to you. I understand Col. Goffe will be at Winchester to-morrow; I hope you will assist him with your countenance. He is honest, so is his business, whosoever says to the contrary; and if security be judged necessary to be provided for against malignant and papist, a reformation of wickedness be part of the return we owe to God, then my assertion is true. The person employed is a gracious man, if I know one, and deserves your respect. All that I have to say is to tell you that I love you. I rest, 66 Your loving friend, OLIVER P.* Col. Norton did meet the Major-General at his inn, at Winchester, on Wednesday night" (Nov. 21), as he informed Thurloe a few days later; but Goffe apparently could not do very much with him. Then the Colonel went away to Hursley-and got lost on the downs on his way back; and was off to London again, sending the Major-General his good wishes, but seeing no advantage in remaining there himself.1 115 (AFTER LETTER CCVII) (1) For Major Haynes 1655, December 4, Whitehall.-There having been of late several complaints from the ancient Aldermen and divers other well-affected inhabitants of the town of Colchester that for some time past elections have been made of several persons to the government thereof who are altogether unable of public employment; whereupon he did on the 28th of June last order that there should be a forbearance of election of persons into the Magistracy or Common Council of the said town, until he should otherwise determine: And being informed that Arthur Barnardiston, the Recorder of the said town, is lately deceased, by which vacancy and the not appointing of other officers, the town is under some straits and inconvenience : Desires Major Haynes, at his coming to the town, to give directions to the Mayor to proceed to the election of a Recorder and also of a Mayor and other officers for the present year, taking special care that electors and elected be qualified according to the late Proclamation. The names of those elected to be certified to himself, that being approved, they may be sworn accordingly.* (2) To the Admiralty Committee 1655, December 19.-Ordering them to assign trees in Somersham Park for the building of Clare College, Cambridge. † (3) To the Major-Generals 1655[-6], January 29.-Authorising the payment of the militia forces from moneys levied for securing the peace. 116 To General Disbrowe Jan. 29 1655[-6]. SIR, It hath been a very great complaint of the course of law, and justice hath been much liable to be perverted, by the way that is generally held by deputy-sheriffs in the choice of juries; the reformation whereof I have been much pressed to endeavour; and in order to it, care hath been taken that so great a trust as that of the high sheriff be deposited in the hands of men of integrity and confidence; yet lest that alone might not be sufficient, through failure in the deputy-sheriffs to prevent the dangers and inconveniences which all men who have recourse to the law lie exposed to in that which may be of nearest concernment to them, and having understood that some of the judges, for a remedy of those evils, have, as occasion hath been offered, caused a review of the books of freeholders, out of which persons have been returned by some of the justices of the peace, of the most unquestioned integrity, I have thought it requisite, that a course like to that be recommended to be practised in other places, and to that purpose have judged it fit to write this to you. If therefore the justices of the peace, especially such of them as are best spirited for the work, [agree] with some of the free holders of clearest integrity and prudence, of honest and blameless conversation, who for their number may be proportioned to the business of the county to which they relate *Morant's History of Colchester, p. 70. See note, p. 467, above. +Ibid., 76, p. 500. to serve upon juries for the year next ensuing, both betwixt party and party and in cases criminal, and offer the names so agreed upon to the sheriff and under sheriff of the county, I doubt not but they would be found willing to receive kindly such an assistance; I having written to them to require their special care in their choice of juries this year, that an attempt may be once made of a reformation of the evils of this nature so largely complained of; and this I hope will be done as it is already in many counties, by your influence, without either distasting the weaker or giving advantage to the wilful and froward by your appearing in it. And whereas the course hitherunto hath been that as soon as the under-sheriff hath made the return of the panel upon the venire facias, that the same hath been delivered to the attorney to make a distringas before the trial, by reason whereof the names of the persons to serve on the respective trials are known beforehand, from whence opportunity is given and frequently taken of applications to each one of the jury to pre-engage them on the one side or the other, which seldom fails in any cause whatsoever, to the ensnaring or amusing of the weak, and the tempting the avarice of the more subtle, who lie in wait for their own advantage upon such like opportunities, whereby justice is often perverted, the innocent wronged, and the wrongdoer prevails and escapes :-For preventing the evil consequences herein, I must put this farther trouble upon you, that if it shall appear in any of those counties to which you have relation that application hath been made to any juryman in any case whatsoever (wherein your vigilancy and the vigilance of all your friends is desired) that notice thereof be given to the judge or judges that ride the circuit or sit in the courts wherein such miscarriages shall happen; who shall have particular instructions to peruse [? pursue] the remedy the law hath provided in such cases, and not to suffer any such person to serve on a jury who hath been solicited in any business that lies before him, and hath not revealed the same. Your loving servant, OLIVER P. Endorsed: A copy (sic) of the Lord Protector's letter to General Disbrowe, and sent by him to Sir John Copplestone, to be communicated to the Justices for the county of Devon. * Signed Original, in the Collection of Sir R. Tangye. 