Arl. & Essex, & to make Essex jealous of Arl. & Will. Harbord, hoping, I mean Ranelagh, thereby to shelter and save himself; but I pray believe yt W. Harbord is & wilbe to ye last hour of his Life faithfull to you. I dare pawne my life for him. CXXXVII.-THE EARL OF ESSEX TO THE EARL OF ARLINGTON. MY LORD, Dublin Castle, Aprill 9th, '74. In yr Lps of ye 31 of March you gave me a hint of my Ld. Ranelagh's having some knowledge of ye substance of my Lře dated ye 17th of March (wherein I discoursed something concerning his LPs Undertaking), & that even before ye Lře went out of my owne pockett. I have long had an apprehenĉon that his LP hath practised ye opening of Lřes (wch, if you please but to aske my Lord of Ossory, he can tell you how dextrous he is in things of this kind). I formerly gave y1 LP some intimacions of my Jealousies herein, by a Lře dated ye 28th of Jan., & sent by Capt Crofts. Here is one Dorilaus (son, as I am informed, to Dr. Dorilaus, who, in ye Time of ye Troubles, was killed beyond ye seas). This man hath very good skill in opening & decyphering Lřes. He hath bin observed to be often about ye Post Office, & if he be not employed by yr LP, or any other Secretary of State in England for Intelligence here, I have a great suspicion he is made use of by some others for that purpose, & very possibly by my Lord Ranelagh, for things of this nature are commonly carried so in ye darke, & under such disguises, as 'Tis not easy to discover ye Truth. I thought it not amiss to give ye LP notice of this, that you might guess wch way Intelligences of this sort may come, & to doe it by a very safe hand, such as I know this Gentleman to be. CAMD. SOC. 2 E. VOL. I. CXXXVIII.-THE EARL OF ESSEX TO WILLIAM HARBORD. MR. HARBORD, Dublin Castle, Aprill 11th, '74. Having lately bin a hunting journy in ye country, I found those parts where I was soe excellent for sport, as indeed I know none equall to them in England. I have now bin twice there, and doe perceive that by my giving countenance to those sort of recreations, it beginns to incline people to keep Horses more then formerly was accustomed. Upon this occasion there is a plate sett up at Kildare to be run for constantly every year, & I hear there is eight or nine Horses in keeping for that Match. Now, besides ye particular pleasure that I take in hunting, I am apt to believe that such meetings & recreations are not without their use even to ye publick, it giving opportunitie for good company to meet together, & for ye Lieut to be better acquainted wth severall persons & gentlemen of ye Country, wch otherwise he would scarce know; but above all it will most certinly encourage ye breed of good Horses, wch may perhaps be as good an Improvemt to this Kingdome as anything that can be thought of; & if any man did but reflect how much ye Horses of England are mended since ye King himselfe used to goe to Newmarkett, from what they were before, it may easily be guessed what impression such a sort of encouragem here would make in ye like kind. Perhaps my owne inclinations to Field sports, of wch I have ever bin a Lover, may make me, in partialitie to my selfe, a litle more desirous of such an accommodation, & Truly (as I have already observed) I conceive even from these Entertainmts moderately used & well applied, ye publick may reap a considerable benefitt; besides, I would be glad to leave this Goverment to whomsoever shall succeed me, better supplied wth conveniencies then I found it, & I thinke it is both for his Majesties honour & service that whoever has so great a Trust should have ye encouragem1 of living easily & wth pleasure, whilst he undertakes so much business. Pray let me know how his Matic relisheth this & ye other proposall of getting those Lands within ye Parke, for if these two can be compassd (& as I designd them without charge to his Majestie) I know nothing further I can have to offer for ye accomodation of this place. CXXXIX.