The writer has not forborn to invite Colonel Jones and those under his command to submit to the King's authority and to join with him in the royal service because of any aversion he has for them, or any disesteem of their power to advance or impede the same, but because he feared that while those who have of late usurped power over the subjects of England showed the least colourable shadow of moderation in their intentions towards the setttlement of church and state ... any address from the writer would have been coldly received. ... If the Colonel, who certainly has not wanted foresight of the confusion now covering the face of England, had declared with the writer as Lord Inchequin and the Protestant army in Munster had done, then the writer fears that it would have been as difficult for the Colonel to have carried with him the main body of the army under his command - not so clear-sighted as himself - as it would have been dangerous to him and others inclined to have attempted it without them. But now that the mask of hypocrisy by which the independent army has ensnared and enslaved all estates and degrees of men has been laid aside - now that they appear to be the subverters of true religion and the protectors and inventors not only of false ones but even of irreligion and atheism - now that they have barbarously and inhumanly laid violent and sacrilegious hands upon and murdered God's anointed and their King, not as hitherto some parricides have done to make room for some usurper, but manifesting their intention to change the monarchy of England into anarchy, unless their aim be to consecrate an elective kingdom - and Cromwell such ... and to establish a perfect Turkish tyranny - now that of the three estates of King, Lords and Commons, wherein in all ages Parliaments have consisted, there remains too small a number and they the dregs and scum of the House of Commons picked by the army, a wicked remnant - and now that there remains no liberty but to profess blasphemous opinions ... and to oppress and undo those who are not like-minded with them - now the writer says he cannot but doubt that the Colonel and all with him will declare and act against so monstrous and unparallelled rebellion, faithfully acknowledging King Charles II ... under whom by God's blessing they may restore the Protestant religion to purity, Parliament to freedom, laws to their force and their fellow subjects to their just liberties ... Though there are not many motives relating to particular interests to be mentioned after those most weighty considerations, yet he assures the Colonel that there is nothing the latter cannot reasonably propose for his personal safety, etc., and of those who may adhere to him. If this overture happen to find place with him, asks for a speedy answer, if possible by the bearer. Dorse: Copy of part of Michael Jones's answer in the same hand as the above: He received his Lordship's letter of the 9th on the 12th instant inviting him to a conjunction with himself. The writer supposes that as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Ormonde has with others united with the Irish. He does not understand how his Lordship can be invested with that pretended honour; he is also 'well assured that it is not in the power of any to give pardon to those bloody rebels without the Parliament of England, as by the Act to that end passed may more fully appear. Parliament indeed would never assent to such a peace as that made by his Lordship with the rebels, wherin there is no provision made either for Protestants or the Protestant religion; nor can he see how the Protestant religion can be settled and restored to its purity by an army of Papists, or the Protestant interest maintained by those very enemies by whom they have been spoiled and theirs slaughtered ... As for the consideration offered by his Lordship relating to the present and late proceedings in England, the writer cannot see how those can be a sufficient motive for him - or for any other in like trust for the Parliament of England - to join with those rebels. That would be a manifest betrayal of the trust reposed in the writer - to desert the service committed to him by joining with those he should oppose, and opposing those whom he is obliged to serve. Nor does he conceive it to be part of his work or care to take notice of proceedings of state. It is certain - and former ages have approved it - that inter-meddling of governors and parties in England have betrayed the kingdom to the Irish, whereby British forces in Ireland were called off and the places therein laid open and given to the common enemy. That is what his Lordship might have observed in the former treaty with the rebels; when his Lordship withdrew into England the most considerable part of the English army then commanded by him, the remaining British party was not long after overpowered and the quarters were over-run by the Irish to the gates of Dublin, and Ormonde himself was reduced to that low condition of being besieged in that city - the metropolis and principal city of the kingdom, and by those very rebels who could not until then stand before him. It is very apparent that the dangers of hazarding the English interest in Ireland by sending any parties hence into any other kingdom are at present more than in former days. Yet concessions have been made to the rebels allowing them continued possession of the cities and places of strength whereof they stood possessed at the time of the treaty; and they are to have standing forces of 15,000 foot and 2,500 horse, and these as well as the whole kingdom to be regulated by Irish trustees chosen by the rebels themselves or by persons confided in by the rebels, without whom nothing is to be acted. He cannot therefore but remind his Lordship of the sense of what he himself once delivered on this particular matter - viz that the English interest in Ireland must be preserved by the English and not by the Irish, and upon that ground - if the writer be not deceived - his Lordship did then capitulate to Parliament, from which clear principle the writer is sorry to see his Lordship now receding. As to the threatened menace of blood and force if they dissent from his Lordship's ways and designs, the writer would much rather (the remainder of the letter is missing).
