ask him what sort of Law he takes the above-cited Statutes of Ireland to be and shall afterwards shew that they have all along submitted to such a Conquest or Acquisition as gives a Right to the imposing of Laws 3. But since he is pleas'd to say As Scotland tho the King's Subjects claims an exemption from all Laws but what they assent to in Parliament so we think this our Right also and going upon the supposition of Ireland being a Kingdom as distinct from England as Scotland he frames an Objection that however they may be restrain'd by War from doing what may be to the prejudice of England the stronger Nation If this may be he asks why does it not operate in the same manner between England and Scotland and consequently in like manner draw after it England's binding Scotland by their Laws at Westminster As to Scotland not here to enter into the Dispute between the Lord Coke and the rest of the Judges who resolv'd Calvin's Case and the House of Commons of that time nor yet into the Question concerning the Scotch Homage whether 't was for the Kingdom of Scotland or only for some Lands which their Kings held of the Crown of England 'T is enough to observe that during the Heptarchy here we often had one King who was Rex primus to whom the others were Homagers and obedient in the Wars for common Defence of the Island yet each King had his distinct Regalities and the Countrys their several Laws and Customs and distinct Legislatures for Lands and other Rights and Things within themselves This 't was easy to conceive that Scotland had and thus both there and here under the Heptarchy the several Kingdoms notwithstanding Homage to one King who had the Primacy were under separate Allegiances as the respective Subjects were not bound to the same Laws tho the States of the Kingdom did Homage as well as the King When the Right to the Crown of Scotland came afterwards in J. 1. to be in the same Person who had the Crown of England and that without any new Acquisition by the Crown or Kingdom of England there was no merger of the less Crown and 't is certain that in the Judgment of Law Palatinates fallen to the Crown continue distinct Royalties But if for the keeping a Kingdom distinct whether in the Person of the same King or as an Appendant to his Imperial Crown a distinct Legislature is necessary as well as a distinct Jurisdiction then Wales which in many of our Statutes is call'd a Dominion was no distinct Dominion or Principality if it at any time continued in the Crown without having Parliaments of their own or being represented here by Members of their own chusing but thus it was with Wales from the 12 th of E. 1. to the 34 th of H. 8. in right of E. 1 st's Conquest as Sir John Davis or the Judges in his time call the Acquisition of that Dominion and as 't is there E. 1. changed their Laws and Customs as he had express'd in his Charter or the Statute of Rutland which follows Divinâ providentiâ terram Walliae cum incolis suis prius nobis jure feodali subjectam in proprietatis nostrae dominium totaliter cum integritate convertit coronae regni nostrae annexit By the Divine Providence the Land of Wales with its Inhabitants before subject to us by feudal Right we have turn'd wholly and entirely into the Dominion of our Propriety and annexed it to the Crown of our Kingdom And as to their Laws and Customs Quasdam de consilio procerum regni nostri delevimus quasdam permisimus quasdam correximus ac etiam quasdam alias adjiciendas faciendas decrevimus Some by the Counsel of the Peers of our Kingdom we have abrogated some we have permitted some we have corrected and besides some others we have added and decreed to be put in execution Here is a Title understood at that time of taking a Forfeiture for Rebellion against the Lord of the Fee and in consequence of this the King and his Peers in Parliaments took upon them to exercise a Legislative Power over Wales But notwithstanding that Wales was thus united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of England and absolutely subjected to its Legislature yet as is held in Davis's Reports this Principality of Wales not being govern'd by the common Law was a Dominion by it self and had its proper Laws and Customs That Report shews Wales by reason of these different Laws and Customs to be more distinct and separate from the Kingdom of England than Ireland is and that a Tenure of the Prince of Wales should not after its reduction under the Subjection of England become a Tenure of the Crown in chief but that it should be so in relation to Tenures of a County Palatine in Ireland as well as England because such a County in either Land was originally a parcel of the Realm and derived from the Crown and was always govern'd by the Law of England and the Lands there were held by Services and Tenures of which the common Law takes notice altho the Lords have a separate Jurisdiction and Seigniory separate from the