A LETTER Sent to His EXCELLENCY THE Lord Fleetwood, FROM Mr. John STREATER controller of the Ordnance by Authority of PARLIAMENT. On December the 15th.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year 1659.   

My Lord,  
IT doth not a little trouble Me, to see how your Lordship is Engaged, to that which will in the issue be Your own Destruction: I am, and have been no other than faithful to your lordship's Personal Interest, so far as it can consist with your public Interest: I have absented myself five or six days for no other reason. Let me be bold to acquaint your Lordship, and tell you, that you do not see your Interest, you are led out of one uncertainty to another, and still will be, until at last you have ruined, and lost all, and fall into the hands of Charles Stuart as a prey; amongst the rest of absurd Models of Government that have been under consideration since the Interruption of the Parliament, they have been no other than the worms and chimaeras of the Brains of such as have not the spirit of Government: the last that have been under your consideration is one of the worst, and most Inconsistent that can be Imagined, and will produce nothing but necessity for new Changes, which will not only be Inconvenient in respect of public Interest, but also to your Lordships own Person; I presume that your Lordship doth not value your own personal preservation above that of the public, also that your Lordship knoweth it will be more Glory, and Honour, and Peace to your own conscience, to contribute all the advantages you can to a public, Just, and Equal Settlement; then for you to sit at the top of Affairs.  
If that Government of twenty one, Conservators, of Exempting secluded Members, of Electing only such as as have served seven years in every Corporation, of Electing another House for the Negative Voice out of that number of Men so chosen, with other things which you shall after add, were the best Form under Heaven: Yet it will not be endured or submitted unto, in regard the Original of it is the Army; Who by it design a particular Interest, which shall always meet with a public Interest, struggling with it, and by consequence it will produce Changes. Besides, if your Lordship will only consider what benefit your Posterity shall have by a Government that must run in so straight a Channel as it must: If the Army be the legislators, and lawgivers, that is, to give Us a Form of Government; your Posterity will be Slaves, unless you can entail the Government of the Army upon them; and make the Qualities they shall be Endowed with, the Standard to measure out to the Nation what they shall have, and what the Qualities are, that your Posterity, or our Successors shall be endowed with, whether with virtue, Honour, or Honesty; or with Lust, Pride, Envy, Ignorance, or Inhumanity, none knoweth.  
My Lord, If your Rules of Government be so short & your qualifications already made, be not enough; we presume we must have the rest from the Army, as they declare by the words of their Vote, viz. such Qualifications as are or shall be): I beseech your Lordship, at this rate, where or when shall the Armies Legislating Power end? What shall be a Period to it, that it shall go thus far and no farther? Can your Lordship tell? If the Lord Lambert doth return Victor from the Nor●h, He will expound that Riddle to your Lordship.  
My Lord, I was in the General Council of Legislators, holden in Wallingford chapel, and You could scarcely put Questions so fast as they were ready to pass them. A Reverend Council indeed! they will serve to promote, and carry any thing On, that those that are uppermost propose to them: A Spirit of discerning they have not; I saw they might be led by sense like Beasts: They are a better Army than a Senate, if they would keep to their Duty in Arms it would better b●come Them. They are out of the Way when they treat or meddle with Government; Your Declaration of the 6th of May sayeth no less in these Words; We ourselves contributing thereto, And again, We have trod in and by Crooked Paths, and the presence of the Lord hath departed from Us ever since We left the Long Parliament. And my Lord, indeed the presence of the Lord hath now departed from You, and will leave You quite if You do not return thither again.  
My Lord, myself of all men have little Reason to be their Advocate, they never did me any thing else than mischief; there was not 5 of them, I may say not 3 of them, that I knew or had any Acquaintance with, at their last Interruption. The principal Reason why I do adhereto them is, I do dread and abhor the Settlement of Government by an Army, I knowing that the Consequences will be fatal: your Lordship knoweth, that when the Papers were sent up from Derby to You, the next Morning I spoke with You, and entreated You to interpose with your Authority, to prevent the further Raveling into that Matter; withal I told You, it would not rest in Petitioning onyl, but it would produce further Mischiefs. I have had the happiness to foresee the Events of public affairs for 10 years and upwards last past, and now I am confident that the Parliament will again sit: notwithstanding all the Opposition that can be made against them, Nay, if there were not Monck's Army, nor any other Endeavours on foot, yet you would run yourselves into the Necessity of sitting under them again, or Charles Stuart. My Lord, The Reasons and Grounds I have for this Assertion are too large to communicate to You in a Letter; I shall only add this, that You may preserve your Power, Honour, P●●son, and All that you can imagine, by adhering to them: I do know that hitherto nothing hath been done, but in order thereunto; and with much respect to your Lordship, the same I have done, I take God to witness: Now, if your Lordship shall think it your Interest to adhere to the Lord Lambert, against the Interest of the public, which cannot be secured any other way than by the sitting again of the Parliament, the which if your Lordship will promote you may have your own Terms, and may secure yourself against the underhand Dealing that is on foot, in the behalf of the Lord Lambert, the which (I can assure your Lordship) you cannot avoid, by any other means. My Lord, I desire you seriously to consider the premises.  
Sir, Your most Humble Servant, and faithful wellwisher, J. S.  
FINIS.