THE LORD GENERAL FLEETWOODS Answer To the Humble Representation of colonel Morley, and some other late Officers of the Army.  
Wherein he declares his Judgement and Conscience what is the Good Old Cause, and for a FREE PARLIAMENT, As the onely expedient for ENGLANDS SETTLEMENT.  
Novemb. 8. 1659.   

Gentlemen,  
I Was in hope that your letter of the first of this month aimed at my private satisfaction, and that you would have at least allowed me a day or two's time to have answered it with submission to your judgement, or conviction of your mistakes; but since I find it the next day printed under the title of A Representation, and so made a Trumpet of your vain glory, and an Alarm for War unto the people, I shall appeal to the same Judges, and answer it as an Englishman and a Christian, the Title you vainly give yourselves in the front of your discourse, by which you labour to divest all but your own party of their Rights as Englishmen and as Christians; And that I may appear to balk no part of your letter, when the whole is so easily answered, I shall rather follow your own wild method then not take in all.  
I confess those you mention( of our being Englishmen, Christians, Persons embarked from the beginning of the Warres in the same cause, and sharers in bearing the burden and heat of the day) are strong ligaments to make us of one mind in preventing the destruction of this( now indeed poor, but) late flourishing and happy Nation: but when I see, your being touched in your private interest and profit, is the first opening of your eyes to behold with sad and bleeding hearts the late renu●d breach upon the Parliament, and the apprehended consequences thereof, viz. the rendering of all the blood and treasure  shed and spent for the deliverance of( as you call it again poor) England fruitless, and bringing of these Nations into Blood, Destruction and Confusion; I cannot but believe that if the Army would have continued to you Colonel Morley, and your fellow members the liberty of arbitrary Tyranny over the free people of these Nations, and remained themselves as Turkish Jannisaries in the execution of your bloody, illegal and oppressive commands; neither you, nor those who signed the Letter with you, would have been at all pricked at the heart, or resembled us to the Egyptian Mamalukes, or roman praetorian bands, for doing that justly to you and your fellow Members, now which most unjustly, and with much more rigour at your instigation we executed in 1648. upon persons of the greatest Nobility, Integrity and wisdom in this Nation, in comparison of whom those your Letter calls the Parliament, and avows for the onely supreme Authority, for the most of them were not fit to sit with the Dogges of their flock, as will appear, before I conclude my Answer to your Letter.  
To deal therefore plainly with you, and to glow-worm myself upon this occasion to you and the Nations, I must aclowledge, that the first formal force that we put upon that Renowned Parliament in 1648.( not to mention the li●ht impressions of force which preceded) was the first proclaimed and avowed deviation that we made from the reputation that we had of Englishmen and Christians; the sad Reflection whereupon, and upon the many Oaths and Obligations we were under for a contrary walking, leaves such a sting behind i●, that you have given me some ease in your occasional making me thus appear a Penitentiary to the world, and that I may not be behind hand with you, but may evidence my unfeigned desire, when I am convinced myself, to strengthen my Brethren: I shall as briefly as I can, within the compass of a Letter, interweave the relation of those remarks of State, which as so many sad & wearisome steps have brought these three famous Nations to the b●inck of that grave of Confusion, which is now opened for us, past shutting, but by the hand of God, and a return to his ways: For Introduction whereunto I must acquaint you.  
That this famous Monarchy of Great britain, and Ireland, with the Dominions and Territories thereunto belongin●, having for some time wrestled with great dangers and fears, various distempers and disorders which had much assaulted, and shaken the Liberty, Peace, and Prosperity thereof, and the comfort and hopes of all his late Majesties good Subjects, and exceedingly weakened and undermined the foundation and strength of his own Royal Throne. A Parliament was called in the month of November, 1641. as the onely proper remedy known to Englishmen for the relief of grievances, and preventing of growing evils: which Parliament is now best known by the Name of the long Parliament, and being so deservedly famous for their Gallant asserting and vindicating the Liberties of the people of England, till they were interrupted by the Army, their own words will to most satisfaction best express the Good Old Cause, they engaged themselves and the people of these three Nations in: And because they were sensible that the Parliament were, by their Interest and Constitution, the great Bulwark and Preservative of the Peoples Liberties and Property, and that the Rights and privileges of Parliament were the Birth-right and Inheritance, not onely of themselves, but of the whole kingdom wherein every Subject was interested, The maintenance and Preservation whereof did very highly conduce to the public Peace and Prosperity of his Majesty, and all the People; they did the 14. of December 1641. declare, that it was their ancient and undoubted right, that the King ought not to take notice of any matter in agitation and debate in either Houses of Parliament, but by their Information and agreement; and that the King ought not to propound any condition, provision or limitation to any Bill or Act in Debate or preparation in either House of Parliament, or to manifest or declare his consent or dissent, app●obation or dislike of the same, before it were presented to his Majesty in due course of Parliament. And that every particular member of either House hath free liberty of speech to propound or debate any matter according to the order and course of Parliament. And that his Majesty ought not to conceive displeasure against any man for such opinions and Propositions as shall be delivered in such debate, it belonging to the several Houses of Parliament respectively to judge and determine such errors and offences in words or actions, as shall be committed by any their Members in the handling or debating any matters depending.  
