My Lord, No. 29.-FROM WILLIAM BRIDGEMAN. Whitehall, June 23, '73. I have the favour of your Excellency's of the 13th instant, and if I doe not trouble you by every ordinary it is either because nothing materiall occurrs to mee or what does you receave from my Lord in his letter. You heard by the last Sir Thomas Osborne's being made Lord Treasurer, and the Speaker' succeeds him. I am told my Lord Clifford had a compensation of 10,000l., of which 7 was paid by Mr. Seymour and 3 by the now Lord Treasurer. They discourse in the town of more changes, but all I can assure you of is onely that my Lord Duke of Ormond does again come to the Comittee of Forreigne Affaires, by which you may guesse att more. It is confidently said the Duke does not goe to command the forces the King has lately raised, which I am apt to beleeve because he has resigned and layd down all his employments, so farre as not to come to Councill since his resignation of the Admirallship. The King has appointed my Lord Chancellor, my Lord Treasurer, my Lord Privy Seale, Duke of Monmouth, Duke of Lauderdale, Duke of Buckingham, Duke of Ormond, Earle of Arlington, Sir George Carteret, and Mr. Secretary Coventry to bee commissioners for executing that office. Mr. Pepys is their secretary, and, to make some compensation to Sir John Werden,3 the King has made him one of the commissioners of the Navy. Amongst those that leave their places upon account of the late Act you would, I suppose, scarce have thought Dr. Worseley had been, and yet he is not to 1 Mr. Seymour. 4 2 Sir George Carteret, Baronet, had been a servant of Charles I. and Governor of Jersey, where he made a gallant defence against the Parliament forces. He was made at the Restoration Vice-Chamberlain, Treasurer of the Navy, and a Privy Councillor. In 1667 he exchanged the latter post with Arthur Annesley, Earl of Anglesey, for that of Deputy-Treasurer of Ireland. He died in 1679, at the age of eighty. 3 Werden had been Secretary of the Lord High Admiral. 4 Dr. Worsley was Secretary of the Council of Trade and Plantations, of which the Earl of Shaftesbury was President. Dr. Worsley was succeeded as Secretary by John Locke, as will be seen in a later letter, No. 118. bee so much as suspected as a Catholique, for I dare sweare he is far from it. You will please to order the person that put your last to my Lord (which he receaved this afternoone) into cypher to bee a little more exact in the next, this having severall mistakes in it and being very difficult to decypher. I write this in haste it being late, though I have nothing else to adde but the assurance of my being, with great respect and truth, my Lord, Your Excellency's most faithfull humble servant, No. 30.-FROM ROBERT YARD. Whitehall, 23rd June, 1673. May it please your Excellency, What I wrote to your Excellency in my last of the Duke's commission for Generalissimo and Admirall being stopt proves true, my Lord Chancelor, after having consulted the Judges, reporting that it was contrary to the Act of Parliament, which it seems expressly says that if any person neglect or refuse to take the Sacrament, &c. and thereupon be dismist his place, he shall, however, upon his receiving the Sacrament, &c. be afterwards admitted into any place. I dare not committ to paper the discourses of people on this occasion, and, besides, know your Excellency will in some sort imagine them. The late Lord Treasurer is preparing for his retreat into the country; many are of opinion it was not altogeather conscience that hath moved him to it, but amongst other things his not being well with the House of Commons, but these are onely guesses. Thomas Osborne is sworne on Wednesday next; he will come to Wallingford House. Saturday morneing the King was at Blackheath, where there are as yet but 6 regiments; the rest will be there this week. The same morneing the Prince went downe to the Fleet, which begins to be now in some readinesse. It is generally said they will be ready to saile the latter end of this week or the beginning of the next. Monsieur Martell is come into the river with five French men-ofwarr and two fire-ships. The Dutch squadron that was upon our coast is gone home, for, besides that they have not of late appeared anywhere on our shore, they write from Middleburgh that they were now come againe into the fleet at Schonevelt, with great brags that they had not mett one English man-of-war at sea, and that they had been 6 leagues up the river of Thames, &c. A yacht is ordered to goe and attend at Calais to bring over Monsieur Schomberg, who was the 18. instant at Tournay on his journey hither. It is not now doubted but that he shall command the army with the Duke of Bucks, as Lieutenant-Generalls. I cannot yet know who will be the Major-Generalls; some speake of Sir Walter Vane, and Sir Thomas Morgan, Governor of Jersey, but it is as yet uncertaine. Wee have by expresse from the Duke of Monmouth an account of the successe of the attacke made upon Maestricht the instant,2 but the common reports here are that the French have paid dear for it. The people are extreamely pleased to see the Duke of Ormond called into the Cabinett Councell againe, for, to speak their words, he is a good Protestant and Englishman. Yesterday came in two Flanders posts togeather, which brought me two letters from your Sir Walter Vane had been Envoy to the Elector of Brandenberg during the first Dutch war, and John Locke had been his secretary. 