worthy Remonstrators of the most Renowned City of London ansd the several Counties of this Kingdome in the pursuance of their several Declarations for a Full and Free Parliament which is the onely means under God to bring us out of this miserable Confusion in which at present we are plunged And we further declare That we will pay no Tax or other Imposition whatsoever but by Authority from our Representatives in a Full and Free Parliament Into whose hands we shall commit our Lives and Fortunes and into whose Results we will ever acquiesce Our eyes are up unto our God for Help and thence our Hopes are fixed on General Monke that God hath called him forth to be the Vmpier and Determiner of our Divisions and Oppressions by whom he will lead us through the Wilderness of our present Confusion and bring us to our desired Canaan In this Confidence we pray to God to Bless Direct and Keep Him Advertisement THis our Declaration had came forth a week since had not the Trappanning Diligence of an unworthy Member of our Country endeavoured the surprizal of it and us Let not three hundred and thirty hands an inconsiderable number for so great a County bespeak this Declaration forged we being forced to do in one day the work we had cut out for seven had we had time we had brought ten thousand hands such as upon a good occasion will bring hearts suitable to the merits of their Cause THE Declaration of the Gentry of the County of NOTTINGHAM And of the Town of Nottingham presented by way of Address to his Excellency the Lord General MONCK the 28. of February With a Letter to his Excellency and another to the Speaker of the PARLIAMENT WHat the people of this Land have suffered in their greatest Concernments both Religious and Civil by the late Disorders and frequent change of Government hath for a long time been the Argument of a general and sad complaint both to God and Man What the most publick sense of the Nation is as to the means of setling it in the possession of its antient and native Liberties is sufficiently known by the several Declarations of so many Counties already presented and published What God in great mercy hath done by your Excellencies means as his chosen Instrument to revive our dying hopes in plucking us as a brand out of the fire and that with so gentle a hand is the wonder and rejoycing of our souls In testimony therefore of our thankfulness to God and our grateful sense of your Excellencies most valiant and wise management of the Power he hath intrusted you with As also to evidence as Fellow-members our concurrence and sympath with those other parts of this great Body We the Nobility Gentry Ministry and Commonalty of the County of Nottingham and of the County of the Town of Nottingham do Declare That as it is our Judgement that the Nation ought so it is our earnest desire and shall be our endeavour by the use of all lawful means that it may be free in its Members in Parliament deputed from all parts impowred by antient and undoubted right to elect the best Expedient whereto at present we conceive to be either an admission of the Members secluded in 1648. and a filling up of Vacancies by new Elections or the speedy calling of another Parliament with such Qualifications as were then agreed on before there as a force upon the House We also claim it with the rest of the Nation as our uniquestionable right That nothing be imposed upon us by way of Tax or otherwise but by our consents first given and declared in a Full and Free Parliament And now considering how great things in prosecution of these just ends are already done for us as we do in most humble manner bless and praise his glorious name that hath thus far answered our desires so we do most earnestly beseech him to perfect in his due time what is so happily begun and in order thereto to bless and conduct your Excellency through all the remaining difficulties that may obstruct our present necessary Settlement upon the true lasting foundation of our known Laws and Priviledges In the vindication whereof we beseech your Excellency to be confident not only of our best wishes and thanks but also of our utmost assistance to the hazard of our lives and fortunes My Lord THis enclosed was intended to be presented to your Excellencies before we had notice of your Excellencies happy removal of all Force excluding Members from sitting in Parliament wherein though our desires are thereby granted yet we cannot but address the same to you that it may appear what your Excellency hath done therein is according to our sense and desire as well as those of other Counties that have gone before us in time though not in affection and that we shall in our places and callings be ready to make good what we have publickly declared for as the Parliament and your Excellency shall command us and remain Nottingham Feb. 23. 