THE COPY OF A LETTER, Sent from a well affected Gentleman of the County of Surrey, to a Gentleman in Kent.  
Communicating unto him the whole process of that horrid Massacre in Westminster, on Tuesday, May the 16.  
TOGETHER, With his own, and others sense thereupon, in relation to the good of both Counties.  
Printed in the Year, 1648.   

The Surry men's Declaration, etc.  
Sir,  
We are certainly informed in our parts, That you in Kent are preparing an address unto the Parliament in a petitionary way; a course which without reflection upon our selus, we cannot censure, as having been newly engaged in that same way. But when we shall have given you a just account of our success (which you have I suppose received imperfectly and by piecemeal already) you may perhaps become more pliable to other resolutions. It was thus: We came on Teusday last in as innocent a posture as men could devise, to Westminster with our Petition; we had before hand made our application to the Lord Mayor, desiring free passage through the City, which we found, and though we were able to come much better appointed, yet none (sure a few Gentlemen that do not use to ride without them) had so much as a Sword by their side. When we came to the Parliament, our Petition was received, and an answer promised; which we have now wit enough to believe, was no other but this, that the Soldiers bespoken before, and then fetched by one Member of the House of Lords, and two of the House of Commons (as we are credibly informed) from Whitehall and the Mews, were let lose upon our innocent and unarmed men: who (poor souls) having nothing else in their expectation but an answer of their Petition, were most unhumanely shot and hacked and hewed, and scarce so well as butchered: whiles the Countrymen (whatsoever is impudently pretended to the contrary by shameless men) did not so much as lift up their empty hands, unless it were by instinct to save their heads. No occasion was given by them (though very artificial provocations were offered them, to force a quarrel) save only that the poor men said (impardonable crime!) that They would have their King again. Some whose interest it is to make all things just that are done by that shadow of authority, have most miraculously made the unfortunate sufferers drunk after they were dead, they were not (I assure you) before, and I am confident some of them (as far of the day as it was) lost their lives as fresh and fasting as they arose out of their beds. Nor did these gallant Murderers use my Countrymen worse than they did others, the necessity of so pious a work (it seems) dispencing with any respect of persons, or else the haste of it bearing all things down before it; for the men that cried nothing but Oars and Scullers, fared as if they had been Surrey Petitioners; a Miller was slain and stripped for that great sin of having sixty pieces in his pocket, whilst one of the new Courtiers of Whitehall had not so much. There were slain outright and dead since of their wounds two or three days after, no less than thirty of the poor Innocents', and many more will never recover. Who shall answer for this, God knows, but I am sure their blood lies at the Parliaments door, and calls for justice in the very Courts of justice. I believe (and though I say it I have read some Histories) that this is the first time since its foundations were laid, that that reverend Hall (from which Law and justice hath been peaceably conveyed to all parts of the Kingdom for this four hundred and fifty years) was made a field of blood, and a stage whereon mercenary Soldiers were authorised and commanded to act their furious parts. And though the Soldiers might very well have satisfied themselves that with free quarter and contributions they left us sufficiently poor, yet to be sure they dived into the pockets not only of the slain (whom they stripped also of their , unto which doubtless their poor Widows and Orphans had more right) and of the Prisoners whose lives out of the abundance of their charity, they saved; but also of divers Gentlemen and Citizens who had the misfortune to be there present; for then and there, two hundred sixty and odd, most of them strangers to our Petition, had their pockets picked, and many were glad they escaped with the loss of their cloaks and hats into the bargain. Thus Sir as briefly as I could, I have given you an answer of our Petition: an answer promised unto us a week beforehand, both by a Parliament man, and an Assembly man, though we had more mistaken charity then to believe either of them: An answer which the Parliament avow to be their own in so disclaiming it, for they referred the examination and punishment of the Soldiers (whom underhand they encouraged) unto their own Commanders, and what that signifies I need not tell you; (Good God that the King's Bench, which used to have a further reach, cannot now be permitted the Cognizance of horrible Murders committed within sight and hearing of the Court!) I shall only add thus much which I received from an ear witness; that the Soldiers when they had got this honourable victory, whispered among themselves whether they should departed before they had the money was promised them.  
This Sir was our success in our Petition, if you go on with yours, I wish you better. You and I can neither of us forget (what then we both approved) that when the King complained of Tumults (which were too truly so) not much above six years ago, the Parliament declared that if the Subjects came up unto them with a Petition, though they were ten thousand, though a hundred thousand, though a million, yet it was no tumult, because it was the undoubted right of the subject to petition: And then Mr. Fines made a learned Speech to that effect. Yet when we now made an appearance of scarce a thousand in as harmless a manner as nothing could be more, because it did not jump with the humour of a few Traitorous Heretics or Atheists, ours is called and Pampleted by every Rogue, A Tumult at Westminster on Tuesday last, and the suppressors, forsooth, of it had the thanks of the House. No tumult then, and a tumult now? have we acquired at this great price not only a movable Religion, but movable Law and reason too? We see the inconvenience there is in having a Parliament sit so long, till they forget their own resolutions; and when they have left nothing else to confute, fall a confuting themselves; but this is not the first time they have done so. We see into what a condition we have brought ourselves. I confess it is all the reason in the world, that they that will buy their slavery should have a good pennyworth; but though we have paid our money before hand, I hope it is in our power to recall the bargain; we have been so grossly cheated, that in all equity we ought to have relief. We expected a reformation of the Church (which I cannot tell whether needed or no) and they have sent us men who give us stones for bread; we thought ourselves much entrenched upon by the King's Prerogative, but find the Privileges of a shuffled Parliament much more boundless; we were persuaded against our senses to believe the Kingdom was impoverished, whilst they by an easy & retrograde Alchemy have turned all our Gold into Iron. Which by my consent they shall feel whiles we are yet so able as to mix a little steel with it. I know you to be a Gentleman of much power in your Country, and I am sure neither of us have been so active in this wrong way but that our future service to our too much abused King may easily redeem his favour and our own reputations; we have neither been Committee-men nor Sequestrators, nor have either of us got so much by ●he times as to purchase Bishops lands. We see our selus lool●● upon with as ill and suspicious an eye as if we had been (which I could wish we had been) Malignants all this while. Now when we awake out of that sleep into which their Opium hath cast us, we find ourselves greater slaves than any in Europe, nay greater than any in Turkey except poor Captives. If we release not ourselves we shall never be able to answer it to the King, nor his, nor our posterity, nor scarce (having these opportunities offered) to ourselves neither. Why should we put that off which first or last we shall be enforced to do? especially when we shall never be our own men till we do it? Therefore (if I be worthy to advise) lay aside your Petition, let our answer serve you though we only pay for it, let your County and ours come into our wits together (Cavaliers would say honesties too) there is no doubt, but not only Essex, but all the Counties in England successively (and some as quick as you can) will join with us; which will at once expiate our offences, and bring us a double blessing, an old King and a new Parliament. Or if you be resolved to go on with your Petition, lest you receive as sharp an answer or sharper than we did, take example from our Master's dear Brethren (you may do it with more honesty) and come with a supplication in one hand, and a sword in the other. And be sure that you trust more to your swords then your supplication, it being too apparent, that the Parliament love to receive none of these, except it be of their own drawing. But with those if we stick close unto one another (as we are resolved to do) and especially if you will join with us, we hope by the blessing of God, to redeem ourselves out of slavery, and to do an acceptable service to God, the King, and Kingdom. This I assure you is the sense of this whole County, which you will suddenly understand from other hands, etc.  
Sir, I am, Your, etc.  
FINIS.