To His Highness RICHARD Lord Protector OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging.  
THE HUMBLE REPRESENTATION AND Petition of the General Council of the Officers of the Armies of England, Scotland, and Ireland.  

Wednesday 6th. April 1659.  
Ordered by the General Council of the Officers of the Armies of England, Scotland and Ireland, That this Representation and Petition be forthwith Printed and published.  
Philip Carterred Judge Advocate.   
LONDON, Printed by Henry Hills, one of His Highness the Lord Protectors Printers, 1659.   

To His Highness Richard Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging.  
The humble Representation and Petition of the General Council of the Officers of the Armies of England, Scotland, and Ireland.  
HAving as Members of the Army often Solemnly declared not without appeals to God for our sincerity therein, That We did engage in Judgement and Conscience for the just Rights and Liberties, Civil and Religious of our Countries, and not as a Mercenary Army,  
Had we not been very jealous of our reputation, and Careful to avoid Suspicion, which our many Adversaries have endeavoured to bring upon us, as if we were apt to intermeddle with matters not relating to an Army; We had before this time made joint and Public application to your Highness, therein setting forth what immediately concerns ourselves, with respect to the crying necessities of the Armies, for want of pay; And withal to have manifested our fervent desires, that our good Cause in the behalf of these Nations, might have received renewed strength and Countenance from Your Highness and this present Parliament.  
But Your Highness is our witness how peaceably, how silently we have suffered as to what concerns the Army's wants; Or what might otherwise become us in the behalf of these Nations to have laid before Your Highness.  
Yea we have been silent so long, that we fear it has been a disadvantage to our Cause, and bred (though we hope groundless) jealousies of us in many of our friends: And until we, and all that is dear to us, the Interest we have so long contended for, is in danger to be lost; to the utter ruin and subversion of Your Highness, together with the peace and welfare of these Nations.  
But being now, under the fence of imminent dangers and necessities, awakened, and also finding that Your Highness, by the sitting of this Parliament, is in a capacity to provide against the approaching danger; and upon consultation with each other, and communicating what has come to our knowledge of public concernment, and the present state of the Armies, having unanimously agreed it to be our duty to God, to Your Highness, and our fidelity to our Country, Submissively, and as becomes us in our Stations, to make our application to Your Highness:  
We hope it will not be interpreted an interruption to any other public Concernments under consideration; and do therefore in a deep sense of Misery and Judgement threatened, and pursuance of our Duty, in all humility, Represent,  
That the good old Cause against Tyranny and intolerable oppression in matters Civil and Religious, whereupon we first engaged, and unto which the Lord hath in such a continued Series of Providence given so signal a Testimony, and for the carrying on whereof there hath been such a plentiful pouring forth of Treasure, Prayers, Tears, and Blood during the late War (in the difficulties and dangers whereof, we also, the living Monuments of Patience, and Mercy, have had our shares) is very frequently and Publicly derided and reproached, and the inplacable Adversaries thereof promise themselves to be so far in possession and Masters thereof, that they begin to appear every where visible amongst us, and to mix themselves in the midsts of those places where that Cause was wont to receive its chiefest Countenance and shelter.  
Many old Cavaliers and Officers under the late King and Charles Stewart his Son, having lately transported themselves out of Flanders and other places into this Nation, have their frequent meetings in and near the City of London.  
Those who also served under the late King, and such as have always showed themselves dis-affected to that famous long Parliament, and ever since to the Cause and interest of this Commonwealth, and seek the ruin of this present Government, have their frequent meetings in several Countries of this Nation; grow very insolent, offer many affronts and assaults to such as have been, and are faithful servants to this Commonwealth.  
Papers are scattered up and down, containing Lists of Eminent Assertors of the public Interest of this Nation, such as were the actual Tryers of the late King, and by whom he was brought to condign punishment, as if they were designed and marked out for destruction.  
Encouragement is taken for the prosecution of several Well affected persons, and Suits commenced against them at the Common Law, for matters by them transacted as Soldiers, by command from their Superiors, in order to the safety and security of the Nations.  
