The Humble ADDRESS Of the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliament Assembled.

WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled, being according to our Duty ever Solicitous for the Pre∣servation and Increase of the Trade of this Kingdom, on which the Support of Your Majesties Greatness and Honour so much depends, as well as the Security and Defence of Your People, have been very Apprehensive, That the Steps lately made towards a Settlement of Your Subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland at Darien, may tend to the great Prejudice of this Na∣tion, and possibly to the Disturbance of that Peace and good Correspondence with the Crown of Spain, which we conceive is ve∣ry. Advantagious to us all: We have therefore taken the same into our serious Consideration, as a Matter of the greatest Importance, and proper to be laid before Your Majesty, as the Common Father of both Countreys. And as we are truly sensible of the great Losses our Neighbour Kingdom hath sustained, both of Men and Trea∣sure, in their Expeditions to that Place, which we very heartily la∣ment, so we should not Endeavour, by any Interposition of ours, to Defeat the Hopes they may still Entertain of Recovering those Losses by their further Engaging in that Design, But that we judge such a Prosecution on their Parts must end not only in far greater Disappointments to themselves, but at the same time prove very Inconvenient to the Trade and Quiet of this Kingdom.

On this Occasion we humbly presume to put Your Majesty in mind of the Address of both Houses of Parliament, Presented to Your Majesty on the Seventeenth Day of December, 1695. In the Close of which Address Your Majesty will see the Unanimous Sense of this Kingdom in relation to any Settlement the Scots might make in the West Indies, by Virtue of an Act of Parliament past about that time in the Kingdom of Scotland, which was the Occasion of the said Address.

And we humbly Represent to Your Majesty, That having re∣ceived Information of some Orders Your Majesty had sent to the Governors of the Plantations on this Subject, this House did on the Page  4Eighteenth of January last, come to this Resolution, That Your Ma∣jesties Pleasure Signified to the Governors of the Plantations, in rela∣tion to the Scotch-Settlement at Darien, was agreeable to the Ad∣dress of both Houses of Parliament Presented to Your Majesty on the Seventeenth of December, 1695.

And on the Eighth Day of this Instant February, this House came to this further Resolution, That the Settlement of the Scotch-Colo∣ny at Darien is Inconsistent with the good of the Plantation-Trade of this Kingdom.

All which we humbly hope Your Majesty will take into Your Royal Consideration; and we are Confident that Your Majesty cannot be thought too Partial to the Address of this House, if Your Majesty shall in the first Place Consider the Advantage and Good of the Trade of this Kingdom, by the Preservation and Improvement of which, both these Kingdoms, and all Your other Dominions, must on all Occasions Principally be Defended.