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<DATE>2014-05-08</DATE>
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<NAME>John Pas</NAME>
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<VID>197923</VID>
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<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="1">
<PB N="3" REF="1">
<HEAD>An humble Declaration of the <HI>Apprentices,</HI> and other young men of the City of LONDON, who were Petitio|ners for PEACE, &s;hewing the Cau&s;es of their Petitioning, and the pa&s;&s;ages concerning it: Together with a true Copy of their Petition, as it was delivered to both Hou&s;es of Parliament, di&s;claiming tho&s;e in <HI>Print, which were without their knowledge.</HI></HEAD>
<Q>Nulla &s;alus Bello, pacem te po&s;cimus omnes.</Q>
<P>_WEE the Apprentices and other young men, in and about the Ci|ty of <HI>London,</HI> having lately ingaged our &s;elves in a Petition for Peace, and thereunto &s;ub&s;cribed, doe now, for the &s;atisfaction of all, who are de&s;irous for Peace, and to bee informed of the Truth of our proceedings, as al&s;o for the clearing our &s;elves from tho&s;e malicious calumnies, that either are, or &s;hall bee ca&s;t upon us; humbly and truly informe, and declare to all the world, That that which fir&s;t gave life and quickning to our undertaking of this Petition, was the glory of God, and the peace and happine&s;&s;e of our King, Parliament, and Kingdome, and for no by-re&s;pect, or ill de&s;igne what&s;oever.</P>
<P>The Contents of which Petition follow <HI>verbatim, viz.</HI></P>
<FLOATEXT LANG="eng" TYPE="petition">
<HEAD>To the Right Honourable the Lords and Com|mons, in the High Court of PARLIAMENT now A&s;&s;embled. The humble Petition of divers Apprentices, and other young men, <HI>in and about the City of</HI> London.</HEAD>
<OPENER>In mo&s;t humble manner &s;heweth,</OPENER>
<P><HI>THat your former gratious acceptation of Petitions from per&s;ons of as mean quality at out &s;elves, your late kinde imbracement of that petition from our Ma&s;ters, and others of eminent quality; together with your con&s;tant endeavours for a pacification, (for which we pre&s;ent our humble thanks;) hath concited us, (though in regard of our pre&s;ent condition, not &s;o much con&s;iderable) to addre&s;&s;e our &s;elves al&s;o, in all humility, to this honourable a&s;&s;embly, (whom, we conceive, the onely meanes, under God, for our redre&s;&s;e,) be&s;eeching you to per&s;i&s;t (as you have honourably begun) in working a period of the&s;e ruinating di&s;tractions.</HI></P>
<PB N="4" REF="2">
<P><HI>And though the pre&s;ent Calamity doth not &s;o in mediately reflect upon your Petitionert: Yet wee (con&s;idering the lo&s;&s;e of &s;o many of our fellowes lives, the daily hazard the re&s;t are expo&s;ed to; and fore|&s;eing the face of our owne ruine in our Ma&s;ters pre&s;ent cendition, as al&s;o prizing our Parents and Friends lives, and livelihoods, as deerly as our owne) hold our &s;elves engaged by the Lawes of Con|&s;cience, and nature to be no le&s;&s;e &s;olicitous, for the bleeding condition of this Church and State; in re|gard (though Servants) we <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 letter">e Subjects, and humbly conceive our &s;elves to be concerned berein.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Wee come therefore (in the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="2 letters">ll voice) to embowell our grievances and zealous de&s;ires before you; Not pre&s;uming to dictate to your <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 word"> judgments, but humbly de&s;iring you to pardon our boldnes in petitioning (and the erro<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="2 letters"> of our petition, if any be:)</HI></P>
<P><HI>And unanimou&s;ly, be&s;eech on to con&s;ider the&s;e pre&s;ent di&s;tractions, the continuall and increa&s;ing violations of our religion by P pi&s;ts and Sectaries, the breach of our knowne Lawes, the inva&s;ion of the Subjects Liberties, and generall decay of Trade.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Reflecting al&s;o, with &s;erious thoughts, upon the&s;e inevitable dangers, that now hover over our heads, u&s;hered in by a Civill, unnaturall and bloody warre, who&s;e effects are the impartiall de&s;tructions of Chri&s;tians, the effu&s;ion of much innocent blood, the impoveri&s;hing and di&s;-peopling of the Kingdome, and expo&s;ing the body of the State to the mercile&s;&s;e tyrannie of famine, &s;ickne&s;&s;e, and inva&s;ion; the fore-runners of an univer&s;all confu&s;ion:</HI></P>
