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Deare Sir,

I

Have herewithall fente you the order of the house of commons for fettling 2500l. per annum upon you and your heires, and the ordinance of parliament • in pursuance thereof in part, whereby the lands there⚫ in mentioned, being all the lands of the Earle of Worcefter in that county, are fettled upon you. I have likewife fent you a rent-roll of the quit-rents. The • manors confift most of old rents. There are three advowfons. I am told by Col. Norton and Mr. Wheeler, whoe know the lands, that they are accounted • 1001. p. ann.

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I endeavoured to paffe this for the prefent, rather than to have ftayed longer to make up the whole. • Your patent was fpeedily prepared, and is this day paffed the great feal. I have not fente it downe, but will keepe it for you, until I receive your direction to whom to deliver it. The charges of paffing the crdinances to the clerkes, and of the feale, my clerke ⚫ of the patents hath fatisfied; you fhall hereafter know what they come to. I delivered a copy of the ordinance to Mr. Lifle to fend it to the committee of sequeftrations, whoe hath, together with a letter to them, defyred, that the fequeftrators take care that no wrong be done to the lands. That which principally moved me to it was, because I heard, there weare 6 goodly woods, and that much had been formerly cut, that for the future a ftop might be made. By the ordinance fent you, you will be auctorized to fend fome bayliffe of your owne to hufband the lands to your beft advantage, which would be done fpeedilie. There • is another order of the house for preparinge an ordi⚫nance for a goodly houfe and other lands in Hampfire, of the Marquiffe of Winchesters. Wee had thought to have had them in the ordinance, already paffed, but by abfence of fome, when I brought in the other, that fayled. Perhaps it is better as it is, and that the addition might have ftayed this. You know to

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• whome

infpired him with confidence (AA) and ambition,

whome the Marquife hath relation *, and in regard • that our commiffion for the feale ends with this month, I defyred rather for the prefente to paffe this, than to hazard the delay. Mr. Lifle was ordered to bring in the other ordinance; it is not yet done. Sir, Mr. Wallop, Mr. Lifle, Sir Thomas Germayne, have been real friends to you in this bufinefs, and heartily <defire to have you feated, if poffible, in their country. • Remember by the next to take notice hereof by letter (b) Thur < unto them (b).'-I know not what the patent men- loe, vol. i tioned in this letter means, unlefs the following refo- P. 75. lution of the houfe of commons, Dec. 1, 1645, will

explain it.

Refolved, that the title and dignity of a baron of the kingdom of England, with all rights, priviledges, pre-eminences, and precedencies, to the faid title and dignity belonging or appertaining, be < conferred and fettled on Lieutenant General Oliver < Cromwell, and the heirs males of his body: and that his Majefty be defired, in these propofitions, [for a peace] to grant and confer the faid title and dignity ⚫ upon him, and the heirs males of his body accordingly and that it be referred to the former committee, to confider of a fit way and manner for the perfecting ⚫ hereof (i).'-Here are proofs fufficient of the bounty of Oliver's mafters.

(AA) His fuccefs and his intereft in the army, inspired him with ambition, &c.] Sir Thomas Fairfax, we have feen, was conftituted general and commander in chief of the new modelled army; and he behaved, as it is well known, with great bravery and conduct. But his talents were chiefly of the military kind. He had no inclination for intrigues; no ambitious views; and therefore stood not in need of those arts which are requifite to obtain confidence and power. He contented

The Marquifs of Winchefter married the half-fifter of the Earl of Effex, Ludlow, vol. i, p. 158.

(i) Journals.

