_Cromwell._ I confess I am most dissatisfied with that I heard Mr. Sexby speak of any man here, because it did savour so much of will. But I desire that all of us may decline that, and if we meet here really to agree to that which is for the safety of the Kingdom, let us not spend so much time in such debates as these are. If we think to bring it to an issue this way I know our debates are endless, and I think if you do desire to bring this to a result it were well if we may but resolve upon a Committee. I say it again, if I cannot be satisfied to go so far as these Gentlemen ... I shall freely and willingly withdraw myself, and I hope to do it in such manner that the Army shall see that I shall by my withdrawing satisfy the interest of the Army, the public interest of the Kingdom, and those ends these men aim at. THE AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE (1647). =Source.=--British Museum Pamphlets. E. 412.21. AN AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE FOR A FIRM AND PRESENT PEACE UPON GROUNDS OF COMMON RIGHT. Having by our late labours and hazards made it appear to the world at how high a rate we value our just freedom, and God having so far owned our cause as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the best care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition and the chargeable remedy of another war; for, it cannot be imagined that so many of our countrymen would have opposed us in this quarrel if they had understood their own good, so may we safely promise to ourselves that, when our common rights and liberties shall be cleared, their endeavours will be disappointed that seek to make themselves our masters. Since, therefore, our former oppressions and scarce-yet-ended troubles have been occasioned, either by want of frequent national meetings in Council, or by rendering those meetings ineffectual, we are fully agreed and resolved to provide that hereafter our representatives be neither left to an uncertainty for the time nor made useless to the ends for which they are intended. In order whereunto we declare:-- I. That the people of England, being at this day very unequally distributed by Counties, Cities, and Boroughs, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants; the circumstances whereof for number, place, and manner are to be set down before the end of this present Parliament. II. That, to prevent the many inconveniences apparently arising from the long continuance of the same persons in authority, this present Parliament be dissolved upon the last day of September which shall be in the year of our Lord, 1648. III.