And the 17. of January, 1641. upon that breach of privilege of Parliament by the late Kings proceedings against the five Members of the House of Commons, that house did declare that the arresting of any Members of Parliament by any warrant whatsoever without a legal proceeding against them, and without consent of that house, whereof such person was a Member, is against the Liberty of the Subject, and a breach of privilege of Parliament; and the person which shall arrest any Member of Parliament, is declared an enemy of the Common-wealth.  
And at the same time they did declare, that the coming of Souldiers and others in a hostile manner to the house of Commons, though with his Majesty, was a traitorous design against the King and Parliament. And that the Proclamation then printed in his Majesties name for the apprehending and imprisoning of the said members, was false, scandalous and illegal. And in a Petition to the King both Houses do afterwards assert it, to be the undoubted Right and privilege of Parliament, that no Member of Parliament can be proceeded against without the consent of Parliament. To secure this fundamental privilege amongst divers others, That Parliament entred into a defensive War: in the Beginning, Progress, and Conclusion whereof, they express by their public Declarations and Demonstrances, the Cause to be for defence of his Majesties Person, Honour and Estate, the true Protestant Religion, the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom, and the Power and privilege of Parliament. And to this cause, they, and the whole body of this Nation and Scotland obliged themselves by divers Oaths and Covenants. And after many bloody Battels, Sieges and sacking of Cities and Towns, great Devastation of England, and Destruction of Englishmen, the quarrel being determined by the sword. The Parliament to justify their Integrity, and wash off those scandalous Aspersions which by public Proclamations and Declarations had been cast on them during the War, that they intended the ruin of the King and his Posterity, the change of Religion, and Alteration of the Government, by Kings, Lords and Commons, and to introduce instead thereof, the Government of a Common-wealth; justified to their conquered King at the Isle of Wight upon the very same things( and the securing of them) for which they had taken up arms: But absolute Rule and Government was too sweet a morsel for those to part with, who though they had gone along with the Parliament, in their public Acts and oaths hoped for an opportunity at the end of the war, which had wearied both parties, to make themselves masters of both, and how far a small party in the house of Commons to the great scandal of Religion and moral honesty, were active to that end, by obstructing Parl●amentary proceedings, and all meetings with the King; and( when that would no longer keep off Peace and Settlement, and the Returning of them to their Countries) by debauching the Army several times to violate the privileges of Parliament, and finally to imprison, and servile the whole house of Peers, and most of the house of Commons. You Colonel Morley, can better tell then I, and how far you concurred in those Actions. The banks of our laws, Liberties and Peace being thus broken down, the royal Head was not safe upon the Throne, but all manner of arbitrary, unjust, bloody and oppressive Proceedings, from the shane and guilt whereof, I cannot acquit myself, but must confess with sorrow, I had too great a hand therein, as well as you, came in like a flood upon these Nations, and have overwhelmed us, so that we have had no Law nor Religion, but the arbitrary Dictates of a few Members of the house of Commons; and though like men in a sick bed, we have for these many years tumbled and tossed from Government to Government through variety of Changes, and increase of sin, we have found settlement in no condition, but met with a sad proof, that God is not like to own us, till we truly, and no more faignedly repent, and return to that period of Affair, where we so notedly went first out of the way. I have been the shorter in this account of our misery, because the passages of your letter will all along give me occasion to supply many particulars that I have here omitted, and therefore I proceed, and in the answering of it, must remember you, that if the bringing of these Nations into blood, destruction and confusion is like to be so advantageous to Popish and all bloody enemies, to Justice and true Godliness; who, I must confess, do much increase by what I have said, they know who they are beholding to for such helps, though I hope before I conclude, I shall show a way to damp their joy, and lessen your Triumph; you go on, and tell me that, That you cannot with just Peace and satisfaction to your own Consciences sit down altogether in silence, but as in some measure you do pour out your hearts before the Lord, so you think it your duty to present me with some of your serious thoughts, apprehensions and fears, as also with desires that I would consider in time before the Lord, what a floodgate is open for a deluge of miseries to be poured down upon this Nation, and how much I am concerned, as I tender the honour of God, the Vindication of religion, the Credit of the Gospel, the Recovery of my own Reputation which now lies at the stake, the just satisfaction that all sober Christians and true Englishmen may challenge from me, and the Relief of my native country that is now sinking in her dearest concernment, and cries our for help: That I would( before it is too late improve my utmost interest and power to put a stop to that destructive Career that the Army now is engaged in, to obviate the two great advantages that foreign and domestic enemies have now put into their hands, and seasonably to hinder these new Counsels that have no Parliamentary sanction, and so must be grievous to the free-born people of England in any thing they do, you address yourselves to me not only as bein● of eminent interest, but because I have professed religion, and thickness of godliness at a high rate, and much tenderness of Spirit; many sober Christians have had great hopes of me, and you are not without confidence yourselves, yet you know that I am in a very great temptation, and beg the Lo●d to grant that my temptation may not be seconded with a divine desertion; you are jealous over me, and many( you say) are at a stand what to think of me.  