1650. My Lord your Excellencies most humble and faithful servants Mr. Speaker WE being desirous amongst other Counties to express our thanks to the Lord General Monke for his endeavours in our restitution to Peace and Settlement and to manifest our adherence to him and those under his command in the further prosecution of those good ends mentioned in our Address to him after we had subscribed and ordered these Gentlemen to wait upon him with the same We received the joyful news that all force was removed and a free admission given to all Members to sit in Parliament whereby our desires are so far accomplished that we might have acquiessed therein but only that we would not have our intentions and desires though obtained buried in oblivion We thought fit to present that Address to the Lord General and judge it our duties to express our thankfulness to God for your re-admission and our readiness in our places and callings to assist you in what you have so happily begun and humbly desire that by your Authority our Militia may be so setled that we may be serviceable to your Commands and capacitated to defend our selves against any discontented persons that may upon this change endeavour a disturbance of the publick Peace or deny your Authority Nottingham Feb. 23. 1659. Sir Your humble and faithful servants THE DECLARATION OF Sir Charles Coot Knight and Baronet Lord President of the Province of CONNAVGHT And the rest of the Council of Officers of the Army in IRELAND Present at DUBLIN Concerning the Re-admission of the Sucluded Members SInce the Authority of Parliament became openly violated and that by their own waged servants of the Army in England by whom 41. of the Members of Parliament were torn from the Parliament House in Dec. 1648. and imprisoned and a 160. other Members denied entrance into the House and about fifty more voluntarily withdrew themselves to avoid violence making in all of secluded Members about
Griefs and Declaration of our Desires and Thoughts of the most probable means by Gods assistance to give some remedy to our present Sufferings and prevention of our yet greater Calamities which threaten our speedy ruine The cause of all proceeding as we conceive is from that unhappy Disorder in that great Wheel of Government And that after all our great Sufferings and Trials the vast expence of Treasure and Blood for our Rights Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament which we take to be the Good old Cause such persons in whom we have already lodged our Trusts and who have sufficiently manifested their endeavours to perform the same namely Nathaniel Stephens Esq Sir John Seymore Kt. Edward Steephens Esq John Steephens Esq and the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax have been since December 1648. and still are denied the freedom of sitting and voting in Parliament The Restauration of which Members we desire with all freedom to their former Capacities And Declare we shall not otherwise consent to pay Tax or other Impositions or hold our selves bound by any Law to be made without a Restitution of these our Representatives with a supply of all Vacancies by a free Election according to the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of this Nation it being the undoubted birth-right of all the Free-born people of England that no Tax or other Imposition be exacted from them or any new Law imposed upon them but by their consents had by their Representatives in a full and free Parliament And we further declare our hearty desires for the burying all former Animosities and Differences by a full and general Act of Oblivion and Indempnity with satisfaction to be given to Purchasers under any Act of Sale as by Parliament shall be thought fit And that no Officer or Soldier that hath ventured his life for the freedom of his Countrey and shall continue faithfull to those Principles may hereby receive any Discouragement We also declare That we shall freely and willingly consent that all such shall receive their Arrears and be continued so long as the Parliament shall think fit in order to the safety and preservation of the Nation and that such liberty be allowed to tender Consciences as is not opposite to the Scriptures or the established Laws of this Nation We also Declare That in pursuance of these our just Desires we shall not be wanting to the uttermost of our powers to engage our selves by all lawful ways and means with our Fellow Brethren in the just Vindication of our Liberties and shall neither count our Lives or Fortunes too dear to hazard for the Redemption thereof and herein we shall not doubt the ready Concurrence of all those in the three Nations whose Peace Prosperity and Safety is equally concerned with ours This Declaration being subscribed by great numbers of considerable persons of that County was to have been presented to the Speaker by some of them but considering how Sir Robert Pye and Major Finchers handsome behaviour was unhandsomly rewarded with imprisonment for a particular of the same nature it was thought more proper to preserve the liberty of Personages of so much worth til a better opportunity and therefore it is thought fit thus to communicate this for the vindication of this County and satisfaction of the whole Nation THE REMONSTRANCE Of the Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders of the County of GLOUCESTER WE do claim and avow it to be our undoubted Birth-right and Liberty That no new Laws much lesse any new Government can or ought to be imposed upon us nor any Taxes Contributions or Free-quarter taken of us without the consent of the People of this Nation in a Free-Parliament Assembled which