Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	law_n	parliament_n	2,185	5	6.6353	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61340	The state of Ireland, with a vindication of the Act of Settlement and commissioners proceedings, &c. also, reflections on the late Coventry-letter writ by an eminent councellor of that kingdom, wherein the said author endeavours to prove, that it was not for murther, nor rebellion, but religion that the Irish estates were sequestred by the forementioned act / by a person of honour.	Person of honour.	1688 (1688)	Wing S5301; ESTC R22558	20,095	100

with Honour the care our English Ancestors had for such as should come after them for the Securing this Kingdom They had observed that not only the meer Irish but the Antient Colonies had no kindness for the New English but the frequent Acts of Resumption passed in their Parliaments had avoided new Grants made to English-men for considerable Services For this and other Causes that Act was procured with great Wisdom by Sir Edward Poynings then Lord Deputy the 10. Hen. 7. by which it is Enacted That no Bills can be offered to a Parliament in Ireland before they have been approved by the King in England This Law tho after attempted by the Natives continues unrepealed and is our present Security who are confident the King is too Just ever to send a Bill into that Kingdom to take from many Thousands of His British Subjects that which they now enjoy by Law The Gentleman seems to be very hard upon the Memory of the late King when he displayeth his Rhetorick to shew how contrary to Zeal Piety and Justice it would be for His present Majesty to confirm the Acts of Settlement reflecting thereby upon King Charles the Second that Acted contrary to Zeal Piety and Justice when he made those Laws Questionless our present Soveraign will upon all Occasions vindicate the Honour of his Brother and I hope He will think no way so proper in this particular as by Protecting that Settlement which His Brother Establish'd The Gentleman hath it seems an expedient to help all Matters and yet he thinks fit to offer some in short which I fear too are the best of his Intentions altho' of a strange Nature He would have His Majesty Condemn Laws as Defective before any Person hath been heard in their Defence and after his Judges upon all occasions have judged them sufficient He would have the Clause concluding the Claims of those not yet adjudged Innocent Rectified whereby I presume he means Revoked by which the Persons concern'd in the Lands formerly Forfeited must near Fifty Years after the Rebellion be put to prove the Offences of particular Persons several of whose Descendants act at present in considerable Civil and Military Imployments and some of them now endeavouring to take off the Outlawries of their Ancestors These are things so Unreasonable that certainly they will never be hearkened unto where they expect they should At last He doubts not but Matters may be adjusted at the next Sitting of Parliament but what Parliament he means I cannot guess if he means an Irish Parliament freely and fairly Elected he knows That more than four Parts of five of it must consist of Persons that will not break the Settlement If he means such a Parliament as the Irish designed when they made the Articles in 1648. I am satisfied few of the British must expect to continue in the Possession of any thing they now Enjoy unless His Majesty be graciously pleased to Interpose Certainly he does not think of the English-Parliament his Country-men against all Reason and Presidents not admitting That Laws made in England bind that Kingdom But if he would have the English-Parliament Reconcile all Differences between us I fee no reason why the British should not Acquiesce if it have His Majesties Approbation I am come now to the Pamphlet called The Narrative of the Sale and Settlement of Ireland but am resolv'd to take no further notice of it than to reflect on some few Matters of Fact by which the Truth of the whole Paper and what sort of Adversaries we have to deal with may appear The Author makes an enumeration of the several Counties of Ireland and tell us Pag. 4. That in the Year 1653. Ten Counties were allotted to the Adventurers Twelve conferr'd on Cromwell ' s Soldiers Three given to Transplanted Irish and Seven reserved to the Common-wealth The first mistake and that a wilful one too is that he affirms That the Counties were thus disposed whereas it was only the Land Forfeited by the Rebellion in those Counties Church-Lands Protestant Lands Constant Good Affectionate Mens Lands were not disposed and the Interests of those were so considerable That not a fourth Part of the Province of Vlster was Forfeited His next Error which