Thus far the pathetical persuasive Preface of your Letter reacheth, the rest consisting much of such arguments as you use to enforce the same.  
I am glad, that after so long a sleep, your consciences as well as mine are aw●kned, and as ill an opinion as you have of me and the Army, I see you are beholding to our late action for your betaking yourself to your pen and prayers, and the disclosing of your serious thoughts, apprehensions and fears which before we heard nothing of, and I do hearty wish the one may be as real as I hope the other will prove but im●ginary, unless your actions contribute to the accomplishment of them. I do I hope consider in time what a floodgate is open for a deluge of miseries, but do not a little wonder you should not spy our dange●s no sooner, when we ha●● been under them so many years, and never cry out for help till we have set upon the Cure; And now as I tender the honour of God, ●he Vindication of Religion, the credit of the Gospel, the recovery of my own reputation( which hath two long lain at stake,) and the just satisfaction th●● all ●ob●● Christians and true Englishmen may challenge from me. I must a little further unveile to those Nations that ma●k o● hypocrisy under which you seem so great friends to our native country and Parliamentary Authority, by remembering you of the vast difference in esteem and value between that untainted Pa●●iamentary Authority which they themselves did not dread to infringe and violate contrary to all obli●ations of honour and conscience, and that pitiful Parliamentary sanction which they object out new counsels want, and so must be grievous to the free-bo●n people of England, and advantageous to foreign and comestick enemies. And this will best appear by setting in view the persons and actions of the one and other. It would not svit with the b●evity of a Letter to mention the Catalogue at large of those hundreds of the best interested in the Nation which were imprisoned, and excluded Parliamentary councils in 1648. not more by the Armies force, then their Votes and Orders whom you now advance as the only givers of Parliamentary Sa●●tion. It shall suffice that I name some of them: the remembrance of whom, works not more sorrow in me, that the Nations to our irreparable loss and damage have been so long deprived of their prowess, and parts, & singular honesty, then it doth create joy in me, that we may yet see them happy Instruments by their wisdom and powerful interest of repairing our breaches, and making these three Nations one stick in the hand of God for the comfort and support of his own people, and terror and subduing of his enemies throughout the world. They are these;  

Of the House of peers.  
The Earl of Northumberland.  
The Earl of Rutland.  
The earl of Bedford.  
The earl of Warwick.  
The earl of lincoln.  
The earl of Manchester.  
The earl of clear.  
The earl of exeter.  
The earl of Denbigh.  
The earl of Leicester.  
The earl of Oxford.  
The earl of Elgin.  
The Lord Viscount Say & seal.  
The Lord Brook.  
The Lord Roberts.  
The Lord Gray of Wark.  
The Lord Dacres.  
The Lord North.  
The Lord Montague.  
The Lord Wharton. And divers others.   

Of the House of Commons.  
Mr. Pierepont.  
Mr. Densill Hollis.  
Mr. Nathaniel Fiennes.  
Mr. Ansley.  
Mr. John Crew.  
Sir Gilbert Gerrard.  
sergeant brown.  
Sir William Waller.  
Mr. Swinfen.  
Sir Harebottle Grimstone.  
Sir Anthony Irby.  
Sir John Clotworthy.  
Mr. Hodges of Glostershire.  
Mr. Alexander Popham.  
Colonel Rossiter.  
sergeant Maynard.  
Sir John Temple.  
Sir Thomas Dacres.  
Colonel Norton.  
Mr. Hatcher.  
Mr. John Bois.  
Mr. got.  
Mr. Nathaniel Stephens.  
Sir Walter earl.  
Colonel Birch.  
Sir William Lewis.  
Sir John Curson.  
Sir Dudley North.  
Sir John Burgoine.  
Mr. Hugh Bascowen.  
Mr. Bunckley.  
Mr. James Fiennes.  
Sir John Eveling of Surrey.  
Mr. Grove.  
Mr. Gewen.  
Sir John Eelivng of Wilts.  
Mr. Prynne.  
sergeant Twisden.  
Mr. John Stephens.  
Mr. Knightley.  
Mr. Owfield.  