<P><HI>All which (better known to your apprehen&s;ions) wee humbly de&s;ire you to ponder, and to pro&s;ecute your pious intentions for peace; leaving no ju&s;t way unattempted which may conduce to the &s;et|tlement of the&s;e differences, that the undi&s;cerning &s;word be not umpire to decide controver&s;ies of &s;o neere concernment; Neither give audience to any incendiaries of this pre&s;ent warre, who&s;e onely aime (wee feare) is to prey upon the lives and livings of his Maje&s;ties loyall Subjects; that the Go&s;pell of peace need not be maintained by warre; but that the cemented joynts of the Church and State may hold firme the bond of unity, to the glory of God, the good of his Ma|je&s;ty, the pre&s;ervation of Parliaments, the onely happine&s;&s;e of this kingdome, and enablement for a &s;upply, for the nece&s;&s;ities of our de&s;tre&s;&s;ed brethren in Ireland.</HI></P>
<CLOSER><HI>And your Petitioners (as in all duty bound) &s;hall daily pray for a ble&s;&s;ing upon your Con&s;ultations.</HI> To which we have &s;ub&s;cribed our hands and hearts; each ready to &s;acrifice his life for accompli&s;hment thereof.</CLOSER>
</FLOATEXT>
<P>Of which Petition we di&s;per&s;ed &s;everall Copies, for no other cau&s;e, but to procure Sub&s;criptions with the more convenience. But (by what meanes wee know not) there was a very fal&s;e Copy printed, and entituled ours, but &s;o dif|ferent from the true Petition, both in matter and expre&s;&s;ions, that (had it not been for the Title) we could not beleeve it had at all concerned us.</P>
<P>This we conceive was a great wrong to us, and did indeed di&s;courage &s;ome of us, from our intended pre&s;enting of our Petition. But yet at la&s;t (we poy|&s;ing both) preferred the glory of God, and Peace of this Church and State&punc; before any thing that might di&s;courage or di&s;hearten us.</P>
<P>Whereupon all agreed upon Munday, <HI>Ian.</HI> 2. for our day of delivery, and accordingly &s;et forth notes, de&s;iring all the Sub&s;cribers to meet at the <HI>Piazzi</HI> in <HI>Covent Garden,</HI> in compleat civill habit, without Swords or Staves: Vpon which day, and at which place, there met a very con&s;iderable number of us, and (which in mode&s;ty we would not &s;ay of our &s;elves, but that we are &s;candalou&s;ly and fal&s;ly traduced by others) did demeane, and behave our &s;elves very civill and orderly.</P>
<PB N="5" REF="2">
<P>But it fell out, that without our knowledge or con&s;ent, there thru&s;t in among&s;t us a Papi&s;t, which we being informed of, pre&s;ently expelled him our Company, to avoid all cau&s;e of &s;candall upon our intentions.</P>
<P>After this comes one and began to &s;ing a Ballad in di&s;honour to the Parlia|ment, but we pre&s;ently di&s;carded him al&s;o, with manife&s;t expre&s;&s;ion of our great di&s;like of his doings.</P>
<P>This done, a Lieutenant to a Troop of Hor&s;e came to us, to know the intent of our Appearance, being before informed (as he told us) that we had Pi&s;tols about us, which was altogether fal&s;e.</P>
<P>And then at the appointed time we repaired to <HI>We&s;tmin&s;ter,</HI> into the <HI>Pallace-yard,</HI> and were pre&s;ently called before Captain <HI>Harvey</HI> (who attended there with his Troop) and by him (after &s;ome &s;mall di&s;cour&s;e between us) twenty of us were admitted to the Hou&s;e of Lords; the re&s;t (by his direction) imme|diately, and quietly, retreated to <HI>Whitehall</HI>-Gate, waiting the return of their Fellows.</P>
<P>We (comming to the Hou&s;e) were bold to acquaint the ever honoured Earl of <HI>Pembrook</HI> with our de&s;ires, who was plea&s;ed to impart them to the Hou&s;e: But by rea&s;on of a Conference of both Hou&s;es, (as we conceive) The Lords &s;ent us a note by M. <HI>Maxwell</HI> to this effect,</P>
<P><HI>The Lords have formerly expre&s;&s;ed their di&s;like of comming in multitudes to the Parliament, and they take notice of a great multitude that came this morning to|wards the Parliament: Which manner of comming with Petitions, they are yet un&s;a|tisfied withall. But if you will chufe a few of you, and come &s;ome other day, they will receive your Petition.</HI></P>