sure proceeds from Ignorance is That Ten Counties were given to Adventurers whereas it is notoriously known they had but the Moiety of the Forfeited Land in Ten Counties of which near the half of that hath been since taken from them Pag. 5. He says Five Hundred Gentlemen that Served the King in Flanders are named in the Declaration Let him reckon again and he will find but Two Hundred Twenty Two this is well stretcht yet the modestest mistake in his Paper Pag. 6. He affirms That taking off the Engagement which he says the Irish were forced to do on pain of Death by Cromwell ' s Army was made a Qualification of Innocency that none that had taken it could be declared Innocent And by this Qualification he leaves his Reader to judge of the rest aggravating the Matter with much Rhetorick Certainly this is a Falshood so apparent so easily discovered that no Man that valued his Credit would alledge it 'T is as Wilful as 't is Malitious Had he reckoned the Qualifications in the Act of Settlement right they are as he says but not any thing of the Engagement or any thing like it amongst them I believed the occasion of this was he had told the World That the Qualifications were so Severe and Rigid that some thought it Morally impossible to find an Innocent and yet when he came to consider them he could pick out but One to Cavil at and that put him upon this Notorious Invention Pag. 7. Few of the Irish Peers were admitted to Sit in the House of Lords under pretence of former Indictments Many of the Irish Peers Sate none were excluded upon pretence of Indictments unless they were also attainted of High-Treason Pag. 7. The Act of Settlement alloweth only Twelve Months time to the Tryal of Innocents The Act passed at a Cessation which begun the 17th of April 1662. The time for the Tryal of Innocents was to be the first of August 1662. By this it appeareth there was not near a Years time for their Tryal so that this mistake in this place seemeth to be to the disadvantage of his Friends But he had a further fetch he resolved not to own the kindness that the then Parliament of Ireland shewed those that pretended to Innocency giving them after the time for their Tryal by this Act was expired a year further by another Act being all they desired Pag. 8. The Commissioners began their first Sitting the first of February This Man hath so perfectly fallen out with Truth that it is impossible ever to reconcile them The Commissioners began the Tryal of Innocents the 30th of January 1662. They heard Twenty Seven considerable Claims before the first of February and might have heard many more had the

they had most part of the Kingdom in their hands and a standing Army of 15700 Horse and Foot of their Confederates God grant their Designs be not the same in this present conjuncture The Legality of the Acts of Settlement are not doubted at least-wise the British are satisfied to rest on them By their Objections they declare They intend their Repeal and yet five Parts of six of the Free-holders and the Major part by much of the Corporations in that Kingdom consist of Persons concerned that the present Settlement should continue as it is so that it is impossible for them unless the Kingdom be in such a condition as it was when they made those Articles to have such a Parliament as will answer their Designs English Roman Catholicks have been of another Temper The Statutes made in H. the Eighths Days whereby Church and Abby-Lands were given to the Crown cannot but be esteemed by every Roman Catholick to be more against the Rules of Justice than those Acts of Settlement they are point blank against the Canons of the Roman Church no general Guilt was cast upon the Proprietors no Innocents escaped The Lands were certainly designed for Pious and Charitable Uses and yet the Parliament in Queen Maries Days had such a regard to the Peace of the Kingdom to Purchasers for valuable Considerations and to Laws formerly Enacted that the Statutes for Dissolution of Religious Houses c. tho' but lately made were confirmed at that Session As Purchasers had no reason to question the Legality of these Acts of Settlement so likewise was there no cause to doubt its Equity when the Forfeiting Persons themselves to those that claimed by the King's Letters or as Nominees or by Proviso's c. in the Acts were contented to take part of their Estates of Lands Forfeited by the Rebellion and disposed of to them by those Acts so waving their former Titles several Forfeiting Persons who had the Land of their Country-men in Connaught given them by the Usurper kept those Lands to their own use and have since passed Letters Pattents for them as Forfeited by the late Rebellion without any Companction whatsoever Lastly His late Majesty