AN ACCOUNT OF THE SESSIONS OF Parliament IN Ireland 1692. LONDON Printed for J. T. MDCXCIII AN ACCOUNT Of the SESSIONS OF Parliament IN Ireland 1692. THIS Kingdom having been ever since the Years 1665 without a Parliament to the great discouragement and Prejudice of the Protestant and English Interest here It is not to be wondred if the first Report of a Parliament graciously designed by their present Majesty's to be held the latter end of this Year employed the Thoughts and Discourses of all Protestants and filled them with desires to see so good a Design put in Execution which was expected at the Lord Lieutenant's Arrival his Excellency Landed on the twenty fifth day of August and Writs were immediately issued for a Parliament to meet on the fifth of October following Every body began then more closely to consider and Enquire as well what could be as what was likely to be done in this Parliament It was not doubted but their Majesties Occasions in this Kingdom wanted Suppâ—ies of Money which People were generally and chearfully disposed to comply with but the Answer of one of his Excellencies Secretaries to a Member of the House of Commons a few days before the Parliament sat was a little unaccountable that there were no other Bills designed to be tendered to the House this Session but only three viz. An Act of Recognition an Act for Confirming the Acts of Settlement and Explanation and an Act declaring all Attainders and other Acts of the late Pretended Parliament void tho' at the same time another Gentleman belonging to the Council declared that other Bills would be then also tender'd namely An Act for Confirming the Articles of Limrick the first Article of which if confirmed would make Popery an Established Religion and the sixth would deprive all Protestants of their Actions against the Papists by whom they were Plundered even while they lived in Peace with them and also Money-Bills a Member of the House of Commons then present when this was openly spoken answered that the House would consider well of those Acts before they passed them but the same Person replyed that it would be in vain to trouble themselves about it assuring them they were as well Debated already as was needful and they had nothing else to do but to pass them and added that If any Scruple was made about them there would never again be a Parliament in Ireland These and such like Discourses common in Town took off the pleasure and satisfaction People had in the hopes of an happy Issue of this Parliament On Wednesday the 5th October the Parliament being met and the Commons sent for up to the Lords house his Excellency was pleased to declare in his Speech Their Majesties Command to him of calling this Parliament immediately after his Arrival and their goodness in restoring to this Kingdom a blessing of which it had for so many years been deprived a Legally Constituted and Assembled Parliament by the long Intermission of which the English in this Kingdom had been in great danger of losing both their Religion and Liberty and invited them with many grateful arguments to pass such Laws as might settle and secure them both for the future concluding with a demand of a supply and promise of representing their services well to their Majesties The Commons being returned to their House proceeded to choose their speaker and several of the Members having been informed that his Excellency wou'd be well pleased with their Choice of Sr. Richard Levinge their Majesties Solicitor General the House soon came to a Resolution in it those that were proposed for it having before at his Excellencies desire waved their own pretensions thereto and both they and others who have since lain under the displeasure of the Government used their utmost endeavors in the House for effecting it so that Sr. Richard was chosen Speaker without those heats that had been so frequent and violent in former Parliaments in Ireland The Speaker being chosen the Members took the Oaths subscribed the Declaration appointed by the English Act then adjourned to Friday the seventh on which day his Excellency had directed them to present their Speaker they then met but were informed that his Excellency was indisposed and cou'd not come to the House of Lords an Address therefore being made to him to know his further pleasure therein he was pleased to appoint Monday the tenth for that purpose The House having received this Answer a motion was made that the Members who were returned for several places might have leave in the mean time to make their Election for which place they wou'd serve and that Warrants thereupon may Issue and several Presidents in point were urged for it but it was opposed because the Speaker thought not fit to act before his approbation to the delay of publick business almost three days On Monday the tenth the Lord Lieutenant came to the House of Lords and approved the Speaker The Commons being returned to their House an Address of thanks was Immediately voted to his Excellency for his Speech and a Committee appointed to Meet the same afternoon to prepare it and lest the time spent in preparing it shou'd be interpreted to proceed from want of Respect it was voted that the Members of the House that were of the Privy Council shou'd attend his Excellency in the afternoon and acquaint him with the said Vote and on Thursday following the Speaker attended by the whole House presented the said Address The rest of this day and of