THE ORDINANCE AND DECLARATION of the Lords and Commons, for the Assessing all such who have not contributed sufficiently for raising of Money, Plate, &c.  
WITH HIS majesty's DECLARATION TO ALL His loving Subjects upon occasion thereof.  
Charles R.  
OUr express pleasure is, That this Our Declaration be published in all Churches and chapels within Our Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, by the Parsons, Vicars or Curates of the same.  
SHREWSBURY, Printed by ROBERT BARKER, Printer to the Kings most Excellent majesty: And by the assigns of JOHN BILL. 1642.   

An Ordinance and Declaration of the Lords and Commons in Parliament.  
WHereas the King, seduced by wicked counsel, hath raised an Army, and levied War against the Parliament, and great number of Forces are daily raised under the commands of Papists and other ill affected persons, by Commissions from His majesty; And whereas divers Delinquents are protected from public Justice by His majesty's Army, and sundry outrages and rapines are daily committed by the soldiers of the said Army, who have no respect to the Laws of God or the Land, but burn and plunder the Houses, & seize and destroy the persons and goods of dive●s His majesty's good Subjects; And whereas for the maintenance of the said Army divers assessments are made upon several Counties, and His majesty's Subjects are compelled by the soldiers to pay the same; which said Army if it should continue, would soon ruin and waste the whole Kingdom, and overthrow Religion, Law, and Liberty, For suppressing of which said Army and ill-affected persons, there is no probable way under God, but by the Army raised by Authority of the Parliament; which said Army so raised, cannot be maintained without great sums of Money, yet for raising such sums, by reason of His majesty's withdrawing himself from the advice of the Parliament, there can be no Act of Parliament passed with His majesty's assent, albeit there is great justice that the said Moneys should be raised. The Lords and Commons in Parliament, having taken the same into their serious consideration, and knowing that the said Army so raised by them, hath been hitherto for the most part maintained by the voluntary contribution of divers well-affected persons, who have freely contributed according to their abilities.  
But considering there are divers others within the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Suburbs of the same, and also within the Borough of Southwark, that have not contributed at all towards the maintenance of the said Army, or if they have, yet not answerable to their Estates, who notwithstanding receive benefit and protection by the same Army, as well as any others, and therefore it's most just, that they should as well as others be charged to contribute to the maintenance thereof.  
Be it therefore Ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, & by Authority thereof, That Isaac Pennington Lord Major of the City of London, Sir John Wollaston Knight and Aderman, Alderman Towes, Alderman Warner, Alderman Andrew's, Alderman Chambers, Alderman Fowkes, Sir Thomas Seham Knight and Alderman, Samuel Vassell, John Ven, Morries Thompson, & Richard Warrin, Citizens, or any four of them, shall hereby have power and Authority to nominate, and appoint in every Ward within the City of London, six such Persons as they, or any four of them, shall think fit, which said six so nominated, or any four of them, shall hereby have power to inquire of any that shall remain, or be within the said several Wards that have not contributed upon the Propositions of both Houses of Parliament, concerning the raising of Money, Plate, Horse, Horsemen, and Arms, for defence of the King and both Houses of Parliament, & also of such as are able men, that have contributed, yet not according to their Estates and Abilities. And the said six persons so nominated, or any four of them within their several and respective wards and limits, shall have power to assess such person or persons as are of ability and have not contributed, and also such as have contributed, yet not according to their ability, to pay such sum or sums of Money according to their Estates, as the said Assessors or any four of them shall think fit and reasonable, so as the same exceed not the twentieth part of their Estates, and to nominate and appoint fit persons for the collection thereof. And if any person so assessed shall refuse to pay the Money assessed upon him, it shall be lawful to and for the said Assessors and Collectors or any of them, to levy the said sum so assessed by way of distress and sale of the goods of the person so assessed, and refusing: And if any person so distrained shall make resistance, it shall be lawful to and for the respective Assessors and Collectors or any of them, to call to their assistance any the Trained bands of the said City of London, or any other His majesty's Subjects, who are hereby required to be aiding and assisting to the said Assessors and Collectors in the premises. And it is hereby further ordained, That the respective Burgesses of Westminster and