The Humble ADDRESS Of the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual & Temporal In Parliament Assembled, Presented to HIS MAJESTY On Munday the Twelfth Day of February, 1699.
AND His Majesties MOST GRACIOUS ANSWER THEREUNTO.
LONDON, Printed by Charles Bill and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas'd, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty. 1699.
IT is Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled, That the Lord Chancellor of England, do give Order, That the Address of this House presented to His Majesty, and His Majesties most Gracious Answer thereunto, be forthwith Printed and Published.
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 Preservation 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 Nation, and possibly to the Disturbance of that Peace and good Correspondence with the Crown of Spain, which we conceive is very. 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 Treasure, in their Expeditions to that Place, which we very heartily lament, 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 received Information of some Orders Your Majesty had sent to the Governors of the Plantations on this Subject, this House did on the [Page 4]Eighteenth of January last, come to this Resolution, That Your Majesties Pleasure Signified to the Governors of the Plantations, in relation to the Scotch-Settlement at Darien, was agreeable to the Address 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-Colony 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.
His Majesties most Gracious Answer to the Address, was to this Effect:
His Majesty having Received a very Dutiful Address from the House of Peers, in relation to the Endeavours lately used by some of His Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland, towards making a Settlement at Darien, in which they humbly Represent to Him their Opinion, That such a Settlement is inconsistent with the Good of the Plantation-Trade of this Kingdom: Is Pleased to let the House know, That He will always have a very great Regard to their Opinion; and to Assure them, That He will never be Wanting by all Proper Means to Promote the Advantage and Good of the Trade of England. At the same time His Majesty is Pleased to Declare, That He cannot but have a great Concern and Tenderness for His Kingdom of Scotland, and a Desire to Advance their Welfare and Prosperity, and is very sensibly Touched with the Loss His Subjects of that Kingdom have sustained, by their late unhappy Expeditions in order to a Settlement at Darien. His Majesty does Apprehend, That Difficulties may too often arise with respect to the different Interests of Trade between His Two Kingdoms, unless some way be found out to Ʋnite them more nearly and compleatly: And therefore His Majesty takes this Opportunity of putting the House of Peers in mind of what He Recommended to His Parliament soon after His Accession to the Throne, That they would consider of a Ʋnion between the Two Kingdoms. His Majesty is of Opinion, That nothing would more contribute to the Security and Happiness of both Kingdoms; and is inclined to hope, That after they have lived near a Hundred Years under the same Head, some happy Expedient may be found for making them one People, in Case a Treaty were set on foot for that purpose; and therefore He does very earnestly Recommend this Matter to the Consideration of the House.