se, annulled the order for enlistments and
resolved that "the city might upon occasion send letters to the army, so
as they did first present them to the House for their approbation."(764)

(M371)

By the 18th June the City was ready with its reply to the last letters of
Fairfax and the council of war. This reply had after some hesitation
received the sanction of the Commons, and the City was to be thenceforth
permitted to correspond with the army on its own responsibility, and
without submitting its letters first to parliament.(765) It entirely
disavowed any privity or consent of the Common Council in connection with
the recent enlistments other than those of the trained bands and
auxiliaries. All such enlistments Fairfax was assured had now been
stopped, the civic authorities having intervened as requested. The City's
readiness to conform to the wishes of the army would, it was hoped, draw
forth a fuller assurance that the army intended no prejudice either to
parliament or to the city, which had expended so much blood and treasure
in its defence, and that it would remove its quarters farther from
London.(766)

(M372)

This reply did not give unqualified satisfaction. It was impossible, wrote
Fairfax and the council of war (21 June),(767) to remove the army farther
from London until parliament should have given a satisfactory reply to the
_Humble Representation of the dissatisfaction of the Army_, the
_Declaration of the Army_, and the _Charge_ made against eleven members of
the House of Commons. That the City had done its part in stopping
enlistments they readily acknowledged, but information had reached them of
underhand workings still going on to enlist men, as a "foundation for a
new armie and a new warre." The letter concluded with a reiteration of the
writers' intention to do nothing prejudicial to the parliament or the
city, for which they professed "a most tender regard." To this letter a
postscript was added the following day (22 June) to the effect that since
writing the above they had heard that parliament had been again threatened
by a mob of reformadoes. It was therefore more necessary than ever to
preserve the remnant of liberty that attached to the House.

(M373)

On the 23rd another letter(768) was despatched desiring that some
representatives of the city might take up permanent quarters with the army
until matters became more settled. Accordingly, on the following day (24
June) the Common Counci