❧ To the Right Honourable, the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembed.  
The humble Petition of the Gentry, Ministers, freeholders, and other substantial Inhabitants of the County of York.  
Showeth,  
THat they cannot be afraid themselves, or any other shall incur your displeasures for declaring their just fears in an humble way, or representing that these general distractions have a more powerful influence and operation upon this particular County, then upon any other member or part of this kingdom, whereby for divers years last past, it hath endured the miseries which inevitably follow Armies, paying nevertheless Taxes and Subsidies equally to other Counties which have been free from those Burdens and Pressures, and have besides laid out great sums of Money for billeting soldiers (whereof a very small part is hitherto reimbursed) to the great exhausting the whole County, and ruin of divers Persons and Families: Yet the discontented Retirement of his Majesty from You his great council, and the different Commands since severally issuing and proceeding, especially concerning the Militia, which distracts the minds of all who desire to build up their obedience upon a sure and known foundation, and the great distaste His majesty takes to have a Garrison, without His allowance, kept so near his sacred Person, and the many inconveniences which may from thence arise to this County, do make us already sensible of more dangerous effects than have hitherto befallen us, especially seeing thereby Trade and Commerce (the very subsistence of this County) which hitherto stayed in all the late noise of arms and Tumults, is now driven away and frighted from among us, whereby we suffer before hand, the ruinous consequences of a real War, and from thence apprehend the greatest of calamities to follow, unless God's blessing and a speedy union do happily prevent them from the sense of those imminent mischiefs, and consideration of his Majestis Expressions of his good intentions and endeavours for peace, and a right understanding, we are bold in all humility to petition:  
That a timely ●emedy may be applied, lest our Disease grow desperately past Cure without such applications as may endanger the vital Spirits of the kingdom: That since yourselves have declared his majesty's absence to be the main hindrance of this necessary work, and his Majesty expressed his willingness to return when you shall give life to the laws of the Land, for his security against Tumults; That his Majesty may receive such assurance, for his secure residing in all places, and such invitations as may allure His abode with you, His great council; That such a due regard may be had for the reparation of his majesty's Honour, as well in this unfortunate business of Hull, as (where it hath in any sort been blemished, and where he may justly expect it) together with the safety of the kingdom, as may evidence to all the world, that nothing is dearer to us then the security and glory of our King and kingdom, whose Honour and Reputation, both at home and abroad, must stand and fall together: That his majesty's gracious Message of the twentieth of January (which yourselves then so termed, and gave humble thanks for) as also his others since his retirement, may be taken into such serious consideration, as may give hopes to all good Subjects of an effectual concurrence: That we may not be distracted by contrary Commands, but that the known Law of the Land, which we humbly conceive is the fundamental Liberty of the subject, and no arbitrary Government may be the rule of our Obedience, and the guide and determiner of all our Actions and Differences: And we according to our Allegiance, shall be ready to maintain His majesty's royal Person, crown, and Dignity, His just Rights and Prerogative, together with the lawful privileges of Parliament, the just Liberty of the subject, the true Protestant Profession, and the Peace of the Land.  
And your Petitioners shall ever pray, &c.   

London Printed for Charles Greene, 1642.