A LETTER TO THE LORD FLEETWOOD, FROM AN OFFICER IN THE ARMY.  
EDINBURGH, Printed by Christopher Higgins, in Hearts Close, over against the Throne. Church, 1659.   

A LETTER TO THE LORD FLEETWOOD, FROM a OFFICER in the Army.  
My Lord,  
I Am given to understand, that the Committee of Officers, to whom the late Paper was recommitted from the Gen. Council, have added several things beyond their Instructions, as namely, That no Officer be laid aside but by a Court-Martial, nor any Commissionated by Parliament, but what shall be approved by the Committee of Nomination. My Lord, I know this is a pleasing Bait to such as put a higher value on their Commissions, than on their duty to the Parliament, whence they derived them; It seems strange to me, that this Army, who could subject themselves and Commissions to the lusts of the late single person, to be laid aside at the pleasure of him, who was but a Servant as themselves, must now impose and limit the Supreme Authority of the Nation: I never expect that injustice from a Parliament, which I have seen practised by Court-martials, Witness the Casheering and cruel Imprisonment of some faithful Officers, only for mentioning the intolerable Pride and Luxury of the late Court; the persons that were Judges, I heard some of them confess, that they were acted through a spirit of fear against their own light; I say again, I never heard of any such thing done by Parliament. My Lord, I hope we are all sensible, that the Parliament have not often used their power in this case, and from thence comes a great part of our Miseries; for, had they timely clipped the wings of their old General, doubtless the Nation had never known the Miseries and Confusions that since have come upon it; Nay, we ourselves should never have had temptations to those Apostasies, that defiled our Consciences before GOD, and our Reputation to the World. My Lord, we are either Servants or Masters; If Masters, let us tell the Parliament, that we only called them there to take the Odium of raising Money upon the People to maintain us, and let them know what terms they must have; If we be Servants raised and maintained by them, let us not offer that to them which we would abhor our own servants should offer to us. My Lord, your Lordship hath many domestic servants, and, I persuade myself, a sober family, and I think while they carry themselves well, it were harshness in your Lordship to turn any away to take another in the room; But, my Lord, if any one servant should come and say, I challenge it as my right to continue, unless dismissed by my fellow servants, though I know your Lordship of a mild temper, yet certainly you would think that servant unworthy to continue in Wallingford house. As to what is proposed touching the Committee of Nomination, I have not heard above two or three Officers in all the Army that have been Commissionated by the Parliament, but what have been approved by that Committee, and by them the Army hath been moulded. I fear, my Lord, the indigent families of many poor Officers, discharged by that Committee, have a loud cry, as having had such measure as never was met by Parliaments, some Regiments ten, some fourteen, some twenty Officers laid aside, that had served, many of them eighteen years, and never any Crime laid to their charge, only to prefer Friends and Relations, many of which never drew Sword in this Service: Let the world judge whether it be fit to impose such Steersmen on a Parliament; not that I desire to detract from the worth of those worthy Gentlemen of that Committee, I think it less injury to say they acted upon Misinformation, than to lay such an Imputation on the Parliament for what was done in their late Vote. My Lord, I have thus far spoken as to the matter in the Proposal, I shall now crave liberty to offer my thoughts as to the end: My Lord, to my understanding, the design of this Proposal is to create an Interest in the Army distinct to that of Parliament and Nation, and this (say, some) is our best Security against the Spirit of the Nation, which may possibly be introduced in Parliaments. My Lord, I find many of your Officers, especially those of the late Northern Brigade, very much decry the Constitutions of Corporations, as Emblems of Monarchy: It seems to me Incongruous, that the same men should strive to bring the Army into a Corporation: My Lord, were it possible to form an Army of Saints in reality, such as would undoubtedly abide steadfast, and could this Army support itself either by its own property and interest, or by extraordinary food from heaven, I should not deny them a Charter, as the most renowned Incorporated Body upon the face of the earth. But, my Lord, seeing this Army consists of men subject to infirmity, that this Army was raised by Authority of this Parliament, called forth to assert and defend the Birthright and Liberty of the meanest man in the Nation as well as their own, and that this Army hath been paid and maintained out of the purses of the People, and cannot in future stand but by the same means, seeing there remaineth in this Army but a handful of those men that bore the burden and hear of the War, many being retired to private Callings that have equally Merited with ourselves; that considering the Distemper now on the Spirit of the Nation, hath much of it arisen from the unstable Spirit of the Army, that set up what they pull down, and pull down what they set up; and now, if I mistake not, seem to assert an Interest of its own independent to that of the Nation, in all which the world will judge self at the bottom; Let us now think it our duty to settle on such a Basis as every man's Interest may be involved with our own, and all men see their own property and right maintained: Certainly he that doth righteously shall have praise with men; and the laudable practice of this Army, tending to subjection to that Authority, under which God hath so much blessed us, shall allay the fury of the Spirit of the Nation, when they shall see Righteousness and Truth exalted in the midst of us, and every man able to say, That his Interest is embarked in this Bottom; the contrary hereof will turn every man's hand against us, and ours against every man: Let us not think that if we go out of the way of the Lord, that our Numbers, our Horses, our Armies, our Successes, our courage or skill can save us; We have seen with our eyes, men of greater might than ourselves, blasted by inconsiderable means. My Lord, the most Righteous Government must most necessarily be upheld by the Sword; But the Lord deliver this Nation from a Sword-government. For my own part, I was never an enemy to a single Person, because such, but because he usurped power, being neither called thereto by God, nor man; and if twenty or thirty, nay, a whole Army should usurp the like Authority, I should be a like minded towards them; for 'tis not the Number that makes the difference betwixt Tyrants and lawful Magistrates. I have thought good to offer this to your Lordship, to the end, if your Lordship find any thing of reason from hence against the offering of that Proposal, your Lordship would stifle it in the birth, that such a thing may never go forth to the world, to the shame of an Army that so lately declared their sorrow for their former backslidings. I am,  
My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble and faithful Servant.