117 THE Scheme of the Major-Generals had been set afloat, and was being carried out with more or less success in different parts of England. But there was one spot in which the working out of the plan was attended with more than average difficulty. The City of London, always jealous of its ancient rights and liberties, would ill brook any sort of military dictatorship in its midst; and although Skippon-the old leader of their forces-was appointed, with Barkstead (whose long residence at the Tower had made him a familiar figure to the citizens), as his substitute, the office was allowed to remain almost a sinecure. But presently the Protector began to realise that the city was becoming a refuge for those who wished to escape from more vigorous measures elsewhere, and he consequently determined to try his personal influence with the City Fathers to induce them to allow their necks to be put under the same yoke. This speech unfortunately is lost to us, but the following summary of it is given in a news-letter of the time. Speech to the Lord Mayor and Corporation of the City of London 1655-6, March 11, Westminster.-His Highness on Wednesday last [March 5] was near two hours in delivering a speech at Whitehall to the Lord Mayor's Court of Aldermen and Common Council of London; wherein he told them, that since fair means would not indulge, foul should enforce the Royal party to a peaceable deportment; and seeing they were the cause (by their late eruption) of raising the militia troops to preserve the peace of the nation, it was thought but reasonable that their estate should be only charged therewith, that so they might be in the nature of a standing militia, and yet not to warfare at their own charge, being at all times to be drawn forth upon occasion; that the soldiers as well as the officers were so many inhabitants of each association under their respective MajorGenerals, and would thereby fitly serve to be so many watchmen or spies to give notice of or apprehend such as were of dissolute lives and conversation, who lived like gentlemen and yet had no visible way for the same, being cheaters and the like, who were more fit to be sent beyond the seas than to remain here. That God Almighty hath given us many blessings and deliverances, and now seemingly brought us into a probability of enjoying peace, which called upon us to make some returns thereof, by endeavouring that after all our expense of blood and treasure, the same might reap some fruits thereof. And this way the Lord hath owned by making more effectual than was expected, and by receiving a good acceptation with those who of late stood at some distance with us, so that the sole end of this way of procedure was the security of the peace of the nation, the suppressing of vice and encouragement of virtue, the very end of magistracy. That there was a remissness in some of the Justices of the Peace, by many of whom company keeping, etc., was countenanced, but now that noblemen, gentlemen and all ranks and qualities must give security for their peaceable and civil deportment, or go to prison. That we had indeed many and good laws, yet that we have lived rather under the name and notion of law than under the thing, so that 'tis resolved to regulate the same (God assisting) oppose who will. That now the Major-Generals had gone through all the counties of England and Wales, and where the Major-Generals were present in action, these loose and vagrant persons did fly from thence to other counties, the Major-Generals' occasions not permitting them to be in action at one time. And for that this city was a place that gave shelter to many such idle, loose persons, who had and have their recourse thereto, the same practice is intended to be set on foot in the city by their Major-General Skippon, the Lieutenant of the Tower, and others commissioned with him; and therefore his Highness thought fit to acquaint the Lord Mayor and those gentlemen present with the same, to the end no misunderstanding may be had thereof, for that thereby the good government of the city is intended, and not at all to supersede them, or at least to diminish any of their rights, privileges or liberties; which was all his Highness had to say to them, and so dismissed them. There is an abridged report of this in the Public Intelligencer for March 3-10, 1655-6, p. 385. (E. 492, 13.) 118 (BEFORE LETTER CCX) IN 1656, the government decided to send out Lieut-Col. Brayne as governor to Jamaica, with fresh forces gathered mostly in Scotland and Ireland. Brayne did not set sail for Jamaica until October, but preparations were begun in the beginning of the year, and on May 13 it was already settled that Brampton was to be his lieutenant-colonel, as President Laurence wrote that his allowances were decided on. The two following letters must therefore have been written before this date. In July, matters were so forward that money and stores * Clarke MSS., xxviii. f. 5. Printed in Clarke Papers, iii. 65. |