Sir Richard Onslow.  
Colonel Hunt.  
Sir Beachamp St. John.  
Sir William Litton.  
Colonel lionel Copley.  
Captain Wingate.  
Sir John Pagrave.  
mayor General brown.  
Sir John Holland.  
Sir Roger Burgoine.  
Sir John pots.  
Sir Thomas Trevor.  
Sir Thomas Solmes.  
Mr. John Nelthrop.  
Mr. George Montague.  
Mr. Francis Gerrard.  
sergeant Glynne.  
Colonel Edward Harley.  
Mr. John Trevor.  
Mr. thin.  
Mr. Dacres.  
Mr. Hobby.  
Mr. John halberd.  
Mr. Eveling.  
Sir Robert pie.  
Mr. James halberd.  
Colonel Lloyd.  
Mr. Hungerford.  
Mr. Foxwist, &c.   
I should weary you and myself to name more, they are upon Record, and will be famous to Posterity, as they have been in their Generation: And the history of England, and those memorable transactions in Parliament, and by their Authority in maintenance of that glorious cause before ▪ mentioned, wherein they engaged in a time of danger, and persevered with faithfulness, till their unhappy, O unhappy interruption, will be monuments of their renown to all succeeding Generations, and save me the labour of saying more of their noble and worthy actions. Now on the other hand the persons from whom you would derive all Parliamentary Sanction, and have to be owned by all for the onely Authority of these Nations, are those Gentlemen, I suppose, who on the the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth of the last month made such hast to pass certain Orders, pretended Acts, and a Declaration which the Army have with more ease, and as good Authority repealed, and declared null and voided, viz.  

Sir Arthur Hesilrig.  
Mr. Henry nevil.  
Mr. Morley.  
Mr. Pine.  
Colonel Dixwell.  
Sir. Henry Mildmay.  
Colonel White.  
Sir John Trevor.  
The Lord Munson.  
Mr. Thomas Chaloner.  
Mr. Walton.  
Mr. Luke Robinson.  
Mr. Henry Darley.  
Mr. Richard Darley.  
Mr. Brewster.  
Mr. Whitlock.  
Mr. Lister.  
Mr. James Temple.  
Colonel Temple.  
Mr. Oldsworth.  
Mr. Blagrave.  
Mr. Millington.  
Mr. Robert Reynolds.  
Mr. Henry Martin.  
Colonel Thompson.  
Mr. Baker.  
Sir Peter Wentworth.  
Mr. main.  
Colonel Harvey.  
Mr. Fielder.  
Mr. Fell.  
Mr. Robert Goodwin.  
Mr. John Goodwin.  
Mr. hays.  
Mr. Lisle.  
Colonel downs.  
Mr. Scott.  
Alderman Atkins.  
Alderman Pennington.  
Mr. Say.  
Mr. Dove.  
Mr. Skinner.   

For the rest of the Members did then oppose their proceedings, namely  
The Earl of Pembroke.  
The Earl of Salisbury.  
Lord Viscount Lisle.  
Mr. Robert cecil.  
Colonel Sydenham.  
Colonal Rich.  
Mr. Walter Strickland.  
Colonel Philip Jones.  
Mr. Cornelius Holland.  
Colonel Bennet.  
Mr. Trenchard.  
mayor Salwey.  
Sir. Thomas Walsingham.  
And myself.  
And Lord chief Baron wild.   
And that I may not omit to give you a short account of their actions, which or nothing must entitle them to the supreme Authority and sole Legislature of these Nations. I must remember you in addition to what I have said already of their manifold miscarriages; by illegal and unheard of High Courts of Justice, stupendious Taxes, shameful self-seeking, and self-enriching endeavours to perpetuate their own sitting, domineering over their brethren, with cruel revenge, chargeable Militia's merely to undermine the Army, chargeable and unchristian Wars with their Protestant brethren of Holland, and Scotland, whilst they maintain a close correspondence and League with Englands old Jesuited Gunpowder enemies of spain: I should nauseate the Reader to repeat all which they have not been ashamed to Act, what I have written may suffice to help you and the world to make a right comparison of the persons and actions, and to give a true judgement who are fittest for, and have best right to exercise the Supremacy of these Nations, and are likeliest to do it with most equality and prudence, those noble, prudent, and untainted persons, or you Colonel Morley, Sir Arthur Hesilrig, and your heady associates, who have been deservedly for many years under so great rebukes, yea, who are the scorn, the by-word, and hatred of the people at home, and Nations abroad, and whom I may properly call trees twice dead plucked up by the roots. For my own part I do without hesitancy profess it, and I take it to be the sense of most of the Army, that we, and these Nations may expect a happy and lasting settlement by the councils of the former our only lawful Masters, we can never hope for it from the latter, who have, and do endeavour to perpetuate their usurpation over them and us, and all the people of these Nations.  
