kept, such as the Law hath appointed for taking a strict account of all strangers, especially near the Coast. Which will not only be a means to suppress all loose and idle persons, but may probably cause some of those that come from abroad ' in order' to kindle fires here, to be apprehended and seized, —especially if care be taken to secure all them that cannot give a good account; and may also break all dangerous meetings and assemblings together. And indeed if what by Law ought to be done were done with diligence in this respect, the continuance of such dangerous Designs as these would be frustrated in the birth, or kept from growing to maturity.

Having said this,—with remembrance of my hearty love to you, I rest, your very affectionate friend, OLIVER P.*

Of the same date, the same Letter (with insignificant variations), bearing the address, For Colonel Humphrey Brewster and the rest of the Commissioners for the Militia for the County of Suffolk, and dated as well as signed in Oliver's hand, is now in the possession of Charles Meadows, Esq., Great Bealings, Woodbridge, a kinsman or representative of this Humphrey Brewster.

The one considerable variation is as follows. Paragraph second, of the Copy given here, and the first two sentences of paragraph third, are suppressed in Brewster's Copy, and there stands instead,—after 'Design:* 'And now forasmuch as it hath pleased God thus to allay this Business; ' and making it, as we hope we soon (sic) shall, our design to ease this 'Nation:' &c. -after and before which the two Copies almost exactly correspond. (MS. penes me.)

By the City Records just cited from, it appears that, on the eve of the Battle of Worcester, in 1651, 'Eighteen Gloucester Bakers had sent to 'Tewkesbury for the Lord General Cromwell's Army, Thirteen-hundred ' and odd Dozens of Bread at a Shilling the dozen, amounting to £66. 5s.; and that the Mayor and others, on the 1st September 1651, sent Forty 'barrels of strong Beer to the Lord General, "praying your favourable acceptance thereof, as an argument of the good affection of this Corporation, who doth congratulate your seasonable coming into these parts, for 'the relief thereof against the violence of the common Enemy, and wish 'prosperous success to you and your Army." '4

Furthermore, that on the 11th October 1651, directly after the said Battle, Gloucester did itself the honour of appointing the Lord General Oliver Cromwell, 'in consideration of the singular favour and benevolence

Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis (Gloucester, 1825;-see antea, vol. i. p. 145), p. 412; -from the City Records of Gloucester.

4 Ib. p. 406.

which his Excellency hath manifested to us and to this City,' High Steward of the same, 'with an annual rent of 100 shillings, issuing out of our Manors;'-for at least one payment of which there exists the Lord General's receipt, in this form:

23 Novemb 1652.

Recd of the Maior and Burgs of Glouc' by the hands of Mr. Dorney Townclerke of the said City, the day and year aboves the some of ffive pounds as being a fee due to me as Lord High Steward of the said Citty, say Recd

£ S. d.

05 00 00

O. CROMWELL.*

7. The following brief Note to the Poet Waller, which has latterly turned up, has a certain peculiar interest, on two grounds: first, to all readers, as offering some momentary glimpse, momentary but unique and indisputable, of Oliver's feeling on reading the Poet's noble "Panegyric to my Lord Protector;" and secondly, to antiquarian people, as fixing what was hitherto left vague, the approximate date of that celebrated Piece.5 To an audacious guesser might almost seem, these Verses had reached Oliver, by messenger, a day or two before; and the unhappy mistake' were Oliver's, in sending, on the morrow, to have an interview with Waller, and finding him to be at Northampton instead !—

For my very loving Friend Edmund Waller, Esq., Northampton: Haste, haste.

SIR,

'Whitehall,' 13th June 1655.

Let it not trouble you that, by so unhappy a mistake, you are, as I hear, at Northampton. Indeed I am passionately affected with it.

I have no guilt upon me unless it be to be revenged for your so willingly mistaking me in your Verses.7 This action 'of mine' will put you to redeem me from yourself, as you have already from the world. Ashamed, I am, your friend and servant, OLIVER P.+

*Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis, p. 411.

5 Fenton, Works of Edmund Waller (London 1730), gives the Panegyric (pp. 113-121); and (ib. p. cix) his Note upon it, in which all he can say as to date is, about the year 1654.'

6 Copy has "Edward" as yet.

7 Fenton's Waller, pp. 113 and cix. In the Waller Archives, Beaconsfield; copied by a 'Rev. L. B. Larking,' Cousin of the now Waller ;-printed in Notes-and-Queries Newspaper, 2d Jan. 1858. (Note of 1869.)

8 and 9. Two poor American scraps, which our New-England friends ought to make more lucent for us; worth their paper and ink in this place.

To Our trusty and well-beloved the President, Assistants and Inhabitants of Rhode Island, together with the rest of the Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay in New England.

GENTLEMEN,

'Whitehall,' 29th March 1655. Your Agent here hath presented unto us some particulars concerning your Government, which you judge necessary to be settled by us here. But by reason of the other great and weighty affairs of this Commonwealth, we have been necessitated to defer the consideration of them to a farther opportunity.

