of his stile of Lord of Ireland in imposing Laws and a King upon ' em And I would gladly know what Irish Laws and Customs he swore to maintain Tho therefore I am as avers to the common Notions of Conquest as this Gentleman especially to the supposition that God in giving one Prince a Conquest over another THEREBY puts one in possession of the others Dominions and makes the other's Subjects become his Subjects or his Slaves as they come in upon conditions or at the will of the Conqueror Yet I must desire Mr. M. to explain those Acts of Parliament made in Ireland which not only seem to import that the Crown and Kingdom of England had made an absolute acquisition of the Land of Ireland but use that scurvy word Conquest An Act 28 H. 8. recites That the King's Land of Ireland heretofore being inhabired and in dâ—e obedience unto the King 's most noble Progenitors Kings of England who in the right of the Crown of England had great Possessions Rents and Profits within the same Land had grown into great ruin and desolation for that great Dominions Lands and Possessions had by the King's Grants course of Descents and otherwise come to Noblemen of England by whose negligence the wild Irish got into possession the Conquest and winning whereof in the beginning not only cost the King 's noble Progenitors but also those to whom the Lands belong'd charges inestimable and tho the King's English Subjects had valiantly opposed the Irish yet upon their absenting themselves again out of Ireland the Natives from time to time usurped and encroached upon the King's Dominions and particularly that the Earl of Kildare with his accomplices endeavour'd to take the Land of Ireland out of the King's possession and his Heirs thereof for ever to disherit For these and divers other hurts and enormities like to ensue to the Commonweal of the Island in respect of the inestimable Charges which the King had sustained and apparently had occasion to sustain for and about the conquest and recontinuance of the same out of his Enemies possession tho the King had right to all the Lands and Possessions there referr'd to and tho he might justly insist upon the Arrears of two parts of the Land of those who had absented themselves which might amount to more than the purchase of 'em it vests in the King and his Heirs as in the Right of the Crown of England only the Lands of some particular persons The Stature of the Queen attainting Shane Oneile speaks of populous rich and well-govern'd Regions wealthy Subjects beautiful Cities and Towns of which the Imperial Crown of England had before that time been conveniently furnished within the Realm of Ireland which after being lost had been recontinued to the Queen 's quiet possession But the Rebel Shane Oneile refusing the name of a Subject and taking upon him as it were the Office of a Prince had enterprized great Stirs Insurrections and horrible Treasons against her Majesty her Crown and Dignity imagining to deprive her Highness her Heirs and Successors from the real and actual possession of her Kingdom of Ireland her true just and ancient Inheritance to her by sundry Descents and authentick strong Titles rightfully and lawfully devolved And having mention'd a Title from Gurmond the Son of Belin King of Great Britain says Another Title is as the Clerk Giraldus Cambrensis writeth at large of the History of the Conquest of Ireland by King H. 2. your famous Progenitor The Title to the Land then recognized was abundantly strengthned and confirmed by Irish Parliaments in the time of J. 1. and since In the Act of Recognition to J. 1. they tell him of his having quench'd the most dangerous and universal Rebellion that ever was rais'd in that Kingdom in the suppressing whereof the unreform'd parts of the Land which being rul'd by Irish Lords and Customs had never before receiv'd the Laws and civil Government of England were so broken and reduced to Obedience that all the Inhabitants thereof did gladly submit themselves to his Highness's ordinary Laws and Magistrates which gave unto his Majesty a more entire absolute and actual possession than ever any of his Progenitors had All Ireland being thus brought into subjection to the Crown and Laws of England K. James taking notice of Laws which had been made after the Conquest of that Realm by his Progenitors Kings of England to keep up the distinction between the English and the Natives of the Irish Blood that he had then taken 'em all into his protection and that they lived under one Law as dutiful Subjects of their Sovereign Lord and Monarch repeals those dividing Laws After this the Irish Parliament granted C. 1. four Subsidies rightly considering the vast and almost infinite expence of Men Mony Victuals and Arms sent out of England thither by the King and his Royal Progenitors for reducing that Kingdom into the happy condition wherein it then stood And sutably to the import of the word