Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow General Monck to the Officers at Whitehall - The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4

Return to Title Page for The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The English Revolution

General Monck to the Officers at Whitehall - Sir William Clarke, The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4 [1901]

Edition used:

The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, Secretary to the Council of the Army, 1647-1649, and to General Monck and the Commanders of the Army in Scotland, 1651-1660, ed. C.H. Firth (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901). 4 vols.

Part of: The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, 4 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


General Monck to the Officers at Whitehall

Gentlemen,

xxxii. f. 54b.Wee have received your letter of the 19th instant, with the inclosed printed paper containing nine resolves or agreements touching the Government of the army, and to such of them wee have returned you our distinct answer, hoping that if you shall find wee have reason and conscience to plead for us (as wee are verily of opinion wee have), you will bee soe farr from pressing subscription of them uppon us that you will retract it your selves, or out of Christian tendernesse to affoard us such satisfaction as may endeavour us to joyne with you in it, of which satisfaction wee acknowledge our selves as yett altogeather destitute.

To the preface wee shall onely say this, that wee are as senceable of the distracted condition of the Commonwealth (to the greefe of our soules wee speak it) as any man living, and shall as hartily and freely endeavour to cement the same, and that with peculiar relacion to those of the army as well as of the Commonwealth; but whether the way you have propounded bee warrantable by the word of God, sutable to our engagements, or competent to such an end, our answer to the severall heads of your agreement will sufficiently make manifest.

To the first wee say and unanimously declare that the armies of these Nations, whereof wee are a part, were raised by authority of the present Parliament for the defence of our religion, the lawes and liberties of our Nation, and privilidges of Parliament. From the authority [of Parliament] wee received our Comissions; to the defence thereof wee are by sundry vowes and engagements oblidged, some of them of a very late date; your late petition to them, and solemne acceptance of Comissions from them, are sufficient acknowlidgment that to them belongeth the right of making a Comander-in-Cheife and other subbordinate officers, and therefor for us to usurpe it were a manifest breach of their acknowledged privilege, and a direct way to subject the Nacion under an arbitrary and tyrannous Government, which is the abhorring of our souldiers, and against which wee have hitherto with soe happy successe borne armes.

To the second and third our answer is the same.

To the forth, fifth, and sixth our answer hath a necessary connection with the answer to the first, vizt. That wee cannot prescribe to the Parliament in this case, but shall redily submitt to the method proposed, the same being allowed by Parliament, to whom wee shall readily joyne our desire with you in this perticular, save that the Comissions bee signed by the Speaker, and Generall Monk and Sir Arther Heslerigg bee of the number of Commissioners for approbacion.

To the 7th wee agree it to bee our desire that none but godley men of courage, ability, and good conversacion bee admitted into places of trust in the army.

To the eight wee agree it to bee our desire that noe officers bee displaced but by a Court Marshall, soe farr as it relates to the discipline of warr, but not as it may bee extended to the abridgement of the power of Parliament.

To the ninth wee agree it is to bee our desire that the desipline of the army bee kept inviolably, justice administred, godlines incouraged, and all manner of sin punished.

And although the tye of conscience and duty oblidges us to desent from you in sundry the before mentioned perticulars, as the state of affaires now stands, yett wee solemnly professe that such our desent doth not proceed from any disrespect wee beare to the persons mentioned in your agreement; wee beare great honour and affeccion to most of them, as persons that have eminently affected the rights of their country, countenanced godlines, and been blest of God in soe doeing. Our onely ayme is soe to regulate the authority of such as wee intrust in the army as that it bee commenserate to the Government by a Commonwealth, in which (if your and our solemne professions to God and man bee worthy of credit) we cannot but agree, and remaine

Your Affectionate Friends and servants.

For the Right Honourable
the Lord Lambert and the rest of the
Officers att Whitehall.1

[1 ]On October 18 the General Council of Officers, sitting at Wallingford House, declared and owned Fleetwood as Commander-in-Chief of all the land forces of the Commonwealth, with Lambert as Major-General and Desborough as Commissary-General of the Horse. This note, with nine resolutions as to the future government of the army, they sent to Monck on October 19, with a request to procure the subscriptions of the officers under his command. Their letter is printed in Thurloe, vii. 766. I have not found a copy of the resolutions themselves. They must be inferred from the answer.