THE ANSWER OF THE COMMONS TO A PETITION In the name of thousands wel-affected persons inhabiting the City of London Westminster Borough of Southwarke and Hamlets and places adjacent Printed in the Year 1648. To the Right Honourable the Commons of England c. SHEWETH A THat although we are as earnestly desirous of a safe and wel 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 engaged 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 as 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 B Be pleased therefore to understand that we had not engaged on your part but that wee judged this Honourable House to be the Supreame Authority of England as chosen by and representing the People and entrusted with absolute power for redresse of Grievances and provision for Safety and that the King was but at the most the chief publique Officer of this Kingdome 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 been confident hereof we had been desperately mad to have taken up Armes or to have been aiding and assisting in maintaining a War against Him The Laws of the Land making it expresly a crime no lesse then Treason for any to raise War against the King C But when we consider the manifold oppressions brought upon the Nation by the King His Lords and Bishops and that this Honourable House declared their deepe sence thereof and that for continuance of that power which had so opposed 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 Supreame Authority and not to the Supreame Magistrate and being satisfied in our Consciences that the publique safety and freedome was in imminent danger we concluded we had not only a just cause to maintaine but the Supreame Authority of the Nation to justifie defend and indempnifie us in time to come in what we should performe by direction thereof though against the knowne Law of the Land on any inferiour Authority though the highest D And as this our understanding was begotten in us by principles of right reason so were we confirmed herein by their own proceedings as by your condemning these Iudges who in the case of Ship money had declared the King to be Iudge of safety and by your dâ—â—â—ing Him to have a negative Voice in the making of Lawes where you wholly exclude the King from having any share in the Supream Authority Then by your casting the Bishops out of the House of Lords who by tradition also had been accounted an essentiall part of the Supream Authority And by your declaring to the Lords that if they would not joyne with you in sending the Militia which they long refused you would settle it without them which you could not justly have done and they had any 〈…〉 in the Supreame Authority E These things we tooke for real Demonstration that you undoubtedly knew your selves to be the Supreame Authority over weighing downe in us all other your indulgent expressions concerning the King Lords It being indeed impossible for us to beleeve that it can consist either with the safety or freedome of the Nation to be governed either by three or two Supreames especially where experience hath proved them so apt to differ in their judgements concerning Freedome or Safety that the one hath been knowne to punish what the other hath judged worthy of reward when not onely the freedome of the people is directly opposite to the Prerogatives of the King and Lords but the open enemies of the one have been declared friends by the other as the Scots were by the House of Lords F And when as most of the oppressions of the Common-wealth have in all times been brought upon the people by the King and Lords who neverthelesse would be so equall in the Supreame Authority as that there should be no redresse of grievances no provision for safety but at their pleasure For our parts we professe our selves so far from judging this to be consistent with Freedome or Safety that we know no great cause wherefore we assisted you in the late Wars but in hope to be delivered by you from so intollerable so destructive a bondage so soone as you should through Gods blessing upon the Armies raised by you be enabled G But to our exceeding griefe we have observed that no sooner God vouchsafeth you Victory and blesseth you with successe and thereby enableth you to put us and the whole Nation into an absolute condition of Freedome and Safety but according as ye have been accustomed passing by the ruine of a 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 puttitg Him that is but one single person and a publique 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 nor once mentioning in case of difference which of them is Supreame but leaving that point which was the chiefest cause of all our publique differences disturbances Wars and miseries as uncertain as ever H In so much as we who upon these grounds have laid out our selves every way to the utmost of our abilities and all others throughout the Land Souldiers and others who have done the like in defence of our Supreame Authority and in opposition to the King cannot but deeme 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 Authority which we esteemed Supreame 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 murders and robbers by the present Lawes in force if you persist to disclaime the Supreame Authority though their owne conscience doe acquit them as having opposed none but manifest Tyrants Oppressors and their
