THe Lords of His Majesties most Honorable Privy-Coun­cell, and the Commissioners for conserving of the Peace, according to the great trust reposed on them by His Ma­jesty and the Estates of Par­liament, whereof they are to make account to God and His Majesty the next ensuing Par­liament, Taking to their deepest and most serious con­sideration the best wayes of preserving the peace of this Kingdom, That all His Majesties good and duti­full Subjects may enjoy their Religion, Liberties, and Laws, which GOD in a singular and wonderfull providence in the time of His Majesties Raign hath vouchsafed them, And of the peace betwixt the two Kingdoms so unanimously and happily established in the late Treaty of peace, and in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms, Have faithfully endeavoured by all good means to reduce IRELAND to His Maje­sties obedience, which through the unnaturall, barba­rous, and Antichristian cruelty of Papists, is from a peaceable Kingdom turned into a stage of unexampled and unexpressible miseries, to be looked upon as an hor­rid and dangerous example by this Kingdom, And by their earnest supplications to His Majestie, and their [Page 4]Declarations to the Parliament of England, but espe­cially by their earnest desires for establishing Unity of Religion, and Uniformity of Kirk-government, and for disbanding all Papists in Arms within their Domi­nions, and by the humble offer of their meditation to remove the unhappy differences, and quench the fire of a wasting Warre, begun betwixt His Majesty and His Subjects of England, wherein His Majesties sacred Person is exposed to so great danger, and so many thou­sands of His Subjects have already perished: But find­ing to their great grief the successe no way answerable to their endeavours and expectation, and the trouble of the neighbouring Kingdoms, and the dangers of this Kingdom daily arising to a greater height, then they by their care, counsell, and diligence, were able to remeid or obviate, they did resolve for this and other causes, which exercise and heavily presse the Kingdom at this time, to call a convention of the Estates, as the only meane (His Majesty not thinking fit to hearken unto their motion of calling a Parliament) which might by common counsell, consent and resolution, take the best course for representing yet more sensibly these manifold evils and dangers, and for over-coming by greater wisdom the difficulties which were above their power.

In the mean while (which they cannot but attribute to the mercifull and marveilous Providence of GOD, and which is a confirmation to them of their resoluti­on in calling a convention, and layeth the greater necessity upon the Estates, to meet the more willingly and frequently) a treacherous and damnable Plot of the Irish, English, and Scottish Papists, is begun to be dis­covered, by the unexpected apprehending of the Earl of Antrim coming from York, where he had keeped his [Page 5]meetings and correspondence by Letters, with certaine Popish Lords his confederates, and amongst others, with the Earl of Nithisdail and Vicount of Aboyne, Their de­villish designs and devices are come to light, & brought to our knowledge, partly by Letters from Ireland, shewing the deposition and confession of a servant of the Earle of Antrims, and partly by Letters which were found in the Earle his own pockets, all sent to them from Ireland: His servant who was hanged at Carricke-Fergus the [...] day of May, deponed (as the Letters beare) before and at the time of his death, that the designe was to reconcile the English and Irish in Ireland, that they by their joynt power, having expel­led the Scots, the Irish Forces there might bee sent a­gainst the Parliament of England, to deale with some fit instrument there, by all their strength to surprize the Isles and the High-Lands, and to depopulate and waste so much of this Kingdome as their power could extend unto, being assured of the like dealing in the North, by the Papists and their assistance there, And to have a Ma­gazine at Carlile for twenty thousand men, to fall in with an hostility upon the south parts of this Kingdom. The Letters sent from Nithisdail and Aboyne, all written and subscribed by their hands to the Earl of Antrim, and found with him, although in some things covertly writ­ten, do carry thus much expresly, that for furtherance of the designe & point resolv'd on, there was assistance assu­red from the Iles, & from the North, & south of Scot­land, th [...]t Ammunition and Arms, without which they thinke their service uselesse, were appointed to be sent to the North, and other parts of this Kingdom, And that Popish Officers were commanded, and had undertaken to go into Scotland; of which we are informed, some are already gone to the North, for stopping, and dis­appointing [Page 6]so far as may be for the present (till the same divine providence make a more full discovery) the at­tempts and devices of this unnaturall and bloudy con­federacie and conjuration. As the Lords of his Maje­sties Privy Councell have given order that Nithisdail and Aboyne be cited, and criminally pursued of high Treason, and have made the same as a matter of pub­lick and most high importance knowne to his Majestie, and to the Parliament of England; so they and the Com­missioners of Peace also, for acquitting themselves in their trust, and for the safety of the Kingdom, do make the same publickly known to al his Majesties good sub­jects, that being forewarned of their danger, they may be upon their guards, and prepared against forraigne in­vasion and intestine plots and insurrection: And especi­ally, that the Noble men, Commissioners of Shires, and Burrows, perceiving greater and more apparent ne­cessity of the approaching convention then they could have wished or expected, May at the day formerly ap­pointed, meet in such celerity, and with such publicke affection and disposition of heart, as the present condi­tion of affairs doth require, and call for at their hands, and as beseemeth the lovers of their Religion, King, and Countrey, which are in so great danger, from pa­pists, Atheists, and other degenerated country men, who are no lesse inraged against this Kingdome, even since the late Reformation of this Kirke, then were their predecessours at the first reformation of Religion, when their negotiating was so restlesse, and their attempts so many, and malicious against the work of God in this Land: nor is it to be past without observation, that while His Majesty is making a publick Declaration of his in­tentions to defend and maintaine the Religion, Rights and Liberties of this Kingdom, according to the laws, [Page 7]civill and ecclesiastick, The Papists are conspiring, plotting, and practising against the Religion, Rights, and Liberties established, and against the lives of His Majesties good Subjects; whereby they do really mani­fest to the world what the Kings Majesty against His Declarations, and His Subjects against their confidence grounded thereupon, may looke for from their ma­lice and power, if they shall continue in Armes, and (which God forbid) if they shall prevail in the end. And whereas the Lords of Councel are informed, that the late Act of Councel for publishing his Majesties Decla­ration is mistaken by sundry, as a Declaration of their own judgement, concerning the proceedings of another Kingdom; For preventing of this mistake, They thinke fit to remember and declare according to the act of Councel in Ianuary last, shewing that their Lordships giving warrant to print any paper comming from His Majestie, or Parliament of England, did not import their approbation of the contents thereof: That they did on the first of Iune, both remember the famine, & expresse their intention in this publication to be farre from taking on them to judge of the proceedings of the Parliament of another Kingdom; but only to thanke his Majesty for His gracious expressions towards the preservation of the Rights and Liberties of this Kingdome: And ordaines this to be printed and published at the Market Crosse of Edinburgh, and all other Burghs within this Kingdom, for the information of his Majesties Subjects within the same.