-WILLIAM HARBORD TO THE EARL OF ESSEX. MAY IT PLEASE YO" EXCELLENCY, 14 Apr: 1674. Since my last of ye 7th instant, I have waited on his Maty at Newmarket, & there delivered to him ye Excellencies, wch he read very distinctly before dinner, & after dinner was pleased to call me into his Closet, & there to hear me Read to him ye Copy of my Ld Shaftesbury's Letter to yr Excellency, & yt wch you were pleased to write to me about ye present promotes of Deficiencies; whereupon he also read yr Excells writt to him then upon yt subject, & did very much aprove of yr method, & resolved that a Letter should be immediately writt to yr Excellency, wth directions to stopp all proceedings upon ye former letter to yt Effect. * * * * * Those I take to be ye Directions I then receaved from y1 Excellency. As to ye first, I herewth send you a Letter to put a stop; & it's his Matys pleasure yt you proceede wth ye account you are preparing to give him of all ye Lands wch will come with ye Crown stock, & yt wth ye very first opportunity you can, & yt such Account may be brought over by some person you can trust, & he was pleased to think 3 monthes a reasonable time for ye protecting of it. His Maty did likewise give Directions yt a Letter should be sent to y' Excellency for ye proceeding against Skiddy, &c., & seizing of their Estates for his Maties use; but Mr. Secretary Coventry makes some scruple of sending such a Letter, saying yt ye forfeitures belong to Ld Ranelagh, & yt his Maty may pardon the offendors, but yt their goods goe to his Lop.; but I dare saye I have laid yt foundation with his Maty yt If they be his nobody will give yTM from him. I delivered also yr Excellencies to Duke, who read it, but gave me no manner of answer. He was in the Closett all the time, & I could perceive listen'd all he could at that distance, wch made me speake softly. At my returne last night I went to see Arlington, & found him very much displeased yt you should in so great an affaire, & wherein he had had so great a hand, proceede wthout him; & realy, But yt y' Excellency had been pleased to give me yr Commands int, I was in great debate what to doe; but having foreseen the discontent this would give him, To take all, I asked his Maty wth whome you should now correspond upon this matter, his Maty having been pleased to take ye seale from my Ld. Shaftesbury, & proposed yt it might be Arlington, wch he readily consented to. My reason was that by yt means I might be necessitated to acquaint his Lop wth what Directions yr Excellency had heretofore receaved upon that subject, yt so he might see yt you did not decline him, wch I found tooke hard wth him till I had esclarcy that matter, & then he was infinitely satisfyed both wth yr advice & arguments against ye Letters & yr manner of proceeding with him. I then also did understand yt my Lord Kingstone, by ye help of his Friend Portsmouth, did endeavour to give a salvo for his pretensions, whereupon this morning I went to King & discoursed that whole affaire again wth him, & he told me yt nothing should be done therein till ye whole laye before him, & yt he, being prest ye last night by Cleaveland, he had given ye same answer, & bid her to be quiet till then, & yt others should be so likewise; And I believe yt It hath already had that effect, for comming just now inn to dinner, I finde yt Kingstone hath been twice to hunt me out, & desires me to be wthin at 3 a-Clock; what. his buissenesse is I know not. * * * * * I did at Newmarket touch upon ye part of Essex his Letter about Anglesey having an underhand dealing in ye disorders Nr Dublin, and found an easy matter of it; & had not Duke bin there I would have prest it. I am troubled to finde how great an influence Ranelagh hath on King, wch makes me fear storms that way; but when the Parliamt meets, of which there is no danger, considering the present necessities, that walk will be easy, & Essex must take his measures accordingly. The Dutch Embassadors are not yet come, wch hinders Sr William Temple's going over. Tomorrow my Lord Arlington goeth to Euston for 10 dayes. CXL. THE EARL OF ESSEX TO THE EARL OF MY LORD, ARLINGTON. Dublin Castle, Aprill 18th, '74. Since my last here are severall other Companys arrived; in all we have come into this Kingdome 33 Companys. We finde ye men a litle disorderly, particularly Capt Eustace & Capt Creighton's Companys have bin in some mutiny, but I orderd two of their principalls imediately to be layd in ye Marshalsea in Irons, & since that they are all very quiet. I am pretty apt to thinke that ye slackness of dicipline used in England towards Soldiers makes these understand themselves not so well as they ought, & am also in some doubt whether all ye Officers have dealt fairly with them, there * The total number of companies sent over was 41. They were set free by the peace with the Dutch. |