THe Kingdom being overgrown with Prerogative , Corruption and Superstition , ( the fruits of a long and lazie peace ) by a long discontinuance of Parliaments ; at last by Providence his Majesty was necessitated to call a Parliament , the onely Colledge of Physicians to purge the much-distempered body of the Common-wealth .

In this Parliament a contest between the Kings Prerogative and the Peoples Laws and Liberties begat a War . The Divines on both sides , out of their Pulpits , sounding Alarum thereto ; and not only Sermons , but Declarations of Parliament and National Covenant , holding forth to the people the defence of Religion , Laws , Liberties and Properties inflamed the people to the rage of battel , as the Elephant is enraged at the sight of Red. This War occasioned extraordinary Taxes and Leavies of money , such as were never heard of by our Ancestors , and were Irritamenta malorum , the nurse of our corruptions .

This incentive working upon the humane frailty of the speaking and leading Members of the Houses , Grandees . caused them first to interweave their particular interests and ambitions with the publick , and lastly to prefer them before the publick .

Wherefore the said leading men or Grandees ( for that is now Parliament language ) first divided themselves into two factions or Juntoes , Presbyterians and Independents ; Factions . seeming to look onely upon the Church , but ( Religion having the strongest operation upon the spirit of man ) involved the interests of the Common-wealth .

The common people of the two Houses following ( with an implicite faith and blind obedience ) the example of their leaders , divided themselves also into the said Dichotomy ; which they did with more seriousness than their leaders , as not perceiving any thing of design therein ; but according to the diversity of their Judgments , or rather Fancies and Confidings ( for to resign a mans judgment to the opinion of another man is but a silly trust and confidence ) studied the upholding of their parties with earnestness , whilest the Grandees of each party in private close together for their own advancement , serving one anothers turn .

The Grandees ( in all publick debates ) seem as real in their reciprocal oppositions , as those silly ones who are in earnest , whereby they cherish the zeal of their respective parties , keep them still divided ( Divide & impera is the Devils rule ) and so amuse them , and take them off from looking after other interests , in which , were they conjoyned , they might share with the Grandees themselves : and for the better contentment of such their Confidents , as looking too intentively after their own gain , the Grandees of each Junto confer something of advantage upon those that are subservient unto them , as five pounds a week , or some petty imployment .

The seeds of these factions spread themselves into the Common-wealth and Armies , as Rheum distils from the head into all the body .

Thus the leading men or Bel-weathers having seemingly divided themselves , Monopolizing profits and preferments . and having really divided the Houses , and captivated their respective parties judgment , teaching them by an implicite faith , Jurare in verba Magistri , to pin their opinions upon their sleeves ; they begin to advance their projects of Monopolizing the Profits , Preferments and Power of the Kingdome in themselves . To which purpose , though the leaders of each party seem to maintain a hot opposition , yet when any profit or preferment is to be reached at , it is observed that a powerful Independent especially moves for a Presbyterian , or a leading Presbyterian for an Independent ; and seldom doth one oppose or speak against another in such cases , unless something of particular spleen or Competition come between , which causeth them to break the common Rule . By this means the Grandees of each faction seldom miss their mark , since an Independent moving for a Presbyterian , his reputation carries the business clear with the Independent party ; and the Presbyterians will not oppose a leading man of their own side . By this artifice the Grandees of each side share the Common-wealth between them ; and are now become proud , domineering Rehoboams , even over the rest of their fellow Members , contrary to the liberty of Parl. which consists in an equality ) that were formerly fawning ambitious Absoloms .