Southwark; together with the several Committees appointed for the subscriptions of Money, Plate, Horse, Horsemen and Arms within the said City and Borough, shall respectively have power hereby to nominate Sessors for the same City and Borough, in such manner as the Lord Major, &c. hath for the City of London, and the said Assessors, or any four of them, to name Collectors as aforesaid; which said Assessors and Collectors shall have the same power respectively within their respective limits, as those to be nominated within the said City of London have hereby limited to them. And for the Suburbs of London and Westminster, the respective Knights of the Shires where the said Suburbs are shall have hereby the like power to name Assessors, and they so named, or any four of them, and the Collectors by them to be nominated, or any of them within their respective limits, shall have the like power respectively as the Assessors and Collectors for London have by virtue of this Ordinance. And be it ordained that the sums so assessed and levied as aforesaid shall be paid in at Guild Hall London, to the hands of Sir John Wollastone, Knight, John Warner, John Towes, and Thomas Andrew's Aldermen, or any two of them: And the Assessors and Collectors to be nominated by virtue hereof shall weekly report to the Committee of the House of Commons, for the propositions aforesaid, what sums of money have been assessed, and what sums have been levied weekly according to the purport hereof, and the said Moneys so levied and paid in shalt be issued forth in such sort as the other Moneys raised upon the propositions aforesaid, and not otherwise.  

Die Martis, 29. Novemb. 1642.  
WHereas a late Ordinance is passed by both Houses of Parliament, for the Reasons therein declared, for the Assessing of all such persons within the Cities of London and Westminster and the Suburbs thereof, with the Borough of Southwark, as have not contributed upon the Propositions of both Houses of Parliament for raising of Money, Plate, Horse, Horsemen, and Arms, for defence of the King; Parliament and Kingdom, or have not contributed proportionably to their estates and abilities. And whereas it is thought fit, that some additions be made for further explanation and better execution of the said Ordinance. Be it further ordained and declared by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, That such persons as shall be assessed by the respective Assessors in the said Ordinance appointed, and shall within six days' next after notice given them, or left at their several houses within the said Cities, Suburbs, or Borough, pay in the one moiety of the said sums of Money so assessed, and within twelve days after the said notice given as aforesaid, the other moiety there of, unto the Treasurers of Money and Plate Guild Hall London, or unto the Collectors appointed by the said Ordinance, respectively to receive the same, that then the said Treasurers, or Collectors, shall give Acquittances for the same, as hath been done to such who have lent Moneys or Plate, upon the Propositions of both Houses as aforesaid. And the said Moneys so paid to the said Treasurers, or to the said several Collectors, shall be repaid upon the public Faith, as all other Moneys lent upon the said Propositions of both Houses. And as for those who shall so far discover their disaffection, as not to bring in the several sums of Money so assessed upon them to the persons before appointed, within the times limited, that then their goods shall be distrained and sold according to the said Ordinance. And if no sufficient distress be found, that then the said Collectors shall respectively have power to inquire of any sum or sums of Money due, or to be due unto them respectively so assessed from any person or persons for any Rents, Tithes, Goods, or Debts, or for any other thing or cause whatsoever. And the said respective Collectors shall have power by virtue of this Ordinance, to receive all, or any part of the said sums due, or to be due unto them or any of them so assessed, until the full value of the sum or sums so assessed, and the charges in levying and recovering of the same shall be received and satisfied. And the said respective Collectors shall have further power to compound for any of the said Rents, Tithes, Goods, or Debts due unto the said person so assessed respectively as aforesaid, with any person or persons by whom the said Rents, Tithes, Goods, or Debts, are, or shall be owing, as also to give full and ample discharge for the Money by them so received, upon composition or otherwise, which discharges shall be good and effectual to all intents and purposes. And if the sum or sums of Money so assessed cannot be levied by any of these means or ways, than the persons so respectively assessed, shall be imprisoned in such places of this Kingdom, and for so long time as the Committee of the House of Commons for Examinations, shall appoint and order: And the families of all such persons so imprisoned, shall no longer remain within the Cities of London and Westminster the Suburbs & the Counties adjacent.  
