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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91207	A legal vindication of the liberties of England, against illegal taxes and pretended Acts of Parliament, lately enforced on the people: or, Reasons assigned by William Prynne of Swainswick in the county of Sommerset, esquire, why he can neither in conscience, law, nor prudence, submit to the new illegal tax or contribution of ninety thousand pounds the month; imposed on the kingdom by a pretended Act of some Commons in (or rather out of) Parliament, April 7 1649. (when this was first penned and printed,) nor to the one hundred thousand pound per mensem, newly laid upon England, Scotland and Ireland, Jan. 26. 1659 by a fragment of the old Commons House, ...	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1660 (1660)	Wing P3998; Thomason E772_4; ESTC R207282	74,956	90

House door above eight hours together the City-Guards there present nor the City relieving them by reason whereof the House was forced to Vote what that rude multitude would demand and then adjourned the House till the next morning After which the House rising the Speaker and many Members going out of the House they 3 forc'd them back again into the House Many of the Apprentices pressing in with them where they stood with their hats on their heads and compelled the Speaker to take the Chair and the House to vote in their presence what they pleased committing many other insolencies as is published by the Speaker of the House of Commons in his Declaration and is too well known by all then present and during the time of this execrable violence done by the said Apprentices 4 Westminster Hall and the Palace yard was fill'd with Reformadoes and other ill-affected persons designed to back them After this the Houses being adjourned till Friday following upon the Thursday the Apprentices printed and posted a paper in several places of the City requiring all their fellows to be early at the Parliament the next morning for that they intended to adjourn by seven of the clock and that for a Moneth Thus the Speakrs 5 with many of the Members of both Houses were driven away from the Parliament These things being seriously considered by us we have thought fit in the name of the Army to declare that all such Members of either House of Parliament as are already with the Army for the security of their persons and for the ends aforesaid are forced to absent themselves from Westminster that 5 we shall hold and esteem them as persons in whom the publick trust of the Kingdom is still remaining though they cannot for the present sit as a Parliament with freedom and safety at Westminster and by whose advice and counsels we desire to govern our selves in the managing these weighty affairs and to that end we * invite them to make repair to this Army to joyn with us in this great cause we being resolved and do hereby faithfully oblige our selves to stand by them therein and to live and die with them against all Opposition whatsoever And in particular we do hold our selves bound to own that honorable act of the Speaker of the House of Commons who upon the grounds he himself expressed in his Declaration sent unto us hath actually withdrawn himself and hereupon we do further 6 ingage to use our utmost speedy endeavours that he and those Members of either House that are thus inforced away from their attendance at Westminster may with freedom and security sit there and again discharge their trust as a free and a legal Parliament and in the mean time we do declare against that late choice of a new Speaker by some Gentlemen at Westminster as 7 contrary to all right Reason Law and Custom and we professs our selves to be 8 most clearly satisfied in all our Judgements and are also confident the Kingdom will herein concur with us that as things now stand there is no free nor legal Parliament sitting being through the aforesaid violence at present suspended And 9 that the Drders Votes or Resolutions forced from the Houses on Monday the 26. of July last as also all such as shall passe in this Assembly of some few Lords and Gentlemen at Westminster under what pretence and colour soever are unto and null and ought Hot to be submitted unto by the free-born Subjects of England And that we may prevent that slavery designed upon us and the Nation that the Kingdom may be restored to a happy State of a visible Government now eclipsed and darkened we hold our selves bound by our duty to God and the Kingdom to bring to condign punishment the Authors and Promoters of that * unparalleld violence done to the Parliament and in that to all the free-born Subjects of England that are or hereafter shall be and therefore we are resolved to march up towards London where we do expect that the well-affected people of that City will deliver up unto us or otherwise put into safe Custody so as they may be reserved to a legal Trial the 10 eleven impeached Members that have again thrust themselves into the management of publick affairs by this wicked design And that all others will give us such assistance therein 11 that the Members of both Houses may receive due incouragement to return