A Salva Libertate SENT TO colonel Tichburn Lieutenant of the Tower, On Monday, April 17. 1648. By Sir John Gayer Knight, Late Lord Mayor of London, now Prisoner in the TOWER, &c.  
Being occasioned by the receipt of a Paper sent unto him by the said Lieutenant, wherein the said Lieutenant was seemingly anthorized to carry him before the Lords on Wednesday next, being the 19 of APRIL.  
To his honoured Friend Colonel Tichburn Lieutenant of the Tower.  
SIR,  
I Received a Paper from you, seeming to authorise you to carry my person before the Lords, to answer to a Charge: I am constrained to inform you hereby, that my person ought not to be hurried to and fro, or disturbed, at the pleasure of any man, neither can I yield obedience to the commands of any, which are not Legal; and therefore in case you intend to disturb me on Wednesday next, I expect to see a legal Warrant from some person or Court, which have a Jurisdiction over me in case of a real or supposed Crime: And I must acquaint you, that the Lords have no legal power to summon me to answer to any crime whereof I am accused or suspected; and therefore you must expect to answer for whatsoever injury you offer to my person, and know hereby, that I shall not voluntarily go from hence to Westminster by virtue of the paper received, but shall suffer you to carry me, if you shall send force which I cannot resist.  
From my Chamber in the Tower of London, the 17. of April, 1648. Your Friend and Servant, John Gayer.   

The Publisher to the Reader.  
FRiend, I desire thee to consider that this Gentleman is now entering the Lists, to combat for thy Native Liberties, and if he suffer in this encounter, not only he, but thou, and every individual Englishman, especially the Citizens of London, are, and shall be, by the same rule, destroyed, (contrary to Law), by the Arbitrary Decrees of ambitious men in power; for if the Law cannot protect one, it cannot protect another; and if you suffer the Law to be destroyed, lust will become a lawgiver; and the dictates of the depraved wills of men in power shall be forced as a rule for you to observe, and then you will neither know certainty, nor safety: Sir John claims nothing but a Legal trial, by a Jury of his equals in the Ordinary Courts of Justice, which (being a Commoner) he may justly challenge (by virtue of the Great Charter, and thirty five other Statutes) as his birthright; but contrary to Law or Equity the Lords do assume to themselves a power over him a Commoner, and do intend to try him in a criminal case in their House with their doors shut, where he shall neither have Judge or Jury, but themselves, and they are both Accusers and Judges; and in order thereunto have commanded the Lieutenant of the Tower to carry him before them on Wednesday, being the nineteenth of April instant: Therefore if thou hast any love to Freedom, and wouldst not, by thy silence, become accessary to the destruction of that Law, which will, if defended and preserved, protect thee, on the like occasion, from the malice of ambitious men, find out some speedy way, not only to encourage this Gentleman by thy appearance for him in this his worthy undertaking, but also by testifying thy dislike of such proceedings, as tending to the utter subversion of all Law, and destruction of the Liberty and Property of every individual Englishman.