But there is one objection which hath gone too long for currant to our cost, which must be removed.  
Object.  
You say, and perhaps you have said it, so long uncontrolled that you believe it, That the said Majority of the Commons house, and whole house of Peers were forcibly secluded the Parliament in 1648. for breach and forfeiture of their Trusts.  
Answ. In answer to this( though the members themselves in their own vindication published in 1648.( as I find now the perplexities of the Nations have made me review and consider it more seriously then I did in the hurry of Temptations) and Mr Pryn's late necessary Vindication have satisfied all that do not wilfully shut their eyes against full evidence of Truth) I shall add this Dilemma, either they were guilty of breach of Trust as you assert, or not; if guilty, it being a combination of so many in breach of a Trust of the highest nature, and aggravated by the eminency of the persons, you have broken your Trust in not calling them to account, and inflicting severe punishment upon them: But if innocent,( as I fully satisfied) as well by their resolute and clear Justification of themselves, and their fellow members, never daring to question them judicially, though they have formerly, and of late by a public claim of their Right sufficiently provoked them to do it, and by the fair and unstained honour and reputation they have in the world, and good opinion of the people appearing in the late parliamentary Elections of many of them, though they did not seek, but opposed the same, when others( though they courted the people, could not obtain to be trusted) you are unexcusable for excluding them.  
Having laid this foundation of plain dealing with you, it is obvious to you and the world, that you have no cause to make such a loud out-cry, and evident enough who are the persons injured both by you and us, without giving satisfaction to whom we can expect no just peace on satisfaction to our Consciences, nor the reputation of honest men among the people; And I think you have so little ground to repined and murmur at what is come to pass, that you ought to have in admiration the wonderful providence and mercy of God in this double retaliation of what you have done unjustly with your brethren, and if it work not repentance in you; believe it, worse things do yet abide you,; and for my own part, I should have little comfort in what is done, if I did not intend and believe, we should return whence we are fallen, in which respect I must account this a happy career that the Army is now engaged in, and a proof of our professed Religion, strict godliness, and tenderness of spirit, and such as will increase in sober Christians( among which I cannot but rank in chief those forenamed noble and worthy persons) greater hopes of me, and beget in you( when your eyes are open to repent) a better confidence of me, and a sense, that( whatever I have been formerly) not I, but you and those you pled for, are now under a very great tion, and in danger of divine desertion.  
You mention the late infringing of English liberties, as if you were innocent thereof, which upon what I have said I leave to the world to judge, and let me tell you freely that the attempt to perpetuate a Supremacy in a Minor and least considerable part of the Parliament, strikes most transcendently at the Liberties of the English Nation, whilst our opposition thereunto tends to a recovery of our lost Liberties, and doth not at all pretend to those advantages the former Protector had, and if there be any cries in the Nation upon the same account as yours, they are but like the cries made by untoward children, because they are not petmitted to beat their brethren; And for the thousands of precious souls in England, who are at this day weeping in secret places; I believe it is not in favour of usurpation on any side, but against unwarrantable undertakings on all hands, against solemn Oaths and Trusts; and when I enter into my Chamber and Closet of my own heart, and commune therewith in the sight of the all-searching God, I am convinced I shall give England, Scotland, and Ireland the most through proof of my faithfulness, humility, self-denial, and public spiritedness, by a vigorous prosecuting of those late actings, in dispersing that pageant of pretended Authority, which under the bare name of a Parliament, hath too long impudently abused these Nations even to ruin. And believe it, though as you say, the good people of this Nation have been formerly deceived by good words and faire promises; It is not words without suitable actions will any longer sway with them; setting dayes apart for seeking God in fasting, when the way is not good, will not hereafter blind English eyes; with much of your following discourse are very sound truths, but very partially applied, to argue us more guilty of hypocrisy then yourselves, who whilst you did the same things with success, never misliked them, nor expressed any remorse for them, till the case came to be your own, and your new preferments were shaken, and then you cry out of the Armies actings, and tell us the Parliament is interrupted; and in one whole page. endeavour to represent them in such a dress as may gain pity in their behalf: But I appeal to your own consciences, and answer me as in the sight of God; was that the Parliament of England? can you Colonel Morley say so, who have seen so many Committees of the House of Commons more like a Parliament? did you tell us but a few lines before, that this Nation would no longer be deceived, nor English eyes blinded? and do you now call a few Members of the House of Commons such as I have before deciphered them a Parliament? when you know the rightful Parliament of England consists of King, Lords, and five hundred Commons; and if you can satisfy yourselves, and persuade the people to be content with King, and Lords, and the best four hundred of the Commons, because you were weary of them, will you think it deserves such an exclamation for us( upon juster grounds then you can pretend against them) to make you leave fooling, that either all may come in again upon the same free score, or a new free Parliament may be called in the ancient manner: and in the mean while by a Committee of safety, as wise as your Parliament, to provide for the peace of these Nations. And this I hope will shake off your upbraiding our sense of former backslidin●, when you see our proceedings are in order to a through repenting, wherein t'will be your greatest honour to join with us.  