Conquest Acts of Parliament of that Kingdom in the Reign of that King shew that the Titles to Lands of the English Plantation or which they from time to time gain'd from the Irish were enjoy'd by Grants from the Crown and for securing the Estates to Vndertakers Servitors Natives and others all the Lands in several Counties commonly call'd Plantation Lands were vested in the King his Heirs and Successors in right of the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland The Stat. 14 15 C. 2. holds the Irish Rebels to be subdued and conquer'd Enemies and therefore vests all their Lands in the Crown of England in order to make satisfaction to the Protestant Adventurers for the reducing that Kingdom to its due obedience and to enable the Crown to extend Grace to such as should be held deserving of it Reprisals being first made to the Protestant Proprietors Tho therefore I am far from admiring the Lord Coke's reasoning in Calvin's Case I may here subjoin part of Mr. M's reflection upon him and refer him to the Irish Acts of Parliament to qualify his Censure of the Ld Coke's restriction of the Opinion in the Year-book 2 R. 2. that the Irish are not bound by Statutes made in England because they have no Knights of Parliament here which says the Lord Coke is to be understood unless they be specially named To this assertion Mr. Molineux admits he gives colour of reason by saying That tho Ireland be a distinct Dominion from England yet the Title thereof being by Conquest the same by Judgment of Law might by express words be bound by the Parliaments of England To confound the Lord Coke I would fain know says this Gentleman what the Lord Coke means by Judgment of Law Whether he means the Law of Nature and Reason or of Nations or the Civil Laws of our Common-wealths For answer to which I need at present only
Parliaments of its own as free and independent as England or that it should be governed by the Laws made and to be made by England Mr. Molineux confesses that H. II. within five years after his Return from Ireland created his younger Son John King of Ireland at a Parliament held at Oxford he might have learn'd from the same Authority that in that Parliament he not only disposed of several petty Kingdoms there to hold of him and John his Son but Hoveden has these words which comprehend Lands as well as Governments Postquam autem Dominus Rex apud Oxenford in praedicto modo terras Hiberniae earum servitia divisisset fecit omnes quibus earundem custodias commisserat homines suos Johannis filii sui devenire But after the Lord the King had at Oxford in manner aforesaid divided the Lands of Ireland and their Services he caused all those to whom he had committed the Custody of them to do homage to him and his Son John to swear Allegiance and Fidelity to them Bromton says Apud Oxoniam idem Rex Angliae Johannem filium snum coram Episc regni sui Princip Regem Hiberniae constituit Et postea fecit quosdam familiares suos sibi Johanni filio suo ligantias fidelitates homagia contra omnes homines facere jurare Quibus terras Hiberniae dedit distribuit in hunc modum c. At Oxford the said King constituted his Son John King of Ireland before the Bishops and Princes of his Kingdom And afterwards he made some of his Courtiers to do and swear Allegiance Fidelity and Homage to himself and his Son John against all men To whom he gave and distributed the Lands of Ireland in this manner c. If what the King did in a Parliament was a Parliamentary Act here was an Act of the English Parliament which by Mr. Molineux's Confession impos'd a King upon Ireland to whom they had not sworn any otherwise than as they swore to submit to the English Laws and he should have observed that herein according to his own inference of the making Ireland a separate Kingdom the English Parliament undertook to discharge the Oath which the Irish had taken to be true to H. 2. and his Heirs and sutably to the Legislative Authority over Ireland in this Particular the same Parliament at Oxford disposed of and distributed the Lands of Ireland without expecting any Ratification from thence Here 's a Parliamentary and cotemporary Exposition of what this Gentleman calls the Original Compact between England and Ireland I must agree tho he has not observ'd it that notwithstanding H. Il's Acquisition in Ireland an Irish Native had quiet possession of a Kingdom which he seem'd to claim as chief King over the Irish This was Roderic King of Connaught who upon paying his Tribute and performing his appointed Service was according to Hoveden to hold his Land as he held it before H. II. enter'd Ireland which could not be true in a strict sense unless he were dependent upon the Crown of England before and however this was a Grant after a more absolute Acquisition and three years after Girald holds as do the Irish Statutes that he had conquer'd the whole Land of Ireland Abbat Benedict an Author of