Tuesday the 11th was spent in determining the Choice of Members doubly Elected in appointing Grand Committees and in expelling a Member for betraying the Protestant and English Interest which took up some time and debate in the House On Wednesday 12th besides the House receiving Petitions about undue Returns c. the Act of Recognition being sent down from the Lords was thrice read and pass'd with a Vote that no other Bill afterward shou'd be read more than once in a day Thursday the 13th was taken up partly in receiving the Submission of the forementioned expelled Member and discharging him out of Custody and partly in debating the Priviledge of the House about Post Letters It had been first moved on the 10th but one of the Secretaries then acquainting the House that his Excellency wou'd take care to Issue an Order to the Postmaster for franking them the Debate was let fall And on the next day after the House received their Letters free having paid for them till then but this day one of the Members informed the House that the Order for it took place only from Tuesday the 11th which was looked upon to make the Priviledge precarious and wholly at the Lord Lieutenants discretion after some debate thereupon and urging Presidents of the King's Messengers carrying the Members Letters free before the erection of the Post Office It was voted for this and other Reasons in order to assert the Priviledge of the
Suits was twice read and committed to a select Committee but it was not Reported to the House at the time of the Prorogation On Monday the 31st Saturday having been spent in the last reading and passing the Bill for an Additional Excise and in debates about a controverted Election a Bill for settling a Militia in this Kingdom which had been brought into the House on the 24th was read the first time but it proposing a much greater Number to be raised upon several Counties than there were Protestant Inhabitants in the said Countys and lodging too great a Power in Commissioners of Array for these and other Reasons was rejected however the House being sensible that a Bill for settling a Militia wou'd be very requisite for this Kingdom resolved to consider of it on Tuesday the first of November in a Committee of the whole House and then came to a Vote that a Militia by Law established was absolutely necessary for preserving the Peace of this Kingdom and made a considerable Progress in forming of it and appointed to proceed on it again on the 3d. of November A Committee having formerly been appointed amongst other things to inspect what Laws had been made in England since the 10. H. 7. and were fit to be enacted in this Kingdom and the House pursuant to their Report having voted several of them in particular to be necessary ordered the said Committee to attend the Lord Lieutenant in Council with the said Votes and humbly to desire that Bills might be prepared accordingly but his Excellency not coming to Council on the day the House was informed his Excellency wou'd be for this purpose attended there The House on Wednesday the 2d ordered an Address to be made to his Excellency to know his pleasure therein and his Excellency thereupon was pleased to appoint Friday the 4th in the Afternoon to be attended with the said Votes At the same time his Excellency was also pleased to accept of the Commons Address in behalf of their Chaplain and in a most obliging manner to declare that their Address shou'd be always acceptable to him This day also the House received a Message from his Excellency recommending to them the taking the Bill for punishing Mutineers and Deserters by Martial Law into speedy Consideration This Bill was brought into the House the 28th of October and had been twice Read and Committed one of the Secretaries pressed that it might be taken from the Committee and immediately read a third time but the House conceiving it more proper to be debated in a Committee Resolved accordingly and thinking the former Number thereof too few to debate a matter of so great moment ordered that all that came shou'd have Votes and to be Reported next Morning On Thursday the 3d. the said Bill being Reported with the Amendments was rejected by the House it containing not one fifth part of the Act made in England to that purpose and the part in that English Act relating to the good of the Subject and the Kingdom in general by obliging the Officers to orderly Quarters faithful Payment of the Souldiers and to just and true Musters being quite left out And whereas the English Act is to continue only for one Year this was to continue for three years and from thence to the end of the next Session of Parliament But a Committee was then appointed to meet that Afternoon and prepare Heads of a Bill agreeable to the said English Act. Soon after the rejecting this Bill several of the Members were informed that the Parliament wou'd be immediately Prorogued or Dâ—ssolved A large Report was then made to the House from a select Committee representing Discoveries of very great Consequence drawn from the Accounts relating to the forseited Irish Estates both Real and Personal but the House receiving information That his Excellency was come to the House of Lords This Report was ordered to lye on the Table A Message was brought by the Usher of the Black Rod requiring the House of Commons immediately to attend his Excellency in the Lord's House The House accordingly went up to the House of Lords his Excellency