There hath been lately given away to Members openly ( besides innumerable and inestimable private cheats mutually connived at ) at least 300000 l. in money , besides rich Offices , Imployments in money Committees , Sequestrations , and other advantages . And those Members who have so well served themselves , under colour of serving the publick , are , for the most part , old Canvasers of Factions , who have sate idlely and safely in the House , watching their advantages to confound businesses , and shuffle the cards to make their own game , when others that have ventured their persons abroad , labour'd in the publick work , like Israelites under these Aegyptian task-masters , and lost their estates , are left to sterve untill they can find relief in that empty bag called by fools , fides Publica , by wise men , fides Punica , and are now looked upon in the House superciliously , like unwelcome guests , for it is known how malignantly , and how juglingly writs for new Elections were granted and executed , and called younger brothers , and like younger brothers they are used ▪ their elder brothers having slipped into the World before them , and anticipated the inheritance ; they have broken first into the common field , and shut the door to prevent after commers even from gleaning after their full harvest , for the better effecting whereof , they have now morgaged , in effect , all the means they have to raise money , unto the City , and being themselves fat and full with the publick Treasure , to express rather their scorn than care , they are making an Ordinance that no more money shall be given to their Members , and yet to shew how carefull they are of all such as have cheated the Commonwealth under them , I will not say for them , they have taken advantage of the Petition of the Army , wherein they desire Indempnity for all acts done in Relation to the War , and have passed an Ordinance of Indempnity for all such as have acted by Authority , and for the service of the Parliament , wherein , under great penalties , and with an appeal at last from the Judges of the Law to a Committee of Parliament , such as have gone beyond the Authority given by Parliament , and sequestred men unjustly , and so withheld their goods under pretence thereof , and such as have leavied Taxes three or four times over , are quit from private actions , and the benefit of Law and Justice taken from the oppressed , to secure Country Committees , Sequestrators and others ( not Prerogative but Legislative ) Thieves , contrary to Magna Charta , which says , nulli negabimus , nulli differemus justitiam , aut rectum ; We will deny , nor defer justice and right to no man . Oh prodigious acts , and of greater Tyranny than any King ever durst adventure upon . What is become of our National Covenant , and the Parliaments many Declarations for defence of Laws and Liberty ? Or have we fought our Liberty into slavery ? By these devices the honest middle men of the House ( whose Consciences will not let them joyn in any faction to rend the Commonwealth in sunder ) are out of all possibility of repair , and made contemptible as well by their own wants , as the pride of the Grandees : and in the end , their poverty will enforce them to leave the sole possession of the House to these thriving Junto men , who do beleaguer them therein , making them ( for farther addition to their losses ) pay all taxes , from which the thriving men go free : so that the poorer part of the House pays tribute to the richer . Nay it is farther whispered , that at last the Junto men will quit the Parliament Privilege of not being sued , purposely to leave these younger Brothers to the mercy of their creditors , and disable them to sit in their House .

Another ambitious aym of those Junto men is , their devise of referring all businesses of moment to Committees . Committees of the Houses . For the active speaking men by mutual agreement naming one another of every Committee ( or at least their confident Ministers ) do thereby fore-stall and intercept the businesses of the House , and under colour of examining and preparing matters , they report them to the House with what glosses , additions , detractions , and advantages they please ; whereby the House ( judging according to their report ) oftentimes mis-judgeth , and if it be a businesse they are willing to smother , the Committees have infinite artifical delays to put it off , and keep it from a hearing , or at least from reporting . By this means the remaining part of the House are but Cyphers to value , and Suffragans to ratifie what is forejudged by the said Committees . This usurpation of theirs is much helped by keeping the doors of their Committee-rooms shut , and dispatching all affairs privately and in the dark ; whereas Justice delights in the light , and ought to be as publick as the common air , it being against its nature to be Chambered up , and kept from the observation of eye , and ear-witnesses .

And by their examining of men against themselves , contrary to Magna Charta , they much enlarge their power .

Parts of this project we may well call the Multiplicity of money-Committees , as Goldsmiths-hall , Haberdashers-hall , Money Committees . the Committee of the Kings Revenues , Committee of the Army , &c. Where every mans profit and power is according to his cunning and conscience . Hereby they draw a generall dependency after them , for he that commands the money , commands the men . These Committee-men are so powerfull that they over-awe and over-power their fellow-Members , contrary to the nature of a free-Paliament ; wherein the equality of the Members must maintain the freedom and integrity thereof , and suppress factions .

The like may be said of such Members as ( in scorn of the self-denying Ordinances ) hold Offices by gift or connivence of the Parliament , either openly in their own name , Members holding Offices , &c. or secretly in the name of some friend . Their offices inabling them to do courtesies and discourtesies . And although there hath been a Committee appointed to certifie all pensions , sequestrations , offices , imployments of advantage and profits conferred by the Parliament upon any their Members , in which Committee Mr. Sands holdeth the chair ; yet is this meerly a formality to blind the eys of the World , and fool the expectation of some losing Members , who were then resolute to know who had already received satisfaction for their losses , and how far they had out-run their fellow-Members therein . Yet this Committee is now let fall , no reports demanded of Mr. Sands , and when any is to be made , they are not unprovided of a means to make it fruitless , by putting every particular to debate ; well knowing , that no man will be willing to argue against the particular persons and merits of his fellow Members , and thereby heap envy upon his own head , besides the delay of a particular debate .

