AN ACCOUNT OF THE ARBITRARY, EXACTIONS, TAXATIONS, IMPOsitions, Excises, Contributions, with other Assessments, which have been levied in these late Wars, out of the Associate Counties; viz.  

Essex  
Suffolk  
Norfolk  
Kent  
Sussex  
Surrey  
Middlesex  
Hertfordshire.   
Presented to the view of all those who wish well to their Country.  
Printed in the Year, 1647.   

READER,  
I Present thee here with pars de toto, and will indeed serve pro toto, to a judicious man to Calculate by. I know not thy temper, therefore cannot tell how thou wilt accept of this little great Account cast up by me, if it goes against thy stomach I shall know thee what thou art (for an honest man will embrace truth, especially when it discovers so much falsehood and injustice) to which end I took the pains, not caring how it digests with thee, knowing the fault to be in thy corrupted stomach, not in the meat, for I have herein used much modesty and more truth, using the greater pains to bring it as near truth as possible (I am certain I have not gone beyond it.)  
Neither would I have thee altogether ruminate upon the sums only, but reflect a little back to the Cause and Causers; The cause our sins, the causers ourselves; For who is there in the whole world hath had such showers of blessings poured on them? Insomuch that our Manna was loathed by us, our godly gap-stopping Preachers rejected with their Doctrine, and willingly entertained and harkened to Factious Levites, thereby becoming a Seditious people and a bewitched generation of Vipers, wholly given to War, Sedition, Strife, Heresies, Rebellions, and what not? And for the upholding of it, remember how ready we offered, not only our Estates, O but our Lives! yea, exposing (without God's great mercy) even our Souls in it to the mercy of the merciless devourer of them. And now what may we expect less then lately hath been, and now is, besides what hereafter may be, if God's mercy do not timely prevent it?  
And that we may a little discern by a little, what and how much we have justly drawn on us, behold and see our Oppression in this one angle (and but a small one) of this Looking-glass (not so much to discover our own madness, as the illegal proceed of the Oppressors.)  
And now to begin with our own County (for I would not in the least measure be thought partial though I foul my nest) and the other seven Counties shall be rated proportionably to this.  
had not settled in our climate which now we see is and ready to overwhelm our whole Kingdom. So as we see the Electors aswell as the elected are in fault, neither ignorant yet both wanting in the executing of their charge and duty.  
The Kingdom stands in need of Parliaments, as well for the moderating of too severe Laws, and the strengthening of those that have not power enough, as redressing grievances and making new Laws, and yet what infinite Petitions from the people to the Parliament lies in obsurity by them, as well for particular as general wrongs, most occasioned by themselves, and yet not any redressed, and why, because lawfully they can aswell do the one as the other, both illegal, (there Orders not being Acts, as appears by their requesting it might be so)  
As for those that concern themselves their leisure (or rather their charity cannot permit their redressing of them. Can this land (nay the world) parralel this our gracious Sovereign for mercy and goodness in being as ready and willing to redress as the people to complain, yea, preventing as much as in His Majesty lay) the occasions of all future complaints as plainly appears by the Acts He hath passed in this present Parliament, sharing His Crown, Honour, and Prerogatives with his people, And behold notwithstanding in the possessing of this inch so freely given, how they have near gained the whole ell by usurpation; how stiffly they stand to maintain the least Privilege of their own (which hath been graciously bestowed on them by the King, and by them acknowledged by a remuneration of a lawful general Tax, as all precedent Parliaments can witness) and how little regard they His Majesty's Rights being so fare from remunerating as they strive as much as in them lies, to have the remainder.  
Acts of grace from his Majesty first enacted are so lawful and binding till repealed, and the King must repeal as well as enact, otherwise it remains a statute-Law, then follows the act of his subjects remuneration, and then the sovereigns free pardon.  
But here I must needs take notice of one thing (and I think worthy the hinting) that I have observed in former Parliaments; they have been so honourable that in these acts of pardon they never moved their Sovereign to exempt Murders and Treasons, I believe this will have both inserted, or as the Judges use to say after their sentence passed on criminal offenders, Lord have mercy upon thee (which will stand a brand on both houses for perpetuity) from for Parliaments should proceed nothing but Piety and Justice, otherwise why make we our appeal to them, they ought to crave grace and favour from His Majesty to the people (of whom they are the representative body) of both which we have from him received sufficiently, were we not wholly possessed with the spirit of madness and folly, we very well hereby see that the diminishing of the Crowns, power is augmenting of subject's bondage, we may then say with the woman of Samariah help O King, and have as comfortless a reply, for what redress or remedy can he give that is wholly divested of the power to give it.  
The Writs (by which all Members are chosen and summoned) express that it is to advise and Council with the King, and not to do or act (which by God neither the Lands Law can they) any thing without him.  
His Majesty cannot make a superintendent power, none, nor all more powerful than himself,  
If there be any make themselves so, it is a surrepted, not a delegated power. The Laws declare the Title such deserve, and the punishment they ought to have; Ambition, Pride, and Covetousness hath but farthered a bloody Faction, Theft a Civil Rebellion, In which I think, from the highest to the meanest Family in the Kingdom not one of them hath escaped from the loss of a Father, a Son, a Brother, a Kinsman, or a dear friend, or Husband; which had not happened, had we taken God's Law, and the Law of our Land for our Guide; and now we do not blush to say (though with impious impudence enough) that it is for the maintenance of our established Religion, and yet we see all so byased that few or none know of what Religion they are of.  
We have all seen the true Protestant Religion which hath been sealed with the blood of so many Martyrs, maintained by truly Orthodox and most Learned Divines, and established by the wholesome Laws of our Land, Maugre the malice and rage of the Church of Rome, and all other schismatics and Heretics, now most impiously suppressed.  
And now behold the just heavy hand of God on us, never bolder Treasons, public Murders, open Sacrilege, Common Theft, and all Impiety reigning and ruling without control, as if the way to heaven in all things were to disobey the devil and our own lusts in nothing. The Israelites could plead want of a King when every man did as it seemed good in his own eyes, we cannot plead want