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
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
introduce Prosecution for Conscience into the Land again we do hereby in the presence of Almighty God protest and Declare against all Coercive power in matters of Religion and that to the utmost of our strength through Gods assistance we will endeavour to the hazzard of our Blood and Fortunes the Freedom and Protection of all vertuous and religious People by what Name soever differenced from us equal with our selves and that no forreign or other Authority save only the Civil be exercised in England That the Practise of the Law be reformed all corrupt Statutes repealed Annual Elections of all Officers and Magistrates with the constant Succession of Parliaments restored our fundamental Laws cleared and asserted and whatever is contrary there to be abolished That no Trials be admitted in England for Life Limb Liberty or Estate but by the good old way of Juries and that they be restored to their original power and purity That all Extrajudicial and Illegal proceedings by High-Courts of Justice or otherwise with all Illegal and Arbitrary Committees be strictly provided against that the Excise and all other Payments and Taxes such as our Ancestors never knew of together with all Monopolies and Patents destructive to Trade and the Common good of the Nation be also abolished And that our Parliaments and Magistrates be secured from all Force and Violence and utterly cleared from all boundlesse Prerogative and unlimited Priviledge That the Right of the Poor in the Commons of England all Donations for Charitable Uses and all Lands formerly belonging to the People be restor'd again And that Mercy and Justice be truly established amongst us And for these ends and what else may be of publick good to the Nation we do desire and indeed challenge as of English Right the speedy Election of a New Free Parliament And thus most Noble Citizens Brethren and fellow Freemen of England we have dealt truly and plainly with you and given you the real Grounds and Reasons of our taking up Arms looking upon you as the most concern'd in the Nation and therefore hold our selves the more obliged to give you this Early Advice of our Candid and just Intentions in this undertaking that you may not be deluded or frighted though falsly into any strange opinion of us either through your own mistake or by the pollicy of those men who will leave no means unattempted to render us as publick Enemies Rebels and Traitors Plunderers Tyrants and Persecutors or whatever is odious and monstrous to engage you in Blood Believe us right worthy Citizens and Free-born English Brethren we have no Design of Fire or Sword or of Evil toward you or your City or any part of the Nation or any Person in it We know there are thousands amongst you that are satisfied in us it may be indeed that many or most of the Gathered separate Churches may be fearfull and jealous of us and so may be induced to Arms against us but we do again and again protest before Almighty God and the whole World that we have no other purpose towards them but that they with us and we with them may be bound up as Friends and Brethren in the Common Cause of our Countrey that every English-man may have English Freedom and Right and we do not desire to wrong Man Woman or Childe the worth of a Shoo-latchet Therefore we hope you will first well advise before you proceed in a new War lest you bring not only your own but others blood on your heads for we are resolved to presecute this to the last drop of our blood The Case of England is laid before you our Laws and Liberties they are yours as well as ours and for which we have all engaged in the first War and not to be so slightly valued as to be set at stake against the private ends of some ambitious and corrupt persons Salus Populi Suprema Lex let the People live and their Enemies perish Therefore we beseech you we conjure you as English men to stand by your Native Countrey and your Countrey's Cause Our Voice is and it is no other than the Consent and Voice of the People A new free Parliament A new free Parliament it is the English man's main Birth-right which we are resolved to put the People in possession of or to perish with our Swords in our hands But if you will not joyn but degenerate we hope notwithstanding by Gods blessing to carry on this Work Yet to that just and glorious Work we may challenge your concurrence it being your duty as well as ours to endeavour the procurement thereof And therefore to you make it our Proposal to your Militia to the Army and the whole People for the prevention of a New War and the effusion of English blood that you would be instrumental with us for the speedy Election of a New Free Parliament for the ends aforesaid and in the interim all hostility to be forborn and that a day may be appointed and the People suffered to go to their free Elections and we shall quietly submit to their Authority heartily desiring that all revenge division rancor and animosity of spirit may be for ever buried in one General Act of Oblivion And that all Parties Sects and sorts now jarring and making up interests one against another may reconcile cement and concenter in the common Brotherhood of English Freedom and Right in and for which we are Sir George Booth to a Friend of his in London SIR MY last to you of the second instant I understand you have committed to open view the Publication whereof was of general Satisfaction to your Friends here and for which we all hold our selves obliged I have sent you here inclosed an Express from the Knights and Gentlemen engaged with me and beg this further addition to your former many Favours that you would please to take the care upon you to get the same Printed and published for the undeceiving of those amongst you and all other that are yet doubtfull or unsatisfied in us The Messenger will inform you of the present State and condition of Affairs with us to whom I refer you In haste I rest Sir Your most affectionate Friend and Servant George Booth Manchester Aug. 9. 1659. Alleyn Mayor At a Common-Council holden in the Guildhall LONDON On Tuesday the 20. of December 1659. THis Court having taken notice of divers Affronts put upon the Right Honorable Thomas Alleyn the present Lord Mayor of this City with many false and scandalous Aspersions cast upon his Lordship and the Committee appointed by this Court to confer with the Lord Fleetwood touching the Peace and Safety of this City as if they had deserted their Trust or betrayed the Rights and Liberties of this City And in particular that the said Committee seemed satisfied with the Limitations of Parliament called The Seven Principles or unalterable Fundamentals printed in a late scandalous Pamphlet stiled The Publick Intelligencer The said Committee here openly declaring
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
