A LETTER To the Right Honorable The LORD LAMBERT, From a Lover of Peace and Truth.
Being a most faithful Advice how to chuse the safest way to the happy Ending of all our Distractions.
Also, A DECLARATION FROM The KING of SCOTS, How the Army shall be fully satisfied all their Arrears, with a large Overplus.
TOGETHER WITH An Assurance and Indempnity to all that have been engaged and active in any the late Wars.
That all Armies shall be disbanded, and his Government alwayes regulated by a free and full Parliament, triennially to be called: And, The People secured of their Liberties, and eased of all Ill [...]gal Burthens and Taxes.
Printed in the Year, 1659.
A LETTER to the right honorable The Lord LAMBERT.
LEt it not be a trouble to you to read a few Lines from one unknown, but a much honorer of your Noble Spirit, and therefore desirous to cast in his dram of Advice among those many and weighty Debates now before you.
If I should tell you of divers that had a power or capacity to contribute to, or restore Peace to these Nations, and have neglected the Opportunities, which they have since repented of, I am confident you would, even your self, point out the men; namely, Essex, Fairfax, Waller, Massey, Browne, Rich, Cromwell, and others.
Sir, We look upon you at this instant as having the whole strength of the Nation in your hands, but if you expect to hold it long, you will be miserably deceived: Therefore I beseech you make good use of this happy opportunity, and consider how great you may make your self, and how glorious you will be to posterity, if you be a means of laying the Government on the shoulders of Him that ought to bear it, which will in an instant restore a happy Peace and Settlement to this distracted Nation: Certainly, the greatest honour, and a better estate than any English Subject enjoys shall be your reward. But if you doubt how the Souldier and Persons deeply concerned, that shall concur with [Page 2] you shall be secured and satisfied; See this Declaration, that to my knowledge hath been neer Three Moneths in this Town, and perhaps not yet come to your view. Are you not thereby convinced, or would you know under what Government the People would rest most satisfied, either a Single Person, Council of State, Parliament, or Army? Appoint such a way as every man may without fear or danger give in his vote undiscovered: To begin only with this Town; Let the Clerk of every Company, or Constable of every Ward, take a Ticket in Paper from every man, and put it into a Box locked and sealed, and you will find Nine parts of Ten encline to that Constitution we have lived under above these five hundred years: But if not, you will however by this course give great satisfaction to the People, in letting them have each an opportunity of declaring their minds, and thereby you will be rightly informed of their affections; which being weighted in the ballance of your judgement, you may with confidence and assurance steer on a straight course to the Heaven of Happiness and Safety.
My Lord, I conceive I have done my duty in declaring my mind, and have no more to say, but that you do as God shall put in your heart, and then go and prosper.
WE having lately received an Overture from some per [...]ons in England, with a seeming pretence of a Peace and Reconcilement betwixt Us and our Subjects of England, and although they acknowledge themselves few in number, and not so well resolved as to trust us with their Names, yet undertake on the behalf of many thousands, to make good their propositions to us, conditionally, that we grant and assure unto them, their (as they call them, reasonable and modest) requests; whether these mens Intentions are just and upright, as they pretend, or whether with Jo [...]b's Salutation to Abner, they would entrap us to our destruction; or with Shimei, come the first of all the House of Joseph to meet us, not being able to support themselves in their decaying Condition, we shall not be much desirous to enquire after: Only from hence we take occasion to let those persons, and all the world know, that we are ready to grant to all our Subjects (some very few excepted) more then they can have the confidence to expect from us: Yet let not any rash Judgement condemn us for our large Offers, as being in so low, and forlorn a Condition, as never any Christian Prince for many Ages hath been; That we are forward in promises, though intend little or no performance: We say, were our calamity more heavy upon us, (which can hardly be) we shall not be drawn by the greatest allurements and advantages to passe our engagement for any thing we are not fully resolved to perform, which being chiefly for the general good and peace of all our Subjects, we cannot but hope for a happy Successe to ensue, and therefore do declare that (if peaceably receiv'd) we shall forthwith grant,
- 1. A general and free pardon to all (seven of those only excepted, which were the bloody Judges and Murderers of the King our Father.
- 2. That all the Armies shall be within six months dsibanded, if Moneys for their satisfaction can in a Parliamentary way be so soon raised, and that they shall have all Arrears fully payed them, and three months pay over and above to every common Soldier, for their better removal and settlement, in their former or better way and place of living.
- 3. That the Armies being so satisfied and disbanded, no Soldier shall be continued, but in the ancient Garrisons, accustomed on the Sea Coasts, and that no new Army shall be raised, or any [Page 4] Fleet by us set forth to Sea, upon any occasion whatsoever, but by consent of Parliament.
- 4. That not any of our Subjects shall be burdened with Taxes, Excise, Free-quarterings, or other illegal payments or pressures, or any Oaths imposed, nor any debarred of their Liberties, questioned for their Lives or Estates, for any cause or pretence whatsoever, but by the ancient and known Laws of the Land, according to Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right.
- 5. That the Purchasers of Crown Lands and Rents being satisfied their purchase mony and Interests by the Profits theteof, and further payment to their full Reimbursement: The said Lands and Rents may return to the Crown again; we being resolved in the mean time to cast our Self on the Love of our Subjects for our future support: And if the Parliament (that shal next be called) shal not think fit to give us a reparation, & such a competent revenue as we might expect, we have learned, and shal submit (if there be occasion) to the Condition of the meanest of our Predecessors.
