¶ The mournfull Cryes of many thouſand Poore Tradeſmen, who are ready to famiſh through decay of Trade. Or, the warning Teares of the Oppreſſed.

OH that the cravings of our Stomacks could bee heard by the Parliament and City! Oh that the Teares of our poore famiſhing Babes were botled! Oh that their tender Mothers Cryes for bread to feed them were ingraven in braſſe! Oh that our pined Carkaſſes were open to every pittifull Eye! Oh that it were knowne, that wee ſell our Beds and cloaths for Bread! Oh our Hearts faint and wee are ready to ſwoone in the top of every Street.

O you Members of Parliament and rich men in the City, that are at eaſe, and drinke Wine in Bowles, and ſtretch your ſelves upon Beds of downe, you that grind our faces and Flay off our skins, will no man amongſt you regard, will no man behold our faces black with Sorrow and Famine, is there none to Pity. The Sea monſter drawes out the breſt and gives ſuck to their young ones, and are our Rulers become cruell like the Oſtrich in the Wilderneſſe, Lament. 4. 3.

OH yee Great men of ENGLAND, will not (thinke you) the righteous GOD behold our Affliction, doth not hee take notice that you devour us as if our Fleſh were Bread? are not moſt of you eyther Parliament-men, Commitee-men, Cuſtomers, Excize-men, Treaſurers, Gouernonrs of Townes and Caſtles, or Commanders in the Army, Officers in thoſe Dens of Robbery the Courts of Law? and are not your Kinſmen and allies, Collectors of the Kings revenue, or the Biſhops rents, or Sequeſtrators? what then are your ruffling Silkes and Velvets, and your glittering Gold and Silver Laces, are they not the ſweat of our Browes, and the wants of our backes and bellies?

Its your Taxes, Cuſtomes, and Excize, that compells the Country to raiſe the price of Food, and to buy nothing from us but meere abſolute neceſſaries; and then you of the City that buy our Worke, muſt have your Tables furniſhed, and your Cups o­verflow; and therefore will give us little or nothing for our Worke, even what you^**And ſince the late Lord Ma­jor Adams, you have put in exccution an illegall, wicked Decree of the Common Coun­cell; whereby you have taken our goods from us, if we have gone to the Innes to ſell them to Countrimen; and you have murdered ſome of our poore wives, that have gone to Innes to find Cuontrsmen to b•ie them. pleaſe, becauſe you know wee muſt ſell for monyes to ſet our Families on worke, or elſe wee famiſh: Thus our Fleſh is that whereupon you Rich men live, and where­with you decke and adorne your ſelves. Yee great men, is it not your Plenty and abundance which begets you Pride and Riot? and doe not your Pride beget Ambition, and your ambition Faction, and your fact on theſe Civill broyles; what elſe but your Ambition and Faction continue our Diſtractions and Oppreſſions? Is not all the Controverſie whoſe Slanes the poore ſhall bee? Whether they ſhall be the Kings vaſſalles, or the Presbyterians, or the Independant factions? and is not the Contention nouriſhed, that you whoſe Houſes are full of the ſpoiles of your Countrey, might be ſecure from Accompts, while there is nothing but Diſtraction, and that by the tumultuouſneſſe of the People under prodig ousoppreſſion, you might have faire Pretences to keepe up an Army, and Garriſons, and that under pretence of neceſſitie you may uphold your arbitrary Government by Com­mittees, &c.

Have you not upon ſuch pretences brought an Army into the bowels of the City, and now Exchange doth riſe already be­yond Sea, and no Marchants beyond Sea will truſt their Goods hither, and our owne Marchants conveigh their^**The Merchants have already kept back from the Tower, many hundred thouſand pounds, and no bullion is brought into the Tower, ſo that money will be more ſcarce daily. Eſtates from hence, ſo there is likely to bee no importing of Goods, and then there will be no Exporting, and then our Trade will bee ut­terly Loſt, and our Families periſh as it were in a moment.

