'ment makes England more formidable and considerable to all 'Nations than ever it has been in my days.'1 LETTERS CXCVI., CXCVII HERE are Two small Letters, harmlessly reminding us of far interests and of near;-otherwise yielding no new light; but capable of being read without commentary. Read them; and let us hasten to dissolve the poor Constitutioning Parliament, which ought not to linger on these pages, or on any page. LETTER CXCVI To Richard Bennet, Esq., Governor of Virginia: These SIR, Whereas the differences betwixt the Lord Baltimore and the inhabitants of Virginia, concerning the bounds by them respectively claimed, are depending before us and our Council, and yet undetermined; and that as we are credibly informed, you have, notwithstanding, lately gone into his plantation in Maryland, and countenanced some people there in opposing the Lord Baltimore's officers; [whereby, and with other forces from Virginia, you have much disturbed that Colony and people, to the endangering of tumults and a great deal of bloodshed there, if not timely prevented : Therefore, at the request of the Lord Baltimore, and divers other persons of quality here, who are engaged by great adventures in his interest there],2 for preventing of disturbances or tumults, we do will and require you, and all others deriving any authority from you, to forbear disturbing the Lord Baltimore, or his officers or people in Maryland; and to permit all things to remain as they were there before any disturbance or alteration 1Thurloe, i. [ii.] 160 (11th March 1653-4). 2[The words in brackets underlined, apparently for deletion, and the following six words, preceded by "Therefore," entered in margin.] made by you, or by any other upon pretence of any authority from you, till the said Differences above mentioned be determined by us here, and that we give farther order therein. We rest your loving friend, OLIVER P.* Commissioners, it would appear, went out to settle the business; got it, we have no doubt, with due difficulty settled. See Letter CCIII.,-26th September 1655, 'To the Commissioners of Maryland.' LETTER CXCVII HERE again, while the Pedant Parliament keeps arguing and constitutioning, are discontents in the Army that threaten to develop themselves. Dangerous fermentings of Fifth-Monarchy and other bad ingredients, in the Army and out of it; encouraged by the Parliamentary height of temperature. Charles Stuart, on the word of a Christian King, is extensively bestirring himself. Royalist preparations, provisions of arms; Anabaptist Petitions : abroad and at home very dangerous designs on foot: but we have our eye upon them. The Scotch Army seems, at present, the questionablest. 'The pay of the men is thirty weeks in arrears,' for one thing; the Anabaptist humour needs not that addition! Colonel Alured, we saw, had to be dismissed the Service, last year; Overton and others were questioned, and not dismissed. But now some desperate scheme has risen among the Forces in Scotland, of deposing General Monk, of making Republican Overton Commander, and so marching off, all but the indispensable Garrisontroops, south into England there to seek pay and other redress.1 This Parliament, now in its Fourth Month, supplies no money; nothing but constitutional debatings. My Lord Protector had need be watchful! He again, in this December, summons Overton from Scotland; again questions him ;-sees good, this *Thurloe, i. 724. The Signature only is Oliver's; signature, and sense. Thurloe has jotted on the back of this: A duplicate also hereof was writ, signed by his Highness.' [Draft, much corrected. Signature not Oliver's.] 1 Postea, Speech IV.; and Thurloe, iii. 110, &c. [See letter to Wilks; Supplement No. 98.] time, to commit him to the Tower,1 and end his military services. The Army, in Scotland and elsewhere, with no settlement yet to its vague fermenting humours, and not even money to pay its arrears, is dangerous enough. Of Adjutant-General Allen whom this Letter concerns, it may be proper to say that Ludlow in mentioning him has mistaken his man. The reader recollects, a good while ago, Three Troopers, notable at the moment, who appeared once before the Long Parliament, with a Petition from the Army, in the year Forty-seven? Their names were Allen, Sexby, Sheppard: Ludlow will have it, the Trooper Allen was this Adjutant-General Allen; 2 which is a mistake of Ludlow's. Trooper Sexby we did since see, as Captain Sexby, after Preston Fight; and shall again, in sad circumstances see: but of Trooper Allen there is no farther vestige anywhere except this imaginary one; of Trooper Sheppard not even an imaginary vestige. They have vanished, these two; and AdjutantGeneral Allen, vindicating his identity such as it is, enters here on his own footing. A resolute devout man, whom we have seen before; the same who was deep in the Prayer-Meeting at Windsor years ago; this is his third, and we hope his last appearance on the stage of things. Allen has been in Ireland, since that Prayer-Meeting; in Ireland and elsewhere, resolutely fighting, earnestly praying, as from of old; has had many darkenings of mind; expects, for almost a year past, 'little good from the Governments of this world,' one or the other. He has honoured, and still would fain honour, 'the Person now in chief place,' having seen in him much