to be a Parliament to us! Because it arises as a result of those issues, and determinations of Settlement, that we have labored to arrive at! And therefore I do most readily acknowledge the weight of authority 'you have' in advising these things. I can aggravate also to myself the general notion of the Things Advised to; as being things which tend to the settlement of the chiefest Interests that can fall into the heart of men to devise or endeavor after. And at such a time, too;' when truly, I may think, the Nation is big with expectation of something that may add to their 'security of' Being. -I therefore must needs put a very high esteem 'upon,' and have a very reverent opinion of anything that comes from you. And so I have had of this Instrument :—and, I hope, so I have expressed. And what I have expressed, hath been,-if I flatter not myself,— from a very honest heart towards the Parliament and the Public. I say not these things to compliment you. For we are all past complimenting, and all considerations of that kind! [Serious enough his Highness is, and we all are; the Nations and the Ages, and indeed the MAKER of the Nations and the Ages, looking on us here ] We must all be very real now, if ever we will be so ! Now, howbeit your title and name you give to this Paper [Looking on the Vellum] makes me think you intended "Advice;" and I should transgress against all reason, should I make any other construction than that you did intend Advice: 'yet'! -[Still hesitates, then?]-I would not lay a burden on my beast but I would consider his strength to bear it! And if you lay a burden upon a man that is conscious of his own infirmity and disabilities, and doth make some measure of counsels which may seem to come from Heaven, counsels from the Word of God (who leaves room for charity, and for men to consider their own strength),--I hope it will be no evil in me to measure your "Advice" with my own Infirmities. And truly these will have some influence upon conscience! Conscience in him that receives talents† to know how he may answer the trust of them. And such a conscience have I had in this matter;' and still have; and therefore when I thought I had an opportunity to make an Answer, I made that Answer [The unemphatic Negative; truest “Answer”. your Highness then had :—can it not grow an Affirmative ?]—and am a person that have been, before, and then, and since, lifting up my heart to God, To know what might be my duty at such a time as this, and upon such an occasion and trial as this was to me! [Deep silence: Old Parliament casts down its eyes.] Truly, Mr. Speaker, it hath been heretofore, I think, a matter of philosophical discourse, That great places, great authority, are a great burden. I know it so. And I know a man that is convinced in his conscience, Nothing less will enable him to the discharge of it than Assistance from Above. And it may very well require in such a one, so convinced and so persuaded, That he be right with the Lord in such an undertaking!—And therefore, to speak very clearly and plainly to you: I had, and I have, my hesitations as to that individual thing. [Still Negative, your Highness?] If I undertake anything not in Faith, I shall serve you in my own Unbelief; and I shall then be the most unprofitable Servant that People or Nation ever had! Give me leave, therefore, to ask counsel. I am ready to render a reason of my apprehensions; which haply may be overswayed by better apprehensions. I think, so far I have deserved no blame; nor do I take it you will lay any upon me. Only you mind me of the duty that is incumbent upon me. And truly the same answer I have as to the point of duty one way, the same consideration have I as to duty another way.