Departs His thoughts and mine do not agree what ere the matter is His Conceit is this The Nation 's mad and Promoted by false appetite covets things Mischievous that is Monarchy the wise and Charitatable Physitian that is the Common-wealths man he forces upon it what he knows to be more proper for the Cure and this is a Free-State Now here 's our difference I 'm of opinion that the Physitians are mad the Nation sober we 've try'd their Physick for some dozen years together and every day we 're worse then other upon it we finde upon Experiment that they prescribe us Poyson instead of Remedies and that they are but Mountebanks they Live by Killing us Our Former Diet agreed much better with our Constitution so that we have no way left but to fall to That again But to conclude his conceit of a Iadish People with a Gall'd Back That 's his Master-Piece He tells us it will neither suffer a Rider nor a Dressing till it be overcome by Force and then a Child may up and Ride it These are somewhat broad signs Now by your favour Sir the Faults not in the Horse but rather in the Rider and the Saddle The Nation has been Ridden these dozen years together at Switch and Spur in a Commonwealth Saddle That must needs pinch the Back of a Monarchique People Nor is it yet so tame as you imagine Change but the SADDLE and the RIDER and you shall see the Nation will do well without a Horsleech March 27. 1660. UPon the neck of this came out Two sharper Pamphlets written as I am of late Enformed by a Renegado Parson but as then I took them to be either Nedham's or Miltons a Couple of Currs of the same Pack They were Printed by Livewell Chapman and a Proclamation from the Counsell was issued out against him for it to which he never appeared I was by many Reasons moved to Answer these as well to lay them Open and Confute them as to prevent the Possible exception that might arise from a Reply by some less wary though more skilfull pen The malice of these Pamphlets was Double-edged and the Blow made at the Kings Party over the Presbyterians Shoulder Directed to perswade the World that 't was the Presbyterian did the Mischief and to engage the Presbyter himself under an Apprehension of Revenge The scope will better appear upon the Reading and whether I did Well or Ill to write these following Answers Plain English TO HIS EXCELLENCIE The LORD GENERALL MONK AND The OFFICERS of the ARMY under his COMMAND My Lord and Gentlemen IT is written The prudent shall keep silence in an evil time and 't is like we also might hold our peace but that we fear a knife is at the very throat not only of our and your Liberties but of our persons too In this condition we hope it will be no offence if we cry out to you for help you that through Gods goodness have helped us so often and strenuously maintained the same Cause with us against the return of that Family which pretends to the Government of these Nations It is the pulick interest and yours that we hitherto fought for and for which we now plead therefore we insist upon it with the greater confidence before you because we are all equally concerned in the good or ill of your transactions We cannot yet be perswaded though our fears and jealousies are strong and the grounds of them many that you can so lull asleep your Consciences or forget the publick Interest and your own as to be returning back with the multitude to Egypt or that you should with them be hankering after the Lecks and Onions of our old bondage Though it were possible you should forget yet certainly God will not all the injuries and oppressions done by that family to his Church and people in these and other Nations Though the Inscription Exit Tyrannus which was fixed over the place where the Statue of the late King formerly stood at the Exchange hath been blotted out by the Rabble yet it is written with the Pen of a Diamond in the hearts of many thousands and will be so hereafter in the adamantine Rolls of Fame and History No matter then though the prophane Vulgar take a liberty to proclaim him both Saint and Martyr in the midst of their Bon-fires and their Tipple All the good fellows were ever at his Devotion because he was for theirs and commanded it to be observed upon the Sundaies But to the end it may be better known how good a King and how great a Saint he was we have taken the boldness at this instant to offer you an accompt of some part of the transactions during his Reign and because there are too many in the City who wait the good time to re-erect his Statue we desire in the first place to present you his Picture as it was drawn by a good hand the Parliament in the year 1647. at which time it was resolved upon the Question joyntly by the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled That they would make no further Addresses or Applications to the King or receive any Message from him ANSWER SOme two dayes since came to my view a Bold Sharp Pamphlet call'd PLAIN ENGLISH directed to the GENERAL and his OFFICERS c. It is a Piece drawn by no fool and it deserves a serious Answer By the Design the Subject Malice and the Stile I should suspect it for a Blot of the same Pen that wrote ICONOCLASTES It runs foul tends to Tumult and not content Barely to Applaud the Murther of the King the execrable Author of it vomits upon his Ashes with a