Committees to promote the Petitions.
Citt. There was no way, you must know, to carry the business clear, without getting a Vote of Common-Council for the Petition; and so making it an Act of the City: And in order to this End, we planted our Committees every where up and down, from Algate to Temple-barr, at convenient distances; some few of them in Taverns but most at Coffee-houses; as less liable to suspition. Now we did not call these Meetings, Committees, but Clubs; and there we had all Freedom both for Privacy and Debate: while the Borough of Southwark, Westminster, and the Suburbs, proceeded according to our Method.
Bum. And what were these Committees now to do?
Their Powers and Instructions.
Citt. Their Commission was to procure Subscriptions, to justify the Right of Petitioning, and to gain Intelligence: And then every Committee had one man at least in it that wrote short-hand.
Bum. Well, and what was he to do?
Citt. It was his part to go smoking up and down from One Company to another, to see who was for us, and who against us: and to take Notes of what people said of the Plot, or of the Kings Witnesses, or against [this] way of Petitioning.
Bum. But how came those Committees (as ye call 'um) by their Commissions?
Two Grand Committees.
Citt. For that, let me tell you, we had two Grand Committees, that adjourn'd from place to place, as they saw occasion: But they met most commonly at Two Coffee-houses; the One near Guild-Hall, the Other in the Strand; for you must take notice that we went on, hand in hand with our Neighbours in the Main Design.