to Westminster there to sit with all freedom and so to perform their trust as shall condues to the settlement of this distracted Kingdom and to inflict such punishments upon these late Offenders as shall deter any for the future to make the like attempt Our lives have not been dear unto us for the publick good and being now resolved by the assistance of God to 12 bring these Delinquents to their deserved punishments as that than which there cannot be any thing of more publick concernment to the Kingdom we trust if it shall come to that our bloud shall not be accounted too dear a price for the accomplishment of it And if any in the City will ingage themselves against us to protect these Persons and so put the Kingdom again into a new and miserable War The bloud must be laid to the account of such persons as are the Authors thereof It is our chief aim to settle Peace with Truth and Righteousnesse throughout the Kingdom that none may be oppressed in his just freedom and Liberties 13 much lesse the Parliament it self which things being duly setled we shall be as ready also to assure unto the King his just Rights and Authority as any that pretend it never so much for the better upholding of an ill cause and the countenance of tumultuous violence against the Parliament the which our honest just and necessary undertakings as we are resolved to pursue with the utmost hazzard of our lives and fortunes so we doubt not but we shall find Gods accustomed goodnesse and assistance with us therein till we have brought them to a good and happy conclusion for this poor distracted languishing Kingdom 5ly By the Ordinance of both Houses eagerly promoted by all the fugitive Members engaging with the Army and now sitting as well as others remaining who condemned and passed Votes against the Apprentiees tumult during their absence and never countenanced it in the least degree as * some scandalously and falsly suggest Die Veneris 20 Aug. 1647. An Ordinance for declaring all Votes Orders and Ordinances passed in One or Both Houses since the force on Both Houses July 26. until the 6. of this present August 1647. to be Null and Voyd WHereas there was a visible horrid insolent and actual Force upon the Parliament on Monday the 26. of July last Whereupon the Speakers and * many Members of Both Houses of Parliament were forced to absent themselves from the

them and so be a skreen betwixt them and the people with the name of a Parliament and the shadow and imperfect image of Legal and Just Authority to pick their pockets for them by Assesements and Taxations and by their arbitrary and tyrannical Courts and Committees the best of which is now become a perfect Star-chamber High Commission and Councel-board make them their perfect slaves and vessals With much more to this purpose If then their principal admirers who confederated with the Army and those now sitting in all their late proceedings and cryed them up most of any as the Parliament and Supreme Authority of England before at and since the late force upon the House and its violent purgation do thus in print professedly disclaim them for being any real Parliament or House of Commons to make Acts or impose Taxes upon the people or set up High Courts of Justice to try and condemn the King or any Peers or English Preemen the secluded Lord Members Presbyterians Royalists and all others have much more cause and ground to disavow and oppose their usurped Parliamentary authority and illegal Taxes Acts as not made by any true English Parliament but a mock-Mock-Parliament only Fourthly He therein further avets f f Pag. 52. 53. 56. 57. 58. 59. That the death of the King in Law indisputably dissolves this Parliament ipso facto though it had been all the time before never so intire and unquestionable to that very hour That no Necessity can be pretended for the continuance of it the rather because the men that would have it continue so long as they please are those who have created these necessities on purpose that by the colour thereof they may make themselves great and potent That the main end wherfore the Members of the Commons house were chosen and sent thither was To treat and confer with King Charles and the House of Peers about the great Affairs of the Nation c. And therefore are but a third part ot third estate of that Parliament to which they were to come and joyn with and who were legally to make permanent and binding Laws for the people of the Nation And therefore having taken away two of the three Estates that they were chosen on purpose to joyn with to make Laws the end both in reason and law of the peoples trust is ceased for a Minor joyned with a Major for one and the same end cannot play Lord paramount over the Major and then do what it please no more can the Minor of a Major viz. one Estate of three legally or justly destroy two of three without their own assent c. That the House of Commons sitting freely within its limited time in all its splendor of glory without the awe of armed men neither in Law nor in the intention of their Choosers were a Parliament and therefore of themselves alone have no pretence in Law to alter the constitution of Parliaments c. concluding