Liberties have been often confirmed to us by the great Charter the Petition of Right and many other Statutes And Parliaments being the only Bulwarks and Defence of our Liberties as men and Christians ought to be freely elected and to sit and Vote without interruption or opposition by any persons whatsoever The Priviledges whereof we are all bound to maintain and defend and to assist and maintain each other in the defence thereof And therefore we resolve according to our bounden duty to joyn with the Lord Mayor and Common-Councel of the City of London and all other Counties in England in pursuance thereof And we do not doubt but all true hearted English men who love their own Liberties and are not willing to be made slaves or to enslave their Brethren will joyn with us herein A Letter agreed unto and subscribed by the Gentlemen Ministers Free-holders and Sea-men of the County of SUFFOLK Presented to the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councel of the City of London Assembled January 30. 1659. Right Honorable PLease you to accept this Paper as a testimony that we are highly and gratefully sensible of those breathings and Essayes towards peace which your renowned City hath lately declared to the World As we earnestly wish that our serious and unanimous concurrence may ripen them to a perfect Accomplishment We are willing to consider it as an Omen of Mercy when we observe the Nation in general lifting up its Vows to Heaven for a free and full Parliament 't is that alone in its genuine sense which our Laws prescribe and present to us as the great Patron and Guardian of our Persons Liberties and Properties and whatsoever else is justly precious to us And if God shall by your hand lead us to such an obtainment after-Ages shall blesse your memory 'T is superfluous to spread before you your Merchandise decay'd your Trade declin'd your Estates wither'd Are there not many within your Walls or near them that in your ears deplore such miseries as ehese Your Lordship may believe that our prayers and persons shall gladly promote all lawfull means for our Recovery And we entreat that this cheerful suffrage of ours may be annex'd as a Label to your Honorable intendments This Letter was delivered according to its Superscription by Robert Broke Philip Parker and Thomas Bacon Esquires THE Declaration of the Gentry of the County of NORFOLK And of the County and City of NORWICH WE the Gentry of the County of Norfolke and County and City of Norwich being deeply affected with the sense of our sad Distractions and Divisions both in Church and State and wearied with the miseries of an unnatural Civil War the too Frequent Interruptions of Government the Imposition of several heavy Taxes and the loud Out-cries of multitudes of undone and almost Famished people occasioned by the general decay of Trade which hath spread it self throughout the whole Nation and these Counties in particular and having met together and consulted what may best remedy and remove our and the Nations present Grievances and Distractions Do humbly conceive that the chief Expedient will be the recalling of those Members that were secluded in 1648 and sate before the Force put upon the Parliament We of the County of Norfolk being by such Seclusion deprived of
that they never heard the said Principles or had them any way communicated to them much lesse ever consented to the same or any of them This Court being deeply sensible of these great Indignities doth declare That the said Lord Mayor is so far from deserving any of the said Affronts or Aspersions that he hath highly merited the great Honour and Esteem of this Court and the whole City having in all things demeaned himself with much Prudence and faithfull Integrity to this City and Court which doth therefore return his Lordship their most hearty thanks And that the said Committee in all their Transactions touching the Peace and safety of this City have also discreetly and faithfully discharged their Trust to their own trouble and great satisfaction of this Court And whereas this Court and City hath been lately represented by some as having deserted their first Cause and Declarations in the use of all lawfull means for the maintenance of the true reformed Protestant Religion according to the Scriptures The support and maintenance of a settled lawfull Magistracy a learned pious Ministery and publick Universities with the ancient fundamental Laws of the Nation Just Rights Properties and Liberties of all Persons And for these ends will endeavour all they lawfully may the speedy convening of a Free Parliament to sit and Act without Interruption or Molestation by any persons whatsoever Sadler To the Right Honorable our worthy and grave Senators the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Comonalty of the City of London in Common Council assembled The humble Petition and Address of divers Young Men on the behalf of themselves and the APPRENTICES in and about this honorable City Most humbly sheweth IT hath pleased the good and only wise God for our and the Nations crying sins to manifest his displeasure for many years together against these our flourishing now sadly divided distracted and almost ruined Nations and yet blessed be God this honorable