103. AN AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE (1649)

An agreement of the people of England and the places therewith incorporated 
for a secure and present peace upon grounds of common right, freedom, and 
safety. 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, as 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 hopefully 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 not-yet-ended troubles 
have been occasioned, either by want of frequent national meetings in 
council, or by the undue or unequal constitution thereof, or by rendering 
those meetings ineffectual, we are fully agreed and resolved, God willing, 
to provide that hereafter our representatives be neither left to an 
uncertainty for times nor be unequally constituted, nor made useless to the 
ends for which they are intended. In order whereunto we declare and agree: — 

First, that, to prevent the many inconveniences apparently arising from the 
long continuance of the same persons in supreme authority, this present 
parliament end and dissolve upon or before the last day of April, 1649.

Secondly, that the people of England — being at this day very unequally 
distributed by counties, cities, and boroughs for the election of their 
representatives — be indifferently proportioned; and, to this end, that the 
representative of the whole nation shall consist of 400 persons, or not 
above; and in each country and the places thereto subjoined there shall be 
chosen, to make up the said representative at all times, the several numbers 
here mentioned....[1] Provided that the first or second representative may, 
if they see cause, assign the remainder of the 400 representers, not hereby 
assigned, or so many of them as they shall see cause for, unto such counties 
as shall appear in this present distribution to have less than their due 
proportion. Provided also that, where any city or borough, to which one 
representer or more is assigned, shall be found in a due proportion not 
competent alone to elect a representer or the number of representers 
assigned thereto, it is left to future representatives to assign such a 
number of parishes or villages near adjoining to such city or borough, to be 
joined therewith in the elections, as may make the same proportionable.

Thirdly, that the people do of course choose themselves a representative 
once in two years, and shall meet for that purpose upon the first Thursday 
in every second May, by eleven in the morning; and the representatives so 
chosen [are] to meet upon the second Thursday in the June following at the 
usual place in Westminster, or such other place as, by the foregoing 
representative or the council of state in the interval, shall be from time 
to time appointed and published to the people, at the least twenty days 
before the time of election; and [are] to continue their sessions there or 
elsewhere until the second Thursday in December following, unless they shall 
adjourn or dissolve themselves sooner, but [are] not to continue longer. The 
election of the first representative [is] to be on the first Thursday in 
May, 1649; and that and all future elections [are] to be according to the 
rules prescribed for the same purpose in this agreement, viz.: — (1) That 
the electors in every division shall be natives or denizens of England; not 
persons receiving alms, but such as are assessed ordinarily towards the 
relief of the poor; not servants to, and receiving wages from, any 
particular person; and in all elections, except for the universities, they 
shall be men of twenty-one years of age or upwards and housekeepers, 
dwelling within the division for which the election is....[2] (4) That, to 
the end all officers of state may be certainly accountable and no factions 
made to maintain corrupt interests, no member of a council of state, nor any 
officer of any salary-forces in army or garrison, nor any treasurer or 
receiver of public money, shall, while such, be elected to be of a 
representative; and in case any such election shall be, the same [is] to be 
void; and in case any lawyer shall be chosen into any representative or 
council of state, then he shall be incapable of practice as a lawyer during 
that trust. (5) For the more convenient election of representatives, each 
county wherein more than three representers are to be chosen, with the towns 
corporate and cities ... within the compass thereof to which no representers 
are herein assigned, shall be divided by a due proportion into so many and 
such parts as each part may elect two, and no part above three 
representers....[3]

Fourthly, that 150 members at least be always present in each sitting of the 
representative, at the passing of any law or doing of any act whereby the 
people are to be bound; saving that the number of 60 may make a house for 
debates or resolutions that are preparatory thereunto.

Fifthly, that each representative shall, within twenty days after their 
first meeting, appoint a council of state for the managing of public affairs 
until the tenth day after the meeting of the next representative, unless 
that next representative think fit to put an end to that trust sooner. And 
the same council [is] to act and proceed therein according to such 
instructions and limitations as the representative shall give, and not 
otherwise.

Sixthly, that in each interval betwixt biennial representatives the council 
of state, in case of imminent danger or extreme necessity, may summon a 
representative to be forthwith chosen and to meet; so as the session thereof 
continue not above eighty days, and so as it dissolve at least fifty days 
before the appointed time for the next biennial representative. And upon the 
fiftieth day so preceding it shall dissolve of course, if not otherwise 
dissolved sooner.

Seventhly, that no member of any representative be made either receiver, 
treasurer, or other officer during that employment, saving to be a member of 
the council of state.