You go on boasting of the success against the late plot, and Gods owning your Parliament therein, in the mean while forgetting the Army, preserved that parliament, or Sir George Booth, one of the members they driven away, had shewed himself of more Interest, and power in the Nation, then all that Parliament; and had not left their interruption to the Army.  
You mind us of many compliments we used to you, and how in our late petition we seemed to take pleasure to style ourselves your faithful servants and faithful Army; and would ▪ have these expressions more obligatory to us then those oaths of Allegiance, supremacy, subjection and faithfulness which we were under to King and Parliament, which your small Parliament dispensed within themselves and us, but quo Jure is yet well worth considering and laying to heart, and the world will judge: and we are well assured that none can blame us in the one, who will not much more condemn you in the other.  
Your next Lamentation is, that so many are at work with tongue and pen to bespatter your Parliament, and consequently to bring Parliaments out of Credit, &c. & this you call an old Court design. Is this the first time they were deservedly bespattered; or were they ever free of it? whole volumes have been written of their miscarriages, and true Parliaments are so far from being brought out of Credit thereby, that it adds a lustre and value to them, and makes the people long for them the more, knowing that a genuine Parliament can do nothing dishonourable or hurtful to the people, whereas these did almost nothing else, which I am loth so often to object against them, but that you so frequently nauseate us with impertinent and undeserved praises of them. And for the Court design you mention, I believe the Actions of your Parliament alone hath furnished all future Courts with more objections against Parliaments then all that went before them: but I hope nothing shall ever wean England from love unto Parliaments, though the sad Presidents of yours will make them more wary who they choose next, and render the elected more wary what they do. And( though not upon the inconsequent hints you give) I do believe that the spirit of the free-born Englishmen( notwithstanding Parliament interruptions) is still working towards a free English Parliament; and that old maxim will not easily be obliterated, Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus debet approbari, though it was little regarded when a few men took upon them to bind the whole Nation without suffering their Representatives to sit. A practise that can never be warranted, but in order to a free Parliament, which I shall rejoice to see, being as loth as any, that this English Nation should loose their hereditary and birth-right privilege of making their own Laws by which they shall be governed: for I know no help under God for the healing of this Nation, but a Free Parliament.  
And therefore you might have spared your loud exclamation which follows against a sword Government which I condemn as much as you seem to do; for by the way I must tell you, that you comported well enough with that Government, so long as the sword was employed to satisfy your lusts, and increase your Estates, and not used to correct you and your Parliaments Exorbitancies: and we trust when the Judgement of Christ you threaten us with, comes, our late Actings for the ends we have expressed, will not shane or confounded us so much as those, wherein we have gone a long with you for many years, if we repent not of them.  
You go on and tell us, that the great Argument why this Parliament was interrupted, was least nine Families should be undone at once; and you justify the taking away our Commissions upon a bare Information without hearing from the example of that memorable Parliament in the year 1645. when those noble, and ever to be honoured persons, the Earls of Essex, Warwick, Manchester, the Lord Fairfax, Sir William Waller, Colonel Rosseter, and many other Officers were laid aside.  
To this I must answer you, that one ill President is no warrant for another: How often have the two houses of Parliament repented that the most rash Act, and most fatal to England, that they were ever guilty of? What else is it, but that in the consequence of it, that hath increased our Troubles ever since? We could never have had so many dangerous evolutions, every one of which threatens greater ruin then other to these Nations: If those persons of honour and interest had continued their Command of the Army, which we see now upon every change are( for want of such heads to unite them in the good cause for which they at first engaged) ready to dash in pieces one against another. Besides, I must tell you, however you upbraid us, we have greater obligation to those noble persons, whom for the minor parts sake we drove from their Trust in Parliament, after they had discharged those gallant Generals and Commanders you mention to prefer us, then we have to you Colonel Morley, and your Parliament who owed your restitution to us, whom you would now ungratefully casheere for a requital that you might rule us and the Nations with a rod of Iron: And let me tell you, the party you so passionately appear for, are not so considerable, that nine Families, much less Millions of Families( as you vainly boast) should be put to open hazard by our delivering ourselves from their fury. And as slight as you now make of Subscriptions and addresses( which I confess with you to be but a rotten proof and sandy foundation) they have been the great Engine contrived by your Parliament to abuse and delude the Nations.  
