Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A88261
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To the right honourable the Commons of England, in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of thousands wel-affected persons inhabiting the City of London, Westminster, the borough of Southwark, hamlets and places adjacent.
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1648
(1648)
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Wing L2188; Thomason 669.f.13[16]; ESTC R210908
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6,046
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1
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Peace it is well known to have been cryed up principally by such as have been alwaies dis-affected unto you and though you have not contradicted it yet it is believed that you much feare the issue thereof as you have cause sufficient except you see greater alteration in the King and his party then is generally observed there having never yet been any Treaty with him but was accompanied with some underhand-dealing and whilst the present force upon him though seeming liberty will in time to come be certainly pleaded against all that shall or can be agreed upon Nay what can you confide in if you consider how he hath been provoked and what former Kings upon lesse provocations have done after Oaths Laws Charters Bonds Excommunications and all tyes of Reconciliations to the destruction of all those that had provoked and opposed them yea when your selves so soon as he had signed those Bills in the beginning of this Parliament saw cause to tell him That even in or about the time of passing those Bills some designe or other was on foot which if it had taken effect would not only have rendred those Bills fruitlesse but have reduced you to a worse condition of confusion than that wherein the Parliament found you And if you consider what new Wars Risings Rovolting invasions and plottings have been since this last cry for a Personall Treaty you will not blame us if we wonder at your hasty proceedings thereunto especially considering the wonderfull Victories which God hath blessed the Armies withall We professe we cannot chuse but stand amazed to consider the inevitable danger we shall be in though all things in the Propositions were agreed unto the resolutions of the King and his party have been so perpetually violently and implacably prosecuted and manifested against us and that with such scorn and indignation that it must be more than such ordinary Bonds that must hold them And it is no lesse a wonder to us that you can place your own security therein or that you can ever imagin to see a free Parliament any more in England The truth is and we see we must either now speake it or for ever be silent We have long expected things of an other nature from you and such as we are confident would have given satisfaction to all serious people of all Parties As 1. That you would have made the supreme authoritie of the people in this Honourable House from all pretences of Negative Voices either in the King or Lords 2. That you would have made laws for election of representatives yearly and of course without writ or summons 3. That you would have set expresse times for their meeting Continuance and Dissolution as not to exceed 40. or 50. daies at the most and to have fixed an expresse time for the ending of this present Parliament 4. That you would have exempted matters of Religion and Gods worship from the compulsive or restirictive power of any Authority upon earth and reserved to the supreme authoritie an un-compulsive power only of appointing a way for the publick whereby abundance of misery persecution and heart-burning would for ever be avoided 5. That you would have disclaimed in your selves and all future Representatives a power of Pressing and forcing any sort of men to serve in warrs there being nothing more opposite to freedom nor more unreasonable in an authoritie impowered for raising monies in all occasions for which and a just cause assistants need not be doubted the other way serving rather to maintain injustice and corrupt parties 6. That you would have made both Kings Queens Princes Dukes Earls Lords and all Persons alike liable to every Law of the Land made or to be made that so all persons even the Highest might fear and stand in aw and neither violate the publick peace nor private right of person or estate as hath been frequent without being lyable to accompt as other men 7. That you would have freed all Commoners from the Jurisdiction of the Lords in all cases and to have taken care that all tryalls should be only by twelve sworn men and no conviction but upon two or more sufficient known witnesses 8. That you would have freed all men from being examined against themselves and from being questioned or punished for doing of that against which no Law hath bin provided 9. That you would have abbreviated the proceedings in Law mitigated and made certain the charge thereof in all particulars 10. That you would have freed all Trade and Merchandising from all Monopolizing and Engrossing by Companies or otherwise 11. That you would have abolished Excise and all kind of taxes except subsidies the old and onely just way of England 12. That you would have laid open all late Inclosures of Fens and other Commons or have enclosed them onely or chiefly to the benefit of the poor 13. That you would have considered the many thousands that are ruined by perpetuall imprisonment for debt and provided for their anlargement 14. That you would have ordered some effectuall course to keep people from begging and beggery in so fruitfull a Nation as through Gods blessing this is 15. That you would have proportioned punishments more equal to offences that so mens Lives and Estates might not be forfeited upon trivial and slight occasions 16. That you would have removed the tedious burthen of Tythes satisfying all Impropriators and providing a more equal way of maintenance for the publike Ministers 17. That you would have raised a stock of Money out of those many confiscated Estates you have had for payment of those who contributed voluntarily above their abilities before you had provided for those that disbursed out of their superfluities 18. that you would have bound your selves and all future Parliaments from abolishing propriety levelling mens Estates or making all things common 19. That you wovld have declared what the duty or businesse of the Kingly office is and what not and ascertained the Revenue past increase or diminution that so there might never be more quarrels about the same 20. That you would have rectified the election of publike Officers of the Citie of London and of every particular Company therein restoring the Comunalty thereof to their just Rights most unjustly with-held from them to the producing and maintaining of corrupt interest opposite to common Freedom and exceedingly prejudicial to the Trade and Manufactures of this Nation 21. That you would have made full and ample reparations to all persons that had bin oppressed by sentences in High Commission Star-Chamber and Counsel Board or by any kind of Monopolizers or Projectors and that out of the Estates of those that were Authors Actors or Promoters of so intollerable mischiefs and that without much attendance or seeking 22. That you would have abolished all Committees and have convayed all businesses into the true method of the usuall Tryalls of the Common-wealth 23. That you would not have followed the example of former tyrannous and superstitious Parliaments in
TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE COMMONS OF ENGLAND in Parliament assembled The humble Petition of Thousands wel-affected persons inhabiting the City of London Westminster the Borough of Southwark Hamlets and places adjacent Sheweth THat although we are as earnestly desirous of a safe and well-grounded Peace and that a finall end were put to all the troubles and miseries of the Common-wealth as any sort of men whatsoever Yet considering upon what grounds we ingaged on your Part in the late and present Wars and how far by our so doing we apprehend our selves concerned Give us leave before you conclude us by the Treaty in hand to acquaint you first with the ground and reason which induced us to aid you against the King and his Adherents Secondly What our Apprehensions are of this Treaty Thirdly what we expected from you and do still most earnestly desire Be pleased therefore to understand that we had not ingaged on your part but that we judged this honorable House to be the supreme Authority of England as chosen by and representing the People and intrusted with absolute power for redresse of Grievances and provision for Safety and that the King was but at the most the chief publike Officer of this Kingdom and accomptable to this House the Representative of the People from whom all just Authority is or ought to be derived for discharge of his Office And if we had not bin confident hereof we had not bin desperately mad to have taken up Armes or to have bin aiding and assisting in maintaining a War against Him the Laws of the Land making it expresly a crime no lesse than Treason for any to raise War against the King But when we considered the manifold oppressions brought upon the Nation by the King his Lords and Bishops and that this Honourable House declared their deep sense thereof and that for continuance of that power which had so opprest us it was evident the King intended to raise Forces and to make War and that if he did set up his Standard it tended to the dissolution of the Government upon this knowing the safety of the People to be above Law and that to judge thereof appertained to the supreme Authority and not to the supreme Magistrate and being satisfied in our Consciences that the publike safety and freedom was in imminent danger we concluded we had not onely a just cause to maintain but the supreme Authority of the Nation to justifie defend and indempnifie us in time to come in what we should perform by direction thereof though the highest And as this our understanding was begotten in us by principles of right reason so were we confirmed therein by your own proceedings as by your condemning those Judges who in the case of Ship-money had declared the King to be Judge of Safety and by your denying him to have a Negative voice in the making of Lawes where you wholly exclude the King from having any share in the supreme Authority Then by your casting the Bishops out of the House of Lords who by tradition also had bin accounted an essentiall part of the supreme Authority and by your declaring to the Lords That if they would not joyn with you in setling the Militia which they long refused you would settle it without them which you could not justly have done had they had any reall share in the supreme Authority These things we took for reall Demonstrations that you undoubtedly knew your selves to be the supreme Authority ever weighing down in us all other your indulgent Expressions concerning the King or Lords it being indeed impossible for us to believe that it can consist either with the safety or freedom of the Nation to be governed either by three or two Supremes especially where experience hath proved them so apt to differ in their Judgments concerning freedom or safety that the one hath bin known to punish what the other hath judged worthy of reward when not only the freedom of the people is directly opposite to the Prerogatives of the King and Lords but the open enemies of the one have bin declared friends by the other as the Scots were by the House of Lords And when as most of the oppressions of the Common-wealth have in all times bin brought upon the people by the King and Lords who nevertheless would be so equal in the supreme Authority as that there could be no redress of Grievances no provision for safety but at their pleasure For our parts we profess our selves to be so far from judging this to be consistent with freedom or safety that we know no greater cause wherefore we assisted you in the late Wars but in hope to be delivered by you from so intolerable so destructive a bondage so soon as you should through Gods blessing upon the Armies raised by you be inabled But to our exceeding griefe we have observed that no sooner God vouchsafeth you victory and blesseth you with success and thereby inableth you to put us and the whole Nation into an absolute condition of Freedom and Safety but according as ye have been accustomed passing by the ruine of the Nation and all the blood that hath been spilt by the King and his Party ye betake your selves to a Treaty with him thereby putting him that is but one single person and a publike Officer of the Common-wealth in competition with the whole Body of the People whom ye represent not considering that it is impossible for you to erect any Authority equall to your selves and declared to all the world that you will not alter the ancient Government from that of King Lords and Commons not once mentioning in case of difference which of them is supreme but leaving that point which was the chiefest cause of all our publike differences disturbances wars and miseries as uncertain as ever In so much as we who upon these grounds have laid out our selves every way to the uttermost of our abilities and all others throughout the Land Souldiers and others who have done the like in defence of your supreme Authority and in opposition to the King cannot but deem our selves in the most dangerous condition of all others left without all plea of indempnity for what we have done as already many have found by losse of their lives and liberties either for things done or said against the King the law of the land frequently taking place and precedency against and before your Authoritie which we esteemed supreme and against which no law ought to be pleaded Nor can we possibly conceive how any that have any waies assisted you can be exempt from the guilt of murderers and robbers by the present laws in force if you persist to disclaim the supreme authoritie though their own consciences do acquit them as having opposed none but manifest Tyrants Oppressors and their adherents And whereas a Personall Treaty or any Treaty with the King hath been long time held forth as the onely means of a safe and wel-grounded