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Morning to consider whether he would undertake to make it good, the debate upon the whole charge was putt of till this day, when Sr Gilbert inform'd the Howse that there was a Gentleman wthout who would undertake to prove ye Article, who, being called in, told the Howse there was a Gentleman, now in France, who could & would make proofe of ye Article; that he was upon his returne into Engld, & he expected him every day, but could not ascertaine ye time. This person was one Cap" Palden, of whom a good Character was given in the Howse; But since, I have learnt he is a meniall servt of yo Duke of Bucks, from whom he has all his subsistence.

Then ye Howse proceeded to ye rest of ye Articles, And St Charles Wheeler undertooke ye mennagemt of ye first concerning Religion, wch tooke upon ye rest of the Morning, only upon that Article of imprisoning persons contrary to law, Sr Thomas Muddeford & his son were named, & ye Howse desiring to see ye Warts by wch they were comitted appoynted a Comittee to attend ye Lieut of ye towne home there, to take a view of them, & reporte them on Munday till wch time ye further debate of this matter is adjourned."

CVII.-WILLIAM HARBORD TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.

MAY IT PLEASE YR EXCELLENCY,

Jan. 24, '73. London.

The Differences among ye great ones increase daily; & Essex getts ground in yo opinion of all good men, & Every body will have him Treasurer, as in Sick bodies so in Sickly goverments Change is desired; King sticks very close to Arlington, who hath a faire game to playe, & professeth all imaginable service to Essex;

Arlington went free, in a great measure through the exertions of Henry Capel.

Mr. [illegible] is Chosen for Oxford in ye Ld. Keeper's place; a new Test is proposed where in yo Papist Lds. are concerned. The Lds. have made an order yt no peer shall come into ye Howse of Commons upon paine of being sent to ye Tower; I have this day receaved a perwig for yr Excellce, & shall send it by ye first opportunity, & take all ye Hast I can to attend ye Service there; I feare Treasurer will not be able to playe his part wth any successe ; & Orrery is much dissatisfyed & disappointed his Lady takes upon her to speake very meanly of yo manner of living of Essex, & some other Defects she findes, or at least thinks so. And in truthe Orrery aimes mightely to succeede Essex in his poore Imployment. I know not what weather you have in Ireland, but our Country is all drowned wth Floods. This is all ye trouble I shall give yor Excellency at present.

CVIII. THE EARL OF ESSEX TO WILLIAM HARBORD.

MR HARBORD,

*

Dublin Castle, Jan. 25, 73.

We have of late, from severall of ye Justices of Peace of this Kingdome, recd an Acct that they have apprehended severall Friers & Priests, who in contempt of ye Proclamation have presumed to stay longer then ye Time therein limited, & more particularly from four Justices in ye County of Donegall we had information that they had apprehended two Priests & committed them to Gaole, one of them a Deane & ye other a Frier, and therefore desired to hear from my selfe & ye Councell what directions we would give concerning them. To wch we returned Answer, that as for ye Deane if he were only a Secular & had never exercised Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (of wch they ought dilligently to informe themselves), he was then not within ye Proclamation; but if otherwise, he & ye Frier (wch last was certainly within ye Intendment of that Act of

State) should remain committed, & be proceeded agt at ye next Assises according to law.

These are ye Orders wch we have issued out upon all occasions of this nature, & indeed whoever scanns ye words of ye Adress cannot, to my apprehension, putt any other construction upon them then such as we have done.

As for ye banishing of these Bps & Friers, together wth all such as have exercised Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, whatever may be apprehended at a distance, I am confident it is so far from causing a discontent, even among ye Papists themselves, that I am sure they are rather glad of it, these being a great burthen to them in ye collection of money, wch were perpetually made for their support, but should it be resolved to use ye like measure wth all ye Seculars, I am not without apprehensions what y° consequences thereof might be, there being severall hundred thousands of ye Popish religion in this Kingdome, & should any such thing be thought on, it were fitt ye King had a standing Army of at least fifteen or twenty thousand men in constant Pay & upon duty, for I would be loath to be answerable for ye peace of this Kingdome wth a less force, in case I were putt upon y execution of such orders.

In ye Instructions wch I gave you at my parting, I directed you to carry copies of ye severall Lres & Orders of Councell wch were from time to time issued to ye respective Magistrates for sending away these Priests & Friers. We still find new inventions of these Priests to evade ye execution of ye Proclamation. As particularly from Ross I hear that severall Friers being there putt on board some Ships in order to their transportation into forrein parts, were by y° Owners of ye Ships sett on shoar within ten miles of ye place, for wch these Owners are like to answer at their returne. And truly I perceive plainly, that unless his Matie send some Ships, or Orders to hire them, here on purpose to transport these people, we shall not be able to gett ye country clear'd of them.

The Lord Mayor of this Citty brought me a List of about 30 or more Priests & Friers who had given their names to him as being

in this Town in order to their transportation, & there being a Fleet of seven or eight merch men to goe for France, I directed him to see them putt on board & sent away. All wch he assures me is executed.

You may, when you have an opportunitie, show his Majestie this

Lre.

CIX.-LORD AUNGIER TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.

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There seemes to be now a greate propensity towards ye repealing of the Act agt Irish Cattle, complaints comeing from all partes of Engid of ye greate mortallity of Sheepe & Cattle, in so much that as soone as the more publique affaires will give leave, some attempts will be made to repeale ye Act of Prohibition.

The Duke of Bucks is become a greate converte, & to give a publique testimonye of it he went wth his owne lady to St. Martin's to Church in yo afternoone on Sunday last. In the mean time his Grace & my Lord Shaftsburye are reconciled, & both labour hard to gett him fairely quitt of my Lady Shrewsburye's businesse, wch is still depending in ye Lords Howse.

CX.-LORD CONWAY TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.

MAY IT PLEASE YOR EXCELCE,

London, January 27th, 1673.

*

*

The King's last Speech hath been the subject both of the privat

caballs and the Publick debates these two last dayes. Those who thought the French Allyance a Grievance, doe now think a Peace, nay, a seperat Peace, to be the greater grievance, so that one may see they designed only to fetter the King and take their advantages, but though this Party be very prevalent in both Howses, yet I am confident we shall carry the point, and advise the King to make a Peace.

This bone was cast before Parliamt. by advice of Trear., but I think Arling. broke the French Allyance.

The Parliam1, I beleeve, will sit a great while and give money, but with great opposition. They know their owne strengths so well that Mr. Sacheverell told me he was confident they would carry the point of money only by five votes.b

The Caball is kept at Lord Hollis' House, Hallyfax and Shafetsbury are of it, and Buckingham is got in. Orrery shewed Trear. the copy of a Letter written to the Deputy Governor of Limmerick by Mr. Godolphin, wherein he writes, as from Essex, that it was King's intentions to allow secular Priests to say masse publickly, or to that effect. Orrery thought Arling. was at the bottome of it, and had given such directions, and would have had it sifted in Parlimt. Trear. replyed, that if such a thing were started in Parliamt. Essex would be torne in pieces, and desired Orrery to write that he burne the Letter, and give no coppies of it. This I had from Trear. Orrery never spoke to me of it, and I told Trear. that if such a thing were, it was occasioned by the Adresse, and not by Arlington; but there ought to be a distinction made in Letters of that nature, betweene passing a thing over by way of Connivance and giving a Publick Liberty, and upon the whole matter you may see that Trear. was very friendly to Essex.

The Shaftesbury opposition was now in alliance with Louis XIV.

h No money was granted.

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