Pedantique and Envenom'd scorn persuing still his sacred Memory Betwixt Him and his Brother Rabshakeh I think a man may venture to divide the glory of it it relishes the mixture of their united faculties and wickedness As yet 't is true the Hand is somewhat doubtfull to us but the Drift Certain and 't is as Clear from whence it first mov'd as to what end it tends it speaks the Rancour and the interest of the Rump be the contrivance whose it will and beyond doubt it was written by some Mercenary to the Faction and That by their direction and appointment 'T is too Malicious for a private Passion and too Dangerous for one that writes not either for Bread or Life Take it in gross 't is an Alarm to all the Phanatiques in England couched under the specious notion of an Appeal to the General and his Army asserting to all purposes the interests and Justifying the horrid Practises of the Regicide-Party It Remonstrates Expostulates Tempts Threatens Flatters Begs Prevaricates and by all Artifices toward all Humours it moulds it self into an application suitable only upon the Blood and Family of the late King it lashes out into an Impious and Inhumane fury sufficient to Disgrace the Sober in comparison promoters of his Death and to Startle their very Consciences
when the General provides for the Peace of the City and the Mayor for the Safety of the Army not to argue Acts of Oblivion and the violation of Publique faith in the case that they Conditioned for their Lives and Liberties and Compounded for their Fortunes This is not our Concern what they do suffer but what wee may if we trust those that Keep no Faith with them And that wee 'll take a care of When They are Gone then Wee are the Common Enemy So are the Laws of God and of the Nation and such is every Man that loves them What this Malignant party is these People talk of we neither Know nor Meddle the Gentry 't is we Live by and by the Lawes of Gratitude and Hospitality we are bound to Protect them and resolved to doe it within our Walls against any other Power than that of the Known Law The short of the Designe is This a Danger is pretended to the City from the late Kings party and to prevent the mischief the Kind Committee Banishes the Gentlemen with Order to the Mayor to make strict searches for Delinquents Now in persuance of this pretious Order our Houses must be forced and we Disarmed and then our throats cut to preserve the City Let those that would be Chronicled for Slaves and Fools submit to suffer this and after that Infamous Hour may a Yellow Coat and a Wooden Dagger be the Badge and Distinction of a Citizen To conclude We our selves are That City so much the Care and Cry of the Proclamation and This is our Unanimous sense and Resolve The Army proposes to Pillage and Murther us the Mayor and his worthy Advisers Ireton c. are to hold our Hands while They give the Blow So that we are now to provide both against Force and Treason having One Enemy within our Walls and Another in our Counsels But withall we have our Swords in our Hands and our Brains in our Heads and only to Strike the One and to Disbelieve the Other is to Subdue and Disappoint them Both We do therefore declare to the World that we will by Violence oppose all Violence whatsoever which is not warranted by the Letter of the Established Law that in persuance of this Duty both toward the Nation and City an Insolent Souldier and an Apostate Magistrate shall be to us as the same thing Not to word it much further as we will not be Baffled by Affronts so neither will we be Fooled by Flatteries After the Loss of Trade and Liberty a vast expence of Blood and Treasure After many Injuries received more threatned and none returned We made a sober and Regular Application to the Authority of the City for Redress This they Promised and wee Expected till at last instead of a Reparation for past Wrongs or a Security against worse to come VVe are paid with an Expectation of a Parliament in Ianuary This is a Logique we understand not It is in English Lye still till we cut your throats It would be well to commit the disposition of our Fortunes to those people that are at this Instant designing an Execution upon our Persons and to require those Worthies that have already Robb'd us of all we have Lost with the Offer of that little Rest they have Left But this will not doe our Businesse we will not have our Murtherers for our Iudges nor will we wait That Parliament they babble of so much will scarce Vote up the City again out of Ashes nor all the Saints in that holy Assembly bring the poor Cobler into the world again that was Kill'd by order of his Brother Hewson No the Cheat is too stale and wee are Determined to Redeem our selves but with this Caution VVe do solemnly professe that we will exercise all the Tenderness which possibly the Case will bear The Common Souldier is engaged rather out of a Heedless than Malicious Interest VVe do therefore Protest that such of those as shall not evidence their Malice by their Obstinacy shall receive a Fair Consideration But for such as Lead them we do Resolve not to allow Quarter to any one of them that draws his Sword in the Quarrel And in Order to the Quicker and Gentler Dispatch of the Business Wee conclude with a Text Fight neither with Small nor Great but with the King of Israel And so God give a Blessing to the Endeavours of all Honest Men THis Sheet gave great offence to the Saints and particularly to Titchborn who examined the Matter himself and ordered the punishment of the Women that sold it after many Personal Abuses beside the Loss of their Copies Dec. 18 Divers persons of Quality were seised in the City by the Soldiers and in a Barbarous Unseemly manner Stript and Driven Naked to the Mewes Soon after comes Intelligence that the Forces employ'd to Reduce Portsmouth were joyn'd with the Fugitive Members and upon their March for London whereupon I caused to be Printed as followes The Resolve of the City Decemb. 