being seated in his Robes gave the Royal Assent to four Bills viz. The Act of Recognition The Act of Excise The Act for Encouragement of Protestant Strangers and the Act for taking Affidavits in the Country the Mony Bill was passed with the usual Form viz. that their Majesties thank their Loyal Subjects and accepted their Benevolence The House were somewhat surprized at this unexpected Resolution having expected to sit at least the next day and did not apprehend what occasion they had given of Displeasure to his Excellency to put so sudden an end to the Session when the day before he expressed himself so favourably to them in answer to their Addresses and assigned them the day after this for the Committee to attend him in Council but they were more surprized to hear his Excellency charge them in his Speech That they had not answered the Ends for which they were called together but had behaved themselves undutifully and ungratefully in invading their Majesties Perogative a Charge of such a nature as sounded very harsh in the Ears of Gentlemen who looked upon themselves and the rest of the Protestants in this Kingdom to be as obsequiously devoted to their Majesties Interest as any of their Majesties Subject a Qualification and Temper which they knew was not likely to recommend them to those amongst whom they lived and therefore could not but with the highest regret and trouble hear his Excellency cast them off from their just Claim to the most unfeigned Dutifulness and Affection to their Majesties which they held as dear to them as their Lives and at the same time expose them to the Insultings of their most implacable and malitious Adversaries who they knew were ever warchful and ready to improve all Advantages against them who cou'd not but look upon a Protestant Parliament with trouble and therefore rejoyced to see it meet with such Treatment They reflected on what they had done that cou'd possibly occasion so severe a Censure but his Excellency in his next Sentence was pleased to clear this point to them by referring to their printed Votes of the 27th of October That it is the sole and undoubted Right of the House of Commons to prepare Heads of Mony Bills and to their rejecting a Mony Bill the next day because it had not it's Rise in their House This the Gentlemen of the House of Commons cou'd not but very much admire of considering how maturely and with what deference to their Majesties Prerogative those things had been debated in the House and not only consented to but first proposed as an Expedient by some who have always both before and since comply'd with the Directions of the Government without Reserve all the Votes relating to the Expedient being likewise Resolved without one Negative Voice But for these Reasons his Excellency declared That
House that it was their Right to have their Letters free which Vote at the Request of some of the Members was afterwards ordered not to be printed On Friday and Saturday the 14th 15th the House proceeded to take into Consideration that part of his Excellency's Speech relating to a Supply for their Majesties the first motion for it having been made and seconded on Friday by some of them who have since born the marks of the Governments Displeasure One of the Secretaries laid before the House an imperfect State of the Revenue for the ensuing Year and Copies affirmed of the Establishments Civil and Military and informed them that his Majesty by reason of the wasted condition of this Kingdom intending to remit a considerable part of the Quit and Crown Rents a Sum of 64500 l. was necessary to supply the Deficiencies of the Revenue for a year beginning the 25th March 1693. The granting of a Supply hereupon came to be fully debated the great Poverty of the Kingdom in almost all the parts thereof and the vast quantities of Land untenanted and absolutely waste and the inability of most persons to pay even the standing Revenue of the Quit Rent was represented as likewise the great Obligations both of Duty and Gratitude which this Kingdom lay under to their Majesties and the grateful sense which they ought to have of the vast expence of Blood and Treasure England has already been at were recognized and urged with their due Weight And it was Resolved That nothing less than absolute necessity shou'd make this Kingdom a Charge to England Upon the whole matter the House came to this unanimous Vote That a Sum not exceeding 70000 l. should be given as a Supply to their Majesties On Monday the 17th the House received some Reports from the Committee of Priviledges concerning Burroughs newly erected by King Charles II. which never sent Members to Parliament before this Session But this being recommitted the House fell upon debate about another Member accused for Crimes of like nature with the former who on Saturday following being fully heard with his Witnesses at the Bar was also expelled On Tuesday the 18th part of the Establishment was read in the Committee of the whole House for considering of the Supply as also the remaining part thereof on the Monday following the Exceptions made against both were waved At this time several Committees did with great Application enquire into the Embezelments of the forfeited Lands and Goods which as yet had yielded nothing in proportion to what it was supposed they might The Members very well knew that both real and personal Estates to a considerable value had been seized in their Respective