or otherwise dispose thereof, as to them shall seem meet; and to certify the same to the Convocation. And all and every such dispensation, grant, confirmation or disposition made by the aforesaid Mr. John Owen, Dr. Wilkins, Dr. Jonathan Goddard, Mr. Thomas Goodwin, and Mr. Peter French, or any Three or more of them, shall be to all intents and purposes firm and valid, in as full, large and ample manner as if to every such particular act they had my assent in writing under my hand and seal, or I had been personally present and had given my voice and suffrage thereunto. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the 16th day of October, 1652. No. 15. OLIVER CROMWELL.* SCRAPS FROM 1653. [Vol. iii. p. 303.] 1. In a volume of the Annual Register are given certain Letters or Petitions concerning the printing of Dr. Walton's Polyglott Bible. At the end of the Petitions is the following: 'Whitehall,' 16th May, 1653. I THINK fit that this work of printing the Bible in the Original and other Languages go on without any let or interruption. OLIVER CROMWELL.† 2. Here, lest any one should be again sent hunting through 'Pegge's Manuscripts,' take the following highly insignificant Official Note. Date, four weeks after the Dismissal of the Rump; when the Committee of the Army,' and Oliver Commander of all the Forces raised and to be raised,' are naturally desirous to know the state of the Army-Accounts. Where Mitchell commands at present, I do not know; nor whether he might be the Captain Mitchell' who was known some years ago in a * From the Archives of Oxford University. Communicated by the Rev. Dr. † Annual Register, xxxvi. 373-4. Bliss. disagreeable transaction with the Lord-General's Secretary, and whose Accounts may be rather specially a matter of interest. SIR, For Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell. Whitehall, 18th May, 1653. You are desired with all expedition to prepare and send to the Committee for the Army an Account of all Moneys by you received upon their Warrants between the Fifteenth of January 1647 and the Twentieth of October 1651, for the use of the Forces within the time aforesaid under your command, or for the use of any other Regiment, Troop or Company, by or for whom you were entrusted or appointed to receive any money. And in case you cannot perfect your Account, and send the same, as you are hereby directed, before the Seventh of June next, you are desired by that time at the farthest to send in writing under your hand to the said Committee what Moneys by you received as aforesaid do remain in your hands. Hereof you are not to fail. OLIVER CROMWELL.' 3. Among the State-Papers in Paris there have lately been found Three small Notes to Mazarin, not of much, if indeed of almost any moment, but worth preserving since they are here. Two of them belong to this Section. The first, which exists only in French, apparently as translated for Mazarin's reading, would not be wholly without significance if we had it in the original. It is dated just three days after that Summons to the Puritan Notables;2- and the Lord General, we see, struggles to lock upon himself as a man that has done with Political Affairs. 'A Son Eminence, Monsieur le Cardinal Mazarin.' MONSIEUR, De Westminster, ce 9-19 Juin, 1653. J'ai été surpris de voir que votre Eminence ait voulu penser à une personne si peu considérable que moi, vivant en quelque façon rétiré du reste du monde. Cet honneur a fait avec juste raison une si forte impression sur moi, que je me sens obligé de servir votre Eminence en toutes occasions; et comme je m'estimerai heureux de les I Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 61), 22-29 June, 1649. * Pegge's Mss. (in the College of Arms, London), vii. 425. 2 Antea, vol. iii. p. 258. pouvoir rencontrer, j'espère que M. de Bourdeaux en facilitera les moyens à celui qui est, "SIR,-I have been surprised that your Eminency was pleased to "remember a person so inconsiderable as myself, living as it were with"drawn from the rest of the world. This honour has justly such a re"sentment with me that I feel myself bound, by all opportunities, to be "serviceable to your Eminency; and as I shall be happy to meet with such, so I hope M. De Bourdeaux," the Ambassador, “will help to procure them to, 66 66 "Sir, "Your Eminency's most humble servant, 4. The negotiations with Whitlocke for going on that perilous Embassy to Sweden have left for us the following