pl ase to enact is necessary but you omit that we are called by the Kings Writ without which we could not come together nor be sent And we are not called to redresse grievances but to present them for you may very well know the course that all Parliaments at least the House of Commons have taken in this kinde which is to Petition the King for redresse and after advice for provision of safety That which you say that the King was at most but the chief publique Officer of this Kingdome is contrary to the professions of this House in this present Parliament divers Acts of former Parliaments and the knowne Law and it s a title no age in this Kingdome ever heard of Could you imagine that the Supreame Governour is but an Officer there being no power to command Him all being His Subjects Looke into the Scripture were the Kings there Officers to any and hath the King of England lesse power then God allowed the Kings of his owne people or have the people of England greater power then the people of God had It s true Kings are Ministers of God but Rulers of the people and there is nothing more absurd then that he who is the Ruler of all should be intitled only an Officer to all It s true the function of a King is profitable to all and He watches for the good of all but it no way agrees to His calling to be an Officer in that sense that is to be subordinate to any and cannot stand with His Supremacy which we have sworne to defend And against what you say All the Laws of our Kingdome tell us the King is accountable to none but God onely and this hath been so knowne a truth as this House thought none had been ignorant of it and this House hath never pretended to any such power Ed. 2. R. though it hath sometimes contributed to the ends of some Trayterous usurpers against their lawfull Kings being over-awed by terrour of Armies and thereby no lawfull Parliaments And you are exceedingly deceived in that you say that all authority is derived from the people for God gives the King His Authority and in the Scripture you find no authority derived from the people to their Judges or Kings that being from the Lord and it pleases God to call himselfe a King and the Saviour of the world to be typified by Kings Psal 82. and the Scripture cals Kings Gods and if all power had been derived from the people those titles had been very incompatible to their Office And if you cannot finde any proofe of such a derivation in Scripture it s too dangerous a precipice to put our selves on by running into so grievous a sin as Rebellion upon imaginary stories and we are very sorry that you had an ill ground in taking up Armes and a worse intention to turne them against your King The Law of the Land as your selves expresse making it Treason to raise War against the King and that being so without all exception and no plea against it you may assure your selves that this House had no such power as you meane for there would not have been such a Law for the King and none for it if it were so And therefore you see how you were deceived and what need there is both of Peace and of an Act of Oblivion in regard of His Majesty and the pardon of Almighty God for the many evils you have fallen into by this mistake C You say you considered the manifold oppressions brought upon the Nation by the King His Lords and Bishops You very well know that in the many Remonstrances of this House to the King we still protested that though we represented our grievances to Him it was with no thought to cast any blemish upon His Majesty but that we knew they were the faults of His Ministers and we must have censured our selves if we should have spoken evill of our Soveraigne and must therefore blame this your expression of oppression by the King And to let you see your fault looke on the Ship-money in whom was the fault there though we say it were an oppression was it not in such as advised the King that by Law He might doe it and these were the sworne Judges You know the great assistance this House hath had from the Lords this Parliament and therefore you do not well to charge the Lords with oppression in generall if any Lords have done amisse it is not the fault of others nor of their order or condition and it hath been a grievous crime among the people that whenever there was any offence committed by any person they would forthwith reproach all men of the same calling a course as foolish as uncharitable to accuse the Government for the persons faults yet this appeared to be the greatest cause of complaint against the Bishops that some of them had done amisse and you must acknowledge that our engagement was to remove such oppressions as were breaches of Law not to fight against the Law it selfe nor to usurpe a power over the people And it seemes you are perswaded that our Laws are oppression and how then could this Parliament proceed to judge any persons guilty of offences against Laws if the Laws themselves were more criminall then the persons And you would hereby make us guilty of the blood taken for breach of Law at your owne importunity for no man can be punished by the Law but for offending against the King and you say you fought to take away the King and then there is no Malefactor and so would have us destroy men by that Law you say you fought to take away And we assure you we know no better condition to restore the Kingdome unto then to be governed by the Lawes established whereby they are the freest people of the world and were so in all ages past And when you professe the cause of your assisting us was to destroy the Law you make your selves more guilty of blood then the Kings party who say they fight for it In that you say that for the continuance of that power that had opprest you it was evident the King intended to make War It s true the King did raise Forces but this House never said that it was to continue the power that opprest the people for all the world knowes that in the matters complained of as oppressions He had clearly quitted them long before And this House declared that War tended to the dissolution of Government in regard the Laws in time of hostility have not their force but that doth not dissolve our Allegeance to the King nor destroy any of His rights You say you know the safety of the people to be above all Law but you are very much deceived in the application of that sentence which though wisely said by the Philosopher is no Canonicall Scripture nor of any validity to dispence with our obedience where the word of God requires it
