before Parliament, and not without permission by Parliament itself of such absence from their charges; for they so increase the number of parochial livings and ecclesiastical offices that in divers places divines hold simultaneously as many strings to their bow as there are needed words for a hexameter or even a whole couplet. Mr. White, for example, is said, so the line goes, to have received the following offices : Usury, St. Dunstan's, Paul's, Christchurch, Sal'sbury, Windsor. And Mr. Hill's winnings are given in the following distich :Westminster, Martin's, Assembly, Trinity, Tichmarsh, Michael, Procan. (sede vacante) Mary. These exquisite verses, going at Cambridge, I communicate to you with all the goodwill with which I lately received them from a very trusty friend . . . The leader of the Independents, Hugh Peters, and other holy men (such they seem at least), are becoming captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, marching men about in London and elsewhere. The said Hugh has a regiment in Ireland, whose valour General Cromwell himself so highly extols as to reckon this one preacher worth a hundred soldiers: always the first in attacking a rampart, he is followed by the rest so punctually that already he has taken several towns in Ireland by his sheer alacrity. On the Lord's day, after the sermons, enthusiasts and fanatics hold their own evening exercises of worship. Last Sunday I heard four working-men holding forth, as preachers-extraordinary, in an obscure street near the Thames, called St. Lawrence Lane, or now commonly Heresy Street: they style themselves, specially, The Christians. In a suburb, called Clerkenwell Green, they have imprisoned The Ranters, whom I take to be essentially schismatics and violators of religion: they call a man not a man, but a fellowcreature: i. e. creaturam sociam, einen creatur-gesellen . . . This more I add, that in almost all towns, halls, colleges, schools, churches, courts, and bridges, the statues, images, inscriptions, and titles of royalty are being destroyed by order of the authorities." 1 The enthusiastic Arnold remained in London for some months and must have seen more of Milton. He was a collector of autographs; and in an Album of his, now in the British Museum, containing autographs of distinguished men collected by him in Germany, Holland, and England between 1649 and 1672, one finds Usher's name, Selden's, Petty's, and Milton's, as among his prized captures in this particular London visit of 1651. Milton's contribution takes the form of a modified quotation from 2 Cor. xii. 9 in the Greek, thus: 1 Georgi Richteri, Ejusque Famili arium Epistolæ Selectiores, Nurembergæ 1662. The same letter mentions some of Milton's books. 669 66 “’Ev åoßevelą teλecoûμai” (“I am made perfect in weakness”), with a Latin sequel to this effect: "To the very learned "Mr. Christopher Arnold, my most obliging friend, I have "given this, in memory both of his own worth and of my regard for him. London. A.D. 1651. Novem: 19. JOANNES "MILTONIUS." Only the signature seems to be in Milton's hand, the Greek motto and the Latin inscription having been first written very elegantly from his dictation, to receive his signature.1 There is a very credible tradition that Milton, in his capacity as Secretary for Foreign Tongues, was allowed "a weekly table" for the entertainment of such foreigners of distinction as came about the Council on Embassy business, or were otherwise known to be in London.2 If so, he must have seen a good deal of such company in that convenient way through 1651, though not so much as in the next and following years, when foreign embassies and agencies in London were matters more of established course. Alas! hardly beyond this year was the phrase "to see company" to be applicable to Milton. 1 Facsimile in Sotheby's Milton Ramblings, plate opposite p. 112, with account of the Album, p. 113. 