You remember us well that the War was defensive on the Parliaments part; and so it was indeed whilst it deserved the name of a Parliament, viz. till 1648. But pray let me ask you who made the War offensive in conclusion by doing and demanding those things after the War which were abjured in the heat of it, and never asserted to be part of the cause. And since you are so free as to give me your dying thoughts, let me entreat you to reflect upon them seriously once again, and then tell me as Christians that God hath preserved from death to repent, whether at that time you mention( when you were in the dayes of your Extremity amongst Garments rolled in blood, and many times expecting your entrance into eternity by some instruments of death) it was judged by any of you to be part of the Good old Cause, to wrest all Power and Authority out of the hands of the three Estates in Parliament, and to fix it in a few of the most inconsiderable Members of the house of Commons, to be used arbitrarily, which is the Cause you now maintain against the Army, and they are resolved to oppose.  
You come at length to discover, that self-interest makes you so zealous in this quarrel: whilst you tell us that your being desired to withdraw from the Counsel of Officers, makes you to express your moans to me, &c. But pray you tell me, do you think it reasonable you should be admitted to their Counsels, against whom you so lately appeared in Arms to have destroyed them? and how could you answer it to your own Parliament to sit in Counsel with those who have renounced them, and owned me for their General: unless your design was to raise Mutiny, and divide us; and if so, you had a merciful dismiss that you met not with a Counsel of War after you were desired to withdraw from the general Counsel of Officers.  
You need not apprehended the loss of any freedoms justly due to any Englishman; but if you adventured your dearest blood to purchase an usurped arbitrary Dominion over your fellow Subjects, it was a mistaken sinful quarrel; in the miscarrying whereof you are so far from being oppressed, that to have prevailed, would have rendered you the greatest Oppressors, and therefore instead of praying the Lord to help you as oppressed, bless God and thank the Army, that against your Will kept you from being Oppressors any longer: and assure yourselves, instead of the desperate hazard you apprehended to the three Nations, the Army will never cease, till they have wrought that deliverance and happy settlement for them, which you and your pretended Parliament had never the heart to have afforded them, or purchased for them.  
You seem in the next place to sum up your discourse, by telling us upon the whole matter, That the Question now is, Whether it be not more honourable upon a Christian Account, and safe for you and others, to sound a seasonable Retreat, then to march on in ways, which one day will not be justified before Him who is a consuming fire: And as if you doubted the weakness of what went before to produce such a positive conclusion you furbish up arguments afresh to evince it, which I shall rendet as ineffectual as the former, taking them in order.  
First, You tell us, The Parliament of England never raised or maintained Souldiers to be Law-makers, but to defend this Nation against those who were Law-breakers.  
How comes it then to pass that when you, Colonel Morley, and those your fellow Members, which you now call the Parliament could not carry things by debate and Votes in the House, you prayed in aid the Army to make you the supreme Authority, by forcibly excluding the mayor part, who outreason'd and over-voted you, and how great a share the Army have ever since had in the Legislature of these Nations, is too notorious to be denied or disguised, & I may freely tell you longer then the Army stood by you and protected you in that Lawmaking usurpation, the people would not have submitted to any of your Laws; and if, as you say, the Army was raised and maintained to defend this Nation against Law-breakers, they never performed their trust more effectually and honestly, then in delivering the Nation from that mock Parliament, who were the greatest Law-breakers that ever England groaned under, which might be cleared, past denial, by a whole Volume of sad instances more then those I have before mentioned.  
In the next place you seem very solicitous of Religion, the Gospel, our Liberties and estares, and say that you have been in this Age beaten into the knowledge, where those our English freedoms may be most safely lodged, which you tell us is the Parliament, and that the people of England assembled in Parliament by their Representatives, you must own to be our proper Law-makers, and to have Legislative power, and to have power legally to Levy Taxes upon the People.  
I am satisfied in judgement and conscience, that those our fundamental freedoms, which you mention are best secured in free and successive legally constituted Parliaments, but that they can be safely lodged in such a piece of a self-perpetuating, bare nominal Parliament as you contend for, I am so far from believing that it is apparent to me and all the world, that these Nations have almost lost Religion, the Gospel, and our Liberties, and shrewdly weakened and impoverished our estares, whilst they have been deposited in such hands in which our Ancestors were too wise to entrust the meanest of them: never owning other Law-makers, or Legislative power to Levy Taxes upon the people, but King, Lords and Commons since they knew the happiness of that constitution, and by the prodigality of their new and changeable hungry Masters are convinced more then ever of the absolute necessity of keeping their purse under that safe lock with three keys finding that in a few yeares, since those ancient lock and keys were broken, and the treasure of the Nation hath been under the weak Padlock of much the minor part of the House of Commons, there hath been more money exacted from the people, and lavishly expended, then in many Ages before, and no return for it but naked promises, of making us a happier people, which we are every day further from then other.  