- 6. That the purchasers of Bishops, and Deans and Chapters Lands, and Rents, being in like sort satisfied their purchase mony and Interest by the profits and further payment, till they be reimbursed, that then the said Lands and Rents shall be conferred on the Clergy and Ministery, as the next Parliament shall ordain.
- 7. That as soon as Writs can be issued, a free and legal Parliament shall be summoned, and the Privileges thereof maintained, without any exemption to any person whatsoever, being legally chosen and returned, according to the ancient Laws and Customes of England in that case provided.
- 8. That the Parliament shall be desired by us (and with whom we shal concur, to take care for the setling of the Protestant Religion, and the publick worship of God (with liberty for tender Consciences,) and for the providing for the Ministry in the first place, as being the most weighty affair, and ought to be preferred before any other Concernment whatsoever, without which no blessing from above can be expected upon our Government.
- 9. That if the Parliament shall passe an Act of general pardon, (and if they shall desire those seven persons by us intended to be executed, shall be included, and giving us satisfactory reasons for the same) we shall concur with them therein.
- 10. That the Affairs of the Land and our Government, shall be constantly regulated and managed by Parliaments, and that the Act for Triennial Parliaments shall be by us duly observed.
[Page 5] We acknowledge it is very difficult, if not impossible to please all, especially where there are so many divisions, and every man almost of a several mind and opinion: But as we have proposed to our Self, so shall we endevour to give all reasonable Satisfaction to all our Subjects. And if the Actings of the Representatives in a Free Parliament of their own choice can satisfie them, we shall not be wanting in summoning and concurring with them: But if that will not please them, nothing will.
Now, if these condescentions of ours shall have so much freedome of passage in England, as many a scurrilous and lying Pamphlet flye abroad without our control, we are confident that all of understanding, that are not wilfully blinded or not over-swayed with present self-interest, thereby knowing our large Offers, must needs be fully convinced of the amplitude thereof, extending to all their grievances.
However, if it shall be instanced wherein we are two short, (for we are ready for the Good, and Peace of the Nation, to give large satisfaction, and ample assurance to our most inveterate Enemies;) We having yielded to all matters of most importance, shall not stick at lesser things.
And if any that have been adherers and assisting to our late royal Father and us, shall think we are herein to free and indulgent to such, and so many open and professed Enemies; and that we have made no provision for our Servants, and Friends; we desire them all to consider our own, and also their Conditions, and how things now stand in England; That neither we, nor themselves, can otherwise (in any probability) better our selves, unless by a bloody and hazzardous War; which though we cannot doubt of the lawfulness on our part, and consequently a prosperous success, if we shall be necessitated thereto for the recovery of our-just right, yet we are assured that the God of peace will rather prosper a peaceable then violent and forceable entrance: And therefore we hope all those our friends, and loving Sujects, will rest fully satisfied with what we shall do pursuant to these propositions, we being desirous hereafter to consider their sufferings (though not comparable to ours) as God shall enable, and in all just and lawful ways.
And now we wish that all the people of England would remember how they have performed their Protestations, Oaths, Vows, Solemn League and Covenant: But to instance in no [Page 6] more then the Honour and Priviledges of Parli [...]ment, the foundation of all their laws, which they have so often sworn and vowed to maintain with their lives and fortunes: What face of a Parliament they have now left, which should consist of three Estates, King, House of Peers, and House of Commons: The two first wholly destroyed: And what of the last is in being (not to mention at least 150 that at the beginning of the Wars left them and went to Oxford) when a considerable number of their own party protested against their proceedings, and deserted the House: How many imprisoned, and what great numbers by force expulsed by that late bloody & hypocritical Usurper, which actions of his (though they were a main step to his intended Throne and Tyrannical Government) yet are so well relished, by that Tail of a Parliament remaining, that they are resolved neither to readmit the persons so illegally and injuriously expelled, nor to fill the up the void places of any removed or dead; so that in a few years, what by death, and new expulsions, they may reduce themselves to the number of those infamous Tyrants of Athens, and if they can establish themselves by their designed Militia, and that they may thereby be able to command their now Masters, the Sword-men, and Cashire them, they will moddle such a new Army as shall be in subjection to them, and then Vote Themselves, their Sons, and Nephews, a Parliament for ever.
Let those that have generous English Spirits seriously consider into what a Labyrinth of woe and misery they have run themselves and now lye under, what a confusion there is in Church and State; that what hath been gotten by blood and rapine, must be so upheld. The Government these Usurpers would settle, not being to be maintained, but by continual Armies and Navies, and the support of those must be Taxe [...], Excise Free-quarterings, and chargeable Militia's, and other unsupportable burdens to perperuity.
Now let the whole Nation beg and implore a blessing from the Father of Mercies, and let them all be of one heart and one mind, to free themselves of these Iron yokes and heavy pressures, and joyn and concur with us▪ in establishing a peaceable Government, to the great joy and happinesse of the honest and truehearted, and to the advancement of the true Protestant Religion and Gods glory. And let them all unanimously with one Voyce say, Amen.
A true Copy taken from the Original.