A DECLARATION OF THE ARMY To His Excellency The Lord General CROMWELL, FOR The dissolving of this present Parliament, and choosing of a new Representative.  
WITH Their Proposals and Desires touching 

1 The Government of this Nation.  
2 The Liberty and Freedom o● the People.  
3 An account to be given of the great sums of Money received.  
4 The taking off all Taxes.  
5 The setting free of prisoners that are not worth 5 l.    
August 10 Imprinted at London, for John Smithson, and are to be sold at the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, 1652.   

A DECLARATION OF THE ARMY, To His Excellency the Lord General Cromwell, for the dissolving of this present Parliament.  
THe Officers of the Army having had sundry Consultations and Conferences, touching the dissolving of this present Parliament, and electing of a new Representative; after much time spent in debate thereof, proceeded to a period of their Results, grounded upon public safety; and in pursuance thereof, presented a Model of their Proposals, to his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell; with the subscriptions of most of the Officers of the Army; And by a general Condescension, it was drew up in a Declaratory-Way to the Parliament; but exceeding high they are in their Proposals. But what will ensue, or be resolved upon time will manifest.  
In short, the current runs thus; For redressing of the groans and heavy oppressures of the people, both in City and Country, and the enjoyment of freedom throughout the Nation, according to the several Engagements and Protestations of the Officers and Soldiery; and which hath been purchased at a dear rate by the expense of much blond.  
For, indeed, to desire liberty, and shun servitude, is natural to very beasts; and man seeming to be of worse condition than brute beasts, which as rational pass by the greater delights of sense to shun subjection; he as irrational, passing by the better reasons of the understanding, precipitates himself into servitude, as if slavery were the greatest sensuality. The great God of Heaven hath made all souls equal, all bodies of the same materials; and if the Divine Power endow one species with more nobleness than another, yet He does not so in individuals. Wherefore shall we then make some greater than all, whom Nature hath not made greater than any one? If a Commonwealth be liberty, a Kingdom is servitude; nor is it the more to be praised if it be voluntary; rather he is more to be blamed who serves out of weakness, than he who serves enforced by Necessity.  
When time requires recourse to daring, there ought no recourse be had to patience: patience doth well in generous breasts, to assuage, necessity, and there it becomes fortitude: In all other places 'tis baseness of mind, unless it be assumed when time serves, to be laid aside when time serves.  
In a Word, there is nothing more desired by the Army, than the public safety, liberty, and freedom of the People; who desire, that the ancient and sovereign Law, called Salus Populi, should be for ever kept inviolate, All other Laws, Customs, Conquests in that Case provided and usurped whatsoever, in any wise, notwithstanding.  
And in pursuance thereof, have proposed a way for redress of all Grievances, as evidently appears by these ensuing particulars, to wit; 

1 That there be an account given of the vast sums of money, collected several ways throughout this Nation.  
2 That an account be given by all Treasurers, Committees, and others, how the said sums have been disbursed, and for what use and service they have respectively been employed.  
3 That a new Representative be forthwith elected.  
4 That the heavy burdens of the people be removed, and all Oppressures and Taxes taken off, that so the poor may no longer be insulted over by the rich; but that truth, equity, and justice, may abound amongst them.  
5 That Courts of Judicature be reduced into a smaller number, and the Officers not to exceed in number; but that both themselves, and their Revenues, be equally set down and stated.    
Many other particulars of great concernment are agitating; and amongst the rest, An Act for the redress and delivery of poor prisoners, which are not able to satisfy their debts, being impoverished beneath the value of 5 l. speedy care is taken for the expediting thereof.  
But me thinks, Gentlemen, I hear a resounding echo from some distempered spirits, who say, That injuries received, tend to the ruin of men, who with the zeal of honour do not accompany wisdom; they run upon revenge for past-wrongs, and throw themselves headlong upon new miseries; they would amend one error and produce a thousand.  
Too much haste is as much before time, as too much delay is out of time: Errors of impatience are worse than Errors of delay; for it is better to shun precipices, than to run upon them: if they be not hindered they will be retarded. Justice is not believed to be there, where violence is observed to be; nor can it be accounted wisdom, where there is no argumentation. Argumentation is not had in an instant; Time is not measured by instants; and things which have not been done in times past, may well be effected in times to come. For, truly, never was there an Army, who desired to purchase freedom for their Country, more than these; and, indeed, well may they be called, the Academy of Europe; or, an Army of Saints, by reason, that their Discipline is composed both in a spiritual and temporal Warfare.   
FINIS.