liament rose to complain of Grievances, meet their death in Palaceyard. The High Court was still sitting in Westminster Hall as they passed through from Sir Robert Cotton's house.' Hamilton lingered a little, or seemed to linger, in the Hall; still hopeful of reprieve and fine of 100,0007.: but the Earl of Denbigh, his brother-in-law, a Member of the Council of State, stept up to him; whispered in his ear; the poor Duke walked on. That is the end of all his diplomacies; his Scotch Army of Forty-thousand, his painful ridings to Uttoxeter, and to many other places, have all issued here. The Earl of Lanark will now be Duke of Hamilton in Scotland: may a better fate. await him! 6 The once gay Earl of Holland has been converted' some days ago, as it were for the nonce,-poor Earl ! With regard to my Lord Capel again, who followed last in order, he behaved, says Bulstrode, 'much after the manner of a stout Roman. He 'had no Minister with him, nor showed any sense of death approaching; but carried himself all the time he was upon the scaffold with that boldness and resolution as was to be admired. He wore a sad-colored suit, his hat cocked up, and his cloak thrown under one arm: he looked towards the people at his first coming up, and put off his hat in manner of a salute; he had a little discourse with some gentlemen, and passed up and down in a care less posture. ** Thus died Lord Capel, the first who complained of Grievances: in seven years time there are such changes for a man; and the first acts of his Drama little know what the last will be ! This new High Court of Justice is one of some Seven or Eight that sat in those years, and were greatly complained of by Constitutional persons. Nobody ever said that they decided contrary to evidence; but they were not the regular Judges. They took the Parliament's law as good, without consulting Fleta and Bracton about it. They consisted of learned Sergeants and other weighty persons nominated by the Parliament, usually in good numbers, for the occasion. Some weeks hence, drunken Poyer of Pembroke and the confused Welsh Colonels are tried by Court Martial; Poyer, Powel, * Whitlocke, p. 380 (the first of the two pages 380 whi there are). Laughern are found to merit death. Death however shall be executed only upon one of them; let the other two be pardoned: let them draw lots which two. In two of the lots was written, Life given by God; the third lot was a blank. The Prisoners were not willing to draw their own destiny; but a child drew the lots, and gave them: and the lot fell to Colonel Poyer to die.** He was shot in Covent Garden; died like a soldier, poor confused Welshman; and so ended. And with these executions, the chief Delinquents are now got punished. The Parliament lays up its axe again; willing to pardon the smaller multitude, if they will keep quiet henceforth. LETTER LX. For my worthy Friend, Dr. Love, Master of Benet College, Cambridge: These. 'London,' 14th March, 1648. SIR, I understand one Mrs. Nutting is a suitor unto you, on the right of her Son, about the renewing of a Lease which holds of your College. The old interest I have had makes me presume upon your favor. I desire nothing but what is just; leaving that to your judgment; and beyond which I neither now nor at any time shall move. If I do, denial shall be most welcome and accepted by, Sir, Your affectionate servant, This is not the Christopher Love who preached at Uxbridge, during the Treaty there in 1644; who is now a minister in London, and may again come before us; this is a Cambridge' Dr. Love,' of whom I know nothing. Oliver, as we may gather, had befriended him, during the reform of that University in 1644. Probably in Baker's Manuscripts it might be ascertained in what year he graduated, where he was born, where buried; but nothing substantial is ever likely to be known of him, or is indeed "Whitlocke, 21 April, 1649 Lansdown Mss., 1236, fol. 83. necessary to be known. 'Mrs. Nutting' and he were evidently children of Adam, breathing the vital air along with Oliver Cromwell; and Oliver, on occasion, endeavored to promote justice and kindness between them; and they remain two 'shadows of small Names.' Yesterday, Tuesday, 13th March, there was question in the Council of State about 'modelling of the forces that are to go to Ireland;' and a suggestion was made, by Fairfax probably, who had the modelling to do, that they would model much better if they knew first under what Commander they were to go.* It is thought Lieutenant-General Cromwell will be the man. On which same evening, furthermore, one discerns in a faint but an authentic manner, certain dim gentlemen of the highest authority, young Sir Harry Vane to appearance one of them, repairing to the lodging of one Mr. Milton, 'a small house in Holborn which opens backwards into Lincoln's Inn Field;' to put an official question to him there! Not a doubt of it they saw Mr. John this evening. In the official Book this yet stands legible: 'Die Martis, 13° Martii 1648.' That it is referred to the same Committee,' Whitlocke, Vane, Lord Lisle, Earl of Denbigh, Harry Marten, Mr. Lisle, or any two of them, to speak with Mr. Milton, to know, Whether he will be employed as Secretary for the Foreign Languages? and to report to the Council.'t I have authority to say that Mr. Milton, thus unexpectedly applied to, consents; is formally appointed on Tuesday next; makes his proof-shot, to the Senate of Hamburgh,' about a week hence ;and gives, and continues to give, great satisfaction to that Council, to me, and