The Humble PETITION of the Common People of England, to the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament, Particularly to their Representatives the House of Commons:  
Humbly Sheweth,  
THAT whereas we conceive You laid this Tax of Four Shillings in the Pound upon Landed Men, to ease those of the poorer Sort, we are justly apprehensive that though this Imposition does light immediately upon them, yet it will fall at the next Remove most heavy upon Us: For those being generally the richest Men in the Nation, who disperse their Money by employing all sorts of Workmen, and Artificers, and by laying it out in Shops;( which are the only Livelihoods of the generality of the meaner Subjects;) They will, when they become thus straitned, lay out very little, and many of them none at all, to set us to work in our several Trades, or to buy our Commodities: By which Means, having no other ways of Subsistence, we shall not be able to maintain our Families, keep open our Shops, nor, by consequence, to live.  
And this Apprehension of Ours is aggravated by this Consideration, That 'tis too well known that very many of that sort of Richer Men, through the S●… y of Money, and Dam● of Trade, which occasion the Indigency of the Tenants, do scarce receive half their Rents, and some not a quarter of them; and yet they are taxed for their whole Years Revenue, though their Incomes be never so small: Whence, being scarce able to buy what is precisely necessary for their Food, Raiment, and Lodging, they will not think fit to lay out one Penny of Money in any Superfluities, or less necessary Commodities,( by which notwithstanding, and only which, in making, and vending them, half of us do live;) it will necessary follow, that not only all those Artificers, and Shopkeepers, will be utterly undone; but that Multitudes also of the poorest sort, who do now live merely by their voluntary Charity, and Benevolence, will inevitably perish. We do therefore humbly recommend it to Your Wisdoms to find out some efficacious Means to supply these Wants, and avert from the People such ruinous Mischiefs, which we foresee, and in part experience already, are coming upon us, and likely to over whelm us.  
As for all those, who( we meddle not upon what Principle) shall refuse the Oaths, and are by this Act obliged to pay eight Shillings in the Pound; we look upon them as on so many ruined Men, whence we cannot expect one Penny of gain from them, either by their employing us, or by their buying our wears: And how many those may be we do not know, only we are sure that all is lost to us which we might otherwise expect to get from them.  
Also, since many even of the richer sort of Subjects, do, upon the Prospect of this Cruel Tax, already cast about to leave off House-keeping, put away Servants, live in a Room or two, and Board themselves, seeing otherwise no possibility of subsisting: We do humbly beg of your Wisdoms to contrive some way how these discarded Servants may live, in regard they have no other way to do it but by their serving, nor will any in those Circumstances think fit to entertain more Servants than they had before; whence, unless some laudable Course be taken for them to subsist, 'tis to be feared that the man-servants, rather than starve, will turn Rogues, and fill the High-ways with Robbers, choosing rather to hazard Hanging in their own country, than to Fight for the Confederates in Flanders, where our English Soldiers have been so basely used, by starving, or dying of Diseases in their bad Quarters, or knocked on the Head by those they came to defend, or else by being exposed to be massacred by the French, while the Confederates look on, and refuse to assist or relieve them: And as for the Maid-Servants, 'tis to be feared, lest, being thus abandoned, they will, rather than beg or starve, be easily tempted to Lewdness; which must tend in a high measure to the debauching some considerable part of the Nation. We do also humbly conceive, that 'tis a matter worthy your Consideration how those Houses that stand empty when the Gentrey are gone to Lodgings can enable the Owners( many of which have nothing else to live on) to pay such excessive Taxes for them, when they make not the least benefit of them, and have no Estate else to pay them with, nor you to live themselves. And the Case of the Shop-keepers will be no less deplorable, who must pay Four Shillings in Twenty for the worth of their Shop-Goods; and yet must lose, by the straitning the richer sort, as is above-said, far the better half of their Customers, who, by buying them, should furnish them with Money to pay those Taxes, and maintain their Families.  