23. 1659. OUr Respects to Peace and Order are too notorious to be questioned since by the meer Impressions of Charity and Obedience wee have thus long suspended the Iustice wee owe to our Selves together with that Vengeance which the Bloud of our Murthered Companions requires at our hands Nor have these Principles of Publique tenderness been lesse Eminent upon our Iudgements than upon our Passions For we have as well Believâ—d in Contradiction to Evidence of Experiment as wee have Suffered in Opposition to the very Elements and Dictates of Humanity Witness that Execrable Monday sacred to the Eternal Infamy of this City even Then when we had that Enemy at our Mercy toward whom by the Rights of Nature and of Generosity wee were not bound to exercise any even Then I say in the very Heat and Course of an Honest and Powerfull Indignation we returned Quietly to our Houses upon the first Notice that the Authority of the City would have it so But it is likewise true that this Assurance was added to the Message viz. That the Common counsel was sensible of our Grievances and would duly consider them Since this we find nothing done in persuance of that Promise but on the Contrary Injuries are Multiplyed upon us and those of that Day serve but as Arguments of Encouragement to Greater Some of us Killed Others Wounded and lead in Triumph Naked through the Streets Two or three Hundred Thousand Persons Looking on to celebrate the Conquest and the Shame A Citizens Skull is but a thing to try the Temper of a Souldiers Sword upon Give us every Man a Red-coat for a Cash-Keeper and the work 's done They 're come within a Trifle on 't already and all this while an Order to be Quiet is all our Patient Masters will afford us Give us an Order that may make us Safe although we need not Ask what we can Give our selves Perswade these people to be Gone or Bidus Drive them out What Law
made Pauls and Gresham Colledge Garrisons If nothing else will do we 'll do 't our selves We have Engaged and sworn the Vindication of the City and nothing can Absolve us from the Oath we have taken This must be done betimes too 't will come too late else to prevent either the Necessity of a Tumult or the greater Mischief of a Supine and Credulous Security A Parliament in Ianuary will do us no more good than a Cordial will do him that was Hanged last Sessions Our Sense at Large we delivered to the world in a Paper Entituled The Final Protest and Sense of the CITY VVhich is Publique enough notwithstanding the great Design used to suppress it and the Insolences of divers persons disaffected to the good of the City toward those that sold them To That we adhere That Protest of Ours produced Another from the Common counsel of the 20th Current to which something ought to bee said The sum of that Order is but in effect the Justification of the Lord Mayor in the matter of Prudence and Integrity we do not Deny but finding our selves abandoned to all sorts of Outrages by the Cold Proceeding of the Court in our behalf we were transported to some bitter Reflections Involving the present Mayor with his more Criminal Predecessor Ireton in the Imputation We shall not more Gladly find it a Mistake than Readily Confess it one when we reap the Effects of that Care for the Good of the City but so long as Wee are tyed up from all Lawfull Defence and the Publique Enemy at liberty to practise all Unlawfull Violences upon us we desire to be Pardoned if we suspend in the Case The Cloze indeed is very Noble and worthy of the Court where they Declare For the Fundamental Lawes and the Protestant Religion c. and in fine to endeavour the convening of a Free Parliament in order thereunto But in Contradiction to this Resolve the Committee of Officers have yesterday published a Paper Entituled The Agreement c. fairly telling us That we are to be Governed by People of their Chusing and by a Model of their framing without any regard had to the Practice and Reason of the Antient Laws or to the Interest and Liberty of every Freeborn English-man This Usurpation is to bee considered in its due place at present it concerns us to hinder them from making the Slavery of the City their first Step towards the Subjection of the Nation The seasonable Care of This we do Humbly and Earnestly recommend to the Court of Common-counsel Our Hopes are that we are now fallen into Better hands and if our Magistrates will but Command us they have an Hundred Thousand Lives in readiness to Engage for them If we should be so unhappy as to be still delayed wee do however wash our hands of the Consequences And so God Direct and Deliver Us OBserving how much more Unanimous the Army was to