City hitherto hath been no proportionable sharer in the Calamities which our Brethren in other parts of these now miserable Nations have suffered which are now aggravated by our Divisions and such a general decay of trading as doth exceed the worst of former times all which we look upon as a most sad presage of some art and dismal judgement very near at hand if not our sudden ruine together with the destruction and utter dissolation both of Church and State which will inevitably ensue as a just reward upon our multiplied provocations under the most signal manifestations of Gods most gracious presence and the most engaging Mercies that ever People did enjoy unlesse it please our most gracious God whose Name hath been exceedingly dishonored by the violation of many sacred and solemn Oaths amongst us to work our deliverance out of this contexture of dangerous mischiefs into which we have already wound our selvs or which as the innundations of mighty Waters may suddenly break in upon us and being sadly sensible of the Calamities under which the three Nations groan for want of a well-ordered and established Government We being members in the same pollitical Body cannot but sympathize with the rest of our Brethren and forasmuch as our endeavours may contribute very much thereto and the well or ill management of your talents in the discharge of your Trusts may now make these Nations happy or else make them irrecoverably miserable We hold our selves obliged in conscience to God and our Countrey both by the Laws of God and the Land in the behalf of our selves and all good and peaceable People in the Land and the many thousands that know not their right hand from their left and in the behalf of the Children unborn who in time to come may have cause to blesse or curse the day of their birth for your sakes do make this humble Addresse to you as the only means under God now left us to redresse these growing mischiefs which make us and the three Nations in these times of our great trouble cry unto you as those of Macedonia did in the Apostles Vision Come and help us And we beseech you our most grave and worthy Senators as you tender the welfare of these bleeding Nations to stand in the wide gap of our breaches with your Prayers improving your Councils and every Talent which God hath reposed in you for the honour of God and the peace of his Church by a reall reformation and we question not but our most gracious God will then break through the thick Clouds of these black and dark providences and return unto us our Judges as at the first and our Counselors as at the beginning with the abundance of the blessings of peace that Judgement may run down our streets and Righteousness as a mighty stream And we humbly desire the two great Pillars of the Land Magistracy and Ministry may be asserted and encouraged in order unto which we humbly present unto your grave and serious consideracions First the Priviledges of the Gospel which we do enjoy at this day in the faithfull preaching and dispensing of Gods holy Word and Sacraments together with the labours of so many of his faithfull Servants in the Ministry and the liberty of these sacred Ordinances being the best and choicest of our National blessings in respect of which we may well say with holy David God hath not dealt so with any Nation which with thankfulnesse we desire to ackowledge as a great mercy to this Land And should the Lord remove this Candlestick out of its place as we have just cause to fear he will unlesse we do repent Then may we indeed complain with Phineas his Wife the glory is departed from our Israel and a dark and dismal night of black and gloomy Ignorance Error and Prophanenesse will envelope our Valley of Vision And to the end that this choice Blessing which we account more precious than our lives may be conveyed to Posterity we most humbly desire the Ministry may be Countenanced and encouraged the Universities upheld and maintained which have nursed many famous Preachers for Piety and Learning in this and former Ages and your Authority used for the terror of evil doers but the praise of them that do well Secondly we esteem and assert as our undoubted birth-right the Freedom and Priviledges of our Parliaments as being the great Charter of the people of England which we account equally dear with our lives in the enjoyment of which we yet hope under God to see a happy and lasting settlement both in Church and Scate Therefore we most humbly desire that a new Election may be made or else that those worthy Gentlemen chosen to serve as Members in the late free Parliament may be restored to their priviledges and sit without disturbance or force from the Army that they may consider in this evil time what England Scotland and Ireland ought to do which with submission to your grave judgements we humbly conceive to be the most probable means under God to