nor is that saying understood by you for that the safety of the people is the Supreame Law is a direction to the Princes and Rulers of the people and to Kings not to the people at all for if the people should judge what is for the safety of the people the Governours were in vaine and you might as well say the Army should lead the Generall which your owne experience knowes to be monsterous and this House knowes no Supreame Authority but that of the King which we have sworne to defend and there cannot be two Supreames in one Kingdome as your selves acknowledge and it is impossible it should be for Parliaments sit not but at the Kings pleasure and therefore they wonder you should imagine such an authority in it And so you see your selves deceived both in the authority and cause fancied And we understand not what you meane by acting the highest which you might doe and if you intend thereby any violence to His Majesties Person which we suspect you doe we abhor the thought of so horrid an action and wish you to repent for such thoughts if they have entred into your minds D As you were deceived in your grounds for right reason flattering your selves with your private opinions so much more in such as you take from the proceedings of this House for the Judges were not condemned by it for declaring the King to be the Judge of safety but for the consequence they deduced from thence which was to levie Ship-money for you very well knew that there may be as there have been such suddaine accidents when it is impossible to call a Parliament whereby the safety of the Kingdome may be in danger and the time required for the King to provide the remedy lost and this your selves must needs acknowledge And we never denied the King a negative Voice as you say but we said he ought to consent to such good Laws as His two Houses should present to Him but that is not to deny Him a negative Voice And we must acknowledge there can be no Law of force without His consent and He must judge it good or else He is not bound to give His consent for otherwise His condition were worse then a Subject For taking away the Bishops votes out of the Lords House you know there was an Act with the consent of the King and Lords without which it could not have been done and though upon your importunate Petition this House said they would settle the Militia without the Lords doubting the violence then threatned it doth not follow they could have done it But we beleeve that thereby and by your tumults the Lords that remained were moved to joyne with us which otherwise they would not have done But these proceedings ought not to be drawne into example nor the consequences of these actions expected from us no more then your threats which caused many Members to depart sit silent or consent to what you would have If you account this House the Supreame Authority you ought no more to have threatned them then such as now sit for they were as much trusted by their Countries as those that remaine and their Countries that sent them cannot in justice be bound by what is done when their Trustees are driven away nor can a part remaining be the representative body of the people E You mistake Demonstrations for Suppositions and you extend the expressions of this House to your own desires to have them professe Supremacy to the King Lords beyond our meaning So you do us injury when you call our expressions indulgent that declare our judgement of the Right of the King and Lords and say they are weighed downe by those other proceedings of ours and so would brand us for double dealing and imposture with the people And we wonder since you know we pretend not to power to give an Oath nor judge a Crime but transmit it to the Lords for their judgement that you should against all example imagine such a power in this House which we never had nor can without horrid impiety assume And all judgements and punishments acted by the Lords or this House are done by power derived from the King and in His name as your selves well know and without which no obedience were due by the people to them or us And we cannot execute nor claime any more then we have by the knowne Law of the Land and by the graunts of His Majesty and former Princes And you would have such words as were used by us in cases of difference touching Priviledges claimed by us to out weigh such determinations as were made upon long consideration for it fals out often that though we have claimed something as of right belonging to us we have been satisfied of the contrary upon debate It s indeed impossible as you say that you should beleeve that it can consist with safety or freedome to be governed either by two or three Supreames and as impossible for you to beleeve that England hath been so governed or that there is any Supreame but the King the deniall whereof upon mens imaginations that it should not be so against all experience and the fundamentall constitutions of the Kingdome were too great folly and impudence and you ought not to conclude what the right is by the present practice against all Antiquity there having been many things acted in these times of distemper which cannot be justified in quiet times F The Kings Supremacy hath been alwaies acknowledged and the two Houses His great Councell And by advice of the Lords and request of the Commons such Lawes have been enacted by the Kings Predecessors as we professe to fight for and by this Government this Kingdome enjoyed the greatest stability and happinesse that hath been knowne And the Argument you use that the Negative of the King and Lords hinders Reformation may be used against all Governours when the people are unruly who charge their Governours with oppression and say they must not be Judges of it but the people which is a state of confusion not lawfull liberty nor is this constitution a bondage but the peoples security which by such principles of corrupt reason as you propound would be destroyed and violence and disorder established And you thereby discover your impatience to live under any Government but seeke to live after your owne will whereby you condemne the practice of all Christians in the best times and nullifie the Rules of subjection God hath prescribed G You must know that the taking of Armes by the King doth not cancell the obligation we have of Allegeance to His Majesty And it s a great errour in you to expect from us that we should alter the Government or injure Him And as its impossible for the Supreame Authority to erect a power equall to it selfe so that being acknowledged in the King it were great presumption and wickednesse in us to seeke to take it from Him nor can we And if