In the third place you assert that the Militia and standing forces of England, Scotland and Ireland ought to be subordinate to, and disposed by commands of Parliament, and of such powers as are delegated by Parliament, by which still you mean your diminutive Parliament.  
It seems if the Militia and standing forces of the three Nations would have been governed by Sir Arthur Hezilrig, Colonel Morley and Colonel Walton, we might in their opinion have been an happy people, but we would first know how the three famous Parliaments of England, Scotland and Ireland( for within few years past, each Nation had its Free Parliament, and could not be charged without them respectively) come to be swallowed by a small piece of the House of Commons of England, and as Magisterial as you are, I must tell you the right of England to rule Scotland is very new, if any, and not yet you see acknowledged.  
You conclude much in the same manner and words as you begun your Letter, earnestly desiring( in reference to the sad condition of England, the interest of Christ in the world, the hopes of enemies, the sighs, tears, and groans of precious souls, the fears of many, my own, and the Armies danger) that I would remove the present force upon the Parliament( as you call it) as the most likely expedient to make way for Englands settlement, and a safe election of a succeeding Parliament, and equal benefit( which you say you wish) to common enemies with yourselves under Parliamentary Laws; with provision only that the well affencted of the Nation may not be at their mercy.  
How ingenuous and reasonable your desire is for that Parliaments sitting again, appears, we hope, to your own conviction, and the satisfaction of all honest men by what we have said. But to let you see that we agree in the glorious ends you pretend, though we differ in the way and means: I must let you further know that now the power is in our hand( I may justly say by a better title then your Parliament pretended to hold it) we hold ourselves bound in duty and conscience to pursue those noble ends you mention; and either to restore England and the rest of these Nations to the happy condition they were in before the Army interposed, or to leave them in a better, we may else deservedly expect to be accounted by all for hypocritical Impostors, and to arrive at the punishment due to such.  
In order therefore to accomplish this our just and honourable undertaking.  
I do declare that the cause which I and the rest of the Army, have from the first engaged in, and since further obliged ourselves to by many Oaths, and Bonds, is none other then what I have before expressed; A defensive War for which was entred into, and long continued by that famous Parliament; and England can never settle by the giving up of these privileges and freedoms so long justly contended for. The privileges of Parliament too many years infringed the Laws of the Land, the Liberties of the people, and the purity of Religion almost lost must be restored. And to that end if the renowned long Parliament be yet in being, and not legally dissolved, I desire and shall endeavour that they may again speedily sit entire in freedom and Safety, without any more garbling or excluding; that by their proceeding where they left, or rather were interrupted in 1648. those privileges and freedoms may be secured to us, and no Generation of men may perpetuate in themselves an arbitrary and tyrannical power over our persons and estates, and usurp a liberty to increase for their own ends, our Taxes from fifty thousand pounds a month to a hundred thousand, as they by an Act, ready engrossed, intended to have done, but that we prevented them. And if at the reassembling of that Parliament, which we can only own, they shall themselves resolve that they are legally dissolved; yet in this general confusion wherein the unrully lusts of some men have cast the Nations, shall desire that by their Advice and council, a full and Free Parliament, according to Law, may be speedily called for the healing of our breaches by a just agreement with the King for the securing unto us the Liberties due to us as Englishmen, and as Christians.  
Thus we see if you be really for a Parliament, a true English Parliament, I and the Army differ not from you, but if by Parliament you mean a few men not entrusted by the people with the Supremacy, but called out by yourselves from the numerous Representative of the Nation to Govern us arbitrarily( whereof they could not give a severer instance( except a total disbanding of the army, then they did in their late casheering nine chief Officers unheard.) I abhor the thought of it, neither can I believe that General Monk takes up arms to patch up such an Assembly, who talk of Justice, but in the mean while take their Brethren and Superiors by the throat; and tyramnize at their pleasure over three Nations.  
To conclude, I do not doubt but that when the Army under my command, and General Monks army shall meet, they will easily agree to join for those onely just ends which I have mentioned. Since to appear for any power less then a full and Free Parliament, is to endeavour to set up a party or faction to the destruction of the whole, and to draw on us the guilt of murder, perjury, and breach of trust, which we are resolved to be free of and desire to return to be governed in England, according to Law; and that the Nations of Scotland and Ireland also, who( by the male administration of your pretended Parliament) have been so long without any Courts of Justice; like Fishes in the sea, the stronger devouring the weaker, when by the same breath with which they Voted the sitting of the Courts in England, they might have distributed equal justice to the two other Nations) may be also restored to the benefit of Law.  
And we do assure you and all the good people of these Nations, especially the City of London, that we have established a Committee of Safety merely to keep order and peace till these ends are accomplished, and then shall dissolve them with the opinion I hope of being  
A faithful servant to the public and your loving Friend CHARLES FLEETWOOD. Wallingford House Nov. 8. 1659.  
FINIS.