thus For shame let no man be so audaciously or sottishly voyd of Reason as to call Tho. Prides pittiful Juncto A PARLIAMENT especially those that called avowed protested and declared again and again those TO BE NONE that sate at Westminster the 26 27 c. of July 1647. when a few of their Members were scared away to the Army by a few hours tumult of a company of a few disorderly Apprentices And being no representative of the People much less A PARLIAMENT what pretence of Law Reason Justice or Nature can there be for you to alter the constitution of Parliaments and force upon the people the shew of their own Wills lusts and pleasures for laws and Rules of Government made by a PRETENDED EVERLASTING NULLED PARLIAMENT a Councel of State or Star-Chamber and a Councel of War or rather by Fairfax Cromwel and Ireton Now if their own late confederates and creatures argue thus in print against their being and continuing a Parliament their Jurisdiction Proceedings Taxes and arbitrary pleasures should not all others much more do it and joyntly and magnanimously oppose them to the utmost upon the self-same grounds for their own and the publick ease Liberty Safety Settlement and restoring the Rights Priviledges Freedome Splendor of our true English Parliaments Fifthly He there likewise affirms g g P. 53. 54. 59. 41. that those now fiting at Westminster have perverted the ends of their trusts more then ever Strafford did 1. In not ceasing the people of but encreasing their grievances 2. In exhausting their estates to maintain and promote pernicious Designes to the peoples destruction The King did it by a little Shipmony and Monopolies but since they began they have raised and extorted more mony from the People and Nation then half nay all the Kings since the Conquest ever did as particularly 1 By Excise 2 Contributions 3 Sequestrations of lands to an infinite value 4 Fist part 5 Twentyeth part 6 Meal-mony 7 Sale of plundered good 8 Loanes 9 Benevolences 10 Collections upon their fast days 11 New imposittions or customes upon Merchandize 12 Guards maintained upon the charge of private men 13 Fifty Subsidies at one time 14 Compositions with Delinquents to an infinite value 15 Sale of Bishops lands 16 Sale of Dean and Chapters lands and now after the wars are done 17 Sale of Kings Queens Princes Dukes and the rest of the Childrens revenues 18 Sale of their rich goods which cost an infinite sum 19 to conclude all a Taxation of ninety thousand pounds a moneth since that of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a Moneth and lately of a whole years Tax within three moneths and now of one hundred thousand pound a a moneth for the same six moneths they have payed their Taxes besides Excise Customes Frequent new intollerable Militiaes Payments to increased swa●ms of poor sequestrations Highway money and other charges now all Trade is utterly lost and the three Kingdomes beggar'd and undone and when they have gathered it pretendingly for the Common-wealths use divide it by thousands and ten thousands a piece amongst themselves and wipe their mouths after it like the impudent Harlot as though they had done no evill and then purchase with it publick Lands at smal or trivial values O brave Trustees that have Protested before God and the world again and again in the day of their straits they would never seek themselves and yet besides all this divide all the choicest and profitablest Places of the Kingdome among themselves Therefore when I seriously consider how many in Parliament and elsewhere of their Associates that judge themselves the onely Saints and Godly men upon the earth that have considerable and some of them vast estates of their own inheritance and yet take five hundred one two three four five thousand pounds per annum Salaries and other comings in by their places and that out of the too much exhausted Treasury of the Nation when thousands not onely of the people of the world as they call them but also

service of the Parliament And whereas those Members of the House could not return to sit in safety before Friday the 6. of August It is therefore declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled that the Ordinance of Monday the said 26. of July for the repealing and making void of the Ordinance of the 23. of the said July for the setling of the Militia of the City of London being gained by force and violence And all Votes Orders Ordinances passed in either or both Houses of Parliament since the said Ordinance of the 26. of July to the said 6. of Aug. * are null and void and were so at the making thereof are hereby declared so to be the Parliament being under a force and not free Provided alwaies and be it ordained that no Person or Persons shall be impeached for his or their actions by or upon or according to the foresaid Votes Orders or Ordinances unlesse he or they shall be found guilty of contriving acting or abetting the aforesaid visible or actual force or being present at or hearing of the said force did afterwards Act upon the Votes so forced c. John Brown Cler. Parliamentorum This force mentioned in all these 5. Declarations Engagements and Protests against it by the Army-Officers