Nor do we doubt but you will think it becomes the Wisdom of the Parliament to take some way to pay the Bankers the Exchequer Money so long due, at least the Interest of it so far behind: The neglect of which, though it be confessed that 'tis most legally due, detains many Thousands in a starving Condition. As also to find some Expedient to relieve the Families of the Merchants, and Ensurers, who are already Bankrupt; and those many others, who will e're long be in the same Condition, by the loss of their Ships and Goods at Sea, during the time of this War; the Wealth, Honour, and Trade of the Nation, and particularly of the City of London, so much depending on the Sufficiency and Credit of the Merchants. And lastly, that the Loss which Thousands do receive by His Majesty's Debts for Stores, and upon many other Accounts, amounting to not a few Millions, be some way supplied. All which, setting aside these Cruel Taxes, and such heavy burdens to the Subject, that it cannot but be thought worthy the high Senate of Parliament to consider them, and to take them off the Backs of the People, who are now no longer able to support them.  
Lastly, we do humbly implore your best Care, as well for your own sakes as ours, that you would take it into your most serious Consideration what will become of the Nation if these Taxes proceed, and continue; which, to our extreme Grief, your Carriage lets us see you are resolved shall. No wise Man, who knows how things stand between the French King and the Confederates, and how he every Year gains upon them, can think the War is more likely to have an end, than it was the first or second Year aster it began. And how shall England, so exhausted of Money, and impoverished by excessive Taxes, and want of Trade, be able to support it? yourselves are sensible what great Difficulties you meet with to raise Money enough for this present Campaign: What insuperable Difficulties must you then find to raise what is sufficient for the next, and the next to that, and so forward? Fore-seeing and Fore-casting are the best Acts of Prudence, and most necessary for Persons in your Station. All Histories inform us how impossible it is to expect that the People will tamely sit still, when they see themselves half ruined already, and likely to be so totally; and the experience of the Meb at Rotterdam, though they be in a better Condition than we, confirms it, who threaten their Magistrates in a mutinous manner, unless they have either Peace, or Trade, with Fance, What then can the Consequence of this be here, but Heart-burnings against the Government, which instead of promoting the Common Good, destroys it, and instead of securing to them Peace, and Plenty, has engaged them in an endless War, and beggars them to maintain it? What can be expected but that the generality of the Complainers, who begin to speak loud enough in many places already, growing at length universally acquainted with the thoughts of the rest, will thence take courage to break out into open Rebellion? The Poor, enforced by their Necessities, will fall to plunder the Rich, and most certainly fall upon yourselves in the first place, looking upon you as on Men umrue to the Trust the country has reposed in you, and empowered you with; and apprehending that instead of being their Protectors, against the Oppressions of the Court-Party, you are indeed their greatest Undoers, and the only Men who have brought them to all this Misery. To which will help forward, and increase their hatred against you, the Conceit already spread far and near throughout the Nation, That the greatest part of you are Pensioners, and that you over-vote the true Patriots for your Money; and so are the sole Cause of these intolerable Grievances of the People. 'Tis easy then to conceive what a barbarous Treaty you are like to receiver from their rude Natures so highly exasperated, while they look upon you as Mercenary Hirelings of the Court, who sacrifice the Common Good to your own Private Interest, and sell the People for your own Lucre.  
