The Lady Mary Cromwell to Henry Cromwell, Major-General of the Forces in Ireland.

"Hampton Court,' 23d June 1656.

"DEAR BROTHER,-Your kind Letters do so much engage my heart towards you, that I can never tell how to express " in writing the true affection and value I have for you,—who, 'truly I think, none that knows you but you may justly claim "it from.30

"I must confess myself in a great fault in omitting to "write to you and your dear Wife so long a time. But I suppose you cannot be ignorant of the reason, which truly has "been the only cause; which is this business of my Sister "Frances and Mr. Rich. Truly I can truly say it, for these "three months I think our Family, and myself in particular, “have been in the greatest confusion and trouble as ever poor Family can be in. The Lord tell us His 'mind'31 "in it; and settle us, and make us what He would have us to "be! I suppose you heard of the breaking-off of the business; and, according to your desire in your last Letter, as "well as I can, I shall give you a full account of it. Which

"is this:

I

"After a quarter of a year's admittance, my Father and my "Lord Warwick began to treat about the Estate; and it seems my Lord did not offer that which my Father expected. "need not name particulars: for I suppose you have had them "from better hands: but if I may say the truth, I think it was "not so much estate, as from private reasons which my Father "discovered to none but to my Sister Frances and his own Family; -which was a dislike to the young person. Which “ he had from some reports of his being a vicious man, given "to play and suchlike things; which office was done by some "who had a mind to break-off the match. My Sister, hearing "these things, was resolved to know the truth of it;32 and “ truly did find all the reports to be false that were recited of "him. And to tell you the truth, they were so much engaged "in affection before this, that she could not think of breaking it off. So that my Sister engaged me and all the friends "she had, who truly were very few, to speak in her behalf to 30 Young-Lady's grammar!

31 Word torn out.

32 Poor little Frances!

་་

my Father.

Which we did; but could not be heard to any purpose only this my Father promised, That if he were "satisfied as to the report, the estate should not break it off. "With which she was satisfied.

"And so after this, there was a second Treaty; and my "Lord Warwick desired my Father, To name what it was he "demanded more; and to his utmost he would satisfy him.

So my Father upon this made new propositions; which my "Lord Warwick has answered as much as he can. But it "seems there are Five-hundred pounds a year in my Lord “Rich's hands; which he has power to sell: and there are "some people, who persuade his Highness, that it would be "dishonourable for him to conclude it unless these 500l. a year be settled upon Mr. Rich, after his father's death. "And my Lord Rich having no esteem at all of his son, because he is not so bad as himself, will not agree to it; and "these people upon this persuade my Father, That it would "be a dishonour to him to yield upon these terms; it would I show, that he was made a fool of by my Lord Rich. So the "truth is, how it shall be, I cannot understand, nor very few else ;33 and truly I must tell you privately, they are so far engaged, that the match cannot be broke off! She acquainted "none of her friends with her resolution, when she did it.

66

"Dear Brother, this is, as far as I can tell, the state of the "business. The Lord direct them what to do. And all, I 'think, ought to beg of God to pardon her in her doing of this 'thing;-which I must say truly she was put upon by the "'course'34 of things. Dear, let me beg my excuses to my "Sister for not writing. My best respects to her. Pardon this "trouble; and believe me that I shall ever strive to approve "myself,-dear Brother, your affectionate sister and servant, "MARY CROMWELL."35

Poor little Fanny Cromwell was not yet much turned of Seventeen, when she had these complex things to do, with her friends, 'who truly were very few.' What 'people' they were that put, or strove to put, such notions into his Highness's head, with intent to frustrate the decidedly eligible Mr. Rich, none knows. I could suspect Ashley Cooper, or some such hand, if his date of favour still lasted. But it is gone, long

33 Good little Mary!

34 Torn out.

3 Thurloc. v. 146

months ago. Ashley is himself frustrated; cannot obtain this musical glib-tongued Lady Mary, says Ludlow ;36 goes over to opposition in consequence; is dismissed from his Highness's Council of State; and has to climb in this world by another ladder.-Poor Fanny's marriage did nevertheless take effect. Both Mary and she were duly wedded, Fanny to Rich, Mary to Lord Fauconberg, in November next year, within about a week of each other :37 our friends, 'who truly were very few,' and our destinies, and our own lively wits, brought all right in the end.

LETTER CCXIII.

It was last Spring Assizes, as we saw, that the 'great ap'pearances of country gentlemen and persons of the highest quality' took place; leading to the inference generally that this Protectorate Government is found worth acknowledging by England. Certainly a somewhat successful Government hitherto; in spite of difficulties great and many. It carries eternal Gospel in the one hand, temporal drawn Sword in the other. Actually it has compressed the turbulent humours of this Country, and encouraged the better tendencies thereof, hitherto; it has set its foot resolutely on the neck of English Anarchy, and points with its armed hand to noble onward and upward paths. All which, England, thankful at lowest for peace and order, by degrees recognises; with acquiescence, not without some slow

36 Here is the passage, not hitherto printed; one of several 'Suppressed passages from Ludlow's Memoirs,' which still exist in the handwriting of John Locke (now in the possession of Lord Lovelace), having been duly copied out by Locke for his own poor Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, to whom they all relate:

Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who was first for the King, then for the Parliament; then, in Cromwell's first Assembly,' the Little Parliament, was 'for the reformation; and afterwards for Cromwell against the reformation. Now' again, 'being denied 'Cromwell's Daughter Mary in marriage, he appears against Cromwell's design in 'the last Assembly,' the constitutioning Parliament, where his behaviour was none of the best; and is therefore dismissed the Council, Cromwell being resolved to act there as the chief juggler himself; and one Colonel Mackworth, a Lawyer about Shrewsbury, a person fit for his purpose, is chosen in his room.'-Mackworth was a Soldier as well as Lawyer; the same who, as Governor of Shrewsbury, gave negative response to Charles Second, when he summoned him on the road to Worcester, once upon a time. Mackworth was in the Council, and had even died, and entirely left the Council, before Anthony Ashley left it (Thurloe, iii. 581; and Godwin, iv. 288). My solid friend, absent in Ireland, sulkily breathing the air in Essex, falls into some errors! Court-rumour, this of his; truth in the heart of it, details rather vague;— not much worth verifying or rectifying here.

37 Vol. i. p. 60.

satisfactory feeling. England is in peace at home; stands as the Queen of Protestantism abroad; defies Spain and Antichrist, protects poor Piedmont Protestants and servants of Christ ;— has taken, all men admit, a nobler attitude than it ever had before.

Nor has the task been easy hitherto; nor is it like to be. No holiday work, governing such an England as this of Oliver Protector's; with strong Papistry abroad, and a Hydra of Anarchies at home! The domestic Hydra is not slain; cannot, by the nature of it, be slain; can only be scotched and mowed down, head after head, as it successively protrudes itself-till, by the aid of Time, it slowly die. As yet, on any hint of foreign encouragement it revives again, requires to be scotched and mowed down again. His exiled Majesty Charles Stuart has got a new lever in hand, by means of this War with Spain.

Seven years ago his exiled Majesty's 'Embassy to Spain,' embassy managed by Chancellor Hyde and another, proved rather a hungry affair; and ended, I think, in little,—except the murder of poor Ascham, the then Parliament's Envoy at Madrid; whom, like Dutch Dorislaus, as an accursed regicide or abettor of regicides,' certain cut-throat servants of the said hungry Embassy broke-in upon, one afternoon, and slew. For which violent deed no full satisfaction couïd be got from Spain, the murderers having taken 'sanctuary,' as was pleaded.38 With that rather sorry result, and no other noticeable, Chancellor Hyde's Embassy took itself away again; Spain ordering it to go. But now, this fierce Protestant Protector breathing nothing but war, Spain finds that the English domestic Hydra, if well operated upon by Charles Stuart, might be a useful thing; and grants Charles Stuart some encouragements for that. His poor Majesty is coming to the seashore again; is to have 'Seven-thousand Spaniards' to invade England, if the domestic Hydra will stir with effect. The domestic Hydra, I think, had better lie quiet for a while! This Letter to Henry Cromwell is to bid him too, for his part, be awake in Ireland to these things.

For the Hydra is not dead; and its heads are legion. Major Wildman, for example, sits safe in Chepstow : but Sexby, the

38 Clarendon, iii. 498-509; Process and Pleadings in the Court of Spain upon the Death of Anthony Ascham (in Harl. Miscell. vi. 236-47).

Anabaptist Colonel, whom we could not take on that occasion, is still busy; has been 'trying to seduce the Fleet,' trying to do this and that; is now fairly gone to Spain, to treat with Antichrist himself for the purpose of bringing-in a Reign of Christ,—the truly desperate Anabaptist Colonel !39 It is 2 Hydra like few. Spiritual and Practical: Muggletonians, mad Quakers riding into Bristol, Fifth-Monarchists, Hungry Flunkies: ever scheming, plotting with or without hope, to 'seduce the Protector's Guard,' 'to blow-up the Protector in his bedroom,' and do "other little fiddling things," as the Protector calls them, which one cannot waste time in specifying! Only the slow course of nature can kill that Hydra: till a Colonel Sexby die, how can you keep him quiet ?—

But what doubtless gives new vitality to plotting, in these weeks, is the fact that a General Election to Parliament is going on. There is to be a new Parliament; — in which may lie who knows what contentions. The Protector lost it last time, by the arithmetical account of heads; will he gain it this time? Account of heads is not exactly the Protector's basis; but he hopes he may now gain it even so. At all events, this wide foreign and domestic Spanish War cannot be carried on without supplies; he will first try it so, then otherwise if not so.

'To Henry Cromwell, Major-General of the Army in Ireland? 'Whitehall,' 26th August 1656.

SON HARRY,

We are informed, from several hands, that the old Enemy are forming designs to invade Ireland, as well as other parts of the Commonwealth; and that he and Spain have very great correspondence with some chief men. in that Nation, for raising a sudden rebellion there.

Therefore we judge it very necessary that you take all possible care to put the Forces into such a condition as may answer anything that may fall-out in this kind. And to that end, that you contract the Garrisons in Ireland, as many as may be; and get a considerable marching Army into the

29 Clarendon, iii. 852; Thurloe, iv. 698. &c.