*-I would not urge to you the point of "Liberty." Surely you have provided for Liberty, I have borne my witness to it,-Civil and Spiritual! The greatest provision that ever was made have you made, 'for Liberty' to all,-and I know that you do not intend to exclude me. The "Liberty" I ask is, To vent my own doubts, and my own fears, and my scruples. And though haply, in such cases as these are, the world hath judged that a man's conscience ought to know no scruples; yet surely mine doth, and I dare not dissemble. And therefore - ! They that are knowing in the ground of their own Action will be best able to measure advice to others. [Will have us reason, in Free Conference, with him?] There are many things in this 'Instrument of' Government besides that one of the Name and Title, that deserve much to be elucidated as to my judgment. It is you that can capacitate me to receive satisfaction in them! Otherwise, I say truly,-I must say, I am not persuaded to the performance of 'this' as my trust and duty, nor ‘sufficiently' informed. Not persuaded or informed;' and so not actuated 'by a call of duty,' as I know you intend I should be,—and as every man in the Nation should be. You have provided for every one of' them as a Free Man, as a man that is to act possibly,‡ rationally, and conscientiously! And therefore I cannot tell what other return to make to you than this: I am ready to give a reason, if you will, I say, capacitate me to do it; and 'capacitate' yourselves to receive it ;-and to do what other things may inform me a little more particularly than this Vote which you have passed Yesterday, and which has now been read by you to me. Truly I hope when 'once' I understand the ground of these things,— * Bound to regard your "Advice;" and yet in doing so, not to disregard a Higher. t'deserve much information,' in orig. + Means 'in a way possible for him:'' does possibly' is the phrase in orig. the whole being 'meant' neither for your good nor mine, but for the good of the Nation, there will be no doubt but we may, even in these particulars, find out what* may answer our duty. Mine, and all our duties, to those whom we serve. And this is that that I do, with a great deal of affection, and honor, and respect, offer now to you.t Thus has the Honorable House gone a second time in a body, and not yet prevailed. No. XLIX. [Vol. ii., p. 399: Is now near ending it, and getting honorably relieved from it.'] LETTER LIII. THE poor Protestants of Piedmont, it appears, are again in a state of grievance, in a state of peril. The Lord Protector, in the thickest press of domestic anarchies, finds time to think of these poor people and their case. Here is a Letter to Ambassador Lockhart, who is now at Dunkirk Siege, in the French King and Cardinal's neighborhood: a generous pious Letter; dictated to Thurloe, partly perhaps of Thurloe's composition, but altogether of Oliver's mind and sense ;-fit enough, since it so chances, to conclude our Series here. The first Among the Lockhart Letters in Thurloe, which are full of Dunkirk in these weeks, I can find no trace of this new Piedmont business but in Milton's Latin State Letters, among the Litera Oliverii Protectoris, there are Three, to the French King, to the Swiss Cantons, to the Cardinal, which all treat of it. of which, were it only as a sample of the Milton-Oliver Diplomacies, we will here copy, and translate that all may read it. An emphatic State Letter; which Oliver meant, and John Milton thought and wrote into words; not unworthy to be read. It goes by the same Express as the Letter to Lockhart himself; and is very specially referred to there : those things' in orig. + Old Pamphlet (in Parliamentary History, xxiii., Appendix, p. 164-6). "Serenissimo potentissimoque Principi, Ludovico Galliarum Regi. "SERENISSIME POTENTISSIMEQUE REX, AMICE AC FODERATE AUGUSTISSIME, "Meminisse potest Majestas Vestra, quo tempore inter nos de renovando Fœdere agebatur (quod optimis auspiciis initum multa utriusque Populi commoda, multa Hostium communium exinde mala testantur), accidisse miseram illam Convallensium Occisionem; quorum causam undique desertam atque afflictam Vestra misericordiæ atque tutela, summo cum ardore animi ac miseratione, commendavimus. Nec defuisse per se arbitramur Majestatem Vestram officio tam pio, immo verò tam humano, pro eá quá apud Ducem Sa baudiæ valere debuit vel auctoritate vel gratiá: Nos certè aliique multi Prin cipes ac Civitates, legationibus, literis, precibus interpositis, non defuimus. "Post cruentissimam utriusque sexûs omnis ætatis Trucidationem, Pax tandem data est; vel potiùs inductæ Pacis nomine hostilitas quædam tectior. Conditiones Pacis vestro in oppido Pinarolii sunt latæ : duræ quidem illæ, sed quibus miseri atque inopes, dira omnia atque immania perpessi, facile acquiescerent, modò iis, duræ et iniquæ ut sint, staretur. Non statur; sed enim earum quoque singularum, falsá