‘TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LONDON: THESE
‘Right Honourable and Worthy Friends,—Having, by our Letters and other Addresses presented by our General to the Honourable House of Commons, endeavoured to give satisfaction of the clearness of our just Demands; and “having” also, in Papers published by us, remonstrated the grounds of our proceedings in prosecution thereof;—all of which being published in print, we are confident “they” have come to your hands, and received at least a charitable construction from you.
‘The sum of all these our Desires as Soldiers is no other than this: Satisfaction to our undoubted Claims as Soldiers; and reparation upon those who have, to the utmost, improved all opportunities and advantages, by false suggestions, misrepresentations and otherwise, for the destruction of this Army with a perpetual blot of ignominy upon it. Which “injury” we should not value, if it singly concerned our own particular “persons”; being ready to deny ourselves in this, as we have done in other cases, for the Kingdom’s good: but under this pretence, we find, no less is involved than the overthrow of the privileges both of Parliament and People;—and that rather than they[1] shall fail in their designs, or we receive what in the eyes of all good men is “our” just right, the Kingdom is endeavoured to be engaged in a new War. “In a new War,” and this singly by those who, when the truth of these things shall be made to appear, will be found to be the authors of those “said” evils that are feared;—and who have no other way to protect themselves from question and punishment but by putting the Kingdom into blood, under the pretence of their honour of and their love to the
- ↑ The Presbyterian leaders in Parliament, Holles, Stapleton, Harley, Waller, etc.