fugitive Members was far inferior and no waies comparable to the force upon the secured and secluded Members but far inferior thereto in these respects 1. That force was only by a few unarmed tumultuous London Apprentices who had neither Sword nor Musquet nor Pike nor Stick in their hands This upon the secluded Members was by whole Regiments Troops Companies of Horse and Foot armed with Swords Musquets Pikes Pistols 2. That force was upon this account only to presse the Houses to repeal an Ordinance surreptitiously procured to settle the Militia of London without their privities to the disservice of the City and Parliament passed but 3. daies before Theirs to prevent a settlement of the Peace of the Kingdom upon our vote touching the Kings Answer to the Propositions of both Houses for the publick Peace Safety and honour of the Parliament and three Kingdoms 3. Their tumult and force lasted but a few houres and part of one day and then vanished That secluding and securing the Members continued sundry years and ever since the Junctoes two last sittings till this present 4. That force neither secluded nor secured not drove away any one Member from the Houses during its continuance but only kept them tumultuously in the House till the Ordinance of July 23 was repealed by them and then vanished This was purposely imployed to secure above 40. and seclude the Majority of the Members of the Commons House and whole House of Peers by violence against their Privileges Trusts and our Laws and is still continued for that end 5. That force caused some few eminent Members only to absent themselves from the Houses and repair to the Army 3. or 4. daies after the force was ended upon the Armies invitation being the far lesser part of both Houses This force secured imprisoned and actually kept out and drove away 5. parts of 6. from the House and that by practice and combination of some Members of the House to seclude the rest lest they should over-vote them and since by their expresse Orders and Commands kept out by armed guards for that end 6. This force was by such who were never raised commissioned waged to preserve the Houses and Members from violence that they might freely sit and vote without disturbance This by Souldiers specially raised commissioned intrusted paid to defend their persons and Privileges freely to sit and vote without interruption or seclusion 7. That force was condemned disowned by all the Members of both Houses as well those who remained sitting or those who absented themselves This justified approved commanded even by those now sitting though they condemned it as Treasonable and Criminal in these Apprentices and in Cromwel Lambert and other Army-Officers since in their own cases 8. This inconsiderable force nulled and made void all Votes Acts Ordinances passed not only during the continuance of this horrid actual visible force upon the Houses on July 26. but likewise from that day till the 6. of Aug. only because those few Members invited to the Army were forced as they affirmed to absent themselves from the service of the Parliament and could not return to sit in safety before that day though there was neither force nor guards during that space upon either House to deter or drive them thence Therfore upon all these Considerations The Ordinance made for this first Tax of 90000. and now for 100000. l. a month during the forcible securing secluding of the whole House of Peers and Majority of the Commons House must much more be null and void and were so at the time of their making to all intents the Parl. and Houses being under a more horrid insolent visible and actual force before and at the making of them keeping out the Major part of the Members than ever the Apprentices or any age were forme●ly guilty of and so no waies obliging the excluded Lords Members or any others whatsoever our secluders themselves and these their Resolutions being Judges which do all justify the Protestation published in their names though not owned by them Dec. 11. 15 8. to be no j●st cause ●●t their Ejection by the pretended Ordinance of Dec. 5. made by 3. Lords and 45. Commoners only whiles both Houses were under the Armies force and so be null and void to all intents Fourthly Neither forty Members nor a whole House of Commons were ever enough in any age by the Custom of Parliament or Law of England to impose a Tax or make any Act of Parliament without the King and House of Lords as I have already proved and largely and irrefragably evidenced in my Plea for the Lords and House of Peers My Levellers Levelled The 1. and 2. Part of my Register and Survey of Parliamentary Writs My true and perfect Narrative and full Declaration of the state of the Case of the secluded Members much lesse can they do it after they ceased to be Members by the Parliaments dissolution through the Kings beheading Neither were they ever invested with any legal power to seclude or expel any of their fellow Members especially if duly elected for any Vote wherein the Majority of the House concurred with them or for voting against or differing in their consciences and judgements from them nor for any other cause without the Kings and Lords concurrence in whom the ordinary judicial power of the Parliament resides as I have undeniably proved by presidents and reasons in my Plea for the Lords p. 305 to 428. and Ardua Regni which is further evident by Claus. Dors. 7 R. 2. M. 32. Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour p. 737. Banneret Camoys Case discharged from being Knight of the Shire by the Kings Writ and judgement alone