How frequently the Countrie Committees act contrary to the Laws of the Land ; Country Committees . how they trample Magna Charta under their feet ; how boldly and avowedly they transgress all Orders and Ordinances of Parliament , and break our Solemn League and Covenant ; how they ordinarily turn well-affected men out of their free-holds and goods , imprison and beat their Persons , without any known charge , accuser , or witnesse against them ; nay murther them , as in the case of Doctor Rawleygh killed in prison at Welles by the Committees Marshal ; and the poor men murthered at Bridgwater , whose bloods were shed like the blood of a dog , and no real prosecution thereof ; how frequently they leavy one Taxe three or four times over , and continue their leavies after the Ordinance expi●e ; How cruelly they raise the twentieth and fifth part upon the well-affected , exercising an illegall , arbitrary , tyrannical power over their fellow Subjects , far higher than ever Strafford or Canterbury durst advise the King to ; how ignorantly and unjustly they exercise a power to hear and determine , or rather to determine without hearing , or hear without understa●ding , private controversies of Meum & Tuum for debts , trespasses , nay Title and possession of Lands , without either formality or knowledge of the Law , not having wit , manners , nor breeding enough , as being chosen for the greatest part , out of the basest of the People , for base ends , to satisfie men with an outside , or Complement of justice : Insomuch that nothing is now more Common , than an accusation without an accuser , a sentence without a Judge , and a condemnation without a hearing . How they exclude all other Magistracy , ingrossing to themselves the power of Sheriffs , Justices of Peace , Church-wardens , &c. in an Arbitrary way ; keeping Troops of Horse , upon pay and free-quarter for their guards , like the 30 Tyrants of Athens , and if any man but speak of calling them to give an account , they presently vote him a Delinquent , and Sequester him . If any man , I say , be so deaf as not to hear the loud universal out-crying of the people , so great a stranger in our Israel as not to know these truths , let him peruse M. Edward Kings discovery of the arbitrary actions of the Committee of Lincoln , and the heads of Grievances of Glamorganshire , printed 1647. where he may see these things briefly Epitomized ; but to Historize them at large would require a volume as big as the Book of Martyrs . These Committees are excellent spunges to suck mony from the people , and to serve not only their own , but also the Covetous , Malicious , Ambitious ends , of those that raked them out of the dunghil for that imployment , and do defend them in their oppressions ; who is so blind as not to see these men have their protectors ? the Daemones to whom they offer up part of their rapins , to whom they sacrifice Occulta spolia , & plures de pace Triumphos .

If there be any intention to restore our Laws and Liberties , and free us from Arbitrary Government , it is fit these Committees and all associations be laid down , having no enemy to associate against , and that the old form of Government by Sheriffs , Justices of the Peace , &c. be re-established , and the Militia in each County setled as before in Lieutenants , and deputy Lieutenants , or in Commissioners .

The rather , because the people are now generally of opinion , They may as easily find Charity in Hell , as Justice in any Committee ; and that the King hath taken down one Star-chamber , and the Parliament hath set up a hundred .

Nor is it a small artifice to raise money by so many severall and confused Taxes . Taxes . Whereas one or two ways orderly used and well husbanded , would have done the work . 1. Royal Subsidie of 300000 l. 2. Pole money . 3. The free Loans and Contributions upon the Publick Faith amounted to a vast incredible sum in money , Plate , Horse , Arms , &c. 4. The Irish adventure for sale of Lands the first and second time . 5. The Weekly meal . 6. The City Loan after the rate of 50 Subsidies . 7. The Assesment for bringing in the Scots . 8. The five and twentith part . 9. The Weekly Assesment for my Lord Generals Army . 10. The Weekly ( or Monthly ) Assesment for Sir Thomas Fairfax Army . 11. The Weekly Assesment for the Scotch Army . 12. The Weekly Assesment for the British Army in Ireland . 13. The Weekly Assesment for my Lo. of Manchesters Army . 14. Free-quarter ( at least ) connived at by the State , because the Souldiers having for a time subsistence that way , are the less craving for their pay ; whereby their Arrears growing stale , will at last either be frustrated by a tedious Committee of Accounts , or forgotten ; in the mean time , the Grand Committee of Accounts discount it out of the Commanders Arrears , whereby the State saves it . 15. The Kings Revenue . 16. Sequestrations and Plunder by Committees , which if well answered to the State , would have carried on the work , which thus I demonstrate ; One half of all the goods and Chattels , and ( at least ) one half of the Lands , Rents , and Revenues of the Kingdom have been sequestred . And who can imagin that one half of the profits and Goods of the Land will not maintain any Forces that can be kept and fed in England , for the defence thereof ? 17. Excise upon all things ; this alone if well managed would maintain the War ; the Low-Countries make it almost their only support . 18. Fortification-money , &c. By these several ways and Taxes , about forty Millions in money and money-worth have been milked from the people ; and the Parliament ( as the Pope did once ) may call England , Puteum inexhaustum ; yet it is almost drawn dry . A vast Treasure , and so excessive , as nothing but a long peace could import ; and nothing but much fraud and many follies could dissipate , and we ought not to wonder if it be accounted inter arcana novissimi imperii , to be always making , yet never finishing an account thereof .

