(4)
take the beſt care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning into a ſlaviſh condition, and the chargeable remedy of another War: For as it cannot be imagined that ſo many of our Countrymen would have oppoſed us in this quarrel, if they had underſtood their own good, ſo may we ſafely promiſe to our ſelves, that when our common Rights and Liberties ſhall be cleared, their endevors will be diſappointed, that ſeek to make themſelves our Maſters: Since therefore our former oppreſſions, and not yet ended troubles have been occaſioned, either by want of frequent national meetings in Councel, or by the undue or unequal conſtitution thereof, or by rendring thoſe meetings ineffectual; we are fully agreed and reſolved to provide, that hereafter our Repreſentatives be neither left for uncertainty for time, nor be unequally conſtituted, nor made uſeleſs to the end for which they are intended.
In order whereunto we declare and agree,
1. That to prevent the many inconveniences apparently ariſing from the long continuance of the ſame perſons in authority, this preſent Parliament be diſſolved upon or before the laſt day of April, in the year of our Lord 1649.
2. That the people of England being at this day very unequally diſtributed, by Counties, Cities, or Burroughs, for the election of their Repreſentatives, be more indifferently proportioned, and to this end; That the Repreſentative of the whole Nation, ſhall conſiſt of 300 Perſons; and in each County, and the places thereto ſubjoyned, there ſhall be choſen to make up the ſaid Repreſentative at all times, the ſeveral numbers hereunder mentioned.
viz.
| The County of Kent, with the City of Rocheſter, and the Burroughs, Town, and Pariſhes therein | 11 |
| The City of Canterbury | 1 |
| The County of Sussex, with the City, Burroughs, Towns, and Pariſhes therein | 7 |
| The County Town of Southampton | 1 |
The