that time to be seen in the Cotton Library speaking of H. II. says Concedit Roderico ligio suo Regi Conautae quamdiu ei fideliter serviet ut sit Rex sub eo paratus ad servitium suum salvo in omnibus jure honore Domini Regis Angliae suo He grants to Roderic his Leige-man King of Connaught that as long as he faithfully served him he should be a King under him ready for his Service saving in all things the Right and Honour of the Lord the King of England and his As it appears by Record by the 7 th of King John the King of Connaught had two thirds duly taken from him for not performing his Service or else he never had more than a third of that Kingdom granted for then he acknowledged that he held a 3 d part in the name of a Barony and for the other two thirds proffers the King Duos Cantredos cum Nativis eorundem Cantredorum de praedictis duabus partibus ad firmandum in eis vel faciendum inde voluntatem suam Two Cantreds with the Natives of those Cantreds to let 'em to farm or to do with them what he pleased Thus I take it his Kingdom was as much dependent upon the Crown of England as any Barony in Ireland or England and as subject to Forfeiture And 't is probable that this King was the head of the O Conoghors of Connaught who are 3 E. 2. admitted to be entituled to the English Law But tho the Law of England was not current beyond the English Pale or those Cantreds and Divisions of Irish who continued under Obedience to the English yet the Crown of England has from very antient times not only laid claim to the Lordship over the whole Land of Ireland but their Parliaments have recognized this Right more than once Mr. M. if he had pleased might have found that Acts of Parliament made in Ireland lay a much earlier Foundation of the Right of the Crown of England to the Land of Ireland even than our Confessor's Law does A Statute made in Ireland 1 Eliz among sundry Titles which the antient Chronicles in the Latin English and Irish Tongues alledge for the Kings of England to the Land of Ireland derives one from Gormond Son of Belin King of Great Britain This King our Historians call Gurgunstus and is said to have reign'd in Great Britain 375 years before the Christian Aerd Grafton agreeing with the Irish Statute tells us that in his return from Denmark he met with a Fleet of Spaniards which were seeking for Habitations to whom the King granted the Isle of Ireland to inhabit and to hold of him as their Sovereign Lord. The Statute made in Ireland 13 C. 2. recognizing his Title has these words Recognitions of this nature may seem unnecessary where your Majesty's Title to this your Realm is so clear as that it is avowed in sundry Acts of Parliament heretofore made within this Kingdom in the times of your Majesty's Royal Progenitors of famous memory and SO ANTIENT AS IT IS DEDUCED NOT ONLY FROM THE DAYS OF KING H. 2. your Majesty 's Royal Ancestor BUT FROM TIMES FAR MORE ANTIENT AS BY SUNDRY AUTHENTICK EVIDENCES MENTIONED IN THE SAID ACTS AND RECORDS OF THIS YOUR MAJESTY'S KINGDOM MAY EVIDENTLY APPEAR Since Mr. Molineux allows Acts of Parliament made in Ireland to have full Authority I hope he will confess that he has given a very imperfect and undue account how Ireland became a Kingdom annexed to the Crown of England and thus not here to observe that he need not have gone
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
to be Governed and an assurance that they should have no Laws imposed upon them in any other manner than upon such of the English here as had no Votes in the making Laws But one end at least of the sending over that Charter must needs have been suitable to the declared end of a Subsequent sending King John's Charter when the Justice of Ireland was required to Summon not only the Great Men but the Free-holders of every County who after the Laws had been read to them were to swear to the observance of them beside which they were to be Proclaim'd in the several Counties 5. Admit the Charter sent to Ireland 1. H. 3. had given the Irish Liberty to hold Parliaments with Representatives from all parts of that Land according to the English Form This Liberty was derived from a Convention of the States of the Kingdom of England or Parliament in the Minority of a King who had no Judgment of his own was under the Government of a Subject whom the States had set over him and the Kingdom and that King was manifestly Chosen by them to the setting aside Eleanor who had the Right of Descent as far as that could avail So that the King could have no pretence to the imaginary divine Right of Succession and therefore that Charter must have been derived from the Grant of the People of England And besides the Record shews that this tho' sent by the advice of all the King 's faithful People was thought to want some Formality to make it a Parliament the Assembly in which it was advised being held by a Regent may be thought to have occasioned the