of the Duty and Loyalty which by the Laws of God, and by our Natural Allegiance to His Majesty, we own to Him, and which by the blessing of God we shall be always ready to pay to Him, with that faithfulness which becomes the Loyalty and Obedience of good Subjects to so Great and Gracious a Majesty, it is Ordered, That this Declaration be entered in the Journal Books of the Proceed of this House.  
Dated the Second of November, 1665.  
FINIS.   

ORdered, Nemine contradicente, That the Speech delivered by Mr. Speaker yesterday to His Grace James Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of this Kingdom, be forthwith Printed and Published; and that Mr. Speaker receive the Thanks of this House for so clearly delivering their sense therein, Novemb. 8. 1665.  
Phil. Fernesley, Cler. Parliam.   

ORdered, Nemine contradicente, That the Declaration of this House, entitled, A Declaration of the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses in the Commons House of Parliament assembled, be forthwith Printed and Published.  
Phil. Fernesley, Cler. Parliam.