adherents I And whereas a Personall Treaty or any Treaty with the King hath been long time held forth as the onely meanes of a safe and wel-grounded Peace it is well knowne to have been cried up principally by such as have been disaffected unto you and though you have contradicted it yet it is beleeved that you much feare the issue 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 under-hand dealing and whilst the present force upon Him though seeming liberty will in time to come be certainly be 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 provocation have done after Oathes Laws Charters Bonds Excommunications and all ties of Reconciliations to the destruction of all those that had provoked and opposed them yea when your selves so soone as he had signed those Bils in the beginning of this Parliament saw cause to tell them That even about the time of passing those Bils some designe or other was on foot which if it had taken effect would not only have rendred those Bils fruitlesse but have reduced you to a worse condition of confusion then that wherein the Parliament found you And if you consider what new Wars risings revolting invasions and plottings have beene 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 Army withall K We professe we cannot chose 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 perpetually violently and implacably prosecuted and manifested against us and that with such scorne and indignation that it must be more then such ordinary bonds that must hold them And it is no lesse a wonder to us that you can place your owne security therein or that ever you can imagine to see a free Parliament any more in England L The truth is and we see we must either now speake or forever be silent We have long expected things of another nature from you and such as we are confident would have given satisfaction to all serious people of all Parties 1. That you would have made good the supreame of the people in this Honourable House from all pretences of negative Voices either in 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. dayes 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 restrictive power of any authority upon earth and reserved to the supreame authority an un-compulsive power onely of appointing a way for the publique 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 or forcing any sort of men to serve in Wars there being nothing more opposite to freedome nor more unreasonable in an authority impowered for raising monies on all occasions for which and a just cause assistants need not be doubted the other way serving rather to maintaine injustice and corrupt parties 6. That you would have made both Kings Queenes 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 awe and neither violate the publique peace nor private right of person or estate as hath been frequent without being liable to account 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 tryals should be onely of twelve sworne men and no conviction but upon two or more sufficient knowne 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 been provided 9. That you would have abreviated the proceedings in Law mitigated and made certaine the charge thereof in all particulars 10. That you would have freed all Trade and Merchandizing 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 to their enlargement 14. That you would have ordered some effectuall course to keepe people from begging and beggery in so fruitfull a Nation as through Gods blessing this is 15. That you would have proportioned punishments more equall to offences that so mens Lives and Estates might not be forfeited upon triviall and slight occasions 16. That you would have removed the tedious burthen of Tythes satisfying all Impropriators and providing a more equall way of maintenance for the publique 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 would 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 quarrell about the same 20. That you would have rectified the election of publique Officers for the City of London of every particular Company therein restoring the Commonalty thereof to their just Rights most unjustly with-hold from them to the producing and maintaining of corrupt interest opposite to common Freedome and exceedingly prejudiciall to the made and manufactures of this Nation 21. That you would have made full and ample reparations to all persons that had been oppressed by sentences in high Commission Star-chamber and Councell 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 22. That you would have abolished all Committees and have conveyed all businesses into the true method of the usuall Trials of the Common