uprightheartedness to the Lord;' must confess, however, 'the late Change hath more stumbled me than any ever did;'-and on the whole knows not what he will resolve upon.5 We find he has resolved on quitting Ireland, for one thing; has come over to 'his Father 116th January 1654-5 (Overton's Letter, Thurloe, iii. 110). ་ 2 Ludlow, i. 189: Edward Sexby,' 'William Allen; but in the name of the third Trooper, which is not Philips' but Sheppard, he is mistaken (Commons Journals, 30th April 1647); and as to 'Adjutant-General Allen' and the impossibility of his identity with this William Allen, see vol. i. pp. 252, 307. [The balance of evidence, however, is entirely in favour of the correctness of Ludlow's statement. See a discussion of the question by Mr. Firth in the Clarke Papers (vol. i. p. 432). The name on p. 252 proves nothing. Carlyle prints it Adjutant" Allen, but the original, in Cromwell's own writing, has only "Mr."] 4 Vol. i. p. 307. "Two intercepted Letters of Allen's (Thurloe, ii, 214, 5), 'Dublin, 6th April in-law Mr. Huish's in Devonshire : '—and, to all appearance, is not building established-churches there! 'Captain Unton Crook,' of whom we shall hear afterwards, is an active man, son of a learned Lawyer; very zealous for the Protector's interest;-zealous for his own and his Father's promotion, growls Ludlow. Desborow, who fitted out the late mysterious Sea-Armament on the Southern Coast (not too judiciously, I doubt), is Commander-in-chief in those parts. SIR, 'For Captain Unton Crook, at Exeter: These' Whitehall, 20th January 1654. Being informed by a letter of yours and General Disbrowe, also by a letter from the High Sheriff of Devon, that Adjutant-General Allen doth very ill offices by multiplying dissatisfactions in the minds of men with the present Government, I desire you and the High Sheriff to make diligent inquiry after him, and try to the uttermost what can be made out of his practicing in this kind, and to give me speedy notice thereof. Not doubting of your care herein, I rest, Your loving friend, OLIVER P. If he be gone out of the country, learn whither he is gone, and send me word by the next post. * Allen was not gone out of the Country; he was seized by Crook in his Father-in-law Mr. Huish's house,' on the 31st of January 1654-5; his papers searched, and himself ordered to be and continue prisoner, at a place agreed upon,--Sand in Somersetshire,'under his note of hand.' So much we learn from the imbroglios of Thurloe; where also are authentic Depositions concerning Allen, by Captains John Copleston and the said Unton Crook; 2 1 Made Sergeant Crook in 1655 (Heath, p. 693). [Grandson of a very learned lawyer indeed-Sir John Crook, Recorder of London, Speaker of the House of Commons, Justice of Common Pleas.] 2 iii. 143; see pp. 140, 1. *Lansdowne MSS. 1236, fol. 109. Superscription torn off;-only the Signature is in Oliver's hand: Address supplied here by inference and two Letters of Allen's own,-one to the Protector; and one to 'Colonel Daniel Axtel' (the Regicide Axtel), 'Dr. Philip Carteret, or either of them,' enclosing that other Letter, and leaving it to them to present it or not, he himself thinking earnestly that they should. Both of these Letters, as well as Unton Crook's to the Protector, and the authentic Deposition of Copleston and Crook against Allen, are dated February 7th, 1654-5. The witnesses depose,1 That he has bragged to one 'Sir John Davis Baronet,' of an interview he had with the Protector not long since, wherein he, Allen, told the Protector a bit of his mind; and left him in a kind of huff, and even at a nonplus; and so came off to the West Country in a triumphant manner. Farther he talks questionable things of Ireland, of discontents there, and in laud of Lieutenant-General Ludlow; says, There is plenty of discontent in Ireland; he himself means to be there in February, but will first go to London again. The Country rings with rumour of his questionable speeches. He goes to 'meetings' about Bristol, whither many persons convene,-for Anabaptist or other purposes. Such meetings are often on week-days. Questionabler still, he rides thither with a vizard or mask over his face;' 'with glasses over his eyes,'-barnacles, so to speak! Nay, questionablest of all, riding, 'on Friday the 5th of last month,' month of January 1654-5, 'to a meeting at Luppit near Honiton, Devon,' there rode also (but not I think to the same place!) a Mr. Hugh Courtenay, once a flaming Royalist Officer in Ireland, and still a flaming zealot to the lost Cause; who spake nothing all that afternoon but mere treason, of Anabaptists that would rise in London, of &c. &c. Allen, as we say, on the last morning of January was awoke from sleep in his Father-in-law Mr. Huish's, by the entrance of two armed troopers; who informed him that Captain Crook and the High Sheriff were below, and that he would have to put on his clothes, and come down. Allen's Letter to the Lord Protector, from Sand in Somersetshire, we rather reluctantly withhold, for want of room. A stubborn, sad, stingily respectful piece of writing: Wife and baby terribly ill off at Sand; desires to be resigned to the Lord, 'before whom both of us shall ere long nakedly appear;'petitions that at least he might be allowed to attend ordinances;' which surely would be reasonable! Are there not good |