Gospel; to be a tribunal for judging, for detecting, ejecting them (only in case of ejection, if they have wives, let some small modicum of living be allowed them): and to sit there, judging and sifting, till gradually all is sifted clean, and can be kept clean. This is the Second branch of Oliver's form of Church-Government: this, with the other Ordinance, makes at last a kind of practicable Ecclesiastical Arrangement for England. A very republican arrangement, such as could be made on the sudden; contains in it, however, the germ or essence of all conceivable arrangements, that of worthy men to judge of the worth of men; - and was found in practice to work well. As indeed, any arrangement will work well, when the men in it have the root of the matter at heart; and, alas, all arrangements, when the men in them have not, work ill and not well! Of the Lay Commissioners, from fifteen to thirty in each County, it is remarked that not a few are political enemies of Oliver's: friends or enemies of his, Oliver hopes they are men of pious probity, and friends to the Gospel in England. My Lord General Fairfax, the Presbyterian; Thomas Scott, of the Long Parliament, the fanatical Republican; Lords Wharton, Say, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Colonel Robert Blake, Mayor of Hursley, Dunch of Pusey, Montague of Hinchinbrook, and other persons known to us, are of these Commissioners. Richard Baxter, who seldom sat, is one of the Clergy for his County: he testifies, not in the willingest manner, being no friend to Oliver, That these Commissioners, of one sort and the other, with many faults, did sift out the deleterious alarming Ministers of the Gospel, and put-in the salutary in their stead, with very considerable success, giving us "able, "serious Preachers who lived a godly life, of what tolerable "opinion soever they were;" so that "many thousands of "souls blessed God" for what they had done; and grieved sore when, with the return of the Nell-Gwynn Defender, and his Four Surplices or what remained of them, it was undone again.* And so with these Triers and these Expurgators * Baxter's Life, Part i. 72. both busy, and a faithful eye to watch their procedure, we will hope the Spiritual Teaching-Apparatus of England stood now on a better footing than usual, and actually succeeded in teaching somewhat. Of the Lord Protector's other Ordinances; Ordinance "declaring the Law of Treason," Ordinances of finance, of Amnesty for Scotland, of Union with Scotland, and other important matters, we must say nothing. One elaborate Ordinance, "in sixty-seven Articles," for "Reforming the Court of Chancery," will be afterwards alluded to with satisfaction, by the Lord Protector himself. Elaborate Ordinance; containing essential improvements, say some; which has per haps saved the Court of Chancery from abolition for a while longer! For the rest, "not above Two-hundred Hackneycoaches" shall henceforth be allowed to ply in this Metropolis and six miles round it; the ever-increasing number of them, blocking up our thoroughfares, threatens to become insupportable.* -- April 14th, 1654. This day, let it be noted for the sake of poor Editors concerned with undated Letters, and others, his Highness removed from his old Lodging in the Cockpit, into new properly Royal Apartments in Whitehall, now ready for him, ** and lived there henceforth, usually going out to Hampton Court on the Saturday afternoon. He has "assumed somewhat of the state of a King;" due ceremonial, decent observance beseeming the Protector of the Commonwealth of England; life-guards, ushers, state-coaches, in which my erudite friend knows well what delight this Lord Protector had! Better still, the Lord Protector has concluded good Treaties; received congratulatory Embassies,-France, Spain itself have sent Embassies. Treaty with the Dutch, with Denmark, Sweden, Portugal:*** all much to our satisfaction. Of the Portuguese Treaty there will perhaps another word be said. As for the Swedish, this, it is well known, was managed * Scobell, ii. 313; Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 139). **Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 139). *** Dutch Treaty signed, 5th April 1654; Swedish, 28th April; Portuguese, 10th July; Danish Claims settled, 31st July (Godwin iv. 49-56). by our learned friend Bulstrode at Upsal itself; whose Narrative of that formidable Embassy exists, a really curious lifepicture by our Pedant friend; whose qualities are always fat and good; whose parting from poor Mrs. Whitlocke at Chelsea, in those interesting circumstances, may be said to resemble that of Hector