In the mean while we were willing to let you know, That you are to proceed in your Government according to the tenor of your Charter formerly granted on that behalf; taking care of the peace and safety of these Plantations, that neither through any intestine commotions, or foreign invasions, there do arise any detriment or dishonour to this Commonwealth or yourselves, as far as you by your care and diligence can prevent. And as for the things which are before us, they shall, as soon as the other occasions will permit, receive a just and fitting determination.

And so we bid you farewell; and rest, your very loving friend, OLIVER P.*

Towards the end of the Dutch War, during that undefinable relation with France, 'hostile rather than neutral,' which did not end in Treaty till October 1655,8 Oliver's Major Sedgwick, whom we have since known in Jamaica, had laid hold of certain 'French Forts,' and indeed of a whole French region, the region now called Nova Scotia, then called Acadie; of which Forts and of the region they command, it is Oliver's purpose, for the behoof of his New-Englanders, to retain possession ;9-as the following small document will testify:

* Original in the Rhode-Island Archives: Printed in Hutchinson's Collection, and elsewhere.

8 Thurloe, iv. 75.

9 In Bancroft's History of the United States (Boston, 1837), i. 445, is some faint and not very exact notice of the affair.

Te Captain John Leverett, Commander of the Forts lately taken from the French in America.

We have received an account from Major Sedgwick of his taking several Forts from the French in America, and that he hath left you to command and secure them for Us and this Commonwealth: And although We make no doubt of your fidelity and diligence in performance of your trust, yet We have thought it necessary to let you know of how great consequence it is, that you use your utmost care and circumspection, as well to defend and keep the Forts abovesaid, as also to improve the regaining of them into Our hands to the advantage of Us and this State, by such ways and means as you shall judge conducible thereunto. And as We shall understand from you the state and condition of those places, We shall from time to time give such directions as shall be necessary. Given at Whitehall, this 3d of April 1655.

OLIVER P.*

To which there are now, from this side of the Water, the following small Excerpts to be added:

Grant of Privy Seal: 6th June 1655, to Major Robert Sedgwick, '£1,793. 75. 8d., in full of his Account for service done against the French.' And

Ditto, ‘28th July 1656, to Captain John Leverett, £4,482. 35. 111⁄2d., in 'full satisfaction of all sums of money due to him upon Account of his receipts and disbursements about the Forts taken from the French in 'America, and of his Salary for 760 days, at 155. per diem.'10

Oliver kept his Forts and his Acadie, through all French Treaties, for behoof of his New-Englanders: not till after the Restoration did the country become French again, and continue such for a century or so.

Io. Is a small domestic matter:

*Original in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society: Printed in their Third Series, vii. 121.--In vol. ii. of the same Work (Boston, 1820), pp. 323364, is an elaborate Notice of certain fragmentary MS. Records of the Long Parliament still extant at New York,-which Notice ought to be cancelled in subsequent editions! The amazingly curious 'Records' at New York turn-out to be nothing but some odd volumes of the Commons Journals of that period; the entire Set of which, often enough copied in manuscript, was printed here about fifty years ago, and is very common indeed, in the Buttershops and elsewhere!

10 Fourth Report of Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1843), Appenoix ü p. 192; Fifth Report (London, 1844), Appendix ii. p. 260.

SIR,

For Colonel Alban Cox, in Hertfordshire.

Whitehall, 24th April 1655.

Having occasion to speak with you upon some Affairs relating to the Public, I would have you, as soon as this comes to your hands, to repair up hither; and upon your coming, you shall be acquainted with the particular reasons of my sending for you. I rest, your loving friend,

OLIVER P.*

At Blackdown House in Sussex, now and for long past the residence of a family named Yaldwin, are preserved two Letters Patent signed ‘Oliver P.,' of date 3d December 1656, appointing 'William Yaldwin Esq.' High Sheriff of Sussex. Printed in Dallaway's Rape of Arundel (p. 363); need not be reprinted here.

No. 29.

SUFFOLK YEOMANRY.

[Vol. iv. p. 137.]

THE Suffolk Commission for a select mounted County-Militia, still remains; one remaining out of many that have perished. Addressed to the Humphrey Brewster whom we have occasionally met with before.1

Instructions unto Colonel Humphrey Brewster, commissionated by his Highness the Lord Protector to be Captain of a Troop of Horse to be raised within the County of Suffolk, for the service of his Highness and the Commonwealth.

1. You shall forthwith raise, enlist, and have in readiness under your command as Captain, and such Lieutenant, Cornet and Quarter-Master as his Highness shall commissionate for that purpose, One-hundred able Soldiers, the three Corporals included, well mounted for service, and armed with one good sword and case of pistols, holsters, saddle, bridle, and other furniture fit for war, to serve as a Troop of Horse in the service of the Commonwealth, as is hereafter required.

* Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1788), lviii. 379.

1 Antea, p. 230.