P. 30.

bition, and excited in him views prejudicial

to

• Fair

himself with difcharging the duties of a good general, and troubled not himfelf with any thing beyond it. Cromwell had other things in his head. He fought not meerly for his mafters, or out of zeal for the cause; though zeal he undoubtedly had; but that he might one time or other take the lead, and gratify his own boundlefs ambition. He therefore made his court to all the officers and foldiers, and became at length fo popular, as to be looked on by friends and foes as the chief actor in the interefting fcenes exhibited by the army. fax was viewed as a gentleman of an irrational and brutish valour, fitter to follow another man's counfel than his own, and obnoxious to Cromwell and the in• dependant faction (upon whose bottom he flands) for (1) Walker's his preferment, it being no difhonour to him to beHiftory of Independencome the property of a powerful faction (4). But cy, parti. Cromwell was defcribed as a head fchoolmater, in the • parliament, (reprefented as a free-fchool when fubjected to the will of the army) Ireton ufher, and (that cypher) Fairfax prepofitor (.' And Holles fays, ⚫ from the beginning of the new modelling the army, it was intended, by his party, that Cranwell thould ⚫ have the power, Sir Thomas Fairfax only the name of • general." And he further characterizes him, as one • fit for their turns, to do whatever they will have him, without confidering or being able to judge whether moirs, p. 34. honourable or honeft (m) Thefe characters of Fairfax feem very fevere, and one would be apt to think, ought to be read with fome allowances, as coming from men heated with refentment, and foes to the general, and his army. But the following paffages from his own Memoirs, will fhew us that there is much truth in what is above written, though couched in a fharp and adverfary-like ftyle. His little influence and authority in the army over which he had the name of general, he thus describes. From the time they [the army] declared ⚫ their ufurped authority at Triplew-Heath, I never gave

(7) Id. part 1. p. 30.

(») Mc

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to the authority from whence he derived his power.

my free confent to any thing they did: but being yet undifcharged of my place, they fet my name in way of course to all their papers, whether I confented or not: and to fuch failings are all authorities fubject. Under parliamentary authority many injuries have been done; fo here hath a general's power been broken and • crumbled into a levelling faction. Yet even this, I hope, all impartial judges will interprit as force and ⚫ ravishment of a good name, rather than a voluntary confent, which might make me equally criminal with that faction. And if in a multitude of words, much · more in a multitude of actions, there must be some tranfgreffions; yet I can truly fay, they were never Memorials, defignedly, or wilfully committed by me (n).”

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(x) Short

p. 125.8 va

This fhews perfectly the man.-Let us now proceed 1699. to view the ambition of Cromwell which had full scope for action under fuch a leader. Ludlow, fpeaking of the fituation of affairs after the King was delivered into the hands of the parliament's commiffioners by the Seats, fays, Walking one day with lieutenant-general Cromwell in Sir Robert Cotton's garden, he inveighed bitterly against them, [the parliament] faying in a familiar way to me, if thy father were alive, he would let fome of them hear what they deferved: adding farther, that it was a miferable thing to ferve a parliament, to whom let a man be never fo faithful, if one pragmatical fellow rife up and afperfe him, he fhall never wipe it off. Whereas, faid he, when one ferves under a general, he may do as much fervice, and yet be free from all blame and envy. This text, together with the comment his after actions put upon it, hath fince perfwaded me, that he had already conceived the defign of destroying the civil authority, and fetting up of himself; and that he took that opportunity to feel my pulfe, whether I were a fit inftrument to be employed by him to thofe ends. But having replied to his difcourfe, that we ought to perform the duty

• of

() Vol. i. P. 187.

(p) Id. p. 189.

power. For the war being ended in Jul 1646,

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⚫ of our stations, and truft God with our honour, 6 power and all that is dear to us, not permitting any • fuch confiderations to difcourage us from the profecution of our duty, I never heard any thing more from him upon that point (o).' The fame writer, after telling us that fome menacing expreffions fell from fome members of parliament, on occafion of the officers of the army refusing to difband on their command, adds, Lieutenant-general Cromwell took the occafion to ⚫ whisper me in the ear, faying, Thefe men will never leave till the army pull them out by the ears, which • expreffion I should have refented, if the state of our affairs would have permitted (p).'-But nothing fo fully fets forth the arts and ambition of Cromwell as a paper printed in Thurloe's correfpondence, entitled Sundry Reafons inducing Major Robert Huntington to lay down his commiffion, humbly prefented to the ho<nourable houses of parliament.' It is long, but it would be a wrong to the reader as well as the fubject to abridge it. Having taken up arms, fays he, in ⚫ defence of the authority and power of King and par liament, under the command of the Lord Grey of Warke, and the Earl of Manchefer, during their fe• veral employments with the forces of the eastern affociation, and at the modelling of this army under the prefent lieutenant-general, having been appointed by the honourable houfes of parliament, a major to the now regiment of lieutenant-general Cromwell; in each of which employments having ferved constantly and faithfully, anfwerable to the truft repofed in me; and having 1.tely quit the faid employment, and laid down my commiffion, I hold myfelf tyed both in • duty and confcience to render the true reafons thereof, which in the general is briefly this: because the principles, defigns, and actions of thofe officers, which ⚫ have a great influence upon the army, are (as I conceive) very repugnant, and deftructive to the honour

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