HIS MAJESTIES GRACIOUS MESSAGE Of the fifth of this instant May, to both Houses of PARLIAMENT;  
Occasioned by a Bill delivered to His MAJESTY from both Houses by Sir Robert King, Knight, and William Jephson, and Arthur Hill, Esquires,  
entitled, An Act for the speedy payment of Moneys subscribed towards the reducing of the Rebels in Ireland, which yet remains unpaid.  
Printed by His Majesties Command at OXFORD, By Leonard Lichfield, Printer to the university. 1643.   

His Majesties gracious Message to both Houses of Parliament, the fift of May, 1643.  
HIs majesty hath with great deliberation considered& weighed a Bill lately presented to Him by Sir Robert King Knight, and William Jephson and Arthur Hill, Esquires, from both Houses of Parliament, entitled, An Act for the speedy payment of Moneys subscribed towards the reducing of the Rebels in Jreland, which yet remains unpaid. And though in these miserable times of Distraction, when there are Armies( pretended to be levied by Order of Both Houses) almost in every County of the Kingdom, and all the good old Laws, the observation whereof would preserve the public Peace, violated and suppressed; when the Treaty hopefully begun towards an happy Peace, is broken, and the Committee recalled by both Houses, as if they intended no further overture for laying down Arms, but to decide all differences by the sword, The world will easily judge whether His Majesty might not well deny to consent to any new Act of Parliament, the much mayor part of both Houses being by force and violence driven& kept from those councils, and His Majesty Himself not suffered to be present; Yet such is his compassion of Soul towards his poor Protestant Subjects of that His Kingdom of Ireland, That He would gladly entertain any Expedient, whereby it might be evident the condition of that Kingdom might be relieved, and the Distractions of this in no danger of being increased. And therfore His Majesty desires to be satisfied in these particulars:  

I.  
HOw the great and vast sums of Moneys already raised by the several Acts of Parl. for the relief of Ireland, & which by the Acts ought not to he employed to any other purpose then reducing the Rebels, until they shall be declared to be subdued, have been expended, His Majesty having been informed that no less then one hundred thousand pounds of that money was by one Order of one or both Houses issued for a maintenance of the Army which hath given him battle under the Command of the Earl of Essex.   

II.  
How His Majesty shall be secured that the money which by His Majesties consent shall be raised for the support of His Army in Ireland, shall not for the future be diverted from that use, and employed against Him in this Kingdom.   

III.  
Whether it be just to compel his good Subjects, who have subscribed to pay those subscriptions, when as at the time they did subscribe, they conceived themselves absolved from their undertaking, if at any time they were content to forfeit the sum mentioned in that Act: For his Majesty doth not conceive, that by that Act they are liable to pay the whole Subscriptions, but to submit to the penalty enjoined: And then his Majesty is not satisfied, that by a new law it can be just to compel them to what at the first they undertook voluntarily; and it may be would not have undertaken but upon the liberty they conceived to be then left them.   

IV.  
Whether the Power given by this new bill to Warner touse, and Andrews ( persons of whose integrity and affections to the public Peace, his Majesty is in no degree satisfied) be not too great; any Certificate of theirs being ground enough to extend the Estate of any Subject in England, whether he ever under-writ or no.   

V.  
Whether all Lands extended by virtue of this Act, being to continue in extent till all forfeitures be satisfied, it may not be very prejudicial to Creditors to whom those lands are liable, and so the common justice may be disturbed.   

VI.  
Whether by this Act the Extents being not to be avoided, or delayed for omission of any Lands, the same may not be prejudicial to all Purchasers, and whether it be not against the known course of the Law.   

His Majesty desires to receive satisfaction from both houses of Parliament in these particulars with all possible expedition, and then he shall give all the world an account how sensible he is of the misery of Ireland, and how desirous he is to find or embrace any way for their Relief; The best, if not the onely way to which, His Majesty conceives would be by a good& blessed Accommodation of the lamentable Distractions of this Kingdom; which if the matter of His Majesties last Message were so entertained, as His Majesty hoped and expected, might by the blessing of God in a short time be effected.   
FINIS.