Crown But that Tenure in Chief in Ireland as well as England could be no other than of the Crown of England appears not only by the Grants to the Electors Palatine or Lords Marchers of Ireland but in that Ireland was not raised into a Kingdom till H. 8's time The mention of Palatinates may well occasion a Comparison between the Land of Ireland and the County Palatine of Chester a distinct Royalty in the Principality of Wales that had its Parliaments within it self as 't is very probable from before the time of W. 1. it being certain that Hugh Lupus enjoyed that Earldom by Judgment of the Lords if not the Great Council in the time of W. 1. and their Parliaments may be traced from within the time of H. 3. downwards to their first having Representatives in Parliaments of the Kingdom 34 H. 8. Their provincial Parliaments were chiefly if not only for the granting Aids to the Crown but notwithstanding their being represented in Parliaments at home yet Laws were made here in the superior Parliament for the governing the Inhabitants of the County of Chester Now without considering whether Cheshire was a Colony from England or from Wales or mix'd or else a place exempt without regard to the being any Colony I may well hold that tho from before the time of W. 1. they had the privilege of being tax'd only by themselves or with their own Consent yet their Parliament was subordinate to the Great Council of the Kingdom of England and 't was no violation of the Right of their Parliament for the National Council to give them Laws for their better Government and to restrain 'em from acting to the prejudice of the Crown and
imply that there is no Subordination 't will follow that the Inferior Courts in England are not subordinate to the Courts of Westminster-Hall and I may add neither is the King's Bench of England subordinate to the House of Lords As to the question of their Jurisdiction occasioned as Mr. M's Margin has it by the Case of the Bishop of Derry I need say little here referring him to the Judgment of the Lords and to that exercice of the Judicial Power which I shall have an opportunity of shewing in the Reign of E. 1. But as to his supposed clear Argument against the subordination from the Lords doing nothing upon the Petition of the Prior of Lanthony who appeal'd to the Parliament of England from a refusal of the King's Bench here to meddle with a Judgment which had pass'd in the Parliament of Ireland 'T will admit of several Answers 1. This came not before the Lords by Writ of Error or by Appeal from the Lords of Ireland but was a complaint of the King's Bench here 2. This was after the Charter which I shall afterwards shew placing a judicial Power to some Purposes in their Parliaments But whether they exceeded that Authority 't was not for the King's Bench to judg but for that Power from whence their Charter was derived 3. This Petition seems either to have come too late or to have been waved for if it had fallen under consideration 't is probable that some Answer to it could have been endors'd as was usual in former times But that the ordinary Jurisdiction both of the Lords in Parliament and of the King's-Bench here is but an incident to the Superiority of the Crown of England will be much clearer than any thing Mr. M. has urged And whatever Mr. M. conceives the Annexation of Ireland to the Crown of England will sufficiently manifest the Subordination tho he supposing that this was done by the Irish Statute which annexes it as a Kingdom with others which declare it annex'd as a Land or Dominion of a lower Character conceives little more is effected by these Statutes than that Ireland shall not be aliened or separated from the King of England who cannot hereby dispose of it otherwise than in legal Succession along with England and that whoever is King of England is ipso facto King of Ireland But if these Statutes bating the name of Kingdom which the Parliament of England afterwards gave them are only declaratory of the antient Right of the Crown of England then I may well hold that there is not so much effected by these Statutes as he yields it being only the operation of Law And if by operation of Law a King of England tho not succeeding by a strict Right of Descent but by the Choice or Declaration of the States of this Realm is ipso facto King or Lord of Ireland I would gladly know how that Kingdom or Land which he owns to be thus inseparably annex'd to the Imperial Crown of England can be a compleat Kingdom And since he is pleas'd to ask whether multitudes of Acts of Parliament both of England and Ireland have not declared Ireland a compleat Kingdom and whether 't is not stiled in them all the Kingdom or Realm of Ireland I would entreat the favour of him to shew me one Act of Parliament of either Kingdom which says or all Circumstances consider'd implies that Ireland is a compleat Kingdom or that ever any Parliament of their own