And be it further Ordained, that all and every the Assessors and Collectors of the said several sums, shall have the protection of both Houses of Parliament for their indemnity indemnity in this service, and receive such reasonable allowances for their pains taken, and charges disbursed; or to be disbursed therein, as the Committee of Lords and Commons for advance of Money and other necessaries for the Army raised by the Parliament, shall apportion and appoint.   

An Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament, for the better Provision of Victuals, and other Necessaries for the Army, and for payment and satisfaction to be made for such Provisions.  
Die Martis, 29. Novemb. 1642.  
It is Ordered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament, That Committees shall be named in all Counties, to take care for provisions of Victuals for the Army raised by the Parliament, as likewise for the taking up of Horses for service in the Field, Dragoneers, and Draught-Horses; as likewise for borrowing of Money or Plate to supply the Army. Which Committees, or any two or more of them, shall have power and authority to value all kind of Provisions both for Men and Horse, all kind of Horse for Service or otherwise, which shall be voluntarily offered to be lent upon the public Faith, or likewise to receive any Money or Plate to be lent as before; and that upon Certificate of any two of such Committees, the same provisions of Horses, Money, and Plate, and the value thereof shall be entered by the Treasurer of the Propositions, and shall be repaid to the party from whom the same was received, with like Consideration as other Money lent.  
And in case the owners of such provisions, Money, Plate, and Horses, shall refuse or neglect to bring in the same upon public Faith, for the use of the Army, for the better preventing the spoil and embezeling of such provisions of Money, Plate, and Horses, by the disorder of the soldiers, and that they may not come into the hands of the Enemies, It is further ordered, That the Committees afore mentioned, or any two of them, be hereby authorized and enabled to send for such Provisions, Money, Plate, and Horses, and take the same into their custody, and to set an indifferent value and rate upon them; which value they shall certify to the Treasurers for the Propositions, to be repaid at such time, and in such manner, as shall be Ordered by both Houses of Parliament. It is likewise Ordered, That the said Committees of the several and respective Counties shall meet and consult with the Committees of the adjacent and neighbour Counties, unto the place or places where the said Army, or any part thereof, shall pass and remain, concerning the receiving, procuring, valuing, and disposing of such provisions, Horses, Money, and Plate. And if they cannot conveniently meet, that then it shall be lawful for any two, or more of the Committee, to execute the several Services above mentioned in the adjoining Counties, as well as in the County wherein he is named a Committee; and that such certificates as they shall make of any Provisions, Horses, Money, or Plate, shall be as effectual for the securities of the parties, as if the same were received and taken within the County for which he or they are named Committees. And the said Committees, or any two, or more of them, shall cause the said provisions to be delivered to the Commissary for the Victuals, or to his Deputy, and such other Officers of the Army, who may be charged with the same upon their account, and shall certify the Treasurer of the Army, or his Deputy, that so defalcation of the value thereof may be made out of the pay of such Officers and soldiers as shall receive the same.  
And the said Committee shall likewise cause all such Money and Plate to be delivered unto the Treasurer of the Army, or his Deputy, who shall take care to convey the Plate unto the Treasurer for the Propositions, and shall be charged with all such Money upon his account, as with other Money received from them.    

His majesty's DECLARATION TO ALL HIS LOVING SUBJECTS, upon occasion of the aforesaid Ordinance and Declaration.  