the other enforceth us to this our Declaration we thought that we would not be silent at such a time when our silence would speak us to be Assentors to our own ruine or Abettors of such proceedings as have neither Law nor Equity to support them We therefore 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 do by these Presents unanimously declare That our desires are for a Full and Free Parliament as the only probable means under God to lead us out of this Maze and Labyrinth of confusions in which we are at present engag'd that is that the old secluded Members so many of them as are surviving may be re-admitted into the House and that there may be a free Election of others to supply the places of those who are dead without any Oath or Engagement previous to their entrance these we shall own as the true Representatives of the People these we shall with our Lives and Fortunes to the uttermost of our power assist and with all cheerfulnesse submit to and acquiesce in whatsoever they shall Enact or Ordain Thus concluding that all publick spirited men and good Patriots will with all readinesse joyn and concur with us in a matter of so universal concernment and that we shall finde opposition from none but such as prefer their own private Interests and temporal respects to their Religion and Laws of the Land we shall as bodily subscribe our Names as we do heartily declare our Desires ADVERTISEMENT THe forward zeal of some wel-disposed persons to expresse their cordial and unanimous concurrence with their Countrey-men of the several Counties and Cities of England having caused a Declaration imperfect in a very weighty and material Clause thereof to be printed and published in the Name of the County of Kent c. It was thought fit that the genuine and true Copy of the said Declaration should be set forth as it was intended to be presented to the Speaker and to the present great Arbitrator of the Nations peace and happinesse General MONCK but through the mis-informations of some unquiet spirits who while they may have leave to accuse will leave no man innocent nor the State without trouble the persons of many Gentlemen are secured and others threatned by a great force march'd into the Countrey the Presentation was necessarily omitted and the Names and subscriptions not exposed to publick view for reasons very obvious and evident A NARRATIVE Of the meeting of some Gentlemen Ministers and Citizens at the Town-Hall in Canterbury Together with their Declaration presented to the Mayor at the common Burghmoote UNderstanding that the late procedure of some of the principal Gentlemen and Citizens Inhabitants of the City of Canterbury hath been represented above as a Malignant Design tending to Tumult and Sedition We thought fit to publish to the World a brief Narrative of the same together with the Declaration it self that both the one and the other being cleared from the malicious aspersions and calumnies of our Adversaries the whole Nation may judge between them and us and so give sentence according to the merit of the cause Whereas some peaceable and well-minded Gentlemen with some godly and sober Ministers perceiving the people generally bent for a free Parliament as in the following Declaration is expressed and hearing that the Cities of London and Exeter had lately declared for the same thought it neither unmeet to follow so leading Presidents not unseasonable to joyn their Votes with the general desires of the whole Nation to which end it was resolved to present this following draught to the Common Burghmoote and to desire their concurrence therein Thus in an orderly manner without tumult or noise without Arms in their hands or thoughts or without Anger or Threats in their looks divers Gentlemen Ministers and Citizens went to the Town-hall on Jan. 24. the Mayor Aldermen and Common Councel then sitting and presented the Declaration at the door desiring that after a serious perusal thereof they would be pleased to joyn with them in a business which they judged agreeable not only to the sense of that Court but also of the whole County and Nation But when it was mentioned to be put to the Vote whether the paper should be read or not some of the Bench protested against it although they knew nothing of its contents and in conclusion having a long time rather wrangled than debated the Dissenters being but seven of twenty four quitted the Court not leaving enough to make a Burghmoote Quorum whereupon the Gentlemen who though rudely treated had quietly attended withdrew Re infecta and returned home with as little tumult as at first they came Thus was there nothing done to surprise or disturb the Court nothing to raise a tumult nothing to cause a second Kentish Insurrection as our Adversaries give it out No the design was not Arms but Peace not tumult but settlement not to surprize and disturb the Court but to desire an amiable correspondence with the same to the end that the intended Declaration might be made the more authentick by the formal intervention and assent in open Court of the Magistracy of so considerable a Corporation and that the Declarers themselves might not be thought to tread in any oblique Paths or to proceed in a Clandestine manner But being disappointed as you see herein it was thought fit to strengthen and confirm our Declaration and to make good the Title it bears by private subscriptions as well through the whole County as this City wherein we had in three dayes time proceeded so far that many thousands were then collected whereupon some Gentlemen from the slie insinuations and false representations of our Aversaries were secured in several prisons to the discouragement of well-begun and well-meant undertaking neither can the Gentlemen understand wherein they have offended or how they should merit imprisonment since there was no order nor prohibition to the contrary Although they conceive that had they proceeded therein they had not trangressed any known Laws of the Land it being the Subjects Birth-right modestly to represent their grievances by way of Petition Remonstrance or Declaration Wherefore lest through our silence and the present suppression of our Declaration the aspersions of our Adversaries might be thought deservedly cast upon us we thought fit to publish the same together with this Narrative deeming that as we have done nothing herein worthy the present severity so the impartial Reader will in his private judgement absolve us from all guilt or demerit Neither shall we answer our Adversaries by way of recrimination nor although we can by undoubted testimonies sufficiently prove it say that the same men who now appear so zealous assertors of the Parliaments interests and proceedings did as eagerly joyn with the Army crying them up as much with whom they would live and dye as they decryed this
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