establish the true Protestant Religion reform the Laws secure our Liberties and preserve our lives and outward concernments to promote Learning end encourage Vertue whereby peace with our neighbour Nations may be renewed and established the Army satisfied their Arrears paid and Trading restored In all which most grave and worthy Senators your own concernments as well as ours are so deeply engaged that we perswade our selves you will be instumental to further our desires by all peaceable and lawfull means and we hope it will put an end to our Divisions which if God in mercy prevent not may soon break out into another civil War and render us as a prey to a forreign enemy For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Now we leave it unto you our most grave and worthy Senators duly to consider if you part with these our great National Blessings whether you will not discover a palpable breach of trust and leave your names for a reproach to the generations following who will in the Ages to come rise up and call you blessed if you be carefull to preserve them now and convey them to Posterity And now we beseech the Lord to strengthen both your hearts and hands and give you wisdom from on high to direct you in all your Consultations as may be most for the honour of God the peace of his Church throughout the world and the settlement safety and happinesse of these poor Nations And by his assistance we resolve to stand by you and with you to the utmost hazzard of our lives and all that is deare unto us to promote the same Munday 5. December This day the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council being assembled the fore-recited Pitition was presented by several Young-men and Apprentices in behalfe of themselves and several thousands which have subscribed the same the which being received was ordered to be read and thereupon a Committee chosen to consider thereof and to give their speedy Report unto the next Court concerning the same At the same Court it was likewise Ordered that the Lord General Fleetwood should be desired to draw off the Soldiers unto their several Quarters it being then also Ordered that every Common Council man in his several Precinct should give notice to the House-keepers within the same that they should keep their Servants and Apprentices at home thereby to preserve the peace of the City To his Excellency the Lord General MONCK The Vnanimous Representation of the APPRENTICES and Young-men inhabiting in the City of LONDON Humbly sheweth THat the Glory of our Nation and the greatest Comfort of our Lives in our Civil Interests consists in the Priviledges and Liberties to which we were born and which are the undoubted Inheritance of all the free people of England among which the grand and essential Priviledges which discriminates Free-men from Slaves is the Interest which every man hath in the Legislative power of the Nation by their Representatives assembled in Parliament without which however we may flatter our selves or be flatter'd by others we are truly no better than Vassals govern'd by the will and pleasure of those who have no relation to us or our common Interest Now how much this dear Priviledge of the People hath been assaulted by the open violence of some and secret artifice of others and to what a deplorable condition we are brought at this present period when heavy Taxes are imposing upon mens Estates and new Laws upon our Persons without any consent of the People had in a free Parliament and how generally through the said distractions in Government Trading is decayed and how much we are likely to suffer thereby in our times and places we cannot but remonstrate to your Excellency constrain'd through the sense of our present sufferings and apprehensions of greater to implore your assistance most humbly beseeching your Excellency by that ancient love you have born to your Native Countrey zeal to our Liberties by that great Renown you have lately gain'd in opposing the cruel raging of the Sword by the common Cries of the People and by the hopes and cheerful expectation of all England now fix'd upon you and lastly by your own Personal Concern in the same common Cause as a free-born English man that you would be pleased to use those great advantages Divine Providence hath now put into your hands to the securing your Native Countrey from those dangerous usurpations and preserving us in those Liberties to which we were born That no Tax may be imposed nor new Law made nor old abolisht but with the consents of the People had by their Representatives in Parliament freely to be chosen without terror or limitations and freely to sit without any Oath or Engagement previous to their entrance without which special Liberties the Parliament cannot in any construction be esteemed the free Assembly of the People and by your Excellency's asserting of those our undoubted Rights in your present advantages you will certainly by the blessing of God and unanimous concurrence of the People accomplish our ends and will thereby gain the hearts and hands of the whole Nation and the City in particular and purchase to your self a Name that shall make every true English man call you blessed and Posterity shall hereafter delight to recount the famous Acts of their worthy Patriot This was delivered to his Excellency at S. Albans on Thursday Febr. 2. 