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HIS MAJESTIES DECLARATIONS.
I. His MAJESTIES DECLARATION After the Votes of no further Address. Carisbrook, Jan. 18. MDCXLVII.
To all My People, of whatsoever Nation, Quality or Condition.
AM I thus laid aside? and must I not speak for My self? No: I will speak, and that to all My People, (which I would have rather done by the way of My two Houses of Parliament, but that there is a publick Order, neither to make Addresses to, or receive Messages from Me.) And who but you can be judge of the differences betwixt Me and My two Houses? I know none else: for I am sure you it is who will enjoy the Happiness, or feel the Misery of good or ill Government; and we all pretend who should run fastest to serve you, without having a regard (at least in the first place) to particular Interests. And there∣fore I desire you to consider the state I am and have been in this long time, and whe∣ther My Actions have more tended to the Publick or My own particular good. For who∣soever will look upon Me barely as I am a Man, without that liberty (which the mean∣est of My Subjects enjoys) of going whither and conversing with whom I will; as a Husband and Father, without the comfort of My Wife and Children; or lastly as a King, without the least shew of Authority or Power to protect My distressed Subjects; must conclude Me not onely void of all Natural Affection, but also to want common un∣derstanding, if I should not most cheerfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms. As also on the other side, do but consider the form and draught of the Bills lately presented unto Me, and as they are the Conditions of a Treaty, ye will conclude, that the same Spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all My sincere and con∣stant endeavours for Peace, hath had a powerful influence on this Message: For though I was ready to grant the substance, and comply with what they seem to desire; yet as they had framed it, I could not agree thereunto, without deeply wounding My Consci∣ence and Honour, and betraying the Trust reposed in Me, by abandoning My People to the Arbitrary and Unlimited Power of the two Houses for ever, for the levying and main∣taining of Land or Sea Forces, without distinction of quality or limitation for Money-Taxes. And if I could have passed them in terms, how unheard-of a Condition were it for a Treaty to grant beforehand the most considerable part of the subject matter? How ineffectual were that Debate like to prove, wherein the most potent Party had nothing of moment left to ask, and the other nothing more to give? so, consequently, how hope∣less of mutual compliance? without which a settlement is impossible. Besides, if after My Concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot de∣part, how desperate would the condition of these Kingdoms be, when the most proper and approved remedy should become ineffectual? Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience, Honour or Prudence, pass those four Bills; I onely endea∣voured to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denial appear to all the World, as they do to me, intending to give as little dis-satisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament (with∣out betraying My own Cause) as the matter would bear: I was desirous to give My Answer of the 28th of December last to the Commissioners sealed, (as I had done others heretofore, and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners) chiefly, because when My Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses, preju∣dicial interpretations were forced on them, much differing, and sometimes contrary to