reference to a greater or more solemn Council However such reference shews that 't was not their Intention to be concluded by what was then done and when a Charter is afterwards sent over in full Form then there 's not a word of Concession but an absolute Command that the Laws be publish'd and obey'd However take the Charter sent them 1. H. 3. in the utmost extent imaginable 't is not to be thought that while the English Parliament gave those of the English Pale or others in Ireland Liberty to hold Parliaments they divested themselves of that Authority by which they gave such Liberty To use the Words of the great Man Grotius Se per modum legis id est per modum superioris obgare nemo potest Et hinc est quod legum Auctores habent jus leges suas mutandi Potest tamen quis obligari suâ lege non directè sâ—d per reflectionem ex aequitate naturali quae partes vult componi ad rationem integri No Man can bind himself by way of Law that is as a Supâ—rior And hence â—tis that Law-makers have Right to change their Laws Yet one may be bound by his own Law not directly but by reflexion from natural Equâ—ty which requires the parts to be compos'd with respect to the whole 6. Admit the Charter sent 1. H. 3. being by consent of the States of the Kingdom of England should be taken for an absolute departure from Power before vested in them then it ought to be taken Strictiâ—juris and to confer no Rright beyond what is express'd And therefore 1. The Men of Ireland had a Grant only of such Liberties as were sent them distinctly reduced into Writing And unless the usual Practice of sending over the Laws made here be taken to explain this or they shew the very Charter then sent 't is to be supposed that only such Liberties were Expressed and Granted them as were proper for an Appendage to the Crown of England 2. If all King John's Charter were sent them which I may well admit according to the explanation of the following usage unless they can prove as we can here that before that time they had Common Councils of all the Land of Ireland for all Matters of Publick concern and that the Maxim here had obtain'd there Those things which concern all ought to be treated of by all the only end of Common Councils of the Kingdom of England expressed in King John's Charter being in relation to the principal Grievance about the raising of Aids to the Crown the Grants to Ireland could extend no further than a Liberty to have such a Council for the raising Aids And there 's no doubt but more Money may be rais'd by such National Consent than can be in the most Arbitrary way which abates the force of the Argument from H. 3. his desiring the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons Knights Freemen Cities and Burroughs of the Land of Ireland to Aid him as much as they could with Men and Money And hence tho' 't would have been no breach of King John's Charter for the King to raise Aids of his Tenents in Chief for making his Eldest Son a Knight without calling for them to any Council that being one of the exceptions out of the Liberties expressed in that Charter yet H. 3. writ to the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons Knights and all his Freemen of the Land of Ireland intreating them to give him such an Aid 6. After all to shew how little there is in his mighty Argument from the Writ 1. H. 3. Let him take his choice either that the English in Ireland had a Parliament granted or confirmed to them by the Charter sent along with the Writ 1. H. 3. or they had not If they had then those Laws which were made here after such Establishment in pursuance of the desire of them from Ireland shew that neither the Parliaments of England nor they of Ireland thought they had any Power to make Laws there If there was no Grant or Confirmation of any Parliament there then the Concession of English Laws and Liberties was no more than a Declaration that they should be governed by the Laws made and to be made by Parliament in England or receiv'd there by the consent of the People giving Force and Authority to their own approved Customs But since after all Mr. M.'s learned Flourishes about the Setling of Parliaments in Ireland by the Modus sent over in the time of H. 2. and subsequent Grants he admits that under the 3 Kings H. 2. King John and H. 3. and their Predecessors we must repute them to have submitted to the Laws made here in those Reigns for want of a regular Legislature establish'd among them And since whatever he admits there 's no Colour of such an Establishment by the end of H. 3. Let 's see what can be found in the next Reign E. 1. having in his absence from England upon the Death of H. 3. his Father been Elected and Declared King of England in a full Convention of the States of this Kingdom in a Writ sent by those States to Ireland 't is affirm'd that the Government of England and the Dominion or Lordship of the Land of Ireland belonged to