to the whole Nation now, and to all Nations! Such romance lies in the State-Paper Office. Here, however, is another Letter on the Hursley Business, of the same date as Letter LX.; which must also be read. I do not expect many readers to take the trouble of representing before. * Order-Book of the Council of State (in the State-paper Office), i., 86. † Ibid.; Todd's Life of Milton (London, 1826), pp. 96, 108-123. Senatus Populusque Anglicanus Amplissimo Civitatis Hamburgensis Senatui, Salutem (in Milton's Litera Senatus Anglicani, this firs Letter to the Hamburgers is not given). their minds the clear condition of Mr. Ludlow's lease,' of the 2507.''the 1507.' &c., in this abstruse affair: but such as please to do so will find it all very straight at last. We observe Mr. Mayor has a decided preference for my ould land;' land that I inherited, or bought by common contract, instead of getting it from Parliament for Public Services! In fact, Mr. Mayor seems somewhat of a sharp man: but neither has he a dull man to deal with-though a much bigger one. LETTER LXI. For my worthy Friend, Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley: These :' 'London,' 14th March, 1648. SIR, I received your Paper by the hands of Mr. Stapylton. I desire your leave to return my dissatisfaction therewith. I shall not need to premise how much I have desired (I hope upon the best grounds) to match with you. The same desire continues in me, if Providence see it fit. But I may not be so much wanting to myself nor family as not to have some equality of consideration towards it.* I have two young Daughters to bestow, if God give them life and opportunity. According to your Offer, I have nothing for them; nothing at all in hand. If my son die, what consideration is there to me? And yet a jointure parted with 'on my side.' If she die, there is 'on your side' little 'money parted with;' 'even' if you have an heir male, 'there is' but 3,000l., ' and' without time ascertained.† As for these things, indeed,' I doubt not but, by one interview between you and myself, they might be accommodated to mutual satisfaction; and in relation to these, I think we should hardly part, or have many words, so much do I desire a closure with you. But to deal freely with you the settling of the Manor of Hursley, as you propose it, sticks so much with me, that either I understand you not, or else it much fails my expectation. As you offer it, there is 400l. per annum charged upon it. For the 150l. to your Lady, for her life, as a jointure, I stick not at that: but the 250l. per annum until Mr. Ludlow's Lease expires, the tenor whereof I know not, and so much of the 250l. per annum as ex ceeds that Lease in annual value for some time also after the expiration *it' is not the family, but the match. See Letter XXXVI., p. 247 of the said Lease,*—gives such a maim to the Manor of Hursley as in deed renders the rest of the Manor very inconsiderable. Sir, if I concur to deny myself in point of present monies, as also in the other things mentioned, as aforesaid, I may and do expect the Manor of Hursley to be settled without any charge upon it, after your decease, saving your Lady's jointure of 150l. per annum,—which if you should think fit to increase, I should not stand upon it. Your own Estate is best known to you: but surely your personal estate, being free for you to dispose, will, with some small matter of addition, beget a nearness of equality, if I hear well from others. And if the difference were not very considerable, I should not insist upon it. What you demand of me is very high in all points. I am willing to settle as you desire in everything; saving for maintenance 4001. per annum, 3001. per annum.† I would have somewhat free, to be thanked by them for. The 300l. per annum of my old land‡ for a jointure, after my Wife's decease, I shall settle; and in the meantime 'a like sum' out of other lands at your election: and truly, Sir, if that be not good, neither will any lands, I doubt. I do not much distrust, your principles in other things have acted you towards confidence.-You demand in case my Son have none issue male but only daughters, then the Cromwell' Lands in Hantshire, Monmouth, and Gloucester-shire to descend to these daughters, or else 3,000l. apiece. The first would be most unequal; the latter also' is too high. They will be well provided for by being inheritrixes of their Mother; and I am willing 'that' 2,0007. apiece be charged upon those lands for them.' Sir, I cannot but with very many thanks acknowledge your good opinion of me and of my Son; as also your great civilities towards him; and your Daughter's good respects,-whose goodness, though known to me only at a distance and by the report of others, I much value. And indeed that causeth me so cheerfully to deny myself as I do in the point * Ludlow's Lease,' &c., is not very plain. The tenor of Ludlow's Lease!' is still less known to us than it was to the Lieutenant-General! Thus much is clear: 250+150=400 pounds are to be paid off Hursley Manor by Richard and his Wife, which gives a sad 'maim' to it. When Ludlow's Lease falls in, there will be some increment of benefit to the Manor; but we are to derive no advantage from that, we are still to pay the surplus for come time after.' † Means, in its desperate haste: 'except that instead of 4007. per annum for maintenance, we must say 3001. Better than Parliament-land, thinks Mayor! Oliver too prefers it for his Wife; but thinks all land will have a chance to go, if that ge § Actuated or impelled. |