<P>Vpon this, in obedience to their Lord&s;hips directions, wee for that time de|parted, having appointed twenty of us to deliver our Petition on the next day; But we retiring homewards it was told us, That &s;ome of our company tarried at <HI>Whitehall</HI>-Gate, and &s;topped &s;ome of the Lords Coaches, Crying for Peace, Vpon this we wrote a note to Captain <HI>Harvy,</HI> &s;ub&s;cribed by the twenty Deli|verers, and by three of them delivered to him, wherein we expre&s;&s;ed our thanks for his curte&s;ie &s;hewed to us. And that wee were informed, that divers (who pretended to be of our minde) tarried behinde, wee knew not forwhat de&s;igne, and that if they did any action which was unlawfull, we di&s;claimed it; de&s;iring to &s;teere all our actions by the known Lawes of God and Man: and therefore if any thing were done to the contrary, we de&s;ired it might be &s;uppre&s;&s;ed, that it might not be a &s;candall to our Intentions, nor a hinderance to the An&s;wer of our Petition.</P>
<P>Which we pre&s;ented to the Captain, who did accept it, and approve of our carriage, and behaviour therein.</P>
<P><HI>This was the pa&s;&s;age of that day.</HI></P>
<P>On <HI>Tue&s;day,</HI> the Twenty appointed to deliver the Petition, met, and went to the Hou&s;e with it, and while they were waiting at the doore for admittance,
<PB N="6" REF="3">there was one in a Mini&s;ters habit, did with much boldne&s;&s;e and confidence (but withall as fal&s;ly, and cau&s;le&s;ly affirme to &s;ome Lords of the Hou&s;e, that we in|tended to Plunder hou&s;es in <HI>Covent Garden,</HI> and that &s;ome of our company motioned it; which &s;eemed very &s;trange to us, knowing it to be altogether fal&s;e. But yet upon &s;ome examination of the matter, it fell out that &s;ome &s;uch words had fallen from a Souldier (not of our company) perhaps incited to it, who (as we are credibly informed) is now in cu&s;tody for it. And the informer here|of being convinced by his own con&s;cience, and our arguments, did at la&s;t recant it, and de&s;ire our favourable opinion of him.</P>
<P>Some other falle &s;ugge&s;tions were urged again&s;t us, and our Petition, by &s;ome either mi&s;-informed, or ill-affected per&s;ons. But it plea&s;ed God to make them appeare to the Honourable Hou&s;e to be fal&s;e and frivolous.</P>
<P>But after all the&s;e windes and &s;tormes came a &s;till voyce, and gave us admit|tance to the Lords, who being entred, delivered our Petition. And the Earl of <HI>Manche&s;ter</HI> declared to us, That the Hou&s;e was content to accept of our Peti|tion, and that they would give us their an&s;wer in due time.</P>
<P>From thence we went to the Honourable Hou&s;e of Commons, where wee found a mo&s;t ready and favourable (and for ought we could conceive) a generall con&s;ent to accept of our Petition. And after reading thereof, M. <HI>Speaker</HI> did declare, That the plea&s;ure of the Hou&s;e was to accept our Petition, and that they would take it into their &s;erious con&s;ideration.</P>
<P>We returned our humble thanks, and departed.</P>
<P>We de&s;ire now to cleare our &s;elves from many fal&s;e a&s;per&s;ions that are ca&s;t upon us. Concerning the matter of our Petition, it being in &s;ub&s;tance for no|thing but peace, and aiming at the advancement of Gods glory, and the quiet of the Church and State, is (wee conceive good and lawfull, yet there want not tho&s;e who &s;peak again&s;t the very &s;ubject of it, <HI>Peace.</HI> But we wonder not much at them, they being &s;uch as are made compleat Souldiers on the &s;udden, and &s;uck their whole &s;ub&s;i&s;tance, and fixe their hopes to repaire their breaches and decayes upon the ruine of others; fearing that the &s;etling of our Trades, will be the decay of theirs. And to leave nothing unattempted which may di&s;cou|rage us and others, from pro&s;ecuting hereof, they have &s;tudied new Sophi&s;try, to prove Peace to be no Peace; and under pretence, that we peace-Petitioners (as they mockingly call us doe oppo&s;e truth, they doe indeed beat downboth. Whereas any man that is not purblinde with prejudice and faction, may di&s;|cern that the Parliament, (the &s;upreame Court of Judicature, and centre of Wi&s;dome and Piety) will never con&s;ent to a Peace that &s;hall war with Truth (they being twins of the Common-wealth, and un&s;eparable.) And we &s;hould argue our &s;elves very unadvi&s;ed (which therein we hope we were not) to Petiti|on for a thing which no colour of Rea&s;on tels us we &s;hall obtain.</P>
<P>And for tho&s;e compleat Souldiers, who&s;e very prayers (if they u&s;e any) are but alarmes to Battle, they mu&s;t give us leave (though, wee hope, not without
<PB N="7" REF="3">ground, as they doe) to pa&s;&s;e our cen&s;ure upon them, and therefore we are bold to tell them, we think they lay their foundation for War on the&s;e two grounds which they make u&s;e of for Rea&s;ons, <HI>Dulce bellum inexpertis, &amp; dulce lucrum expertis.</HI> But the time may come that they may find it better to hearken to the ble&s;&s;ed accents of Peace, then to have Bullets whi&s;per de&s;truction in their ears.</P>
