frigates lodged there to do the Spaniard more harm than by a fleet, and ease our own charge? You may discourse freely with the Bearer concerning anything contained in this Letter, to whom the whole was communicated, that so he might be able to bring back to us a more particular account of things. The Lord guide you to do that which may be pleasing in His sight. I remain, Your very loving friend, OLIVER P.* LETTER CXLVI. 'The CADIZ could not be attempted. Here, eight days later, is another message to the same parties, concerning another business. Portugal,' it appears, has been behaving in a very paltry fashion; and now Mr. Meadows,' one of Thurloe's Under-Secretaries, is gone out to him; whose remonstrances, the Fleet lending them its emphasis, will probably be effectual ! GENTLEMEN, To Generals Blake and Montague, at Sea. Whitehall, 6th May, 1656. You will perceive, by the Instructions† herewith sent you, what is expected by the Council and myself at your hands. And although we are satisfied that you will believe we have sufficient grounds to give you these Directions, yet we have thought fit, for the farther strengthening you unto this Action, to give you a short knowledge of the true state of the Difference between us and the King of Portugal. You very well know that it is very near two years since we and the Ambassador of Portugal did agree a Treaty; they having wronged us and our Merchants, and taken part with the late King against us. When the Articles were fully agreed by the Ambassador, who had full power and authority to conclude with us, we on our part ratified and confirmed the same, and sent it to the King of Portugal to be ratified and executed by him also. He, delaying to do it according to the first Agreement, in which there were some preliminaries to be performed by him before we could enter upon the whole body of a Treaty,-not only refused to give Thurloe, iv., 744. †Thurloe, iv., 769: brief instructions,' To seize the Portugal's ships, Aeets, almost the Portugal's self, if he will not do justice. us satisfaction therein, but instead thereof sent us a pretended Ratification of a Treaty, so different from what was agreed by his Ambassador that it was quite another thing. In 'regard' to some essential Articles, it was proposed that if we would condescend to some amend meris, the King of Portugal would 'then' agree to confirm the whole. Whereupon we sent Mr. Maynard to have the Treaty consummated: but finding by the answer he gave us,* that there was little reality, and nothing but delays intended, we could not satisfy ourselves without sending another Person, fully instructed, and authorized by us to take away all scruples by yielding to their own amendments; thereby to discern whether they were sinceret or not. But, contrary to all expectation, we find, by the account the said Person hath given us, that we are put upon it to recede from all those things that were provisional, either for the good of the State or of our Merchants, or else we must have no peace with them. In one of the Articles agreed with the Ambassador, it was expressed, That the Merchants should enjoy liberty of conscience, in the worship of God in their own houses and aboard their ships; enjoying also the use of English Bibles, and other good books; taking care that they did not exceed this liberty.. Now, upon the sending of Mr. Meadows,-unless we will agree to submit this Article to the determination of the Pope, we cannot have it: whereby he would bring us to an owning of the Pope; which, we hope, whatever befal us, we shall not, by the grace of God, be brought unto. And upon the same issue is that Article put whereby it is provided and agreed by his Ambassador, That any ships coming to that harbor, any of their company that shall run away from the said ships shall be brought back again by the Magistrate; and the Commanders of the said ships 'shall' not 'be' required to pay the said runaways their wages, upon pretence that' they are turned Catholics, which may be a color for any knave to leave his duty, or for the Roman Catholics to seduce our men. This we thought necessary to be provided against. Yet to this also, as I said before, they would not consent without the approbation of the Pope, although it was agreed by their Ambassador too. Upon the whole matter, we find them very false to us, who intended nothing but what was simply honest. And truly we cannot believe that Article that was for our good, was 'ever' really intended by them. And we may now plainly see what the effect is like to be of any Treaty had or made with people or states guided by such principles, who, when they have agreed, have such an evasion as these people have manifestly 'by his return' in orig. † 'real' in orig. ‡ Let them have a care' § Hear, hear! held forth in their dealing with us. Wherefore we pray you to be very exact in your prosecution of your Instructions; which truly I hope do not arise from the hope of gain, but from a sense of duty. For, seeing we cannot secure our People in their lives, liberties, and estates, by a Pretence of Treaty; nor yet answer the just demands this Nation hath for wrongs done them; but must in some sort be guilty of bringing our People as it were into a net, by such specious shows which have nothing