The famous Actions of the Parliament, His late Highness, of blessed memory, and the Army in and since the year 1648. vilified and evil spoken of; particular persons frequently daring to speak against the Authority of Parliaments, and to call all their proceed, and of such as acted in obedience to them, illegal and unwarrantable.  
So that upon the whole we evidently see there is but even a step betwixt the Public Cause of these Nations, wherein we have been so signally blessed and owned of God and good men, and the death thereof; and that it is nor likely to expire without a sure presage of the sad Funerals of the deer and never to be enough valued Peace of these our native Countries.  
And that our enemies may want nothing that can strengthen their hopes, it so happens, that the Armies are already under great extremities for want of Pay, and notwithstanding their condition hath been represented, yet no effectual remedy hath been applied; our Enemies may hope discontent will be the more easily raised, if the Armies should unavoidably be necessitated upon Free Quarter.  
Divisions in the Armies have been attempted and well near effected, when their wants have not been like to what is now upon them: The Officers purses being generally emptied by their Loans to the Soldiers, their credits to the Victulars extended to the utmost; The poor Soldier sometimes enforced to sell his expected Pay much under the value thereof, for ready money to buy bread; and the great and unusual Mortality of Horses in the Army (insomuch that many Troopers have been forced to buy twice over) having brought the Horse of this Army under exceeding great extremities:  
And as by these means the adversaries to the Peace, Settlement, Prosperity, Civil and Religious Liberty of these Nations, are grown very confident and high in their expectations and attempts (as we are persuaded ready to betake themselves to their Arms again) so likewise many friends thereof are exceedingly discouraged.  
We cannot but bewail our own great failings and turn aside, and wherein soever we have backsliden we have cause, and desire to take shame to ourselves.  
And do therefore for the strengthening of Your Highness and Parliament; For the Reviving the hearts of our Faithful friends, and the vindication of our own integrity against all censures and jealousies, assert;  
That we are now, as ever, equally endeared to our good old Cause, and utter Enemies to all Tyranny, Oppression, and Disturbance of the Public Peace under what pretences soever: And through the Lord's assistance resolved, whilst our lives and present capacities are continued to us, to stand by and assist Your Highness and Parliament, in the plucking the wicked out of their places wheresoever they may be discovered, either amongst ourselves, or any other places of trust; The Reformation of Law and Manners so frequently declared for, and so earnestly expected by all sober  men. Opening the course of Justice, and Bowels of Mercy, encouraging the ways of holiness, and putting a stop to the inundation of Malignancy and Profaneness.  
All which, as it hath been in Duty and Faithfulness by us represented, so we humbly pray, That Your Highness taking into Your serious consideration, the sad condition of the Armies, and danger of the Nations, both from the great want of Pay, and Activity of our common Enemy, will be pleased to Represent these things which we have herein laid before Your Highness, to the Parliament, with our Humble Desire and Prayer, that a speedy Supply be made for the Armies, that their past Arrear may be satisfied, and care taken for their constant future Pay, so long as it shall be thought fit to continue them; as also that satisfaction be given to the Militia Forces, and that there may be such a Public Asserting of our good old Cause, and Justification and confirmation of all proceed in Prosecution and Maintenance thereof, and Declaration against its Enemies, as may for the future deter all persons from Speaking or Attempting any thing to the prejudice thereof, or of the persons that have Acted in Prosecution of it, and afford present security to the Civil and Religious Rights and Liberties of these Nations, and the Peace thereof; And that the Liberty of Good and Well-affected People, in repairing with Freedom to their Meetings for the Worship of God, (of late much Violated by Inditing and Imprisoning many of their Persons) may be still Asserted and Vindicated.   

The Printer to the READER.  
Courteous Reader,  
THis Representation was agreed on and Signed by all the Officers both Great and Small, that are in or near London, not one dissenting, whose names should have been herewith Printed, but that they could not be written our in time: It was likewise presented to His Highness the 6th of April, 1659. by the Right Honourable the Lord Charles Fleetwood, attended with the rest of the General Council of Officers, and was most graciously accepted by His Highness, who expressed himself with much affection towards both it and them.