Your Wisdoms cannot but see how much it will concern your Honour, and perhaps your Safety too, to take off, by your Actions, e're you rise, this Scandal of being Pensioners to the Court, and selling the Money of England that you may share in the spoil. And that you may be able to satisfy the Nation, 'tis our Duty to represent to you what is said of you; and ●… at occasion 'tis conceived you have given for such a grievous Imputation. 〈◇〉 is alleged that you have scarce past one Vote thoroughly for any thing that eases or benefits the People; but that in a manner all your Endeavours, excepting particular Bills, have been employed to invent new ways how to Tax and burden them all that is possible. Nay, that you have waved or thrown out every Bill that was not grateful to the Court, though it never so much concerned the Subjects Good, as, the Regulating trials in Cases of High-Treason, That no more of our Money be Transported out of England, &c. Nay, that though it were offered to supply our Soldiers in Flanders with Pay, without either transporting our Money thither in Specie, or by Bills of Exchange, or by sending our Corn or Flesh thither to starve the People this dear Year, yet to the great Wonder of all indifferent Men it was not accepted of; which could bear no other Construction, but that the Court liked it not, because it was against the Interest of the Dutch, who have made and do still make such a vast gain by our English Money. Also that the Petition of bringing in Unthrown Silk over Land, did not only suffer a Rejection but a Reprimand, though highly beneficial to the Weavers, and by consequence to the Nation, by lessening the dearness of it; because four or five of your Members, who monopolise that Trade, and bring it by Sea, were against it. Lastly, we wonder when that happy day will come that the relief of the Poor Orphans of the City of London, so often talked of in your Votes these two years, and more, will effectually be taken into Consideration.  
They complain too of your backwardness to advice the King, though he has given you fair occasion to do it; and you may find Abuses enough, or rather you know them well enough already, to represent to him, the Redress of which would exceedingly please the Nation, were you not afraid that the advising a Reformation would displease the Court. As, that the Dutch Counsellors be removed, all England being sensible that that crafty and interested Nation, being our only Competitors in Trade, nothing can be more pernicious to the Interest of England than the Influence they have upon the King, and consequently the greatest part of the Court, and, 'tis seared, on yourselves too, by your espousing the Court-Interest; which together with the Aversion they all have to our Nation, makes them odious to our countrymen, in Camp, City, and country, nay to many even in the Court too. Also, That the Seamen have their full Pay, sufficient Money having been raised to pay them: That our Soldiers in Flanders be better paid, better quartered, and not so barbarously used as they have been: Things being still carried so as if the English were the very Scum and Rubbish of all Nations. That in Fights at Land the Dutch may be engaged as well as the English, nor permitted to stand still, and to their great content look on, while our countrymen are knocked o'th' Head. That the Nation have an Account why, or how the Descent, for which they paid so dear, came to miscarry; and what is become of the Arms, Ammunition, and Ordnance carried out of the Tower of London to make that Descent, and that, when that occasion is over, it be brought back thither; lest all our Arms, after a while, come to be transported as well as our Money, which has an ill signification, and may be apt to create Fears, lest the Project of Conquest be still carrying on, though the two Books be burnt. That an Account be given how it happens that Money was raised for 28000 Soldiers to make the Descent, yet but 12000 went; and what is become of the over-plus Money? That it be looked narrowly into, who fetched the Infamous Villain Young, and his Companion out of Newgate, furnished their Backs with new clothes, and filled their Pockets with Money; and why they could not be prosecuted till towards the sitting of the Parliament? For if such things as these be stisted, and the Greet Men behind the Curtain be left undiscovered, our very Lives are not safe against such Contrivances, much less the Life of any true Patriot against the Court. That our Money be no more Transported, nor our Corn and Flesh this dear Year: Against which Abuses though you made no Provision, yet it has much disgusted the People, that in several Places they have mutinied upon it; foreseing that the Dutch will buy up our Corn, and after Midsummer, when we are half famished, bring it back; and, as is their Trick, sell it to us again twice as dear. Lastly, it seems fitting you should advice the King that the Money you gave to provide Stores should be paid to the Providers of them; for it's certain they begin already to balk and defraud them afresh, refusing to pay them for what they have brought in, unless they bring in more which they intend shall be left unpaid.  