It would not be believed (at least great pains have been taken that it might not) that the pretended Ordinance of the Militia (the first attempt that ever was to make a Law by Ordinance without Our consent) or the keeping us out of Hull, and taking Our Arms and Munition from us, could any way concern the Interest, Property, or Liberty of the Subject, and it was confessed by that desperate Declaration itself of the 26, of May, that if they were found guilty of that charge of destroying the title and interest of Our Subjects to their Lands and Goods, it were indeed a very great Crime. But it was a strange fatal Lethargy which had seized Our good People, and kept them from discerning, that the Nobility, Gentry, Commonalty of England, were not only stripped of their Preeminences and privileges, but of their Liberties and Estates, when Our just Rights were denied us; and that no Subject could from thenceforth expect to dwell at home, when We were driven from Our Houses and Our Towns. It was not possible, that a Commission could be granted to the Earl of Essex, to raise an Army against us, and for the safety of Our Person, and preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom, to pursue, kill & stay us and all who wish well to us, but that in a short time inferior Commanders, by the same Authority, would require Our good Subjects for the maintenance of the Property of the Subject, to supply them with such sums of Money as they think fit, upon the penalty of being plundered withal extremity of War (as the stile of Sir Edward Baytons' Warrant runs against Our poor Subjects in Wiltshire) and by such Rules of unlimited Arbitrary Power, as are inconsistent with the least pretence or shadow of that Property it would seem to defend.  
If there could be yet any understanding so unskilful and Supine to believe, That these Disturbers of the public peace do intend any thing but a general confusion, they have brought them a sad Argument to their own doors to convince them; after this Ordinance and Declaration, 'tis not in any sober man's power to believe himself worth any thing, or that there is such a thing as Law, Liberty, Property left in England, under the jurisdiction of these men, and the same power that robs them now of the Twentieth part of their Estates, hath by that but made a claim and entitled itself to the other nineteen, when it shall be thought fit to hasten the general ruin. Sure, if the minds of all men be not stubbornly prepared for Servitude, they will look on this Ordinance as the greatest prodigy of Arbitrary Power and Tyranny that any Age hath brought forth in any Kingdom; other Grievances (and the greatest) have been conceived intolerable, rather by the logic and Consequence, then by the Pressure itself, this at once sweeps away all that the Wisdom and justice of Parliaments have provided for them. Is their Property in their Estates (so carefully looked to by their Ancestors, and so amply established by us against any possibility of Invasion from the Crown) which makes the meanest Subject as much a Lord of his own as the greatest Peer, to be valued or considered? here is a Twentieth part of every man's Estate (or so much more as four men will please to call the Twentieth part) taken away at once, and yet a Power left to take a Twentieth still of that which remains, and this to be levied by such circumstances of severity, as no Act of Parliament ever consented to. Is their liberty which distinguishes Subjects from Slaves, and in which this freeborn Nation hath the Advantage of all Christendom, dear to them? they shall not only be imprisoned in such places of this Kingdom, (a latitude of judgement no Court can challenge to itself in any Cases) but for so long time as the Committee of the house of Commons for examination shall appoint and order; the House of Commons itself having never assumed, or in the least degree pretended to a power of judicature, having no more Authority to administer an Oath (the only way to discover and find out the truth of facts) to, then to cut off the heads of any of Our Subjects; and this Committee being so far from being a part of the Parliament, that it is destructive to the whole, by usurping to itself all the power of King, Lords, & Commons. All who know any thing of Parliaments, know, That a Committee of either House ought not by the Law to publish their own Results, neither are their conclusions of any force without the Confirmation of the House, which hath the same power of controlling them as if the matter had never been debated; but that any Committee should be so contracted (as this of Examination, a stile no Committee ever bore before this Parliament) as to exclude the Members of the House, who are equally trusted by their country, from being present at the counsels, is so monstrous to the privileges of Parliament, that it is no more in the power of any man to give up that freedom, then of himself to order, That from that time the place for which he serves, shall never more send a Knight or burgess to the Parliament; and in truth is no less than to alter the whole frame of Government, to pull up Parliaments by the Roots, and to commit the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of all the People of England to the Arbitrary power of a few unqualified Persons, who shall dispose thereof according to their discretion, without account to any Rule or Authority whatsoever.  
Are their Friends, their Wives, and Children (the greatest blessings of Peace and the comforts of Life) precious to them? would even their penury and imprisonment be less grievous by those cordials? they shall be divorced from them, banished, and shall no longer remain within the Cities of London and Westminster, the Suburbs and the Counties adjacent; and how far those adjacent Counties shall extend no man knows.  