Counties and were witnesses of the foul Practices that had been used in the managing and disposal of them They knew also that their Majesties Revenue wou'd be made more considerable for the future by detecting and punishing the past Mismanagements and Frauds And accordingly the House came to a Vote on Thursday the 20th Wednesday being the Monthly Fast that it was a great breach of Trust and a Grievance for any intrusted with the management of their Majesties Revenue to take to Farm any of the forfeited Interests Several things of this kind being proved to be done by William C d Esq one of the late Commissioners of the Revenue before the Committee of Grievances as also great Quantities of Goods and Stock by him seized and unaccounted for he insisted on Priviledge as a Member of the House of Commons of England whereof the House being informed thought fit to proceed only in taking Examinations touching matter of Fail but wou'd not oblige him to any defence after his insisting on his Priviledge The House also agreed to another Report from the said Committee that the continuing Papists in the Army or suffering them to have serviceable Horses or Arms was at this juncture of dangerous Consequence to this Kingdom and Voted an Address hereupon for Remedy thereof And being informed that his Excellency had caused divers suspected Persons to be apprehended and several Troops to be sent down to suppress some Irish who were out in Arms voted their humble Thanks to be presented to him On Friday the 21st a Bill for confirming the Acts of Settlement and Explanation which had been brought in on the 12th and had been twice read was according to the Order of the day debated in a Committee of the whole House it is certain there could hardly have come a Bill to the Commons of this Kingdom with a more welcome Title than this four parts in five of them having Estates dependant on the Acts of Settlement c. and therefore it will be much wondred that it should occasion any matter of Debate to them but upon considering thereof they cou'd not find one line in the whole Bill which they could allow of neither was there one word offer'd in defence thereof but they declared it to be a Bill of such pernicious Contexture as instead of confirming it wou'd have unsettled the greatest part of the Estates of this Kingdom and several of the Members cou'd not avoid being possessed with Jealousies that such a Bill shou'd be tender'd them On Saturday the 22d the Lord Lieutenant signify'd in a Message to the House that this Session wou'd not continue above a fortnight longer and therefore recommended the speedy Proceeding on such Bills as were or shou'd be brought before them upon which they voted that no more private Petitions shou'd be received On Monday the 24th a Bill which had been brought in on the 18th for declaring all Attainders and other Acts made in the late pretended Parliament void was read the first time the Title of this was no less specious than that for confirming the Act of Settlement c. but the House found it for their Majesties Service and the Honour of the Protestants of Ireland to preserve the Records of the Irish Barbarity which they cou'd not do without rejecting this Bill because it requir'd the said Records to be taken off the File Then they proceeded in a Committee of the whole House to consider of ways to raise the Sum voted for a Supply Two Mony Bills had been sent to the House on Saturday the 22d which were transmitted from England under the Great Seal there the Constitution of this Kingdom since Poyning's Act 10th H. 7. requiring that all Bills shou'd be so transmitted before they are passed into Laws here One of those Bills was for an Additional Excise and the other for a Tax upon Corn These were ordered by the House to be laid on the Table and not to be read till some Expedient might be found for a Difficulty that arose upon the bringing in these Bills It has always been conceived the Original Right of the Commons that Mony Bills should take their Rise in their House that as well the Quantum as the method of raising it should be determined by them the House lookt upon
this to be their inherent Fundamental Right and that the same was not taken away by any Act of Parliament in this Kingdom as in reason they thought none cou'd be so good Judges of the properest and easiest way of taxing the Subject as they and even since Poyning's Act those Rights of the House are found Asserted in the Journals on the bringing in of Mony Bills whereof they did not prepare the Heads and it is found to be a standing Order in the said Journals That no Bill to Tax the Subject be brought into the House without leave of the House first obtained But the House considering that their Majesties Occasions required an immediate Supply and that probably there might not be time allowed during this Session for Bills of their own preparing to be returned from England according to Form they were necessitated to consider how to reconcile these points The first Expedient thought on was this The Additional Excise Bill of the two seemed most consistent with the State of this Kingdom to be passed into an Act tho the House observed several Matters of just Exception in it as the inequality of Taxing different Liquors the Taxing of some Liquors under the notion of an Additional Duty which had not been Taxed before and continuing the former Incertainty of Measures to be relieved against which last a Petition of the Brewers