but falseness and rottenness in them;-we are necessitated, having amongst ourselves found out no possible expedient, though we have industriously sought it, to salve these things; we, out of necessity 'I say,' and not out of choice, have concluded to go in this way. You will receive herewith the Copy of an Instruction given and sent to Mr. Meadows, wherein is a time limited for the King's answer: and we desire that this may not be made use of by the King to delay or deceive us nor that you, upon the first sight hereof, delay to take the best course you can to effect your Instructions, or that the Portugal should get his Fleet home before you get between him and home, and so the birds be flown. We know not what your affairs are at the present; but are confident that nothing will be wanting on your part for the effectual accomplishment of this Service. But knowing that all ways, and works, and ourselves, are ever at the perfect disposition of the Lord and His providence, and that our times are in His hands, we therefore recommend you to the grace and guidance of our good God, who, we hope, hath thoughts of mercy towards us: and that He would guide and bless you is the prayer of, Your very loving friend, In Thurloe's handwriting; but very evidently Oliver's composition every sentence of it. There will clearly be no living for the Portugal, unless he decide to throw away his jockeyings and jesuitries, and do what is fair and square! LETTER CXLVII. A SMALL Note still extant; relating to very different, altogether domestic matters. * Thurloe, iv., 768. 'For my loving Son, Richard Cromwell, Esquire, at Hursley: These.' 'Whitehall,' 29th May, 1656. SON You know there hath often been a desire to sell Newhall, because in these four years last past it hath yielded very little cr no profit, at all, nor did I ever hear you ever liked it for a seat. It seems there may be a chapman had, who will give 18,000l. It shall either be laid out where you shall desire; at Mr. Wallop's, or else. where, and the money put into feoffees' hands in trust to be so disposed: or I shall settle Burleigh; which yields near 1,3007.* per annum, besides the woods. Waterhouse will give you farther information. I rest, Your loving father, OLIVER P. 'P.S.' My love to your Father and Mother, and your dear Wife.‡ Newhall is the House and Estate in Essex which had once belonged to the great Duke of Buckingham. Burleigh I guess to be Burleigh House near Stamford, which Oliver in the beginning of his military services had known well: he took it by assault in 1643. Of Oliver's Lands, or even of his Public Lands granted by the Parliament, much more of the successive phases his Estate assumed by new purchase and exchange, there is, as we once observed already, no exact knowledge now anywhere to be had. Obscure incidental notices flit through the Commons Journals and other Records; but the sum of the matter alike with the details of it are sunk in antique Law-Parchments, in obliterated Committee-Papers, far beyond human sounding. Of the Lands he died possessed of, there is a List extant, more or less accurate; which is worth looking at here. On quitting the Protectorship in 1659, Richard Cromwell, with the hope of having his debts paid and some fixed revenue allowed him, gave in a Schedule of his Liabilities and of his Properties, the latter all in Land; which Schedule poor Noble has found somewhere ;§ and copied, probably Written above is 1,2607. † Mr. and Mrs. Mayor of Hursley. Original in the possession of Henry William Field, Esq., of the Royal Mint. § Not where he says he did, in Commons Journals, 14 May, 1659 (Noble, i, 333-4). with blunders. Subjoined is his List of the Properties, some of them misspelt, most likely; the exact localities of which, no indication being given or sought by Noble, may be a problem for per sons learned in such matters.* To us, only Burleigh and New. hall are known or of importance here. Newhall, we can observe, was not sold on the occasion of this Letter, nor at all sold; for it still stands in the List of 1659; and with some indication, too, as to what the cause of now trying to sell it may have been. For a Portion to my Sister Frances,' namely. Noble's citations from Morant's History of Essex; his and Morant's blunderings and somnambulancies, in regard to this matter of Newhall, seem almost to approach the sublime.† Leaving these, let us attend a little to the Portion for my Sister Frances;' concerning which and whom few lines of musical domestic gossip, interesting to the mind, are once more audible, from the same flute-voice above listened to. Mr. Rich,' we should premise, is the Lord Rich's son, the Earl of Warwick's Grandson; heir-apparent, though he did not live to be heir:pious old Earl of Warwick, whom we have seen heretofore as Admiral in the Long-Parliament time; the poor Earl of Holland's Dalby a REAL ESTATE IN 1659. Newhall with woods, settled for security of 15,000. £989 9 1 533 8 8 479 0 0 .1200 0 0 These are all the Lands at this date in the possession of the Oliver Family. As to poor Richard's finance-budget, encumbered with 2,0007. yearly to my Mother,' with 3,000l. of debt contracted in my Father's lifetime,' and plentifully otherwise,-it shall not concern us farther. Noble, pp. 334, 235. |