should be imported into England except either in English ships or in ships of the country where the goods were produced. Thereby terribly maiming the Carrying Trade of the Dutch ;' and indeed, as the issue proved, depressing the Dutch Maritime Interest not a little, and proportionally elevating that of England. Embassies in consequence, from their irritated High Mightinesses; sea-fightings in consequence; and much negotiating, apologising, and bickering mounting ever higher; -which at length, at the date above given, issues in declared War. Dutch War: cannonadings and fierce sea-fights in the narrow seas; land-soldiers drafted to fight on shipboard; and land-officers, Blake, Dean, Monk, who became very famous sea-officers; Blake a thrice-famous one;-poor Dean lost his life in this business. They doggedly beat the Dutch, and again beat them their best Van Tromps and De Ruyters could not stand these terrible Puritan Sailors and Gunners. The Dutch gradually grew tame. The public mind, occupied with seafights and sea-victories, finds again that the New Representative must be patiently waited for; that this is not a time for turning out the old Representative, which has so many affairs on its hands.

But the Dutch War brings another consequence in the train of it: renewed severity against Delinquents. The necessities of cash for this War are great: indeed the grand business of Parliament at present seems to be that of Finance, -finding of sinews for such a War. Any remnants of Royal lands, of Dean-and-Chapter lands,-sell them by rigorous auction: the very lead of the Cathedrals one is tempted to sell; nay almost the Cathedrals themselves,1 if any one would buy them. The necessities of the Finance Department are extreme. Money, money: our Blakes and Monks, in deadly wrestle with the Dutch, must have money!

1 Parliamentary History, xx. 90.

Estates of Delinquents, one of the readiest resources from of old, cannot, in these circumstances, be forgotten. Search out Delinquents; in every County make stringent inquest after them! Many, in past years, have made light settlements with lax Committee-men; neighbours, not without pity for them. Many of minor sort have been overlooked altogether. Bring them up, every Delinquent of them; up hither to the Rhadamanthus-bar of Goldsmiths' Hall and Haberdashers' Hall; sift them, search them; riddle the last due sixpence out of them. The Commons Journals of these months have formidable elllong Lists of Delinquents; List after List; who shall, on rigorous terms, be ordered to compound. Poor unknown Royalist Squires, from various quarters of England; whose names and surnames excite now no notion in us except that of No. 1 and No. 2: my Lord General has seen them 'crowding by thirties and forties in a morning' about these Haberdasher-Grocer Halls of Doom, with haggard expression of countenance; soliciting, from what austere official person they can get a word of, if not mercy, yet at least swift judgment. In a way which affected my Lord General's feelings. We have now the third year of Peace in our borders: is this what you call Settlement of the Nation?

1

LETTER CLXXXV.

THE following Letter to my honoured Friend Mr. Hungerford the Elder,' which at any rate by order of time introduces itself here, has probably some reference to these Committee businesses at all events, there hangs by it a little tale.

1 Speech, postea.

Some six miles from Bath, in the direction towards Salisbury, are to be seen, 'on the northeast slope of a rocky height called Farley Hill,' the ruins of an old Castle, once well known by the name of Farley Montfort, or Farley Hungerford: Mansion once of the honourable Family of Hungerfords, while there was such a Family. The Hungerfords are extinct above a century ago; and their Mansion stands there as a Ruin, knowing little of them any more. But it chanced, long since, before the Ruin became quite roofless, some Land-Steward or Agent of a new Family, tapping and poking among the melancholy lumber there,-found an old loose Chest' shoved loosely under the old Chapel-altar;' and bethought him of opening the same. Masses of damp dust; unclean accumulation of beetle-and-spider exuviæ, to the conceivable amount: under these certain bundles of rubbish-papers, extinct leaserecords, marriage-contracts, all extinct now,-among which, however, were Two Letters bearing Oliver Cromwell's signature. These Two the Land-Steward carefully copied, thanks to him ;-and here, out of Collinson's History of Somersetshire, the first of them now is. Steward, to Collinson, and to us. extinct; their Name and Family, mouldering ruin,-almost our chief light in regard to it, the Two little bits of Paper, rescued from the old Chest under the Chapel-altar, in that romantic manner ! —

