I Sent forth My Pro­clamation that there might be a good Ap­pearance at this Meeting, having most confidence in full Houses, where the well-being of the Church, and all o­ther Interests of the Crown and Na­tion are best secured.

When we last met, I asked you a Sup­ply, and I ask it now again with greater Instance: the uneasiness and straightness of my Affairs cannot continue with­out very ill Effects to the whole King­dom: Consider this seriously and speedi­ly; it is yours and the Kingdoms Inte­rest as well as Mine; and the ill Conse­quence of a want of an effectual Supply must not lie at my Door: And that no misapprehensions or mistakes touching the Expences of the last War may re­main with you, I think fit to let you know, that I have fully informed My self in that Matter, and do affirm to you, That no part of those Moneys that you gave Me for that War, have been diverted to other uses; but on the con­trary, besides all those Supplies, a very great Summe hath been raised out of My standing Revenue and Credit, and a very great Debt contracted, and all for the War.

One Thing I must earnestly recom­mend to the Prudence of both Houses, that you will not suffer any occasion of Difference between your selves to be revived; since nothing but the Ʋnity [Page 5] of your Minds and Counsels, can make this Meeting happy either to Me or to the Nation.

I did recommend to you at Our last Meeting, the Ʋnion of the Two King­doms, and I did the same to My Par­liament in Scotland, they have made a great step towards it; and I do again se­riously recommend that Matter to you.

I have directed My Lord Keeper to speak more at large to you.

AT your last meeting, His Majesty did acquaint you with the great occasions He had for a Supply, and that He had forborn to ask it sooner, more in consideration of gi­ving some time, for the ease of the peo­ple after the burden of the War: then that the condition of His Affairs could so long have wanted it: And His Majesty hath Commanded me now, to speak more fully and plainly upon this Subject.

His Majesty hath not only by His Ministers, but in His own Royal Per­son examined the Accompts, touching the Expences of the last War, and hath thought Himself concerned to let you know, That all the Supplies which you gave Him for the War, have been [Page 8] by Him applyed to the War, and no part of them to any other uses: Nay so far from it, that if the Preparations towards the War, shall be taken to be for the use of the War, as they must be: A great part of His own Reve­nue, to many Hundred thousands of pounds hath been employed also, and swallowed up in the Charges of the War, and what did necessarily relate to it: To which may be added the great Debts Contracted by His Majesty in the War, and the great Charge in the Repairs of the Hulls of His Ships, and putting His Navy into such a conditi­on; as it was before.

Besides, His Majesty thinks it ought: to be considered, That when the Charges of the War were at the highest, the inevitable effects of it and those other calamities, which it pleased God at that time to bring up­on us, did make so great a diminu­tion in His Revenues, that besides all other accidents and disadvantages the loss that He sustained in Three Branches of His Revenues: In His Customs, Excise, and Hearth-money, [Page 9] by reason of the War, the Plague, and the Fire, did amount to little les [...] then Six hundred thousand pounds.

Thus you see, That though your Supplies have been great, yet the Charges occasioned by the War, and the Calamities which accompanied it, have been greater: And that the Debt which is left upon His Majesty and which He complains of, hath been contracted by the War, and not by the diversion of the Moneys designed for it.

His Majesty hath Commanded me to say one thing more to you upon this Subject, That He did not enter into this War upon any private inclinati­on or appetite of His own: The first step He made towards it, did arise from your Advice, and the Promises of your Assistance; But if the Charge [...] and Accidents of the War, have out­gone all your Supplies, and left Him under the burden of this Debt, He thinks that as well the Justice to your Promise, as the Duty and Loyalty you have always shewed Him, will ob­lige you to relieve Him from it: And [Page 10] the rather, when you shall seriously consider, how uneasie this burden must be to Him, and what ill conse­quences the continuance under it mu [...] draw upon all His Affairs: In which particular, you, and every person yo [...] represent in this Nation, will be con­cerned, as well as Himself.

His Majesty doth therefore Com­mand me in His Name, to desire you once more, and to conjure you, by that constant Duty and Loyalty which you have always expressed to Him, and by all the concernment you have, for the Support of the Honour and Safety of His Government, to provide such a Supply for Him at this time, as may bear proportion to the pressing Occasi­ons that He hath, and to the state of Hi [...] Affairs at home and abroad: And so speedily, And so effectually, as may answer the ends for which He hath desired it.

His Majesty hath further Command­ed me to put you in mind of what was at your last meeting proposed to you, concerning an Union between the two Kingdoms, and to let you know, [Page 11] That the Parliament of Scotland hath since declared to His Majesty, That such Commissioners as His Majesty shall name, shall be Authorized on their part, to treat with Commissioners for this Kingdom, upon the Grounds and Conditions of the Union: His Majesty therefore thought fit now again to recommend it to you, to take that matter effectually into your Consideration.