All owing to Fawley Park, thinks Joyce and prints;—so that my Lord Protector, if this Park be the place, is very wise 'not to meddle or proceed therein.' And so we leave it. LETTER CXCIII MONK, in these summer months, has a desultory kind of Rebellion in the Highlands, Glencairn's or Middleton's Rebellion, to deal with; and is vigorously coercing and strangling it. Colonel Alured, an able officer, but given to Anabaptist notions, has been sent into Ulster to bring over certain forces to assist Monk. His loose tongue, we find, has disclosed designs or dispositions in him which seem questionable. The Lord Protector sees good to revoke his Commission to Alured, and order him up to Town. "To the Lord Fleetwood, Lord Deputy of Ireland: These' By the letter I received from you, and by the information of the captain you sent to me, I am sufficiently satisfied of the evil intentions of Colonel Alured; and by some other considerations amongst ourselves, tending to the making up a just suspicion,-by the advice of friends here, I do think fit to revoke Colonel Alured from that employment. Wherefore I desire you to send for him to return to you to Dublin, and that you cause him to deliver up the instructions and authorities into your hands, which he hath in reference to that service; as also such moneys and accounts concerning the same, according to the letter, herein enclosed, directed to him, which I entreat you to deliver when he comes to you. I desire 'you' also, to the end the service may not be neglected, nor 'for' one day to stand, it being of so great concernment to hasten it, to employ some able officer to assist in Colonel Alured's room, until the men be shipped off for their design. We purpose also, God willing, to send one very speedily who, we trust, shall meet them at the place, to command in chief. As for provision of victual and other necessaries, we shall hasten them away; desiring that these forces may by no means stay in Ireland, because we purpose they shall meet their provision in the place they are designed 'for.' If any farther discovery be with you about any other passages on Colonel Alured's part, I pray examine them, and speed them to us, and send Colonel Alured over hither with the first opportunity. Not having more upon this subject at present, I rest, Your loving father, OLIVER P. 'P.S.' I desire you that the officer, whom you appoint to assist the shipping of the forces, may have the money in Colonel Alured's hands, for carrying on the service; and also that he may leave what remains at Carrickfergus for the Commanderin-chief, who shall call there for it.* This is the Enclosure, above spoken of: LETTER CXCIV 'To Colonel Alured: These' 'Whitehall,' 16th May 1654. SIR, I desire you to deliver-up into the hands of Lieutenant-General Fleetwood such authorities and instructions as you had for the prosecution of the business of the Highlands in Scotland, and that' you do forthwith repair to me to London; * Thurloe, ii. 285. [In the handwriting of Secretary Thurloe. This appears to be in answer to the letter from Fleetwood printed by Thurloe on page 294, which is there dated May 18; but in the original appears to be 7 erased and 8 substituted for it. The captain sent to the Protector was Kingdon. the reason whereof you shall know when you come hither, which I would have you do with all speed. I would have you also give an account to the Lieutenant-General, before you come away, how far you have proceeded in this service, and what money you have in your hands, which you are to leave with him. I rest, Your loving friend, OLIVER P. * This Colonel Alured is one of several Yorkshire Alureds somewhat conspicuous in these wars; whom we take to be Nephews or Sons of the valuable Mr. Alured or Ald'red who wrote 'to old Mr. Chamberlain,'-in the last generation, one morning, during the Parliament of 1628, when certain honourable Gentlemen held their Speaker down,-a Letter which we thankfully read.1 One of them, John, was Member in this Long Parliament; a Colonel too, and King's Judge; who is now dead. Here is another, Colonel Matthew Alured, a distinguished soldier and republican; who is not dead; but whose career of usefulness is here ended. Repairing forthwith to London,' to the vigilant Lord Protector, he gives what account he can of himself; none that will hold water, I perceive; lingers long under a kind of arrest 'at the Mews' or elsewhere; 2 soliciting either freedom and renewed favour, or a fair trial and punishment; gets at length committal to the Tower, trial by Court Martial,—dismissal from the service. A fate like that of several others in a similar case to his. Poor Alured! But what could be done with him? He * Thurloe, ii. 286. [In the handwriting of Secretary Thurloe and signed by the Protector."] 