Eighthly, that the representatives have ... the supreme trust in order to 
the preservation and government of the whole; and that their power extend, 
without the consent or concurrence of any other person or persons, to the 
erecting and abolishing of courts of justice and public offices, and to the 
enacting, altering, repealing, and declaring of laws, and the highest and 
final judgment concerning all natural or civil things, but not concerning 
things spiritual or evangelical. Provided that, even in things natural and 
civil, these six particulars next following are ... excepted and reserved 
from our representatives, viz.: — (1) We do not empower them to impress or 
constrain any person to serve in foreign war, either by sea or land, nor for 
any military service within the kingdom; save that they may take order for 
the forming, training, and exercising of the people in a military way, to be 
in readiness for resisting of foreign invasions, suppressing of sudden 
insurrections, or for assisting in execution of the laws. And [they] may 
take order for the employing and conducting of them for those ends, provided 
that, even in such cases, none be compellable to go out of the county he 
lives in, if he procure another to serve in his room. (2) That, after the 
time herein limited for the commencement of the first representative, none 
of the people may be at any time questioned for anything said or done in 
relation to the late wars or public differences, otherwise than in execution 
or pursuance of the determinations of the present house of commons, against 
such as have adhered to the king or his interest against the people; and 
saving that accountants for public moneys received, shall remain accountable 
for the same. (3) That no securities given or to be given by the public 
faith of the nation, nor any engagements of the public faith for 
satisfaction of debts and damages, shall be made void or invalid by the next 
or any future representatives; except to such creditors as have or shall 
have justly forfeited the same: and saving that the next representative may 
confirm or make null, in part or in whole, all gifts of lands, moneys, 
offices, or otherwise, made by the present parliament to any member or 
attendant of either house. (4) That, in any laws hereafter to be made, no 
person, by virtue of any tenure, grant, charter, patent, degree, or birth, 
shall be privileged from subjection thereto, or from being bound thereby, as 
well as others. (5) That the representative may not give judgment upon any 
man's person or estate, where no law hath before provided; save only in 
calling to account and punishing public officers for abusing or failing in 
their trust. (6) That no representative may in any wise render up or give or 
take away any of the foundations of common right, liberty, and safety 
contained in this agreement, nor level men's estates, destroy property, or 
make all things common; and that, in all matters of such fundamental 
concernment, there shall be a liberty to particular members of the said 
representatives to enter their dissents from the major vote.

Ninthly, concerning religion, we agree as followeth: — (1) It is intended 
that the Christian religion be held forth and recommended as the public 
profession in this nation; which we desire may, by the grace of God, be 
reformed to the greatest purity in doctrine, worship, and discipline, 
according to the word of God. The instructing the people thereunto in a 
public way, so it be not compulsive, as also the maintaining of able 
teachers for that end and for the confutation or discovery of heresy, error, 
and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine, is allowed to be provided for 
by our representatives; the maintenance of which teachers may be out of a 
public treasury, and, we desire, not by tithes — provided that popery or 
prelacy be not held forth as the public way or profession in this nation. 
(2) That

to the public profession so held forth, none be compelled by penalties or 
otherwise, but only may be endeavoured to be won by sound doctrine and the 
example of a good conversation. (3) That such as profess faith in God by 
Jesus Christ, however differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or 
discipline publicly held forth, as aforesaid, shall not be restrained from, 
but shall be protected in, the profession of their faith and exercise of 
religion according to their consciences in any place except such as shall be 
set apart for the public worship — where we provide not for them, unless 
they have leave — so as they abuse not this liberty to the civil injury of 
others or to actual disturbance of the public peace on their parts. 
Nevertheless, it is not intended to be hereby provided that this liberty 
shall necessarily extend to popery or prelacy. (4) That all laws, 
ordinances, statutes, and clauses in any law, statute, or ordinance to the 
contrary of the liberty herein provided for, in the two particulars next 
preceding concerning religion, be and are hereby repealed and made void.

Tenthly, it is agreed that whosoever shall by force of arms resist the 
orders of the next or any future representative — except in case where such 
representative shall evidently render up, or give, or take away the 
foundations of common right, liberty, and safety contained in this agreement 
— he shall forthwith ... lose the benefit and protection of the laws and 
shall be punishable with death as an enemy and traitor to the nation. Of the 
things expressed in this agreement — the certain ending of this parliament, 
as in the first article; the equal or proportionable distribution of the 
number of the representers to be elected, as in the second; the certainty of 
the people's meeting to elect for representatives biennial, and their 
freedom in elections, with the certainty of meeting, sitting, and ending of 
representatives so elected, which are provided for in the third article; as 
also the qualifications of persons to elect or be elected, as in the first 
and second particulars under the third article; also the certainty of a 
number for passing a law or preparatory debates, provided for in the fourth 
article; the matter of the fifth article, concerning the council of state; 
and of the sixth, concerning the calling, sitting, and ending of 
representatives extraordinary; also the power of representatives to be, as 
in the eighth article, and limited, as in the six reserves next following 
the same; likewise the second and third particulars under the ninth article 
concerning religion; and the whole matter of the tenth article — all these 
we do account and declare to be fundamental to our common right, liberty, 
and safety; and therefore do both agree thereunto and resolve to maintain 
the same, as God shall enable us. The rest of the matters in this agreement 
we account to be useful and good for the public. And the particular 
circumstance of numbers, times, and places expressed in the several articles 
we account not fundamental; but we find them necessary to be here determined 
for the making the agreement certain and practicable, and do hold these most 
convenient that are here set down, and therefore do positively agree 
thereunto. By the appointment of his excellency the lord general and his 
general council of officers.

            Cobbett, Parliamentary History of England, III, 1267 f.



[1] Quotas are assigned to all constituencies of England and Wales.

[2] Men who have assisted the king in war are disqualified from voting or 
being elected for the next seven years.

[3] Elaborate provisions are made for electoral procedure. In all 
constituencies sheriffs or similar officials are to certify lists of 
qualified voters, to conduct elections when ordered, make returns of persons 
elected, etc.