held it to be advanced to the Dignity of a Kingdom before 33 H. 8. tho as they acknowledg the Kings of England had Kingly Power there long before I must own that as the name of King was in H. 8's time thought requisite to charm the wild Irish into Obedience so in Queen Elizabeth's time Imperial Crown was thought to make a conquering Sound but this was never ascribed to it by any Parliament of Englandâ— nor that I can find even of Ireland before her Reign or since But the one Imperial Crown upon which Ireland has been and still is dependent is the Crown of England sor this the Statute of Ireland before that was made a Kingdom is express having these words Calling to our remembrance the great Divisions which in time past have been by reason of several Titles pretended to the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England whereunto this your Land of Ireland is appending and belonging So another in the same Year Forasmuch as this Land of Ireland is depending and belonging justly and rightfully to the Imperial Crown of England it enacts that the King his Heirs and Successors Kings of the Realm of England and Lords of this said Land of Ireland shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the Imperial Crown of England all Honours Dignities Pre-eminencies and Authorities c. belonging to the Church of Ireland If Mr. Molineux observes duly Ireland has all these Imperial Rights declared in the Irish Statute 33 H. 8. c 1. but I cannot find by what Rule he insers this from an Act of Parliament which is express that the King of England shall have the Name Stile Title and Honour of King of Ireland with all manner of Preheminencies c. as united and knit to the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England Indeed it shews that under the name of Lord the King had the same Authority but the name of King was thought likely to be more prevalent with the Irish Men and Inhabitants within that Realm The Statute 11 Jac. 1. declares him King of England Scotland France and Ireland by God's Goodness and Right of Descent under one Imperial Crown And the Statute 10 C. 1. calls this the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland And indeed Mr. Molineux would do well to shew that ever any of our Kings took any Coronation Oath for Ireland otherwise than as Kings of England And yet I know not what he may do when his hand 's in since he has the Art to transubstantiate their Recital of an Act of Parliament in England which declares that Popes had usurped an Authority in derogation of the Right of the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England recognizing no Superiour under God but only the King and being free from Subjection to any Man's Laws but only such as have been devised made and ordain'd within the Realm of England or to such other as by sufferance of the King and his Progenitors the People of the Realm of England had taken at their free Liberty by their own Consent to be used among them and have bound themselves by long Custom to the observance of the same To infer that 't is thus with Ireland because the enacting part of that Statute which has this Recital is promulged for a Law in Ireland is to suppose Ireland to be turned into England and that the Commissioners who are by virtue of that Act and the Great Seal to exercise that
do some service to my Country in shewing 2 ly The true Foundation of that Right which England is possessed of in relation to Ireland and what are Mr. Molineux's principal Mistakes Omissions and wrong Comparisons and Inferences concerning it Here I hope to make it evident 1. That he mistakes the Grounds for the submission of Ireland to H. 2. as well as the Nature of it and omits material Passages which may illustrate that matter 2. That if he had been as conversant in Histories and Records as he would be thought he could never have had assurance enough to assert that England may be said much more properly to be conquer'd by W. 1. than Ireland by H. 2. 3. That he is as much mistaken in his comparison between Scotland and Ireland and that matter of his own shewing or admission might have convinced him of an essential difference 1. This Gentleman pretends to give the History of the Expedition of the English into Ireland which he supposes to have been in the Reign of H. 2. and that all the Right which has been acquired by England to have any Government or Superiority over that Nation was derived from within that King's Reign Which manifests his having seen very little of our English Antiquities and his not attending to what Irish Acts of Parliament might have taught him The Confessor's Law under the Title of the Rights and Appendages or Dependencies of the Crown of England expresly names Ireland as one which it supposes to have been first annexed to the Crown of England by King Arthur Accordingly besides other Authorities which might be produced a very Antient Manuscript