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<DATE>2012-07-17</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B120623.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<STC T="W">C1612A</STC>
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<VID>184433</VID>
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<HEAD>A Caveat, for my Countreymen in General, the A&s;&s;e&s;&s;ors and Collectors of Publick Taxes, in Particular.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Mo&s;t Dear Countreymen,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_I Dayly hear the Groanes of &s;ome of you Peri&s;hing, others De&s;pairing, all Langui&s;hing; Yet, methinks, I cannot afford you &s;uch Pity as the &s;adne&s;s of your Condition might &s;eem to challenge. Can we pity one, who being tormented with a &s;harp Gout, will not forbear French Wine and &s;altmeats? Such, if I have &s;en&s;e, is your Ca&s;e: Your di&s;ea&s;e cannot well be &s;ubdued by &s;trong Phy&s;ick, but may &s;oon be &s;tarved: Diet is your onely medicine: Keep, in Gods name, your hands from your mouths, and expect his ble&s;&s;ing upon your &s;obriety and Patience. Your mony is your Poy&s;on: Therefore forbear contributing again&s;t your &s;elves. Do this, Or you do nothing, Without it, your Addre&s;&s;es are ridiculous, your declaring is prepo|&s;terous, And your Arming will be, mo&s;t of all, pernicious; What care they for your words, &s;o long as they have your Pur|&s;es &s;till open? Stop that &s;ource, and they will &s;oon feel it, though they cannot re&s;ent it, to your Prejudice; The wor&s;t they can do, is to di&s;train, perhaps ri&s;&s;e &s;ome few, for terrour, who, &s;uffering in a common cau&s;e, ought, in Equity and prudence, to be reimbur&s;ed from a Common Stock: And, if you mu&s;t be a&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed, that way, let it go. What means can you propound to redeem your &s;elves, &s;o cheap, &s;o &s;afe, &s;o certain? If, yet, you will not pur&s;ue this whol&s;om and nece&s;&s;ary advice, I call God to witne&s;s, You are not worthy of Liberty, or Peace; And pity it were, you &s;hould be relieved with the heart|blood of hone&s;t, and brave men, who will not venture the Paring of your own Nayles.</P>
<P>Trie now, whether the Red-Coats will yet add to their in&s;olencies, that of univer&s;al Rapine. Po&s;&s;ibly, they may beware, po&s;&s;ibly they may relent: Whether any Judge or Jury will a&s;&s;ert &s;o lame an Authority, Where the tenth Part of a Parliament, (owning the Exclu&s;ion of the other nine, by meer force, without cau&s;e &s;hewn, or pretended,) a&s;&s;umes not onely the Authority of an Entire Parliament, but a power to act above all Law, or precedent, and again&s;t common Right, rather as ab&s;olute Lords, then Repre&s;entatives, and tru&s;tees of the people; Whereas, it is the grand fundamental of ours, and, indeed, of all Laws, That the forcible exclu&s;ion of any one Member vacates all proceedings, during the force, As doth appear by the ca&s;e of the Excluded Members, lately publi&s;hed at large, To which I referre you, for full &s;atisfaction in the premi&s;&s;es.</P>
<P>Of Juries, I am very Confident, And of the Reverend Judges, methinks, I cannot but hope well, Their wi&s;dom &s;eeming, every way, equally concerned with their Ju&s;tice, They will, I doubt not, remember the Ca&s;es of <HI>Tre&s;&s;ilian,</HI> and Shipmoney, both infinitely &s;hort of this. However, the wor&s;t that can be feared, is but for a few to loo&s;e that in gro&s;s, which, el&s;e, they, and all of us mu&s;t look in a &s;hort time to part with by retaile, The Gangreen Poverty creeping apace from joynt to joynt.</P>
<P>Our Grandees will, perhaps, endevour to amu&s;e you, by filling up their hou&s;e, their own Way; Yer &s;o, as to make &s;ure of continuing their own Power, and your grievances. For do not think, their Intere&s;t can con&s;i&s;t with your Ea&s;e; But, for Gods &s;ake, Is it not the &s;ame Oppre&s;&s;ion, Whether by the&s;e alone, Or the&s;e with others, con&s;tituted, qualified, limited, and finally awed by them? Is this a free Parliament, to command your pur&s;es, or a mi&s;t ca&s;t before your eyes, whil&s;t your pockets are picked? I tru&s;t, After &s;o many experiences, your under&s;tandings are, by this time, more refined, then to be &s;o gro&s;&s;ely impo&s;ed upon.</P>