was pleased to take very great Summs of Money from the British Patentees for their Confirmation and His Sacred Majesty that now is hath ever since the Year 1662. received the Profits of a considerable part of the Forfeited Lands which who could have imagin'd they would have done had they not thought those Lands might be enjoyed with a safe Conscience It is further considerable That to destroy the Settlement at this Time would Ruine multitudes of Families both in Corporations and the Country that depends upon it some of which consists of Souldiers sent thither since King Charles the Second's Restauration settled there tho' now Disbanded others in great numbers have been brought over by the encouragement of an Act of Parliament made the 14th of Charles the Second and several Orders of Council grounded on that Law Certainly it would be a breach of Faith and common Humanity to undo those who have done nothing to deserve so severe a Punishment It is now time to make some Reflections on the Coventry Letter and Pamphlet Intituled The Sale and Settlement of Ireland And first for the Coventry Letter The design of it seems to be to advise against the Issuing any Proclamation to declare That the King had no Intention to touch the Acts of Settlement but would confirm them Many Politick Arguments are used in it which lye not in my way But if His Majesty had been pleased to have declared His Intention Not to break the Act of Settlement it would have given great satisfaction to most of His British Subjects who tho' they do not mistrust His Justice yet cannot but be much Disquieted by the frequent Threats they receive from those that pretend to their Estates the unreasonable and false grounded Objections of others against those Acts. Neither had such Proclamation been without President for January 24. 1672. a Proclamation Issued by which King Charles the Second to take off a Malitious Suggestion diffused amongst His Subjects in Ireland That he did desire to weaken the Acts of Settlement doth declare That it never entred into His Heart either by His late Commission for Inspection or by any Indulgence granted to His Roman Catholick Subjects to live in Corporations any-wise to Infringe the said Acts. The Gentleman 's chief Arguments are against His Majesty's declaring any Intention to confirm those Acts which he Insinuates would be against Justice and Religion Indeed I believe had His Majesty declared Not to suffer the Acts to be broken most Men would not have desired any Promise of Confirmation for they now think their Estates as fully secured to them as Laws can do it However His Majesty in His several Declarations for Liberty of Conscience in England and Scotland hath promised to maintain His Subjects in the Possession of Church and Abby-Lands and yet it is possible this Gentleman might use some of his Argumenns against those Titles The Gentleman layeth down for a Principle That nothing can support the Catholick Religion in Ireland but to make the Catholicks there considerable in their Fortunes as they are in their Numbers which must be the only Inducement can prevail with a Protestant Successor to allow them a Toleration as to their Religion and a Protection to their Estates and that their having all Imployments cannot prevent this danger This must be acknowledged to be a terrible consideration to the British in Ireland That nothing can make the Roman Catholick Religion considerable but breaking the Settlement and giving the Irish the Lands the British now lawfully enjoy But I have a much better Opinion of that Religion and am confident That many who profess it are not of this Gentleman's Mind We see there are some Men that will not easily be satisfied Favour Imployments nor Free-Liberty in the Exercise of their Religion will not satisfie them They will have All or Nothing Our whole Confidence therefore rests in our King's Justice who we hope will never be perswaded to take away the Estates of those who are Guilty of no Offence against His Laws upon any pretence whatsoever The Gentleman advanceth That new Estated Men would freely part with great Sums and a considerable part of their Lands for a Confirmation That these new Estated Men would be as ready to lay their Lives and Fortunes at His Majesties Feet as any Subjects He hath in that Kingdom is a Truth Tryal would quickly Justifie But their Estates if Laws can secure them they have already as well Worded as they can desire If they should Purchase another Confirmation they are well satisfied a Parliament constituted of the Principles with this Gentleman would speedily Repeal it could they procure His Majesties Consent which I hope they will never do to the prejudice of the Act of Settlement now in Being Here I cannot but remember