from Andromache, in some points. And now for our Four small Letters, for our First Protectorate Parliament, without waste of another word! LETTER CXCII. For my loving Brother Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley, in Hampshire: These. DEAR BROTHER, 'Whitehall,' 4th May 1654. I received your loving Letter; for which I thank you: and surely were it fit to proceed in that Business, you should not in the least have been put upon anything but the trouble; for indeed the land in Essex, with some money in my hand, should have gone towards it. But indeed I am so unwilling to be a seeker after the world, having had so much favour from the Lord in giving me so much without seeking; and 'am' so unwilling that men should think me so, which they will though you only appear in it (for they will, by one means or other, know it), that indeed I dare not meddle nor proceed therein. Thus I have told my plain thoughts. you My hearty love I present to you and my Sister, my blessing and love to dear Doll and the little one. With love to all, I rest, Your loving brother, § Noble, i. 330; Harris, p. 515:- one of the Pusey Letters. A "business" seemingly of making an advantageous purchase of land for Richard; which Mayor will take all the trouble of, and even advance the money for; but which Oliver P., for good reasons given, "dare not meddle with." No man can now guess what land it was, nor need much. In the Pamphletary dust-mountains is a confused story of Cornet Joyce's, concerning Fawley Park in Hampshire; which, as the dim dateless indications point to the previous winter or summer, and to the "Lord General Cromwell" as looking towards that property for his Son Richard, * may be the place, for aught we know! The story sets forth, with the usual bewildered vivacity of Joyce: How Joyce, the same who took the King at Holmby, and is grown now a noisy Anabaptist and Lieutenant-Colonel, how Joyce, I say, was partly minded and fully entitled to purchase Fawley Park, and Richard Cromwell was minded and not fully entitled: how Richard's Father thereupon dealt treacherously with the said Joyce; spake softly to him, then quarrelled with him, menaced him (owing to Fawley Park); nay ended by flinging him into prison, and almost reducing him to his needle and thimble again, — greatly to the enragement and distraction of the said Joyce. All owing to Fawley Park, thinks Joyce and prints; · SO that my Lord Protector, if this Park be the place, is very wise so we leave it. "not to meddle or proceed therein." And LETTER CXCIII. MONK, in these summer months, has a desultory kind of Rebellion in the Highlands, Glencairn's or Middleton's Rebellion, to deal with; and is vigorously coercing and strangling it. Colonel Alured, an able officer, but given to Anabaptist notions, has been sent into Ulster to bring over certain forces to assist Monk. His loose tongue, we find, has disclosed de *True Narrative of the Causes of the Lord General Cromwell's anger and indignation against Lieutenant-Colonel George Joyce: reprinted (without date) in Harleian Miscellany v. 557, &c. - Joyce "is in jail," 19th Sept. 1653 (Thurloe, i. 470). signs or dispositions in him which seem questionable. The Lord Protector sees good to revoke his Commission to Alured, and order him up to Town. 'To the Lord Fleetwood, Lord Deputy of Ireland: These:' SIR, By the Letter I received from you, and by the information of the Captain you sent to me, I am sufficiently satisfied of the evil intentions of Colonel Alured; and by some other considerations amongst ourselves, tending to the making up a just suspicion, by the advice of friends here, I do revoke Colonel Alured from that Employment. Wherefore I desire you to send for him to return to you to Dublin; and that you cause him to deliver up the Instructions and Authorities into your hands, which he hath in reference to that Business; as also such moneys and accounts concerning the same, according to the Letter, herein enclosed, directed to him, which I entreat you to deliver when he comes to you. I desire 'you' also, to the end the Service may not be neglected, nor 'for' one day stand, it being of so great concernment, To employ some able Officer to assist in Colonel Alured's room, until the men be shipped off for their design. We purpose also, God willing, to send one very speedily who, we trust, shall meet them at the place, to command in chief. As for provision of victual and other necessaries, we shall hasten them away; desiring that these Forces may by no means stay in Ireland; because we purpose they shall meet their provision in the place they are designed 'for.' |