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,

OLIVER P.*

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 dustmountains 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 not to meddle or proceed therein.' And so we leave it.

LETTER CXXXI.

MONK, in these summer months, has a desultory kind of Rebellion in the Highlands, Glencairn's or Middleton's Rebellion, to

Noble, i., 330; Harris, p. 515-one of the Pusey Letters.

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

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 designs or dispositions in him which seem questionable. The Lord Protector sees good to revoke his Commission to Alured, and order him up to Town.

SIR,

'To the Lord Fleetwood, Lord Deputy of Ireland: These.'

'Whitehall,' 16th May, 1654.

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 monies 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.'

If any farther discovery be with you about any other passages on Colonel Alured's part, I pray examine them, and speed them to us; and send Colonel Alured over hither with the first opportunity. Not having more upon this subject at present,

I rest,

Your loving father,

OLIVER P.

'P. S.' I desire you that the Officer, whom you appoint to assist the shipping of the Forces, may have the money in Colonel Alured's hands, for carrying on the Service; and also that he may have what

remains at Carrickfergus for the Commander-in-Chief, who shall call for it there.*

This is the Enclosure above spoken of:

LETTER CXXXII.

'To Colonel Alured: These.'

16th May, 1654.

SIR, I desire you to deliver up into the hands of LieutenantGeneral Fleetwood such Authorities and Instructions as you had for the prosecution of the Business of the Highlands in Scotland; and 'that' you forthwith repair to me to London; the reason whereof you shall know when you come hither, which I would have you do with all speed. I would have you also give an account to the Lieutenant-General, before you come away, how far you have proceeded in this Service, and what money you have in your hands, which you are to leave with him I rest,

Your loving friend,

OLIVER P.t

This Colonel Alured is one of several Yorkshire Alureds somewhat conspicuous in these wars; whom we take to be Nephews or Sons of the valuable Mr. Alured or Ald'red who wrote to old Mr. Chamberlain,'-in the last generation, one morning, during the Parliament of 1628, when certain honorable Gentlemen held their Speaker down,-a Letter which we thankfully read. One of them, John, was Member in this Long Parliament; a Colonel too, and King's Judge; who is now dead. Here is another, Colonel Matthew Alured, a distinguished soldier and republican; who is not dead; but whose career of usefulness is here ended. 'Repairing forthwith to London,' to the vigilant Lord Protector, he gives what account he can of himself; none that will hold water, I perceive; lingers long under a kind of arrest at the Mews' or elsewhere; soliciting either freedom and renewed favor, or a fair trial and punishment; gets at length committal to the Tower, trial by Court Martial,-dismissal from the service.§ A Thurloe, ii., 285. Vol. i., p. 58 et seq. § Whitlocke, pp. 499, 510; Thurloe, ii., 294, 313, 414; Burton's Diary (London, 1828), iii., 46; Commons Journals, vii., 678.

† Ibid., 286.

fate like that of several others in a similar case to his. Poor

Alured! But what could be done with him? He had Republican Anabaptist notions; he had discontents, enthusiasms, which might even ripen into tendencies to correspond with Charles Stuart. Who knows if putting him in a stone waistcoat, and general strait-waistcoat of a mild form, was not the mercifulest course that could be taken with him?

He must stand here as the representative to us of one of the fatallest elements in the new Lord Protector's position: the Republican discontents and tendencies to plot, fermenting in his own Army. Of which we shall perhaps find elsewhere room to say another word. Republican Overton, Milton's friend, whom we have known at Hull and elsewhere; Okey, the fierce dragoon Colonel, and zealous Anabaptist; Alured whom we see here; Ludlow sitting sulky in Ireland: all these are already summoned up, or about being summoned, to give account of themselves. Honorable, brave and faithful men: it is, as Oliver often says, the saddest thought of his heart that he must have old friends like them for enemies! But he cannot help it; they will have it so. They must go their way, he his.

Much need of vigilance in this Protector! Directly on the back of these Republican commotions, come out Royalist ones; with which however the Protector is less straitened to deal. Lord Deputy Fleetwood has not yet received his Letter at Dublin, when here in London emerges a Royalist Plot; the first of any gravity; known in the old Books and State-Trials as Vowel and Gerard's Plot, or Somerset Fox's Plot. Plot for assassinating the Protector, as usual. Easy to do it, as he goes to Hampton Court on a Saturday, Saturday, the 20th of May, for example. Provide thirty stout men; and do it then. Gerard, a young Royalist Gentleman, connected with Royalist Colonels, afterwards Earls of Macclesfield, he will provide Five-and-twenty; some Major Henshaw, Colonel Finch, or I know not who, shall bring the other Five. Vowel, a Schoolmaster at Islington,' who taught many young gentlemen,' strong for Church and King, cannot act in the way of shooting; busies himself consulting, and providing arms. Billingsley, the Butcher, in Smithfield,' he, aided by Vowel, could easily seize the Troopers' horses grazing in Islington fields;

while others of us unawares fall upon the soldiers at the Mews? Easy then to proclaim King Charles in the City; after which Prince Rupert arriving with Ten-thousand Irish, English and French,' and all the Royalists rising, the King should have his own again, and we were all made men; and Oliver once well killed, the Commonwealth itself were as good as dead! Saturday, the 20th of May: then, say our Paris expresses, then !—

Alas, in the very birthtime of the hour, five of the Conspirators are seized in their beds ;' Gerard, Vowel, all the leaders are seized; Somerset Fox confesses for his life; whosoever is guilty can be seized and the Plot is like water spilt upon the ground! A High Court of Justice must decide upon it; and with Gerard and Vowel it will probably go hard.

LETTER CXXXIII.

REFERS to a small private or civic matter: the Vicarage of ChristChurch, Newgate Street, the patronage of which belongs to 'the Mayor, Commonalty and Citizens of London as Governors of the Royal Hospital of St. Bartholomew' ever since Henry the Eighth's time.* The former incumbent, it would seem, had been removed by the Council of State; some Presbyterian probably, who was not without cause offensive to them. If now the Electors and the State could both agree on Mr. Turner,—it would 'silence' several questions, thinks the Lord Protector. Whether they did agree ? Who' Mr. Turner,' of such repute for piety and learning,' was? These are questions.

To the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Rymer, Knight, Lord Mayor of London: These.

MY LORD MAYOR,

'Whitehall,' 5th July, 1654.

It is not my custom now, nor shall be, without some special cause moving, to interpose anything to the hindrance of any in the free course of their presenting persons in the Public Ministry.

Elmes's Topographical Dictionary of London, in voce.