1659. by persons elected for that purpose and had a very cheerfull Reception THE DECLARATION Of the Nobility Gentry Ministry and Commonalty of the County of KENT Together with the City and County of Canterbury the City of Rochester and the Ports within the said County HAving with sadnesse weighed the multiplied calamities wherein we are at present involved how friendlesse we are abroad and how divided at home the loud and heart-piercing cries of the poor and the disability of the better sort to relieve them the total decay and subversion of Trade together with the forfeiture and losse of the Honour and Reputation of the Nation what is more dear to us than all these the apparent hazzard of the Gospel through the prodigious growth of Blasphemies Heresies and Schism all which own their birth to the instability of our Governors and the unsettlement of our Government Lastly how in all these an universal ruine threatneth us and will if not timely prevented doubtlesse overwhelm us We thought it our bounden duties both as Christians out of tendernesse to our Religion as English men to our Countrey and as Friends to our selves and our Relations to represent and publish to the world our just griefs for and our lively resentments of this our deplorable condition and to seek all lawfull and probable means to remedy and redresse the same Wherefore having the leading Examples of the renowned Cities of London and Exeter together with the Counties of the West before our eyes and the clamors and out-cries of the People always in our ears whereof the one encourageth and
and Nations for want of a setled Government and Free Parliament have many years by-past been violently rent in pieces wasted consumed made the very hissing scorn laughing-stock of all Neighbour Countries whether Friends or Foes Christians or Infidels and thereby exposed to the justly dreaded hostile Invasions of combined forraign Romish Adversaries whose Emissaries have been very active instrumental in our late Combustions and Changes being now deeply sensible of the deplorable desperate condition and imminent ruine not onely of our own Persons Families Posterities but of our dearest exhausted enthralled dying Native Country and Protestant Religion too far dearer to us than our Lives or private Interests the preservation whereof is the Supreamest Law and calling to our minds the first publick ends and causes for which we took up arms since totally perverted subverted oppugned by ambitious self-advancing Commanders Officers of the Army and others contrary to their Trusts and Commissions with the manifold Oaths Protestations Vowes Solemn League and Covenant and other Sacred as well as Civil Obligations lying upon our Consciences engaging us all in our several places and callings in this day of Englands trouble and extream danger to put our helping hands and best advice to obviate those Perils and remove those Disorders Grievances Confusions which menace utter desolation both to her and us if we should any longer fit stupidly silent or unactive in our spheres like persons altogether uninterested or unconcerned in these perillous times of unprefidented exorbitancies usurpations tyrannies over our Persns Estates Lawes Liberties and Parliaments themselves by ambitious turbulent Self-seekers and Incendiaries and of universal decay of trade by Sea and Land Have thereupon conceived it our necessary bounden duties in this sad posture of our Sacred and Civil Concernments both as Christians and English Freemen by this our joynt REMONSTRANCE to tender to the rest of our English Brethren throughout the whole Nation of what rank calling or condition soever such just legal safe rational honest and Christian Proposals as through Gods blessing upon our and their unanimous vigorous prosecution of them against all self-ended Opponents may redeem us from our present Bondage Dangers Schisms Confusions frequent Rotations of publick Government and restore our tottering Church State Kingdoms Religion to their pristine Unity Tranquillity Purity Stability Dignity Felicity and secure them against all future Concussions and Convulsions For which end we all passionately desire and shall unanimously and cordially endeavour by all lawful meanes within our Orbs 1. That a legal full and free Parliament of England may be speedily summoned according to the prescription of 16 Caroli c. 1. enacted for this purpose not hitherto put in execution and that free Elections of able Knights Citizens and Burgesses by and of all well-affected persons to Peace and the old Parliaments good Cause to represent them therein may be no wayes disturbed nor restrained by force of Armes or otherwise 2. That the said Parliament may safely freely meet at Westminster on the third Monday in January next to consult of vote and settle the Peace Government of our distracted Churches and Nations without the interruption disturbance force or dissolution of any Commanders Officers or Souldiers of the Army or other tumultuous persons whatsoever under pain of being declared prosecuted executed as Traitors and Enemies to the Publique 3. That the full power of the Militia both by Sea and Land be delivered up to this Parliament on the first day of their Convention therein for the better assurance of their free and peaceable Session and not continued as a distinct body or interest in opposition contradistinction or super-inspection but in real subordination to the Parliament and people 4. That the whole frame and settlement of the Government of our Nations be