1 Vol. i. p. 53 et seq.. 2[Alured was not imprisoned until November 1654, when he, together with Cols. Okey and Saunders, was arrested and tried for signing a petition, drawn up by Wildman, protesting against the powers given to the Protector and praying for a free Parliament. He was kept in the Tower for twelve months, and deprived of his command in the army, not serving again until the Rump made him captain of their life-guard in 1659. Okey also was dismissed, but Saunders, on submission, retained his command for some time longer. See Mr. Firth's article in the Eng. Hist. Review, 1888, p. 329. Also articles on Okey and Overton in the Dictionary of National Biography.] 3 Whitlocke, pp. 499, 510; Thurloe, ii. 294, 313, 414; Burton's Diary (London, 1828), iii. 46; Commons Journals, vii. 678. [Case of Col. Alured, E. 983, 25.] had Republican Anabaptist notions; he had discontents, enthusiasms, which might even ripen into tendencies to correspond with Charles Stuart. Who knows if putting him in a stone waistcoat, and general strait-waistcoat of a mild form, was not the mercifullest course that could be taken with him? He must stand here as the representative to us of one of the fatallest elements in the new Lord Protector's position: the Republican discontents and tendencies to plot, fermenting in his own Army. Of which we shall perhaps find elsewhere room to say another word. Republican Överton, Milton's friend, whom we have known at Hull and elsewhere; Okey, the fierce dragoon Colonel and zealous Anabaptist; Alured, whom we see here; Ludlow, sitting sulky in Ireland: all these are already summoned up, or about being summoned, to give account of themselves. Honourable, brave and faithful men: it is, as Oliver often says, the saddest thought of his heart that he must have old friends like them for enemies! But he cannot help it; they will have it so. They must go their way, he his.1 Directly on the Much need of vigilance in this Protector! back of these Republican commotions, come out Royalist ones; with which however the Protector is less straitened to deal. Lord Deputy Fleetwood has not yet received his Letter at Dublin, when here in London emerges a Royalist Plot; the first of any gravity; known in the old Books and State-Trials as l'owel and Gerard's Plot, or Somerset Fox's Plot. Plot for assassinating the Protector, as usual. Easy to do it, as he goes to Hampton Court on a Saturday, Saturday the 20th of May, for example. Provide thirty stout men; and do it then. Gerard, a young Royalist Gentleman, connected with Royalist Colonels afterwards Earls of Macclesfield,-he will provide Five-and-twenty; some Major Henshaw, Colonel Finch, or I know not who, shall bring the other Five. 'Vowel a Schoolmaster at Islington, who taught many young gentlemen,' strong for Church and King, cannot act in the way of shooting; busies himself consulting, and providing arms. Billingsley the Butcher in Smithfield,' he, aided by Vowel, could easily 'seize the Troopers' horses grazing in Islington 1[But Carlyle fails to see, as Cromwell himself failed to see, that the acknowledgment by these sturdy Republicans of the Protector's supreme power-of "government by a single person"-involved the abandonment of all their strongest convictions; the convictions for which they-and he had struggled and fought. They kept in the old way. He trod a new path, along which they dared not follow him.] fields;' while others of us unawares fall upon the soldiers at the Mews? Easy then to proclaim King Charles in the City; after which Prince Rupert arriving with 'Ten-thousand Irish, English and French,' and all the Royalists rising, the King should have his own again, and we were all made men; and Oliver once well killed, the Commonwealth itself were as good as dead! Saturday the 20th of May; then, say our Paris expresses, then! Alas, in the very birthtime of the hour, five of the Conspirators are seized in their beds;' Gerard, Vowel, all the leaders are seized; Somerset Fox confesses for his life; whosoever is guilty can be seized: and the Plot is like water spilt upon the ground!1 A High Court of Justice must decide upon it; and with Gerard and Vowel it will probably go hard. LETTER CXCV REFERS to a small private or civic matter: the Vicarage of Christ-Church, Newgate Street, the patronage of which belongs to 'the Mayor, Commonalty and Citizens of London as Governors of the Royal Hospital of St. Bartholomew' ever since Henry the Eighth's time. The former Incumbent, it would seem, had been removed by the Council of State; some Presbyterian probably, who was, not without cause, offensive to them. If now the Electors and the State could both agree on Mr. Turner,—it would 'silence' several questions, thinks the Lord Protector. Whether they did agree? Who 'Mr. Turner,' of such 'repute for piety and learning,' was? These are questions. To the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Vyner, Knight, MY LORD MAYOR, 'Whitehall,' 5th July 1654. It is not my custom, nor shall be (without some special cause moving), to interpose anything to the hindrance of any in the free course of their presenting persons to serve in 1 French Le Bas dismissed for his share in it: Appendix, No. 30. 2 Elmes's Topographical Dictionary of London, in voce. |