in Latin Verse in the Cotton Library ascribed to a Gildas who lived in the Year 860. speaking of several things done by that King in this British Kingdom says His ita dispositis in regnum tendit Ybernum These things thus settled he for Ireland goes Another Manuscript in the Cotton Library treating of the number of the Courâ—ies of England and the Countrys and Islands which of Right and without doubt belong to the Crown and Dignity of the Kingdom of Britain and the several Laws or Customs by which they were governed among the places subject to the Danelege mentions Man the Orcades Gurth and the other Islands of the Western Ocean about or in the way towards Norway and Danemark within which we may well think Ireland to have been meant since the Isle of Man is one of the Islands there taken to be about bordering upon or in the Road to Norway and Denmark Tho the Confessor's Law places the Foundation of the Right of the Crown of England to Ireland in the acquisition of King Arthur it must be agreed that this was so antiquated and so many Changes had happened in the State of this Nation between his time and King Edgar's that he might well have no regard to any Right from King Arthur And however might suppose himself to have been the first of the Anglo-Saxon Kings who had subjected Ireland or the greatest part of it to the Crown of England which that he did we have the Testimony of his memorable Charter Ego Eadgarus Anglorum Basilius omniumque Regum insularum quae Britanniam circumjacent cunctarumque nationum quae infra eam includuntur Imperator Dominus Gratias ago Deo Omnipotenti Regi meo qui meum Imperium sic ampliavit exaltavit super Regnum patrum meorum qui licet Monarchiam totius Angliae adepti sunt à tempore Ayelstani qui primus Regum Anglorum Nationes quae Britanniam incolunt sibi armis subegit nullus tamen eorum ultra ejus fines Imperium suum dilatare aggressus est Mihi autem concessit propitia divinitas cum Anglorum imperio omnia Regna Insularum Oceani cum suis ferocissimis Regulis usque Norvegiam maximamque partem Hiberniae cum suâ nobilissimâ civitate Dubliniâ Anglorum regno subjacere Quos etiam Armis meis imperiis colla subdere Dei juvante gratiâ coegi I Edgar King of the English and Emperor and Lord of all the Kings of the Islands which lie about Britain and of all Nations that are included within it give Thanks to God Almighty my King who hath so inlarged and exalted my Kingdom above the Kingdom of my Ancestors who altho they had gain'd the Monarchy of all England from the time of King Athelstan who was the first of the Kings of the English that brought under him by Arms the Nations which inhabit Britain yet none of them attempted to stretch his Empire beyond its bounds But the propitious Divinity has granted me with the Empire of the English to put under the Dominion of the English all the Kingdoms of the Isles of the Ocean with their fiercest little Kings as far as Norway and the greatest part of Ireland with its most noble City Dublin Even all those by the help of God's Grace I have compell'd to submit their Necks to my Commands From this time 't will be evident to any who observe the stiles of our Kings till H. II's time that the Authority of England over Ireland was taken to be included under the stile of King of the English Saxons of Britain of the Island of Albion or the like not but that for several Reigns before the time of H. II. Parliaments in which the King's Charters pass'd were often careful to have the stile more expressive of the Title to the Dominions out of England For instances of both kinds Edgar after the Charter above cited stiles himself Basileus dilectae Insulae Albionis subditis nobis sceptris Regum Scottorum Cumbrorumque ac Britonum omnium circumcirca Regionum King of the Beloved Island of Albion the Scepters of the Kings of the Scots the Cumbers and the Britons being subject to us and of all the Regions round about In another Basileus Anglorum Imperator Regum Gentium King of the English and Emperor of the Kings of Nations After this King Ethelred stiles himself sometimes Ego Adelred totius Albionis Monarchiam gubernans I Athelred governing the Monarchy of all Albion Subscribes Rex Anglorum King of the English Sometimes Ego Athelred totius Britanniae Basileus I Athelred King of all Britain Sometimes Ego Ethelred Britanniae totius Anglorum Monarchus I Ethelred Monarch of all the Britain of the English Sometimes Ego Ethelred totius Insulae I Ethelred King of the whole Island Subscribes Rex Rector Angulsexna King and Ruler of the Anglo-Saxons That Ireland and other Kingdoms and Dominions were included within this stile will appear by other Charters of the same King Thus he stiles himself Totius Anglorum Gentis Basileos caeterarumque Nationum in circuitu persistentium primatum gerens King of all the English Nation and having the Supremacy over the other Nations living round about At another time he stiles