Is there any thing now left to enjoy, but Liberty to rebel, and destroy one another? are the outward blessings only of Peace, Property, and Liberty taken, and forced from Our Subjects? are their Consciences free and unassaulted by the violence of these firebrands? sure the Liberty and freedom of Conscience cannot suffer by these men: alas! all these punishments are imposed upon them, because they will not submit to Actions contrary to their natural Loyalty, to their oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and to their late voluntary Protestation, which obliges them to the care of Our Person and Our just Rights. Now many Persons of Honour, Quality, and Reputation of the several Counties of England, are now Imprisoned, without any objection against them, but suspicion of their Loyalty? how many of the gravest and most substantial Citizens of London, by whom the Government and Discipline of that City was preserved, are disgraced, robbed, and imprisoned, without any process of Law, or colour of accusation, but of obedience to the Law and Government of the Kingdom? whilst Anabaptists and Brownists, with the assistance of vicious and debauched Persons, of desperate Fortunes, take upon them to break up and rifle houses, as public and avowed Ministers of a new invented Authority: How many godly, pious, and painful Divines, whose Lives and Learning hath made them of reverend, Estimation, are now slandered with inclination to Popery, discountenanced, and imprisoned, for discharging their Consciences in instructing the People in the Christian duty of Religion and Obedience, whilst shismatical, Illiterate, and Scandalous Preachers till the Pulpits and Churches with Blasphemy. Irreverence, and Treason, and incite their Auditory to nothing but murder and Rebellion. We pass over the vulgar charm, by which they have captivated such who have been contented to dispense with their Consciences for the preservation of their Estates, and by which they persuade men cheerfully to part with this twentieth part of their Estate to the good work in hand, for whoever will give what he hath, may scape robbing; They shall be repaid upon the public Faith, as all other Moneys lent upon the Propositions of both Houses; It may be so, but men must be condemned to a strange unthriftiness who will lend upon such Security. The public Faith indeed is as great an earnest as the State can give, and engages the Honour, Reputation and Honesty of the Nation, and is the Act of the Kingdom, 'tis the Security of the King, the Lords and Commons, which can never need an Executor, can never die, never be Bankrupt, and therefore We willingly consented to it for the Indemnity of Our good Subjects of Scotland, (who We hope will not think the worse of it for being so often & so cheaply mentioned since.) But that a Vote of one or both Houses should be an engagement upon the public Faith, is as impossible, as that the Committee of the House of Commons for Examinations, should be the High Court of Parliament.  
And what is or can be said with the least shadow of reason to justify these Extravagances? We have not lately heard of the old fundamental Laws which used to warrant the Innovations, this needs a Refuge even below those foundations: They will say they cannot manage their great undertakings without such extraordinary ways; We think so too, but that proves only they have undertaken somewhat they ought not to undertake, not that it is lawful for them to do any thing that is convenient for those ends: We remembered them long ago, and We cannot do it too often, of that excellent Speech of M. Pym's: The law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evil, betwixt just and unjust if you take away the Law, all things will fall into a confusion, every man will become a Law unto himself, which in the depraved condition of human nature, must needs produce many great enormities, Lust will become a Law, and Envy will become a Law, covetousness and Ambition will become Laws, and what Dictates, what Decisions such Laws will produce may easi1y be discerned. It may indeed by the sad Instances over the whole Kingdom: But will Posterity believe, that in the same Parliament this Doctrine was avowed with that Acclamation, and these Instances after produced; That in the same Parliament such care was taken that no man should be committed in what case soever, without the cause of his Imprisonment expressed, and that all men should be inmediately bailed in all Cases bailable, and during the same Parliament that Alderman Pennington, or indeed anybody else, but the sworn Ministers of justice, should imprison whom they would, and for what they would, and for as long time as they would; That the King should be reproached with breach of privilege for accusing Sir John Hotham of High Treason, when with force of Arms he kept Him out of Hull, and despised Him to His face, because in no case a Member of either House might be committed or accused without leave of that House of which he is a Member, and yet that during the same Parliament, the same Alderman should commit the Earl of Middlesex (a Peer of the Realm) & the Lord Buckhurst (a Member of the House of Commons) to the Counter, without reprehension; That to be a Traitor (which is defined and every man understands) should be no crime, and to be called Malignant (which nobody knows the meaning of) should be ground enough for close Imprisonment; That a Law should be made, That whosoever should presume to take tonnage & Poundage without an Act of Parliament, should incur the penalty of a praemunire, & the same Parliament, that the same imposition should be laid upon our Subjects, & taken by an Order of both houses, without & against Our consent. Lastly, that the same Parliament, a Law should be made to declare the proceedings & judgement upon Ship-money to be illegal and void, and during that Parliament, that an Order of both Houses shall, upon pretence of necessity, enable four men to take away the twentieth part of their Estates from all their Neighbours, according to their discretion.  