interpretatione variisque diverticulis, fides eluditur ac violatur. Antiquis sedibus multi dejiciuntur, Religio Patria multis interdicitur; Tributa nova exiguntur; Arx nova cervicibus imponitur, unde milites crebrò erumpentes obvios quosque vel diripiunt vel trucidant. Ad hæc nuper nova copiæ clanculum contra eos parantur; quique inter eos Romanam Religionem colunt, migrare ad tempus jubentur: ut omnia nunc rursùs videantur ad illorum internecionem miserorum spectare, quos illa prior laniena reliquos fecit. Quod ergò per dextram tuam, Rex Christianissime, quæ Fœdus nobiscum et amicitiam percussit, obsecro atque obtestor, per illud Christianissimi tituli decus sanctissimum, fieri ne siveris: nec tantam sæviendi licentiam, non dico Principi cuiquam (neque enim in ullum Principem, multò minus in ætatem illius Principis teneram, aut in muliebrem Matris animum, tanta sævitia cadere potest), sed sacerrimis illis Sicariis, ne permiseris. Qui cum Christi Servatoris nostri servos atque imitatores sese profiteantur, qui venit in hunc mundum ut peccatores servaret, Ejus mitissimi Nomine atque Institutis ad innocentium crudelissimas cædes abutuntur. Eripe qui potes, quique in tanto fastigio dignus es posse, tot supplices tuos homicidarum ex manibus, qui cruore nuper ebrii sanguinem rursùs sitiunt, suæque invidiam crudelitatis in Principes derivare consultissimum sibi ducunt. Tu verò nec Titulos tuos aut Regni fines istá invidiá, nec Evangelium Christi pacatissimum istá crudelitate fadari, te regnante, patiaris. Memineris hos ipsos Avi tui Henrici Protestantibus amicissimi Dedititios fuisse; cùm Diguierius per ea Loca, quà etiam commodissimus in Italiam transitus est, Sabaudum trans Alpes cedentem victor est insecutus. Deditionis illius Instrumentum in Actis Regni vestri Publicis etiamnum extat: in quo exceptum atque cautum inter alia est, ne cui posteà Convallenses traderentur, nisi iisdem conditionibus quibus eos Avus tuus invictissimus in fidem recepit. Hanc fidem nunc implorant, avitam abs te Nepote supplices requirunt. Tui esse quàm cujus nunc sunt, vel permutatione aliqua si fieri possit, malint atque optârint: id si non licet, patrocinio saltem, miseratione atque perfugio. "Sunt et rationes regni quæ hortari possint ut Convallenses ad te confugientes ne rejicias: sed nolim te, Rex tantus cum sis, aliis rationibus ad defensionem calamitosorum quàm fide a Majoribus dată, pietate, regiáque animi benignitate a magnitudine permoveri. Ita pulcherrimi facti laus atque gloria illibata atque integra tua erit, et ipse Patrem Misericordiæ ejusque Filium Christum Regem, cujus Nomen atque Doctrinam ab immanitate nefarið vindicaveris, eò magis faventem tibi et propitium per omnem vitam experieris. "Deus Opt. Max. ad gloriam suam, tot innocentissimorum hominum Chris tianorum tutandam salutem, Vestrumque verum decus, Majestati Vestra hanc mentem injiciat. 666 Majestatis Vestra Studiosissimus 666 'OLIVERIUS, PROTECTOR REIP. Angliæ,' &c "Westmonasterio, Maii 26" die,' anno 1658."* Of which here is a Version the most literal we can make : "Your Majesty may recollect that during the negotiation between us for the renewing of our League† (which many advantages to both Nations, and much damage to their common Enemies, resulting therefrom, now testify to have been very wisely done),-there fell out that miserable Slaughter of the People of the Valleys; whose cause, on all sides deserted and trodden down, we, with the utmost earnestness and pity, recommended to your mercy and protection. Nor do we think Your Majesty for your own part, has been wanting in an office so pious, and, indeed, so human, in so far as either by authority or favor you might have influence with the Duke of Savoy: we certainly, and many other Princes and States, by embassies, by letters, by entreaties directed thither, have not been wanting. “After that most sanguinary Massacre, which spared no age nor either sex, there was at last a Peace given; or rather, under the specious name of Peace, a certain more disguised hostility. The terms of the Peace were settled in your Town of Pignerol: hard terms; but such as those poor People, indigent and wretched, after suffering all manner of cruelties and atrocities, might gladly acquiesce in; if only, hard and * The prose works of John Milton (London, 1833), p. 815. z 2 |