Destroy Us than We to Save our Selves and Finding nothing extant of Direction to the Necessary purpose of an Universal Union I presumed to Publish a Paper containing what I judg'd might Rationally Promote such an Agreement under the Notion of a thing already done It runs Thus A FREE PARLIAMENT Proposed by the CITY to the NATION GENTLEMEN HAving certain Intelligence of great Preparations against us from Abroad together with the daily and wofull experience of a more Barbarous and Ignoble Enemy at Home we have bethought our selves of an Expedient which may at once both Secure and Deliver the Nation from the Danger of the One and from the Tyranny of the Other In order to this effect The City of London hath constituted 4 Commissioners to Treat Respectively with the rest of the People of England in the behalf of their invaded Rights and in such manner to Proceed as to the said Commissioners shall appear most convenient In persuance of this Appointment We Four whose Names and Authority you shall find in a Schedule to this annexed do in the Name and by the Commission of the City of London earnestly and unanimously desire a General Assistance toward a work of a Publique and Universal Benefit The transaction of this Affair we have committed to Persons eminent both for Honesty and Fortune and to gain Dispatch as well as Privacy wee have at the same Instant and by safe hands dispersed True and Exact Copies of These to you throughout England and Wales Our Application should have been more Regular but for three or four false Brethren in our Counsels whom wee dare not confide in We find few the Honester for the Quarrel that are the Richer for it and no other Enemies to the Peace of the Nation but the Gainers by the Ruine of it Upō a due scanning of the whole matter we have concluded that nothing can restore us but a Free Parliament Nor can any thing compose that but a Free Vote without either Force or Faction The most likely means to procure this will be a general Engagement to endeavour it We ask no more than that you will follow our Example That Paper which we commend to you is already subscribed by many Thousands of this City If you Approve it doe as much and if you think Fit chuse out of every County Two Persons of a Known Integrity that may be still Among us and at hand to preserve a fair Intelligence betwixt us No longer since than Yesterday the Conservators of our Liberties Hewson and his Mirmidons put an affront upon us and with some mischief too upon this very Point The very mention of a Free-Parliament enrages them and there is Reason for it Their Heads are forfeited and if the Law Lives They must Perish But all this while we 're in a good condition when the Trangressors of the Laws must be the Iudges of it The very Boyes and Women had destroyed the Party to a man but that with much adoe we hindred them The Truth is in such a Confusion more honest blood might have been spilt than that Rabble was worth Upon this the City is grown so impatient of the Souldiers that 't is to be feared they will sodainly break out into an open violence upon them They have already entred into a solemn Engagement to that purpose But we shall doe our best to quiet them till we receive your Answer In Fine the End is honorable and we desire the means that lead to it may be so too Let nothing be omitted that may save blood The Army is necessitous and without pay they must or Steal or Perish Let us consider they are our Countrey-men and many of them the necessity apart our Friends Let such a course be taken that so many of them as shall contribute to the Advantage of a Free Election may without either Fraud or Delay receive their Arriers We shall do our part in the Contribution and in all Offices of Relation to a Religious and Lawfull Settlement as freely engage our Lives and Fortunes with you as
Businesse was the Recorder But Equall to them All was the brave General The Rump was now come to a Forc'd Put. Monies must be Rays'd and the City Subdu'd or the Good Old Cause is Lost. In Order to Both Out comes the Long look'd for 100000 Tax upon Tuesday Feb. 7. which was Follow'd with a Negative Resolve of Common Counsel upon Wednesday but Thursday was the Bloody Day Design'd both to his Excellence and to the Town witnesse the Resolves it produced as to the City and the Orders Imposed upon the General His Excellence having drawn his Forces into the City so far Comply'd with his respects even to the least Image of Authority as to Secure diverse Persons by virtue of an Order to that express purpose But to Destroy Their Gales and Portcullices he was very Loth and signifi'd as much to the Members in a Letter from Guild Hall to which he received in Answer only a more peremptory Command to Proceed which accordingly he Executed the day following and so returned to his Quarters The Resolves of Feb. 9. I must not Omit for they deserve to be Transmitted to Posterity Thursday 9. Feb. THe House received a Report from the Council of State of some Resolutions taken by the Council in relation to the City of London Resolved That the Parliament doth approve of what the Council of State hath done in ordering That the Commissioners for Government of the Army do appoint Forces to be and continue in the City of London for preserving the Peace thereof and of the Commonwealth and