Again it is alleged, that though you sit there to see the Laws of the Land suffer no Detriment, and though you cannot but know how frequently, openly, and erroneously divers, and even many of them are broken; yet, contrary to the manner of your Predecessors, you suffer it unconcernedly; and seem to approve the breaking them by your silence, and connivance. You have seen the Subjects, even the Nobility, nay Peers of the Realm, clapped up in Prison, and put in the Tower by Illegal Warrants from my Lord Nottingham, without any Evidence brought against them, then or since; than which nothing could be more directly against the Liberty of the Subject; and yet, though it were highly complained of by the Persons aggrieved, you shewed no Resentment against the Violater of that Fundamental Law, nor ordered any Satisfaction to be made to those who were injured; but instead of that, Pardons are given to the Infringers of the Law, to encourage the Courtiers to do the same for the future. Again, whereas formerly, when any Man was pressed, he had permission to sand for his Friends, that so the Captain might have Information whether the Quality of the Person, or his Circumstances, ought to exempt him: Now the People of all sorts are Spirited away, and clapped on Ship-board, their Friends not knowing what is become of them; and amongst the rest many married Men, and householders, are barbarously seized, and hurried on Board without having the Liberty to take a sad farewell of their Wives and Children; who, living only by their Labour, are left to starve: And which makes it yet more lawless, they are pressed pretendedly for Sea-Service, but most part of them are prest by the Money of our Captains come out of Flanders, to serve under them at Land, directly against our English Laws, forbidding that any should be prest for Land-Service; and so, as they was last Year, they are carried from Ship-board into Flanders whether they will or no; not only to serve at Land in a Foreign Country, but to sight too for the Interest of Foreigners, where they shall be badly paid, and used like Dogs by the very Persons they come to defend. Indeed, you gave order that a Servant of one of your Members should be sought after, and brought back: But since you see by that, that they force away any Subject without making any distinction; Why was there not an Order made to regulate the Pressing, and restraining Press-Masters from such licentious Villainies, and treating the Free-born English as if they were so many Slaves; since the Liberty of every English Subject ought to be as dear to you as that of one of your own Servants; and Magna Charta, securing the Liberty of the Subject, ought to be as Sacred in your Esteem as is the privilege of a Servant belonging to a Member of the House of Commons? Indeed, when the dead is done, and the Pressing over, we have the comfort to be  told in a Gazette, that the King approves not such doings, which we will believe when we have all those who were illegally Prest sent back. But how much more worthy your Care had it been to prevent, and resent it while it was doing; especially since the same Usage, and the same Complaint was made last Year? It must be confessed too, that you may reflect in time what blackest Infamy it will lay upon yourselves at present, and on your Posterity hereafter; when it can with Truth be said now, and will be recorded in History, that these two Parliaments in four Years gave away, to fight for Foreigners,( and those our greatest Enemies) six or seven and twenty Millions of English Money, though the Subject were damnified one way or other ten Millions besides: That they suffered great part of this Money to be transported; the Laws of the Land to be frequently broken; the English Subjects to be grinded, abused, impoverished, and enslaved; The Trade and Interest of a Foreign Nation, our worst Enemy, to be promoted, to the highest Prejudice of the Trade and Interest of England: And yet either out of slavish Fear, or for did Lucre, they wanted the Courage, or the Honesty, to stand up for the People; no not even for their own Liberty, or privileges; but put both their own Necks, and the Necks of the Nation, under the Feet of a Foreign Prince, and made it their chief Business to ruin their country. These kind of Actions make us see that we are in effect treated according to the Law of Conquest, though they will not name it: And that we are indeed Slaves to the Court, and that the worst of Slaves; nay, in some regard worse than those under the Turk; for they frequently find Redemption, but we can have no hopes any can redeem us, since yourselves who only can, and ought to do it, out of fear of the Court, do by your Connivance refuse us that Duty, and allow our Slavery.  