And as they have artificially confounded the accounts by laying on multiplicity of Taxes ; Accounts . so ( for the same reason ) they let the money run in so many muddy , obscure chanels , through so many Committees and Officers fingers , both for collecting , receiving , issuing and paying it forth , that it is impossible to make or ballance any Publick account thereof ; and at least one half thereof is known to be devoured by Committees and Officers , and those that for lucre protect them . By these means , as they make many men partners with them in the publick spoyls , so they much strengthen and increase their party , whereby multitudo peccantium tollit poenam .

If these things were not purposely done , 1. Our Taxes would be fewer in number , Accounts again . and more in effect . 2. They would be put to run in one chanel , under the fingering of fewer Harpies , and perspicuous and true Entries made of all receipts and disbursments , which would be publick to common view and examination . The Exchequer way of accounts is the exactest , antientest , and best known way of account of England , and most free from deceit , which is almost confessed de facto , when , to make the Kings Revenue more obnoxious to their desires , they took it out of the Exchequer way , ( contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Land ; for both the Higher and Lower Exchequer are as antient and fundamental as any Court in England ) and put it under a Committee , which as all other Committees do , will render an account of their Stewardship at the latter day . In the mean time divers of that Committee buy in old sleeping Pensions , which they pay themselves from the first of their arrears ; yet other men that have disbursed money out of their purses for the Kings Service , can receive no pay for any money laid forth before Michaelmas Term , 1643. because ( forsooth ) then the Committee first took charge of the Revenue . In the mean time the Kings Tenants and Debtors are deprived of the benefit of the Laws and Liberties of the subject , which before they enjoyed ; all Debts and Moneys being now raised by the terrour of Pursuivants and Messengers , whose Commissions are only to distrain and levy , &c. whereas formerly the Exchequer sent out legal Process , and the Tenant or Debtor had liberty to plead to it in his own defence , if he thought himself wronged ; but now New Lords , new Laws ; and to countenance their doings , the Committee have gotten an addition of some Lords to them . 3. If there were fair play above board , so many members of both Houses would not be ambitious of the trouble and clamour that attends Task masters , Publicans , and such sinners as sit at the receipt of Custome , being no part of the business for which the Writ Summons , or the people choose or trust them , and whereby they are diverted from the business of the House : but would leave that imployment to other men , who not having the character and privilege of Parliament upon them , will be lesse able to protect themselves and their agents from giving publick accounts of their receipts and disbursments , and from putting affronts and delays upon the Committee of Accompts , ( as it is well known ) some of them have done . Lastly , it is scandalous that the same men should be continued so long in their money-imployments , because Diuturnitas & solitudo carrumpunt Imperia ; and by long continuance and experience they grow so hardned , so cunning in their way , and so backed with dependencies , that it is almost impossible to trace them . And although ( when we look upon the many persons imployed ) we cannot say there is solitudo personarum ; yet when we consider that by a long partnership in their imployments they are allyed together in one common interest , they are to be esteemed but as one man , for a Corporation of men is but many men joyned together as one man , and with one mind pursuing one and the same end or interest .

And though they have a general Committee of Accompts , yet they were nominated by those Members that ought to give Accompts , Committee of Accounts . and it must needs be suspicious for an Accomptant to choose those persons before whom he shall accompt . And we see ( after so long a time of their sitting ) no fruit thereof . Whereas the people did hope , that after so much money spent , and such great debts and arrears left to pay , ( whereby they are threatned with continuance of their Taxes , ) that a full and exact general accompt of all Receipts and Disbursments would have been published in Print , for their satisfaction , as is usually done in the Low-Countries , and as was once done by this Parliament , Anno 1641. by a Declaration of the accompts of the Kingdom .

But it may be the Synod in favour of the Grandees , have voted that place in Scripture ( Render an account of thy Stewardship ) to be but Apocryphal .

By these exorbitant courses , though they have drayned 40. Millions from the people , Wants of the Parliament and how occasioned . yet ( as Philip of Macedon was said to be Inter quotidianas rapinas semper inops ) they are faln to such ridiculous want and beggery , that they have lately pawned almost all the security they have , for 200000 l. to disband the Army , and enter upon the Irish imployment . They have slit Goldsmiths-Hall in sunder , and given one side thereof to the City , and kept the other half thereof to themselves , and that already charged with 200000 l. at least . So that if any sudden occasion happen , they have put their purse into the hands of the uncircumcised Jews of the City , and cannot raise one penny but by new Taxes upon the people . It was worth observing to see how officiously some of the old Stagers took leave of the Publick purse , before it came into Hucksters hands . Alderman Pennington had a debt of 3000 l. he owed to Sir John Pennington forgiven him , ( he never asked forgiveness of his sins more heartily ) and 3000 l. more given him out of Goldsmiths Hall in course ; the reason of this bounty was forked or two-fold .