2 "The French invested Maestricht, and carried on the siege with so much vigour and success that, on the 17th of June, the day the Duke of Monmouth came on duty, four several attacks were ordered to be made, and his Grace was particularly commanded to make a lodgment in the counterscarp, which he performed with so much spirit and gallantry as rendered him deservedly famous; and six days after the place was surrendered on capitulation, the garrison being allowed to march out with all the honours of war."-(Ralph's Hist. of England, i. 236.) 1 Excellency, the one dated the 20. and the other the 23. instant. I waited upon my Lady Katherine with the enclosed for her Ladyship, and that for Colonell Hamilton I shall keep by me till I have your Excellency's farther directions. I humbly beg leave to returne your Excellency my most dutifull thanks for that you are pleased to think well of my endeavours, which in whatever they may be defective shall never want a diligent zeale and faithfull intention to serve your Excellency, and to make good that I am, my Lord, Your Excellency's most obedient faithfull servant, R. YARD. No. 31.-FROM HENRY BALL. May it please your Excellency, Whitehall, June 23, '73. Yesterday Mr. Yard received letters from Mr. Benson and some from your Excellency, which he answers this night and so largly, that, did I not know it was duty however to pay my small acknowledgement, what wee have here is so little that I should have forbourne troubling your Excellency. His Royal Highness having resigned his office of Admiralty, the Commissioners for the management of it are the Prince, Dukes of Buckingham, Monmouth, Lauderdail, and Ormond, Lord Chancellor, Treasurer, two Secretaryes, Earle of Anglesey, Sir George Carterett, and Mr. Seymour, with the usuall powers, all but forfeitures, which his Majesty reserves to himselfe, but no fee is settled on them as I can percieve by the warrant. My Lord Treasurer Osborne takes his oath att Westminster on Thursday next: his new title is Lord Viscount Osborne of Scotland. The title of Lord Latimer he was not able to conquer, by reason of 1 Lady Catharine O'Brien. the severall pretentions of Percy, Cicell, Cornwallis, and Carr, all which were before him, and he descended by his mother of Walmasly, whose mother was Danvers, and shee daughter to that John Danvers that marryed the youngest daughter and heire of John Lord Latimer. Its not to be writt the horrid discourses that passes now upon his Royall Highness surrendring; they call him Squire James, and say he was alwayes a Romanist; that he is retireing into the countrey, and is so angry att the management of affaires, that he is resolved not to meddle with State affaires more, which makes all sober men very sorry and much troubled. The Prince is now the only heroe in their thoughts; he is now att the fleete, which is, I am told, wellnigh fitted and will suddainly sayle. The rendezvous att Blackheath is now sayd to be on Wednesday next, by reason of the arrivall of Monsieur Schomberg this morning, who is to command all our Army; the Duke of Buckingham was once talked of, but the people heard it not without dislike and regrett, and this stranger, though of an English mother, will, it is hoped, end all disputes about priority. The Towne remaine still in the same opinion that wee were beaten att sea, and will not believe wee intend to land. They talke strangly of the Parliament meeting, and of the feeing of the Dons there already. All I perceive is the surrender of Sir Robert Holmes of the clerke of the Pells place in the chequer to the two younger sons of Collonell Strangwayes, which was done this weeke. A. Marvell's description of Sir R. Holmes is as follows, in his "Seasonable Argument," &c., 1677: “First an Irish livery-boy, then a highwayman, now Bashaw of the Isle of Wight, got in bonds and by rapine 100,0007.: the cursed beginner of the two Dutch wars." 2 Colonel Giles Strangways, Member for Dorsetshire, a great Cavalier leader. He was now being courted in July 1675 he was made a Privy Councillor, and he died immediately after. He had been very active and prominent in the late session of Parliament against Shaftesbury on the question of writs issued by him as Lord Chancellor, while Parliament was not sitting. Andrew Marvell, having mentioned his promotion to the Privy Council in a letter to William Ramsden of July 24, 1675, adds a postscript: "Strangways, a man of seven or eight thousand pounds a year, having, as I told you, been lately made Privy Councillor, is dead like a fool. He was |