Many other Laws your Wisdoms may discover, that without any Scruple or Contradiction are broken at the Arbitrary Pleasure of the Coint, which it may become your Wisdoms to inquire into, and see amended. In the mean time, we humbly beg Pardon if we be highly concerned to see seven or eight and twenty Millions given, by your Votes, out of the Purse of the Nation in less than five Years, more than has been raised by all the Parliaments put together this hundred and forty Years,( and some Millions more lost to us by the Merchants Ships taken by the French;) and yet scarce any Body paid but Foreigners; and after all this vast expense, nothing has been done with it, but it's all thrown away to no purpose, our Enemies daily gaining ground upon us: Which obliges us to petition you for this Satisfaction, That you will please to acquaint the Nation how long you intend to continue these cruel Impositions; that we may at once know our Doom. This unparalleled Grievance is alone beyond our Strength to support; but when the Violation of our Laws and Liberties breaks in upon us too, we hope you will easily allow our Excuse, if with all humbly Candour we expose our sad Condition, complain sensibly of it, and implore your Relief: Which we had much rather wish by your means, than that overstrain'd Nature, not able to contain itself any longer, and acting upon the Principle of Self-Preservation from Starving, and Slavery, should be obliged by lawless Necessity to seek its own Redress, and force its way to its own Freedom, and the securing its own Livelihood, and Life.  
You know that far less Grievances than those we already feel,( not to speak of those many more we are like to suffer, compared to which the shipmoney, which bread such Combustions, was but a flay biting;) have formerly incited Parliaments( jealous of the wronging the Common Good) to 〈◇〉, ●… inst, dethrone, and even barbarously to put to death their Lawful Hereditary King, and to Abdicate King James, though what we suffered under him, who never required any Taxes of us at all, was far short of our present Pressures. We are far from wishing to transport you into any such extravagant Resentments: Only it amuses every one to see you, our Patriots and Guardians, seem altogether insensible of our present Hardships, and impending ruin; but that regardless of us you drive on suriously when the Court commands, though you run us, yourselves, and the whole Nation into unavoidable and irrecoverable Precipices.  
The sum of our present most Humble Petition is this, That you would please, by your contrary Proceedings, to take Order that the Scandal of a very great part of the Nation may be removed, and the Aspersion wiped off that the Court carries and sweeps all before it, both Money, Laws, property, and Liberty of the Subject, Interest of the Nation, and even the Parliament itself; and that through your Connivance, and Co-operation, they have left us nothing safe, from being sacrificed to them, but our Religion, a thing which they are not over-fond of themselves. Whence the People begin to apprehended that they are under a state of an Arbitrary Power already; not under a King alone, for that might receive some check from a Parliament standing up stiffly for our Laws, but( which is incomparably worse) under the Monarchical, Aristocratical, and Democratical parts of our Government; that is, by King, Lords, and House of Commons conspiring to Their ruin. Of which Three, notwithstanding, only the Monarch is Absolute, and Unlimited, not by our National Constitution, but by the perfect complying and subserviency of the other Two to the Court-Party; and their giving up, and resolving the Power they have into the Other: Which yet we would hope from your burning the two Books, designed by the Court to set up the Title of Conquest, you do not seeingly, and purposely intend; but that you are insensibly lead on by a kind of Complacency for the Court to admit its Equivalent: While in all Things, and on all Occasions,( your selves best know upon what Motive) you second and submit to the Will and Pleasure of the supreme Magistrate, and He to the Advice of Dutch Counsellors, England's Greatest and subtlest Enemies.  
We shall daily pray that the Great Giver of all True Wisdom, may inspire You with such Counsels, as may give this poor Kingdom occasion to Love and Magnify You as Their best Friends, Their Easers and Deliverers; and not to repined at You, and hate You, as the Betrayers of Your Trust, Their G●… ess Enemies, and most Cruel Oppressors.  
FINIS.   

ADVERTISEMENT.  
WHereas the Author of the Remarks upon the present Confederacy, &c. has, pag. 22. a Passage reflecting on the Reputation of Lieutenant Gen. Hamilton, which he took from a general Report, which he had not then heard contradicted; the Author is since informed that the said Report was a Mistake and Calumny, and the Lieutenant a Person of Integrity, and to this Day in his Majesty's Favour: He desires this may be taken notice of, hoping it may be a Means to clear his Reputation from so scandalous and false a Report so universally spread.