Very dark to the LandFor the Hungerfords are like their old Mansion, a

There were three Hungerfords in Parliament; all for Wiltshire constituencies. Sir Edward, Knight of the Bath,' Puritan original Member for Chippenham; Lord of this Mansion of Farley, as we find: then Henry, Esq., 'recruiter' for Bedwin since 1646; probably a cadet of the House, perhaps heir to it both these are now 'secluded Members;' purged away 1 Collinson (iii. 357 n.) gives his Epitaph copied from the old Chapel ; but is very dark and even self-contradictory in what he says farther.

by Pride; nay it seems Sir Edward was already dead, about the time of Pride's Purge. The third, Anthony Hungerford, original Member for Malmesbury, declared for the King in 1642; was of course disabled, cast into the Tower when caught;-made his composition, by repentance and due fine, 'fine of 2,532,,' in 1646,1 when the First Civil War ended; and has lived ever since a quiet repentant man. He is of Blackbourton in Oxfordshire,' this Anthony; but, I judge by his Parliamentary connexion and other circumstances, likewise a cadet of the House of Farley. Of him by and by, when we arrive at the next Letter.

For the present, with regard to Sir Edward, lord of the Farley Mansion, we have to report, by tremulous but authentic lights, that he stood true for the Parliament; had controversies, almost duels, in behalf of it; among other services, lent it 5007. Furthermore, that he is now dead, died in 1648;' and that his Widow cannot yet get payment of that 5007.; that she is yet only struggling to get a Committee to sit upon it. One might guess, but nobody can know, 'that this Note was addressed to Henry Hungerford, in reference to that business of Sir Edward's Widow. Or possibly it may be Anthony Hungerford, the repentant Royalist, that is now the 'Elder Hungerford;' a man with whom the Lord General is not without relations? Unimportant to us, either way. A hasty Note, on some 'business' now unknown, about which an unknown 'gentleman' has been making inquiry and negotiation; for the answer to which an unknown 'servant' of some Mr. Hungerford the Elder' is waiting in the hall of Oliver's House,—the Cockpit, I believe, at this date :—in such

1 Commons Journals, iv. 565 (5 June, 1646); ib. iii. 526, &c. * Committee got, 18 February, 1652-3, the Lord General' Cromwell in it (Commons Journals, vii. 260): Danger of Duel (ib. ii. 928, 981: iii. 185, January-June, 1643). See ib. iv. 161, v. 618, &c.

faintly luminous state, revealing little save its own existence, must this small Document be left.

For my honoured Friend, Mr. Hungerford the Elder, at his House: These.

SIR,

'London,' 30th July, 1652.

I am very sorry my occasions will not permit me to return1 to you as I would. I have not yet fully spoken with the Gentleman I sent to wait upon you; when I shall do it, I shall be enabled to be more particular. Being unwilling to detain your servant any longer, -with my service to your Lady and Family, I take my leave, and rest,

Your affectionate servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.*

It is a sad reflection with my Lord General, in this Hungerford and other businesses, that the mere justice of any matter will so little avail a man in Parliament: you can make no way till you have got up some party on the subject there!2 In fact, red-tape has, to a lamentable extent, tied up the souls of men in this Parliament of the Commonwealth of England. They are becoming hacks of office; a savour of Godliness still on their lips, but seemingly not much deeper with some of them. I begin to have a suspicion they are no Parliament! If the Commonwealth of England had not still her Army Parliament, rigorous devout Council of Officers, men in right life

1 reply.

*Collinson's History of Somersetshire (Bath, 1791), iii. 357 (Note). -Appendix, No. 14.

2 Speech, postea.