for Reducing of the City to the obedience of the Parliament Resolved That the Parliament doth approve of what the Council of State have done in ordering that the Commissioners for the Army do take order that the Posts and Chains in the City of London be taken away Resolved That the Gates of the City of London and the Portcullices there be forthwith destroyed Resolved That the Parliament doth approve of what the Council of State and Commissioners of the Army have done in Seizing and Apprehending of Mr. Vincent Merchant in Bishopsgate-Street And Thomas Brown Grocer in Wood-Street Daniel Spencer in Friday Street Laurence Brompfield in Tower-Street Major Chamberlain Mr. Bludworth and Richard Ford in Seething-Lane Major Cox at the Swan in Dowgate Mr. Penning in Fanchurch Street and Lieutenant Colonel Iackson Resolved That the present Common-Council of the City of London Elected for this Year be discontinued and be and are hereby declared to be Null and Void and that the Lord Mayor of London have notice hereof Ordered That it be referred to a Committee to bring in a Bill for the Choice of another Common-Counsel with such Qualifications as the Parliament shall think fit with ordet to meet at 8. of the Clock in the Speakers Chamber to morrow morning The House likewise read the Bill for setling the Militia of the City of London and the Liberties thereof the first time and referred it to the Council of State to present names of Commissioners for the Militia of the City of London to the House to morrow morning The Parliament taking Notice of the discreet carriage of the Lord Mayor of the City of London in the Late transactions of the Common-Council Ordered That the Lord Mayor have the thanks of this House and that Alderman Atkins do give him the thanks of the Parliament accordingly THis day produced likewise a remarkable Petition Presented by Praise-God Barebones Pressing that no man might be Admitted into any place of Trust except such as should ABJURE A SINGLE PERSON and further Praying that it might be Enacted HIGH TREASON for any man to MOVE OFFER or PROPOUND in PARLIAMENT COUNSEL COURT or PUBLIQUE MEETING any thing in order to CHARLES STEVVART c. and that after such a LAVV ENACTED it might be deemed HIGH TREASON for any man to move or Propose the REVOCATION of it A man would have thought these people should have had enough already of the Oath of ABJURATION for nothing did more expose them than the eagernesse they had formerly used in the promoting of it which served only to Enrage the Opposers and to set up for a Marque the Infamous Abetters of it But all this was not sufficient to divert the Gratious Members from a most Particular Order of Thanks to the Petitioners Upon Saturday the memorable 11th of Feb. the General finding himself a little more at Liberty Removed his Quarters into the City and there Declared himself to the Universal Satisfaction of the Nation Desiring Particularly by Letter the men of Westminster to bethink themselves of their Dissolution In the transaction of this Affair there were so many untoward Circumstances that to Prevent Mistakes I dispersed Several Copies of this ensuing Narrative IN Octob. last when Lambert scattered the Committee of Westminster his Unluckie Excellency thought it then a fit time to set up for himself and in the Head of a Phanatique Party to bid Defiance to all the Sober Interests and Iudgements of the Nation His Principal assistant in the work was Sir Henry Vane the Prophet of that Inspired Rabble The Faction was grown Bold and Formidable when to divert the Course or meet the Fury of it the General was Invited to draw a Force from Scotland into the North and In he came but to a Nobler purpose than ever they Intended They Called him in to save Themselves he Came to save the Nation Upon the first notice of his Advance Lambert was sent with a considerable Army to meet him and London left almost without a Publique Guard such was the Confidence they had in the Anabaptistique Party which was privately Armed and Listed in and about the town In fine after diverse Affronts upon and Tumults in the City the Souldiery Revolted the Fugitive Members Returned Lambert's Army Mouldered away and his Excellency vanished Thus far without a Blow but the more difficult part was still behind for Treacherous friends are much more dangerous than professed Enemies The General resolves next for London and makes it his design both in his Passage and after his Arrive by all means possible to avoid blood-shed His March speaks him a Souldier and a Gentleman for it was Regular and Inoffensive The Country courted him upon the way as their Deliverer and he deserved it For he hath proved himself no lesse The strict reserve he used was but what best became his Dignity and Prudence he was too Generous to betray Another and too Wise to be betrayed Himself Under this Guard of Honour and of Cautiâ—n he past his Journey not to trouble you with long stories how the waies were thronged with Cries and Addresses of the Nation for a Free-Parliament what Conference he had with the good Aldermen what Complements were made him by the Other men of Westminster c. To come to the Point upon Friday afternoon the third of this Instant February General Monck took up his Lodgings in Whitehall On the Monday following his Excellency was