<P>In five Moneths time (for, &s;o long their la&s;t Se&s;&s;ion continued,) they &s;wallowed a whole Years A&s;&s;e&s;&s;ement of 50000 <HI>l.</HI> Monethly, Be&s;ides the project of the <HI>Militia,</HI> which, under another name, (a &s;tale impo&s;ture) amounted to a full Tax; Yet, as <HI>Pharach</HI>'s Iean Kine, having devoured the fat, did not thrive, &s;o, all this being di&s;po&s;ed of, in a trice, and the Ex|chequer left empty, During the late <HI>Interregnum,</HI> the Army, being unpay'd, lay upon Free-quatter, as if no Taxes had been levyed, And the Souldiers, in many places, excorted what they plea&s;ed from the Countrey, with all the Licentiou&s;ne&s;s of an Actual war; Yet, now (their years A&s;&s;e&s;&s;ement not expiring the&s;e four moneths,) they have, it &s;eems, the Confi|dence already, to double our files, (for the Bill, I hear, is engro&s;&s;ed,) with a monethly Tax of a 100000 <HI>l.</HI> for &s;ix moneths; But, withal, I &s;uppo&s;e, they will have the Mode&s;ty, not to tell us, When this Va&s;t burthen &s;hall cea&s;e, Or that the next &s;hall not yet advance, as their Occa&s;ions, (the Rule and mea&s;ure of our property) probably may. A hopeful, and comfortable Introduction of our freedom.</P>
<P>Some Hot&s;purs will, perhaps, incite you to a&s;&s;ert your Liberties by Tumults; But, believe it, this advice comes from <HI>We&s;tmin&s;ter,</HI> where they long, and lie at lurch for &s;uch advantages, that, hitting the blots you make, they may &s;upport them|&s;elves with your &s;poyles, (the onely hope of &s;ub&s;i&s;ting now left them:) Con&s;ult not therefore with your Enemies, Con|&s;ider the Ruinous fate of Plots and In&s;urrections, Remember Mr. <HI>Gerard,</HI> Sir <HI>Henry Slingsby,</HI> Dr. <HI>Hewet,</HI> and Sir <HI>George Booth,</HI> mo&s;t of them, evidently trepanned. Your Game is &s;ure, if you lift your &s;elves, And will you venture it at Dice, among the Rookes? Be advi&s;ed, Hold your Par&s;e&s;trings, (A Coun&s;el, one would think, to mo&s;t men plau&s;ible enough) Nothing can &s;o certainly, &s;afely, and &s;uddenly, relieve you.</P>
<P>And you my friends, The A&s;&s;e&s;&s;ors, Collectors, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> to whom is committed the Charge of A&s;&s;e&s;&s;ing and Levying &s;uch <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 word"> legal Taxes, upon your Neighbours and fellow-&s;ubjects, (For, without your Ayd, God knows, the Red-Coats are not able to force contribution, perhaps, from one &s;ingle County,) Beware how ye act again&s;t the Law of the Land, the Liberty of your Countrey, the &s;en&s;e of the whole Nation: No Law compels you to &s;o mean a Drudgery, No Salary tempts you. And will you, then, to curry favour with times, which may alter to morrow, undertake &s;o barren, and thankle&s;s, &s;o guilty, and Odious an employment? Have you E&s;tates &s;ufficient to an&s;wer the infinite Actions, to which you will be lyable in Law? Remember, That, Contribution payed to the Cavaliers was, indeed, purged from delinquency, by pleading the force, But to have A&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed, or collected for them, proved alwayes matter of &s;eque&s;tration, that being con&s;trued as a Voluntary Act; Con&s;ider the &s;candal, which (already, even in the&s;e times) Committee-men, Seque&s;trators, Exci&s;e-men, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> have contracted, perhaps, to de&s;cend to their po&s;terities; Read in &s;tories, To what fury of the people, and rigour of Laws, publicanes, and other Mini&s;ters of Violence have been alwayes expo&s;ed, when the powers, by which they acted, cea&s;ed. Believe it, Freedom will &s;oon break forth, the &s;ooner, if you Ob&s;truct it not, All things, by the &s;pecial hand of providence, tend that way, And though other means &s;hould fail, Common exigence will prove a &s;ure Card: Methinks you are not very &s;afe, even as things now &s;tand, The Collection of Taxes, not impo&s;ed by common con&s;ent in Parliament, (which, &s;ure, you will not affirm to be, in this Ca&s;e) being, (from a high Mi&s;demeanour, branded by former Laws,) made the highe&s;t Trea&s;on, by a late &s;olemn, and &s;evere Act of their own: But, if times &s;hould alter, think, What will become of you? Will it not be your be&s;t refuge, to run your Countrey? Accur&s;ed be that future power, which protects, or indempnifies you. And now, I hope, enough is &s;aid for warning: If not, Mark the end, and take what comes of it.</P>
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<P>[<HI>London, Printed</HI> 1660.]</P>
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