A PAPER RECEIVED BY HIS majesty from the Committee of both HOUSES, upon the eight of April.  
WITH HIS majesties gracious Message to both Houses in Answer to the same.  
Printed by His MAjESTIES Command at OXFORD, By LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the university. 1643. april 21   

April 8. 1643.  
BY Instructions this day received from both Houses of Parliament, We humbly conceive, that we are to acquaint Your Majesty, That they have taken into consideration Your Majesties Answer to their Reasons concerning the Cessation, wherein there are divers expressions which will occasion particular Replies, which at this time they desire to decline, Their wishes and endeavours being earnestly bent upon the obtaining a speedy Peace, for which cause they do not think good to consume any more of the time allowed for the Treaty in any farther debates upon the Cessation, concerning which they find Your Majesties Expressions so doubtful, that it cannot be suddenly or easily resolved, and the remainder of the time for the whole Treaty, being but seven daies, if the Cessation were presently agreed, it would not yield any considerable advantage to the Kingdom.  
Wherefore we are required to desire Your Majesty to give a speedy and positive Answer to the first Proposition concerning the disbanding, That so Your Subjects may not onely have a shadow of Peace, in a short time of Cessation, but the substance of it in such manner as may be a perpetual blessing to them, by freeing the Kingdom from those miserable effects of War, the effusion of English blood, and desolation of many parts of the Land:  


Northumberland.  
Jo. Holland.  
Wil. Peirrepoint.  
Wil. Armyn.  
B. Whitelocke.     

His MAJESTIES Gracious Message to both Houses, in Answer to the Foregoing Paper.  
IF the Committee, according to His Majesties Desire, had had but Power to agree in the wording of Expressions in the Articles of Cessation, His Majesties( which are as clear as the matter would bear, and as He could make them) had not appeared so doubtful to any, but that the Cessation might have been suddenly and speedily resolved, and that long before this time. And if the Expressions of both Houses in their Reasons had not necessitated His Majesty in His own Defence to give such answers as could not upon those points deliver Truth without some show of sharpness, no expression of that kind in His Majesties Answer had given any Pretence for the rejection of, or refusing so much a● to Treat upon the Cessation; Which( though it were at present for no long time;) yet was from the day name by themselves the 25 of March, Whereas His Majesty first moved for a Cessation and Treaty, without any Limitation at all in the time of either; and his Majesty was most ready to have enlarged the time( so that in the mean while the point of Quarters might be so settled, as that his Armys might subsist) and which might have been( if they had pleased) a very good and promising earnest and forerunner of that great blessing of Peace, for the obtaining of which the wishes and endeavours of all good men being earnestly bent, a farther debate in order to so great a benefit did not deserve to be styled a consumption of time. And his Majesty cannot but conceive himself to be in a strange condition, if the doubtfulness of expressions,( which must always be whiles the Treaty is at such a Distance, and power is denied to those upon the Place to help to clear and explain) or his necessary replying to Charges laid upon him,( that he might not seem to aclowledge what was so charged) Or the limitation of the time of seven Daies for the Treaty( which was not limited by his Majesty, who ever desired to have avoided that and other limitations, which have given great interruptions to it) should be as well believed to be the grounds, as they are made the Arguments of the rejection of that, which( next to Peace itself) his Majesty above all things most desires to see agreed and settled, and which his Majesty hopes( if it may be yet agreed on) will give his people such a taste of such a blessing, that after a short time of consideration, and comparing of their several conditions in War and Peace, and what should move them to suffer so much by a Change, they will not think those their Friends that shall force them to it, or be themselves ready to contribute to the renewing of their former miseries, without some greater evidence of Necessity then can appear to them, when they shall have seen( as they shall see, if this Treaty be suffered to proceed) that his Majesty neither asks nor denies any thing, but what not onely according to Law he may, but what in honour and care of his people he is obliged to ask or deny. And this alone( which a very short Cessation would produce) his Majesty esteems a very considerable Advantage to the kingdom; and therefore cannot but press again and again, that whatever is thought doubtful in the Expressions of the Articles may( as in an hour it may well be done) be expounded, and whatsoever is excepted at may be debated and concluded, and that Power and Instructions may be given to the Committee to that end, that the miserable effects of War, the effusion of English blood, and desolation of England( until they can be totally taken away) may by this means be stayed and interrupted.  
His majesty supposes, that when the Committee was last required to desire his majesty to give a speedy and positive Answer to the first Proposition concerning Disbanding, His Answers in that point( to which no Reply hath been made, and which he hopes by this time have given satisfaction) were not transmitted and received, but wonders the Houses should press his Majesty for a speedy& positive Answer to the first part of their first Proposition concerning disbanding, when to the second part of the very same Proposition, concerning his return to both houses of Parliament, they had not given any Power or Instructions to the Committee, so much as to Treat with his Majesty▪ And when his Majesty( if his desire of Peace and of speeding the Treaty in order to that had not been prevalent with him) might with all manner of justice have delayed to begin to Treat upon one part until they had been enabled to Treat upon the other; In which point, and for want of which power from them, the onely stop now remaines, his Majesties Answers to both parts of their first Proposition, being given in, transmitted, and yet remaining unanswered. To which, until the Houses shall be at leisure to make Answer, that as little delay in this Treaty, as is possible, may be caused by it, His Majesty desires likewise, that the Committee may be enabled to treat upon the following Propositions in their several orders.   
FINIS.