<P>And though we for &s;everall con&s;iderations were not (or not &s;uffered) to bee of that number, who have expo&s;ed their per&s;ons to the fury of Warre, yet as they bleed outwardly, we bleed within for the di&s;tempers of this Church and State, and to &s;hew our ardent zeale for the good of both, wee dare bani&s;h his &s;oule, who&s;e blood &s;hares of &s;o much cowardi&s;e, to retreat at thought of death, if it might conduce to a happy union of the King and Parliament, and the welfare of this late flouri&s;hing Nation.</P>
<P>Concerning our manner of delivery of our Petition, it was generally con|ceived to be (as we hope) civill, humble, and warrantable, &s;hunning what in us lay, the appearance of tumults, mutinies, force, or violence, habiting our &s;elves with no weapons offen&s;ive, nor defen&s;ive, but our innocence, and the upright|ne&s;&s;e of our de&s;igne, that all occa&s;ion of offence might be taken off.</P>
<P>Our number is not certainly known to us, but (though great) it is warranted (as we under correction conceive) both by precept and pre&s;ident; The Honou|rable M. <HI>Nathaniel Fynes</HI> (upon the like occa&s;ion) having delivered in an&s;wer to the Lord <HI>Digbies</HI> Speech, <HI>That a multitude being grieved may Petition, and that it is fit for all Sub&s;cribers to be pre&s;ent, le&s;t their hands be &s;uppo&s;ed counterfeit.</HI> And the Lords and Commons were plea&s;ed to declare in their <HI>Remon&s;trance,</HI> of the 19 of <HI>May, That the number makes not an A&s;&s;embly unlawfull, but when the end or manner of their carriage makes it &s;o; And that they knew no rea&s;on, why it &s;hould be more faulty in the Citizens to come to the Parliament, then the re&s;ort of great numbers every day in the Terme, to the ordinary Courts of Iu&s;tice.</HI></P>
<P>We confe&s;&s;e (as &s;ome have objected) there are &s;ome Clerks and Journimen among&s;t us, but (being young men) they come under the notion of Petitioners. Be&s;ides, the one being generally Schollers, and &s;een in the Laws, giving great &s;ummes of money to their Ma&s;ters, and mens &s;ons of good rank, and living by Peace, and the other waiting for Peace, being newly come to provide for them|&s;elves, we conceive are as much concerned herein as the re&s;t.</P>
<P>Nor are we of the Ribaldry of the City (as &s;ome blackmouthes have uncha|ritably belched out again&s;t us: Yet in &s;uch a multitude (the City being ex|hau&s;ted of many of our fellows) it is not to be expected that all &s;hould be wi&s;e, learned, nor rich: Nor can we &s;ee any rea&s;on why a poore or illiterate man (be|ing (injured) &s;hould not &s;eeke for redre&s;&s;e of his grievances, as well as a rich or learned.</P>
<P>And (though a multitude) we humbly conceive our &s;elves no tumults; As for that mi&s;carriage at <HI>White-hall-gate</HI> (if any were) though greater have been then that is reported to be: We gave no direction for doing it, nor doe wee commend, much le&s;&s;e ju&s;tifie it: But however we hope that particular Crimes,
<PB N="8" REF="4">&s;hall not be imputed to a generall Cau&s;e, nor hinder a generall good: Nor if the major part of them that accompanied us, had committed any out-rages in regard they had dive&s;ted them&s;elves of their power, and laid it on the twenty, who are the repre&s;entative body of the Petitioners, it would be but hard Ju&s;tice to make them liable to the offences of others, nor ought it to bee (wee hope at lea&s;t) in a candid, or but indifferent con&s;truction, a &s;candall upon the Petitio|ners, or crime upon the Petition.</P>
<P>Concerning our prepo&s;terous delivery of the Petitions, we de&s;ire the Hou|&s;es favourable con&s;truction, for in that we pre&s;ented it fir&s;t to the Hou&s;e of Lords, it was not for want of due honour or re&s;pect to the Hou&s;e of Com|mons, but our want of experience in Parliament cour&s;es; which we hope may &s;atisfie that Honourable Hou&s;e.</P>
<P><HI>All which we thought good to declare, that the world may know, That endeavou|ring for Peace is a work acceptable (we hope to God, His Maje&s;ty, the Parliament, and Kingdome, though (we beleeve) &s;ome, not altogether for a good Con&s;cience &s;ake doe oppo&s;e us. But we e&s;teeme their words as no &s;lander, becau&s;e they are nothing el&s;e&punc; And that Po&s;terity may know, That we, (by &s;eeking Peace) are &s;ervants, as to pri|vate and particular men, &s;o to the generall and publique good.</HI></P>
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