entirely referred to the Parliaments unanticipated consideration the proper Judges thereof without any antecedent restrictions presciptions or impositions by the Army-Officers or any others 5. That the Supreme Management of all Civil Politique Military Affairs and appointment of all great Officers of State and Ministers of Justice shall be in all the surviving Members of the long Parliament without secluding any as in a General Council of State and Safety only who are all desired to meet for that purpose till the New Free Parliament shall assemble and no longer 6. That the preservation of the Peace Government of each County shall be in the hands of such Sheriffs Conservators of the Peace and other antient Officers as the Free-holders of every County shall publickly elect in their County-Court according to their antient Rights and Liberties and of every City and Corporation in the Mayors Sheriffs Bailiffs and other Officers elected by them according to their Charters Customs and in none other Officers imposed on them till the Parliament shall take further Order therein 7. That no Taxes Contributions Excises Imposts New Customs Militiaes or other Payments whatsoevet shall be henceforth imposed assessed levied upon or paid by the people but by their common grant and consent in free and full Parliament by Act of Parl. under pain of High Treason in the Imposers Assessors Collectors and voluntary payers thereof this being the peoples indubitable Birth right acknowledged declared confirmed by manifold Acts and Declarations old and new 8. That such an Act of Indempnity may be agreed on and assented to in this Parliament by common consent as may secure and indempnifie all persons whose future peaceable deportment till this Act passed shall demerit it 9. That care may be therein taken for the speedy satisfaction of all just arrears of all Officers and Souldiers duly listed before the 7. of May last who shall peaceably and dutifully submit to the free convening and safe sitting of this desired Parliament That all others who shall tumultuously oppose or interrupt the Summoning Assembling or Sitting thereof shall forfeit all their Commands Arrears Indempnity and incur the penalty of Traitors and publick Enemies to the Parliament and Nation 10. That an effectual course may be taken for the setled old maintenance succession protection and encouragement of a godly learned painful Orthodox Preaching Ministry throughout the three Nations 11. That due care and order may be taken for the speedy detection banishment and execution of the Lawes against all Jesuits Seminary Priests Freers and other Romish Emissaries or Seducers whatsoever employed to divide corrupt seduce the people and the Oath of Abjuration duly tendered by Justices of Peace and other Officers to all persons who shall be accused and justly suspected to be such for their better detection 12. That the causes of the great extraordinary decay of all sorts of Trade Merchandise Shipping Scarcity of Bullion Coin with all frauds and abuses in Manufactures dilatory vexatious proceedings extortions in Courts of Law and Equity may be diligently enquired into redressed punished and the great destruction and waste of Timber in all parts inhibited under severe penalties 13. That all Treasurers Receivers Collectors Farmers of any
Monies Customes Excises Rents Revenues Taxes Imposts Sequestrations or other goods profits whatsoever to the use of the publick may be speedily called to account in each County by fitting unaccountable persons appointed for that end and all their frauds and abuses therein enquired of and condignly punished 14. That all good Laws formerly enacted for the preservation and defence of the Persons Lives Liberties Properties of the Subjects against illegal Imprisonments Banishments Restraints Confinements corporal punishments execution by any Person or Persons Powers Committees Council of State Military Civil Officers or Judicatures whatsoever and against all unjust Taxes Confiscations Sequestrations Rapines Plunders may be ratified and the late and future violations of them exemplarily punished 15. That every person who shall from henceforth Canvas for voices to make himself a Knight Citizen Burgess or Baron of the Ports in the next or any ensuing Parliament either by Letters of Recommendation from Great men feasting the Electors before at or after Elections Gifts Bribes or otherwise shall upon due proof thereof be made uncapable to sit or serve in Parliament 16. That all Members of Parliament Officers of State Justices Sheriffs Mayors Recorders shall henceforth take a Corporal Oath to the best of their knowledge skill power inviolably to preserve the Fundamental Laws Liberties Franchises of the Free-men of England and to give all Lawes for the defence of them in charge to the Grand Jury in their respective Assizes and General Sessions of the Peace that they may enquire and present all offences against and violations of them to be condignly punished according to Law 17. That all unnecessary Garrisons Supernumerary Souldiers and Sea-men may be speedily paid off dismantled disbanded and all superfluous Officers excessive Fees and extortions whatsoever taken away for the impoverished peoples ease and the manifold