offhand specimen of an Official Note from Oliver. Oliver and Pickering had already been earnestly dealing with the learned man that he would go: at their subsequent interview, Oliver observed to Whitlocke, "Sir Gilbert" Pickering "would needs write a very fine Letter; and when he had done, did not like it himself. I then took pen and ink, and straightway wrote that to you:" 'To Sir Bulstrode Whitlocke, Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal. Whitehall, 2d September, 1653. MY LORD, The Council of State having thoughts of putting your Lordship to the trouble of being Extraordinary Ambassador to the Queen of Swedeland, did think fit not to impose that service upon you without first knowing your own freedom thereunto. Wherefore they were pleased to command our service to * From the Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, at Paris. Communicated by Thomas Wright, Esq. F.S.A. &c. make this address to your Lordship; and hereby we can assure you of a very large confidence in your honour and abilities for this employment. To which we begging your answer, do rest, My Lord, Your humble servants, OLIVER CROMWELL. 5. The Little Parliament has now dismissed itself, and Oliver has henceforth a new Signature. MY LORD, 'To his Eminency Cardinal Mazarin.' 'Whitehall,' 26th January, 1653. Monsieur de Baas1 hath delivered me the Letter which your Eminency hath been pleased to write to me; and also communicated by word of mouth your particular affections and good disposition towards me, and the affairs of these Nations as now constituted. Which I esteem a very great honour; and hold myself obliged, upon the return of this Gentleman to you, to send my thanks to your Eminency for so singular a favour; my just resentment whereof I shall upon all occasions really demonstrate; and be ready to express the great value I have of your person and merits, as your affairs and interest shall require from, Your very affectionate friend to serve you, OLIVER P.† 6. The Corporation of Lynn Regis,' it appears, considered that the navigation of their Port would be injured by the works now going on for Draining the great Bedford Level of the Fens. They addressed the Protector on the subject; and this is his Letter in answer thereto. Nothing came of it farther. • From Whitlocke's Account of his Embassy (quoted in Forster, iv. 319). 1 The new Envoy, or Agent; of whom in the next No. From the Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, at Paris. Communi cated by Thomas Wright, Esq. F.S.A. &c. To the Mayor and Aldermen of Lynn Regis. GENTLEMEN, Whitehall, 30th January, 1653. I received yours; and cannot but let you know the good resentments I have of your respects;-assuring you that I shall be always ready to manifest a tender love and care of you and your welfare, and in particular of that concernment of yours relating to navigation. Commending you to the grace of God, I remain, Your loving friend, OLIVER P.* No. 16. From 1654-1655: VowEL'S PLOT; RECTORY OF HOUGHTON CONQUEST; PENRUDDOCK'S PLOT; NEW ENGLAND. [Vol. iii. p. 333.] 1. Another wholly insignificant official Note to Mazarin, in regard to Vowel's Plot, and the dismissal of M. De Baas for his complicity in it. De Baas, whom some call Le Baas, or rightly Le Bas, was a kind of subsidiary Agent despatched by Mazarin early in the Spring of 1653-4 'to congratulate the new Protector,'-that is, to assist Bourdeaux, who soon after got the regular title of Ambassador, in ascertaining how a Treaty could be made with the new Protector, or, on the whole, what was to be done with England and him. Hitherto, during the Dutch War and other vicissitudes, there had been a mixed undefinable relation between the two Countries, rather hostile than neutral. The "Treaty and firm Amity,' as we know, had its difficulties, its delays; in the course of which it occurred to M. Le Bas that perhaps the Restoration of Charles Stuart, by Vowel and Company, might be a shorter cut to the result. Examination of Witnesses, in consequence: examination of Le Bas himself by the Protector and Council, in consequence; mild hint to Le Bas that he must immediately go home again.1 * History of the Ancient and Present State of the Navigation of the Port of King's Lynn and of Cambridge (London, fol. 1766), p. 55. 1 Depositions concerning him (April, May, 1654), Thurloe, ii. 309, 351-3: notice of his first arrival (February 1653-4), ib. 113. See also ib. 379, 437. |