wealth 23. That you would not have followed the example of former tyrannous and superstitious Parliaments in making Orders Ordinances or Laws or in appointing punishments concerning opinions of things supernaturall styling some blasphemies others heresies when as you know your selves easily mistaken and that divine truths need no humane helpes to support them such proceedings having been generally invented to divide the people amongst themselves and to affright men from that liberty of discourse by which corruption and tyranny would be soon discovered 24. That you would have declared what the businesse of the Lords was and ascertaine their condition not derogating from the liberties of other men that so there might be an end of striving about the same 25. That you would have done justice upon the capitall authors and promoters of the former or late Wars many of them being under your power Considering that mercy to the wicked is cruelty to the innocent and that all your lenity doth but make them the more insolent and presumptuous 26. That you would have provided constant pay for the Army now under the Command of the Lord Generall Fairfax and given rules to all Judges and all other publique Officers throughout the Land for their Indempnity and for the saving harmelesse all that have any wayes assisted you or that have said or done any thing against the King Queen or any of His party since the beginning of this Parliament without which any of His party are in a better condition then those who have served you nothing being more frequent with them then their reviling of you and your friends The things and worthy Acts which have been done and atchived by this Army and their adherents however ingratefully suffered to be scandalized as Sectaries and men of corrupt judgements in defence of the just authority of this honourable House and of the common liberties of the Nation and in opposition to all kind of Tyrannie and oppression being so far from meeting an odious Act of Oblivion that they rather deserve a most honourable Act of perpetuall remembrance to be as a paterne of publique vertue fidelity and resolution to all posterity 27. That you would have laid to heart all the abundance of innocent blood that hath been spilt and the infinite spoile and havock that hath been made of peaceable harmlesse people by expresse Commissions from the King and seriously to have considered whether the justice of God be likely to be satisfied or his yet continuing wrath appeased by an Act of Oblivion These and the like we have long time hoped you would have minded and have made such an establishment for the generall peace and contentfull satisfaction of all sorts of people as should have been to the happinesse of all future generations and which we most earnestly desire you would set your selves speedily to effect whereby the almost dying honour of this most honourable House would be againe revived and the hearts of your Petitioners and all other wel-affected people be fresh renewed unto you the Freedome of the Nation now in perpetuall hazard would be firmely established for which you would once more be so strengthened with the love of the people that you should not need to cast your eyes any other wayes under God for your security but if all this availeth nothing God be our Guide for man sheweth us not a way for our preservation The Answer of the Commons to a Petition in the name of thousands welaffected persons c. A THis House is very well pleased with your desires of Peace and hopes that when you are satisfied the waies by you propounded for obtaining it are not conducing to that end but tending to the encrease of such meanes as may make the War endlesse and the troubles of this Kingdome infinite your right affections will follow right reason and they therefore are willing to informe you of those mistakes which were the cause of those Propositions which you have framed in order to Peace And first we cannot but take notice of what you say that you engaged on our part against the King You know we raised Armes at first and engaged such as assisted us for King and Parliament and you know both we and you tooke * May 1641. a Protestation to defend the Kings Person Honour and Estate and you know both you and we are the Kings Subjects and ought by the duty of our Allegeance to adhere to Him and defend Him and we cannot make War upon Him nor on our fellow Subjects His adherents without breach of our Allegeance All which might sufficiently informe you that we have made no avowed War against the King but against His evill Councellors and we beleeved if we should have told you that we intended to make War against the King you would not have aided us at all knowing it high Treason as you professe you doe which was the reason the engagement was for King and Parliament Next we wish that you would keepe your selves within the bounds of obedience and not presume to anticipate our Councels and prevent our proceedings as you doe by telling us what you expect our resolutions to be we are contented to receive information of your grievances from you but must not be schooled or Magistrated by you although in the beginning we gave way to some such Petitions in regard of the distempers of your minds whereby the Lords and many of our owne Members were over-awed yet this House cannot approve that such courses are agreeable to Law or Reason B Where you say that you had not engaged on the part of this House but that you judged this House the supreame authority of England is very strange to us your selves as we beleeve as well as we having according to the common duty and the Law of the Land acknowledged before God that the King is the onely Supreame Governour of this Realme over all persons and in all causes and bound our selves by Oath to defend that His Supremacy and we alwayes call our selves His Commons and His House of Commons and make Petitions to Him for His grace and favour styling Him as He is our most gratious Soveraigne and Leige Lord and the experience of all times and the opinion of all men of sound judgement Divines and Lawyers being that this Kingdome is a Monarchy and so acknowledged in many Acts of Parliament and this House was instituted by the Kings Predecessors All Townes sending Burgesses by their Grants And you know you ingaged for the Lords as well as for this House We beleeve your mention of our Supremacy is but a pretence and that you meane to assume the power you say is in the people and exclude this House as well as King and Lords It is true the Members of this House were chosen by the people of the severall Countries and Townes that sent us to represent their Petitions to the King not themselves against the King and our consent to such things as the King shall