2 The tradition is traced to Mr. Thomas Bradbury, an eminent dissenting minister, who had it from Jeremiah White, who had been chaplain some time to Cromwell. Milton's "weekly table," it is added, begun under the Commonwealth, was continued by Cromwell. See Mitford, Appendix to Life of Milton, p. clxvi. VOL. IV. A a CHAPTER VII. ANNALS OF THE COMMONWEALTH: FOURTH YEAR AND FRAGMENT OF A FIFTH. DEC. 1, 1651-APRIL 20, 1653. COUNCIL OF STATE OF THE FOURTH YEAR. Twenty-one members had been continued from last Council. Fifteen of these had been members of all the preceding Councils : viz. CROMWELL, WHITLOCKE, ST. JOHN, VANE, ROLLE, LISLE, BRADSHAW, HASILRIG, BOND, SCOTT, PUREFOY, WALTON, HARRINGTON, SIR WILLIAM MASHAM, and SIR GILBERT PICKERING: two had been members of the second and third Councils: viz. CHALLONER and GURDON; and four had been members of the third Council only; viz. FLEETWOOD, CAREW, LOVE, and SALWAY. Of the remaining twenty members, expressly elected to this Council, and not in the last, eight had been members of the first and second Councils viz. HENRY MARTEN, VISCOUNT LISLE, SIR WILLIAM CONSTABLE, CORNELIUS HOLLAND, ALDERMAN PENNINGTON, ALEXANDER POPHAM, ANTHONY STAPLEY, and ROBERT WALLOP, and two had been members of the second Council only: viz. HERBERT MORLEY and SIR PETER WENTWORTH. Members totally new to the Council were these ten (the asterisk denoting a Regicide): Admiral Robert Blake. *John Dixwell, Esq. *John Downes, Esq. William Hay, Esq. Henry Herbert, Esq. Philip, Earl of Pembroke (son N.B. In accordance with the regulation of Parliament at the appointment of this Fourth Council of State (ante p. 310), the permanent Presidency of the Council, hitherto held by Bradshaw, ceased, and the meetings of the Council throughout the year were presided over by the following members in succession, each chosen by the Council for a period of four weeks or less-BRADSHAW (chosen Dec. 1, 1651), WHITLOCKE (Dec. 29), HASILRIG (Jan. 26, 1651-2), VISCOUNT LISLE (Feb. 23), COMMISSIONER LISLE (March 22), CHIEF JUSTICE ROLLE (April 19), VANE (May 17), the EARL OF PEMBROKE (June 14), MR. BOND (July 12), PUREFOY (Aug. 9), SIR JAMES HARRINGTON (Sep. 7), SIR WILLIAM CONSTABLE (Oct. 5), SIR WILLIAM MASHAM (Oct. 27), SIR WILLIAM CONSTABLE again (Nov. 22). FIFTH COUNCIL OF STATE. Elected by ballot Nov. 24 and 25, 1652: Installed Dec. 1, 1652. Twenty-one members of the Fourth Council were continued: viz. CROMWELL (at the head of the poll, with 114 votes out of 121 voting papers given in), WHITLOCKE, ST. JOHN, ROLLE, VANE, HASILRIG, SCOTT, MORLEY, BOND, PUREFOY, BRADSHAW, GURDON, MR. LISLE, WALTON, HARRINGTON, LOVE, SIR WILLIAM MASHAM, CHALLONER, SIR PETER WENTWORTH, SIR GILBERT PICKERING. Of the twenty members elected to this Council, and not in the last, three had been in the first, second, and third Councils: viz. LORD GREY OF GROBY, SIR HENRY MILDMAY, and PHILIP SKIPPON; one had been in the first and second: viz. THE EARL OF SALISBURY; and thirteen had been in the third only: viz. GoODWIN, ALDERMAN ALLEN, COLONEL THOMPSON, STRICKLAND, ATTORNEY-GENERAL PRIDEAUX, SIR JOHN TREVOR, THOMAS LISTER, SIR JOHN BOURCHIER, WILLIAM CAWLEY, SIR WILLIAM BRERETON, JOHN FIELDER, WILLIAM SAY, and MAJOR-GENERAL HARRISON. Three members totally new to the Council were COLONEL ALGERNON SIDNEY, COLONEL RICHARD NORTON, and *COLONEL RICHARD INGOLDSBY; the last of whom had been one of the Regicides. N. B.-The Presidents of this Council in succession were WHITLOCKE (Dec. 1), ROLLE (Dec. 29), BRADSHAW (Jan. 26, 1652-3), EARL OF SALISBURY (Feb. 23), BOND (March 23). DEATH OF IRETON: JOHN LILBURNE AGAIN: HIS BANISHMENT: STABILITY OF THE COMMONWEALTH AFTER THE BATTLE OF WORCESTER: THE RUMP GOVERNMENT IN ITS RELATIONS WITH CROMWELL: MEASURES FOR THE UNION OF SCOTLAND WITH THE COMMONWEALTH : COMMISSIONERS FOR THE UNION SENT TO SCOTLAND: FEELINGS OF THE SCOTS ON THE SUBJECT: SUCCESS OF THE COMMISSIONERS: ACT OF INCORPORATION BROUGHT IN AND THE UNION DECLARED: ENGLISH ADMINISTRATION IN SCOTLAND, AND STATE OF THAT COUNTRY: VIEW OF THE STATE OF IRELAND: LAMBERT POST APPOINTED TO SUCCEED IRETON THERE: THE APRIL 13-20, 1653: CROMWELL'S DISSOLUTION OF THE HARDLY had the Fourth Council of State assumed office when news was received (Dec. 8, 1651) of the death of Ireton. |