was by him collected during his said Restraint and Captivity within the Stone Walls and Iron Grates of a Prison, the pleasant Territories of a Goaler, but the Charnel House to hide Men ruinated by their dislocated and broken Fortunes.

It would, my Lord, be an Act worthy of your Honour's owning, to inspect a little into the Premises hereafter mentioned: And I beseech you, my Lord, disdain them not the Indigency of the Stile (for he that wrote them wants Learning) but mind them for the Truths therein contained.

If your Honour thinks that a living Dog is better than a dead Lion, then let Compassion move your Lordship (as God hath now planted you in Authority) to look upon the dying Condition of living Men in a Prison.

Your Lordship, perhaps, may be informed by the Goaler, that Persons under the Power of his Key want not for Subsistence: I do affirm, my Lord, that such an Assertion is a notorious Falshood; and that, if it lay in his Power, the Prisoners of Ludgate would be of all Prisoners the most miserable.

My Lord, it would add Excellency to your Worth, and Eternity to your Memory, would you but, acccording to your Honour's Power and Wisdom, endeavour the finding out where those noble and great Legacies are buried, and in whose Hands they died, which formerly belonged to that Prison: Generations yet to come would find Reason to engrave your Actions in golden Characters.

When your Lordship views the Revenues of the Keeper to arise from nothing to six or seven hundred Pounds per Annum, it will amaze you: But if your Lordship considers, that two Turnkeys and a Butler do likewise raise their Annuitites to 2 or 300l. a Man, and that it is harassed out of the decaying Estates of poor Men, I hope then it will be beyond your Admiration.

My Lord, frequent Visitations of Prisons, by just and worthy Persons authorized to examine Abuses therein, would (I humbly conceive) stop the Torrent of their Avarice and Oppressions; their Extortions being, indeed, the real Cause why Men are forced rather to compound than pay their just Debts.

Two Things I humbly crave of your Lordship, Pardon and Protection: Pardon for my Boldness in presenting so mean and frivolous a Thing to so noble a Magistrate: Protection, because I have neither Rhetoric nor Eloquence to defend my self against the Adversaries Malice: Truth and your Lordship must be herein both my Shield and Buckler.

Your Honour's greater Thoughts shall be no longer detained by reading of the meer Entities of,

My Lord,
Your Lordship's most humble and obedient Servant,

Ludgate Chapel,
Nov. 7, 1659.
Marmaduke Johnson.

Gentlemen,
IT is you, of all Men, that are most concerned in the following Premises, and therefore to you I thought it convenient to declare my Reasons for the Publication thereof.

It doth in itself concern each particular Member of this City, and all Men that are Merchants or Traders in any Way within this Commonwealth.

The rich Citizen or Merchant it concerneth,

I. For that their Way of Trade oftentimes is to trust young Beginners, that have but small Stocks, upon Day; and if they prosper, they pay for their Credit; but if they fail, having imbezilled the Stock intrusted with them, their Bodies are immediately forced to Prison: This Book shews you what you gain by that; proving what your Experience could not but tell you, That Prisons pay no Debts.

To the Money Lender, or rich Usurer, it declares,

II. That such as are laid in upon their Account, have no Reason to take Care for the Payment of Debts, nor do they: For you shall find they here meet with Charges and Expences to spend what they have in their Hands, and do it for the most Part; and are thereby disabled to return any Satisfaction.

To such who think Men have sufficient in that Prison to maintain them,

III. It sufficiently proves the contrary, fully acquainting them with what Benefits acrew to Prisoners, which is not comparable to what indeed formerly they did receive.

Them, who hereafter shall be Prisoners there, it informs,

IV. What Fees and Charges they must exepct to be liable to, and pay, their Poverty and Inability not considered; and the utmost of Convenience they shall be Partakers of during their Imprisonment.