post facto assent to some particulars against my knowledge judgement conscience Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance P●otestation and Solemn League and Covenant taken in the presence of God himself with a sincere heart and real intention to perform the same and persevere therein all the dayes of my life without suffering my self directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be withdrawn therefrom As first That there may be and now is a lawfull Parliament of England actually in being and legally continuing after the Kings death consisting only of a few late Members of the Commons House without either King Lords or most of their Fellow-Commons which the very Consciences and Judgements of all now sitting that know any thing of Parliaments and the whole Kingdom if they durst speak their Knowledge know and believe to be false yea against their Oaths and Covenant Secondly That this Parliament so unduly constituted and packed by power of an army combining with them hath a just and lawfull authority to violate the Privileges Rights Freedoms Customs and alter the Constitution of our Parliaments themselves imprison seclude expel most of their Fellow-Members for voting according to their Consciences to repeal what Votes Ordinances and Acts of Parliament they please erect new Arbitrary Courts of War and Justice to arraign condemn execute the King himself with the Peers and Commons of this Realm by a new kind of Martial law contrary to Magna Carta the Petition of Right and Law of the Land dis-inherit the Kings posterity of the Crown extirpate Monarchy and the whole House of Peers change and subvert the antient Government Seals Laws Writs legal proceedings Courts and coin of the Kingdom sell and dispose of all the Lands Revenues Jewels Goods of the Crown with the Lands of Deans and Chapters as they think meet absolve themselves like so many Antichristian Popes with all the Subjects of England and Ireland from all the Oaths and Engagements they have made TO THE KINGS MAJESTY HIS HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS yea from their verie Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding this expresse clause in it which I desire may be seriously and conscienciously considered by all who have sworn it I do believe and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full authoritie to be lawfully ministred unto me and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary and to dispence with our Protestations Solemn League and Covenant so lately and * zealously urged and injoyned by both Houses on Members Officers Ministers and all sorts of People throughout the Realm to dispose of all the Forts Ships Forces Offices and Places of Honour Power Trust or Profit within the Kingdom to whom they please to displace and remove whom they will from their Offices Trusts Pensions Callings at their pleasures without any legal cause or trial to make what new Acts Laws and reverse what old ones they think meet to insnare inthrall our Consciences Estates Liberties Lives to create new monstrous Treasons never heard of in the world before and declare real Treasons against King Kingdom Parliament to be no Treasons and Loyalty Allegiance due Obedience to our known Laws and consciencious observing of our Oaths and Covenants the breach whereof would render us actual Traytors and perjurious Persons to be no lesse than High Treason for which they may justly imprison dismember disfranchise displace and fine us at their wills as they have done some of late and confiscate our Persons Lives to the Gallows and our estates to their new Exchequer a Tyranny beyond all Tyrannies ever heard of in our Nation repealing Magna Charta c. 29. 5 E. 3. c. 6. 25 Ed. 3. c. 4. 28 Ed. 3. c. 3. 37. E. 3. c. 18. 42 E. 3. c. 3. 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. 11 R. 2. c. 4. 1 H. 4. c. 10. 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. N. 60. 1 E. 6. c. 12. 1 Mar. c. 1. The Petition of Right 3 Caroli the Statutes made in the begining of the Parliament 16 Caroli c. 1 7 8 10 12 14 20. and laying all our * Laws Liberties Estates Lives in the very dust after so many bloody and costly years wars to defend them against the Kings and others invasions raise and keep up what forces they will by Sea and Land impose what heavy Taxes they please and renew increase multiply and perpetuate them on us and on Scotland and Ireland too which no English Parliament ever did before as often and as long as they please to support their own encroached more then Regal Parliamental Super-transcendent Arbitrary power over us and all that is ours or the Kingdoms at our private and the publick charge against our wills judgements consciences to our absolute enslaving and our three Kingdoms ruine by engaging