But Our good Subjects will no longer look upon these and the like Results, as upon the counsels and conclusions of both Our Houses of Parliament; (though all the world knows even that Authority can never justify things unwarrantable by the Law) they well know how few of the Persons trusted by them are present at their Consultations, of above 500 not 80. and of the House of Peers, not a fifth part, That they who are present enjoy not the privilege and Freedom of Parliament, but are besieged by an Army, and awed by the same Tumults which drove us and their fellow Members from thence, to consent to what some few Seditious, schismatical Persons amongst them do propose; These are the men, who joining with the Anabaptiss & Brownists of London, first changed the Government and Discipline of that City, and now by the pride and power of that City would undo the Kingdom, whilst their Lord Major (a Person accused and known to be guilty of high Treason) by a new Legislative Power of his own, suppresses and reviles the Book of commonprayer; robs and imprisons whom he thinks fit, and with the rabble of his Faction gives Laws to both Houses of Parliament, & tells them, They will have no Accommodation whilst the Members sent and entrusted by their countries are expelled the House, or committed for refusing to take the Oath of Association, to live and die with the Earl of Essex, as very lately Sir Sidney Montague. These are the men who have presumed to send ambassadors, and to enter into Treaties with foreign States in their own behalfs, having at this time an Agent of their own with the States of Holland, to negociate for them upon private Instructions. These are the men, who not thinking they have yet brought mischief enough upon this Kingdom, at this time invite and solicit Our Subjects of Scotland to enter this Land with an Army against us. In a word, these are the men who have made this last devouring Ordinance to take away all Law, Liberty, and Property from Our People, and have by it really acted that upon Our People, which with infinite malice, and no colour or ground, was laboured to be infused into them to have been Our Intention by the Commissions of Array.  
We have done; What Power and Authority these men have, or will have, We know not; for ourselves We challenge none such. We look upon the Pressures and Inconveniences Our good Subjects bear, even by us and Our Army, (which the Army first raised by them enforced us to levy in Our defence, and their refusal of all offers and desires of Treaty enforceth us to keep) with very much sadness of heart. We are so far from requiring a Twentieth part of their Estates (though for their own visible preservation) that as We have already sold or pawned Our own jewels, and coined Our own Plate, so We are willing to sell all Our own Land, and Houses for their relief. Yet We do not doubt but Our good Subjects will seriously consider Our Condition and their own Duties, and think Our readiness to protect them with the utmost hazard of Our Life, deserves their readiness to assist us with some part of their Fortunes; and whilst other men give a Twentieth part of their Estates, to enables them to forfeit the other Nineteen, that they will extend themselves to us in a liberal and free proportion for the preservation of the rest, and for the maintenance of God's true Religion, the laws of the Land, the Liberty of the Subject, and the safety and very being of Parliaments, and this Kingdom: for if all these ever were, or can be in manifest danger, 'tis now in this present Rebellion against us.  
Lastly, We will and require all Our loving Subjects of what degree or quality soever, as they will answer it to God, to us and to Posterity, by their oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, as they would not be looked upon now, and remembered hereafter as Betrayers of the Laws and Liberty they were born to, that they in no degree submit to this wild pretended Ordinance, and that they presume not give any encouragement or assistance to the Army now in Rebellion against us: which if notwithstanding they shall do, they must expect from us the severest punishment the Law can inflict, and a perpetual Infamy with all good men.  
FINIS.