had been preferred and lay upon the Table setting forth that the Kings Duty had been of late by the means of Sir James Shaen and others the then Farmers of the Revenue who were likewise Commissioners of the Excise and consequently Judges for their own Advantages levyed by them of a Gallon of 217 Cubical Inches tho for several years after the first passing the Act of Excise in this Kingdom the measures by which the King's Officers then levyed that Duty and by which the Brewers always have and are now by Law obliged to sell is a Gallon of 282 Inches proposing withal such an encrease of Duty to be made as shou'd answer the loss the Revenue might sustain by Regulation of the Measure This Petition and Complaint how reasonable soever it might be in it self was not thought fit to be taken into consideration lest it might retard the reading and passing the said Bill So that Postponing this and the other Exceptions the House thought an Expedient might be found for passing this Bill as it was by voting first an Additional Duty exactly corresponding with the said Bill in all the parts of it And these Heads so prepared being tender'd to the Lord Lieutenant and Council to be drawn into a Bill and transmitted the House might receive the Bill already sent as transmitted from England and framed on their heads And accordingly they passed the said Vote for such Additional Excise On Tuesday the 25th the House received Reports from Committees particularly concerning CivilBills as of late practiced at Assizes without any Foundation in Law upon pretence of being a more expeditious and cheap way of recovering Debts and Damages Which the House voted to be Arbitrary Illegal and a Burthen to the Subject and that an Address shou'd be presented to the Lord Lieutenant in Council to prepare a Bill which might answer what was of advantage in this practice without oppressing the Subject by giving an unlimited Power to the Judges Then by order of the day the House resolved into a Committee to consider the State of the Nation and it being proposed that the best means to settle this Kingdom in a lasting Happiness wou'd be to find out the causes of its Misery The Committee resolved on and voted among other Reasons these two following to be assigned for it First the great countenance given to the Irish Papists in the Reign of K. C. 2d and their being employ'd by the late King James Secondly the obstruction of the course of Justice by Illegal Protections granted since the defeat at the Boyne A motion was made in debate of this latter that particulars might be instanced and the persons who granted them named to the end their Majesties might know who they were that had so much abused their Authority committed to them but some scrupled it because of the great Characters they bore and the Committee soon breaking up this was deferred till its next Sitting which was on the 27th and then it was only concluded the Members being willing the Speaker shou'd resume the Chair in order to proceed on the Excise Bill to name persons at the next Sitting thereof which was appointed on the 29th and so from day to day but this Committee still gave place to that for considering the Supply no Report was ever made to the House from the said Committee but on November the 1st it was ordered to sit on the 4th and nothing to intervene Wednesday and Thursday the 26th 27th were taken up in debating other Expedients for the difficulty mention'd on Monday that then offer'd not being found to answer the Ends after several proposed some that were moved by Members who had pressed the Reading of the Bill and were suppoâ—ed to speak what was Agreeable to the Government took place which were to assert the Priviledges of the House by a Vote to read the Excise Bill in order to pass it and reject the Corn Bill Accordingly this Excise Bill was thus read and so successively every day till it was passed On Friday the 28th the Corn Bill according to the former Expedient was rejected and the reason given because it had not its Rise in the House of Commons The House then Resolved it self into a Committee and proceeded to consider further of Method to answer the Contents of the Corn Bill by some other Tax that their Majesties might receive the full Supply demanded It was considered that the Corn Bill wou'd have yielded no Mony until Summer 1693. and part thereof not until Michaelmas following and they thought they might by other means raise the Sum much sooner and more equally The several ways of raising Mony was throughly debated and at length the Committee unanimously agreed on a Poll Bill for several Reasons of which the following was not the least They were in hopes to have passed this Bill before the end of the Session by Adjournment till a Bill prepared according to Heads agreed on by them might have been transmitted into England and returned hither to be passed this wou'd have been an immediate Fund which with the Excise Bill wou'd have amounted to much more than the Sum required They who were for this in the House cou'd not suppose that these Proceedings wou'd have been any ways displeasing to the Government The same day three ingrossed Bills were sent down from the Lords viz. an Act for punishing Mutineers and Deserters an Act for Encouragement of Protestant Strangers and An Act for preventing Vexatious Suits Of these the Bill for encouraging Protestant Strangers c. was read in three days passed And the Bill for preventing Vexatious