them one against another in new Civil wars and exposing us for a prey to our Forein Enemies All which with other particulars lately acted and avowed by the Imposers of this Tax and sundry others since by colour of that pretended Parliamentary Authority by which they have imposed it I must necessarily admit acknowledge to be just and legal by my voluntary payment of it on purpose to maintain an Army to justifie and make good all this by the meer power of the Sword which they can no waies justifie and defend by the Laws of God or the Realm or the least colour of reason justice honesty religion conscience before any Tribunal of God or Men when legally arraigned as they may one day be Neither of which I can or dare acknowledge without incurring the guilt of most detestable Perjury and highest Treason against King Kingdom Parliament Laws and Liberties of the people and therefore cannot yield to this Assesment Thirdly the principal ends and uses proposed in the pr●tended Acts and Warrants thereupon for payment of this Tax and other Taxes since are strong obligations to me in point of Coùscience Law Prudence to withstand it which I shall particularly discusse The First is the maintenante and continuance of the pr●sent Army and Forces in England under the Lord Fairfax Cromwell and other Commanders since To which I say First as I shall with all readinesse gratitude and due respect acknowledge their former Gallantry good and faithfull Services to the Parliament and Kingdom whiles they continued dutifull and constant to their first Engagements and the ends for which they were raised by both Houses as far forth as any man so in regard of their late monstrous defections and dangerous Apostacies from their primitive obedience faithfulnesse and engagements in disobeying the Commands and levying open war against both Houses of Parliament keeping an horrid force upon them at their very doors seising imprisoning secluding abusing and forcing away their Members printing and publishing many high and treasonable Declarations against the Institution Privileges Members and Proceedings of the late and being of

the preventing of which mischiefs together with the considerations aforesaid have weighed more with me than any thing which may concern my particular and especially having served the House faithfully and diligently for the space of very near seven years 4 in a true and Parliamentary way of proceedings that I might not now be made a servant to such a multitude to transfer upon them the colour of Parliamentary authority there withall to abuse and deceive the minds and to 5 destroy the lives liberties and estates of the people of this Kingdom And having taken a 6 solemn Protestation Covenant in my place and calling to maintain the privileges of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects I could not now satisfie my self but by 7 absenting my self at this time rather than by my presence to give any shadow or countenance of the authority of Parliament to such apparent violations thereof Neither can the omission of a circumstance or some formality in the adjournments of the House when through force and violence it cannot meet and sit in any sort as a Parliament be any prejudice to the future meetings and proceedings thereof when it may meet and sit again as a free Parliament it being well known that nothing can dissolve this Parliament but an Act of Parliament When a company of Apprentices Reformadoes and others shall call the Ordinances of Parliament pretended Ordinances shall 8 lock the doors of the Houses upon them shall swear not to let them out till they had passed what they pleased concerning the Militia of London and other things though the Houses had immediately before voted otherwise shall threaten the Houses in case they did not instantly satisfie their demands shall knock whoot and hollow continually at the Parliament door that the 9 Members could not be heard to speak or debate after that the House of Commons had passed a Vote concerning the Militia of London and that the Speaker by the Vote had judged the 10 major part to be for the Negative shall not suffer the House to be divided but in a thr eatning way require those that 11 gave their votes againstth em to corne out to them if they would when after the House was adjourned they shall by main force thrust back the Speaker again into the House and force the Members in their presence and sight divers of them thrusting into the House to vote what they demanded when they shall justle pull and hale the Speaker all the way he went down to his Cosch and force him to avoid their violence to betake himself to the next Coach he could get into for Refuge when they shall breath forth bloody threats against the Members as they came out of the House and since against me in particular at the next meeting of the House as I am credibly informed and where there is no appearance but that they will continue to do as formerly they have done or far worse on Friday 12 I couldnot in discharge of my Trust Protestation and Covenant sit in the Chair of the House of Commons whilst it shall be iu such a condition but so soon as it may sit again in freedome and safety I shall