O yee Parliament men heare our dying Cry, Settle the Common-wealth, ſettle the Common-wealth! ſtrive not who ſhall bee greateſt untill you be all confounded. You may if you will preſently determine where the ſupreame Power reſides, and ſettle the Iuſt common Freedomes of the Nation, ſo that all Parties may equally receive Iuſtice and injoy their Right, and every one may bee as much concerned as other to deſend thoſe common Freedomes; you may preſently put downe your Arbitrary Committees and let us be Governed by plaine written Lawes in our owne Tongue, and pay your miniſters of Iuſtice out of a common, Treaſurie, that every one may have Iuſtice freely and impartially.

You have in your hands the Kings, Queenes, and Princes revenue, and Papiſts Lands, and Biſhops, and Deanes, and Chap­ters lands, and Sequeſtred lands, at leaſt to the value of Eighteene hundred thouſand Pounds by the yeare. Which is at leaſt five hundred Thouſand pounds a yeare more then will pay the Navie and all the Army, and the Forces which need to bee kept up in Engl•nd and Ireland; and out of that the Kingdomes debts would bee payd yearely; whereas now you runne fur­ther into Debt daily, and pay One thouſand pounds by the Day at leaſt for uſe Money; beſides you may if you will Proclaime Liberty, for all to come and diſcover to a Committee of diſ-ingaged men, choſen out of every County, one for a County to diſcover to them what Monies and Treaſure, your owne Members and your Sequeſtrators, &c. have in their hands, and you may by that meanes find many Millions of money to pay the Publique debts. You may find 30000. l. in Mr. Richard Dar­ley's hand 25000. l. in Mr. Thorpes hands^**M William Lenthall, Speaker of the Houſe, to cover his co­zenage, gave two and twenty thouſand pounds to his ſervant M. Cole, to purchaſe Land in his own name, though for his uſe; which hee did, and then dyed ſuddenly, and the Land fell to his Sonne, and the widow having married a Lawyer, keeps the Land for the childs uſe, and ſaith he knowes not that his predeceſ for received any monie from the Speaker, and now Maſter Speaker ſueth in Chancery for the Land. A hundred ſuch diſ­coveries might be made., a Member of Yours who firſt Proclaimed Sir John Hotham Traytor. And thus you may take off all Taxes preſently, and ſo ſecure Peace, that Trading may revive and our Pining, hungry, famiſhing Fami­lies bee ſaved.

And O yee Souldiers who refuſed to Disband, becauſe you would have Iuſtice and Freedome, who Cryed till the Earth ec­choed Iuſtice, Iuſtice; forget not that Cry, but cry ſpeedily for Peace and Iuſtice, Louder then ever. There is a large Peti­tion of ſome pitifull men that's now a broad, which containes all our deſires, and were that Granted in all things, wee ſhould have Trading againe, and ſhould not need to begge our Bread, though thoſe men have ſo much mercy as they would have none to cry in the ſtreets for Bread.

Oh though you bee Souldiers, ſhew bowels of Mercy and Pity to a hunger ſtarved People; Goe downe to the Parliament, deſire them to conſume and trifle away no more time, but offer your deſires for Vs in that large Petition, and cry Iuſtice, Iu­ſtice; Save, ſave, ſave the Periſhing people; O cry thus till your importunity make them heare you.

O Parliament men, and Souldiers! Neceſſity diſſolves all Lawes and Government, and Hunger will breake through ſtone walls, Tender Mothers will ſooner devoure You, then the Fruit of their owne wombe, and hunger re­gards no Swords nor Cannons. It may be ſome great oppreſſours intends tumults that they may eſcape in a croud, but your food may then be wanting as well as ours, and your Armes will bee hard diet. O hearke, hearke at our do•res how our chil­dren cry Bread, bread, bread, and we now with bleeding hearts, cry, once more to you, pity, pity, an oppreſſed inſlaved people: carry our cries in the large petition to the Parliament, and tell them if they bo ſtill deafo; the Teares of the op­preſſed will waſh away the foundations of their houſes. Amen, Amen ſo be it.