extortions abuses of Gaolers Marshals Messengers and other detainers of Prisoners punished and redressed 18. That Able Faithful Consciencious fitting Persons fearing God and hating covetousnesse may be preferred to all Offices Places of publick Trust and Administration of Justice and detur digniori made the only rule in all Elections and Preferments whatsoever 19. That all Universities Colleges Schools of Learning in our three Nations with all Lands Rents Annuities Gifts Revenues for their support may be constantly maintained preserved from rapine and all mis-imployments substractions of them and of any Lands Rents Annuities Monies Gifts Legacies to them or any other publick or charitable use whatsoever diligently enquired after and reformed All which Proposals we are resolved by Gods gracious assistance with unanimity constancy and activity in our several stations with our lives and fortunes to prosecute and accomplish to our powers by all just and legal wayes with what ever else may conduce to the Peace Safety Unitie Wealth Prosperity of our Lacerated Macerated Naufragated Church and State wherein as we shall constantly pray for Gods Divine assistance and blessing upon our weak endeavours without which they will be altogether succeslesse So we cannot but confidently expect and shall importunately desire the cordial concurrence assistance prayers of all other Noblemen Knights Gentlemen Clergy-men Free-holders Citizens Burgesses and English Freemen without the smallest opposition that fo Righteousness and Peace may kiss each other and glory once more dwell within our Land wherein they have been strangers over-long And let all the People by their joynt subscriptions say Amen Amen Amen THE DECLARATION Of the Gentlemen Free-holders and Inhabitants of the County of BEDFORD WE the Gentlemen Free-holders and Inhabitants of the County of BEDFORD being truly sensible of the heavy pressures that we lie under having all our Civil and Religious Rights and Liberties daily invaded cannot in this common day of Calamity be silent but with the rest of the Nation make some enquiry after the way of Peace and Settlement And having met and considered thereof doe humbly Propose as the most probable meanes under God to compose all our Differences and cement all our Breaches both in Church and State the Assembling of a Full and Free PARLIAMENT without any previous Oaths or Engagements or Qualifications whatsoever saving what was in the year 1648. before the Force put upon the Parliament Or the re-admitting of the Secluded Members to the Execution of their Trusts with a full and free Supply of their Vacancies by Death And until one of these be done we do declare We shall not hold our selves engaged to pay the Taxes imposed upon us without our Consents so first had in Parliament THE DECLARATION OF THE Gentry Clergy and Commonalty of the County of ESSEX WEre it not that our former too unhappy Zeal in Idolizing those persons who are now become by far more oppressing than the Egyptian Task-masters at this time seconded with silence would bespeak us stupid and insensible we needed not to repeat the Sighs and Groans of an Oppressed and almost Ruined Kingdome But lest a tacit silence should render us complaint with Their Sacrilegious and Regicidious Proceedings we are necessitated to declare our present Thoughts and future Resolutions We cannot look upon our present Rulers without casting an Eye upon a Militant Church and there we finde them converting a House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves an Orthodox Learned and Reverend Clergy by them reduced to the extremest want under pretence of propagating the Gospel and those who are yet permitted to exercise their Ecclesiastical Function treatned to be deprived of Gods Allowance except in effect they will forsake Him and fall down to their Baal We cannot look into our Cloathing Towns but we behold Famine ready to assault them the poor and diligent Labourer for want of work not able to buy him bread so that those who before wrought with their hands at home are now forced to wander abroad and work with their tongues to beg life whilst we who although willing are hardly able through the Oppression which lyes upon us to relieve them And when we look upon the Instruments of these our Miesries and consider their Persons and Qualifications we cannot finde one publick Spirit not one wise man among them Their number is inconsistent with our Laws and a large part of that small number are reputed Relatives to Gaoles and Brothil-houses Persons who outwardly profess God but in their lives and actions utterly deny him who through their most perfidious Treacheries and reiterated Perjuries have blasted the honour of our Nation and rendred our Religion contemptible to all our Enemies Who while they pretend to strive for Religion and Liberties of the people have no other Cause but Cains thinking their Sins greater than can be forgiven and therefore per fas aut nefas they endeavour to lay a foundation for their own Security although in the Church and Kingdomes desolation These Premises considered we conceive our selves obliged and therefore readily and unanimously we do declare That with our Lives and Fortunes we will protect abet and assist all tho e