be ready to attend she service thereof but till then as I have upon the forementioned grounds fully satisfied my own Conscience so I doubt not but I shall give the whole Kingdome whose interest is most concerned in it ample satisfaction in the necessity of my absence William Lenthall Speaker 2ly By the Engagement of those Lords and Commons that went to the Army after the Apprentices transitory forc● upon the Army-Officers invitation who subscribed their names thereto with some others who continued sitting in the Houses Die Mercurii quarto Augusti 1647. WE the Members of both Houses of Parliament who absent our selves from the service of the Parliament 1 by reason of the force and violence offered thereunto by a tumultuous multitude having received from his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax a Declaration entituled a Declaration of his Exceliency Sir Thomas Fairfax and his Councel of War on the behalf of themselves and the whole Army shewing the grounds of their present advance towards the City of London and having perused the same we look upon it as a Declaration full of truth the matter of fact being well known unto most of us who have been ey and ear witnesses thereof full of Christian noble and publick affection to the good peace and prosperity of the Kingdome and full of integrity and faithfulnesse to the tru● interest of the English Nation and 2 full of undaunted and generous resolutions to assert the Honour and Freedome of the Parliament and effectually to vindicate it from the force and violence whereby it hath been of late trampled under the foot of a Rabble of people unto which force 3 it is still exposed so as it may be exercised upon them at pleasure and whilest the Parliament remains in such a condition although it be not dissolvable but by Act of Parl yet it is suspended from acting as a Parliament In all these things and generally throughout our sense so fully agreeth with what is expressed in that Dcelaration of the Army that we cannot but receive it with much approbation and also with great thankfulness to God in the first place and next under him 4 to this ever faithfull Army for that tender sense expressed therein of our honour and security who absent our selves from the Parliament in regard of that force And for that high Eugagem of the Armie to live dy with us in this cause Whereupon we cannot but 5 mutually engage our selves as hereby we do to live die with Sir The Fairfax and the Army in the vindication of the honour and freedome of the Parliament And we cannot but observe the special providence of God in holding up so extraordinarily 6 this Army reserving it to take off the scorn of this Nation and to raise up again from the depth of contempt that once so much honoured and high esteemed name of a Parliament And whereas in the said Declaration it is desired that we as persons upon whom 7 their publick trust still remaineth though for the present we cannot exercise the same in a Parliamentory way would advise his Excellency and his Councel os Wa● in such things as may be for the good of the Kingdome and for the attaining the ends aforesaid We do declare that we shall be ●ver ready to do it upon all occasions in such a capacity as we may 8 till we shall be enabled to discharge our trust in a free Parliament which we conceive we can never do until the Houses of Parliament may be absolute Judges and Masters of their own securities and such 9 Trayterous audacious offenders as have endevoured with so high a hand to destroy the highest Authority as

by the particulars so fully clearly expressed in the Declaration of the army may appear shal receive condigne punishment or at least the Parliament put in such a condition as that they may be able to bring them thereunto And 10 we trust in God through his accustomed blessing up●n this Army and their Assistants in their honest and just undertakings the Parliament shall speedily be put into a condition to sit like a Parl. of England and we hope that 11 every true hearted Englishman will put his helping hand to so necessary so publick and so honourable a work as is the vindicating the freedom and honour of Parliament wherein the freedome and honour of all the free born people of this Nation are involved Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers * Sarisbury Denbigh Northumberland Gray of Wark Mulgrave Kent Howard Say and Seal 1 William Lenthal Speaker of the House of Commons 2 Lord Lisle Tho. Gray Will. Pierpoint 3 Henry Mildmay Nathaniel Fiennes John Fiennes 4 Arthur Haslerigg William Armyn 5 James Temple Edm. Prideaux 6 Miles Corbet John Danvers Francis Allin John Evelin 7 George Fleetwood George Fennick John Blackstone 8 Tho. Scot Tho. Scot Major 9 Roger Hill 10 Henry Martin 11 Cornelius Holland 12 Oliver Saint-Johns 13 William Lemmon 14 William Mounson Humphry Edwards 15 John Weaver 16 John Corbett 17 Thomas Lister 18 Henry Smith 19 Nich. Love Francis Pierpoint Henry Lawrence 20 Tho. Ougain Godfrey Boswell 21 Henry Darley 22 Tho. Boon 23 Peter Temple 24 Philip Smith 25 Michael Livesey Henry Hamond Gregory Norton Thomas Jarvice William Constable 26 William Say 27 Edward Ludlow 28 Edward Dunce 29 John Bingham 30 Augustine Skinner 31 John Trenchard 32 Sam. Mayn Benjamine Weston Francis Thurnow Rowland Wilson Laurence Whitacr● John Crowder 33 George Piggots John Bamfield In all but 58. Some 10 or more of which sate in the House in the Speakers absence and went not to the Army Of these 33. are yet living and sitting now and then excluding the Majority of the House by force and voting them out 5. of them now living are secluded who subscribed this engagement the rest since dead How these Subscribers and secluders can look God or men in the face or justify Taxes Knacks and Proceedings to be legal and Parliamentary whiles most of the Members are kept out by force after this their subscription and publication to the contrary under their own hands let themselves resolve It will be also worth the Enquiry who was the Pen-man and Contriver of this Engagement Whether it be not more dangerous and treasonable in those Members who have since confederated with the Army to seclude the Lords House and their own Members than that Engagement of the Citizens which the subfcribers hereof voted to be Treasonable And whether it makes not these sitting Members who subscribed it pre-ingaged parties and incompetent Judges of the secluded ejected and imprisoned Members who continued sitting in the House according to their trust and duty and of the accused and imprisoned Citizens who did but defend the Parliament then sitting according to their own Votes Ordinances Covenant and their duty 3ly By Sir Thomas Fairfax Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common-council of the City of London My Lord and Gentlemen YOu may please to remember the former complyance of this Army with your desires to remove to this distance and that upon the assurance you gave them of your concurrence with their declared desires for the setling the liberty and peace of the Kingdom against which you never yet offered us one exception or anie ground of dissent as also of your great tendernesse and resolution to secure the Parliament and their privileges from any violence or attempt the reason given us of your late listing of new forces and wherein we did most acquiesce That upon this confidence we had disposed the Armie into several parts of the Kingdom for the ease of the whole to above 100. miles distance we had given up our selves to the effecting of such Proposals as might tend to the comfortable settlement of this poor Kingdom and a hopefull way for the speedy relief of Ireland We cannot then but be deeply sensible of the 1 unparalleld violation acted upon the Parliament upon Mondy last by a rude multitude from your City because therein the Guards sent from the City did not only neglect their duty for the security of the Parliament from such violence and the whole Citie to yield anie relief to the Houses in that extremity but I am assured from eye and ear-witnesses that divers of the Common-council gave great encouragement to it which doth not only 2 gain-say your former professions but doth violence to those many Obligations that by your Charter Protestation and sundry other waies lye upon you to protect the Parliament For my part I cannot but look on your selves who are in authoritie as accountable to the Kingdom for your present interruptions of that hopefull way of peace and settlement things were in for this Nation and of relieving Ireland occasioned by the late Treasonable and destructive Engagement Especially the lately prodigious and horrid force done upon the Parliament 3 tending to dissolve all Government upon which score we and the whole Kingdom shall have cause to put every thing of the like nature that may happen to the Parliament or to any who are friends to them and this Armie except by your wisdom care and industry the chief actors may be detected 4 secured and given up to the procuring of justice for the same and the best endeavors used to prevent the like for the future And so I rest Your most assured friend to serve you Tho. Fairfax Bedford 29 July 1647. 4ly By a Declaration of Sir Tho. Fairfax * and his Council of War August 3. 1647. concerning the Apprentices force upon the Houses wherein are these observable passages Monday July the six and twentieth the Common-Council of the City presents their Petitions to both Houses for changing the Militia whereon the House of Lords refuse to alter their resolutions the House of Commons answered they would take it into consideration the next morning Notwithstanding which the City and Kingdome cannot be ignorant with what rage and insolency the tumult of Apprentices the same day forced both Houses They 1 blockt up their doors swearing they would keep them in till they had passed what Votes they pleased they threatned the Houses if they granted not their desires knocking whooting and hallowing so at the Parliament-doors that many times the Members could not be heard to speak or debate not suffering the House of Commons to divide for determining such Questions as w●●e put crying out 2 That those that gave their Votes against them should be sent out to them very often and loudly saying Agree agree dispatch we 'l stay no longer and in this outragious manner they continued at the