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being many complaints of that nature among them; but I question not in a litle time we shall bring them to better Terms, there having always bin a greater Latitude permitted to ye Lieut here of punishing of Soldiers then would be born wth in England. My first care is to place them in commodious Quarters, & herein I doe not at present dispose of them to such parts, as I intend standing Garrisons, but rather send them to such Places where provisions are most cheape, for indeed in many countrys, & more particularly in Connaght, people are in a starving condition. I doe very much fear a Famine this summer, their Corne being all spent & their Cattle dead. This makes me loath to discourage any of these new Comers at ye first by placing them where they should endure any hardships. I doe also take care to quarter most of these new men in open Villages, rather then places of strength, & that neer some Quarter where our Troops of Horse ly, that they may be ready to suppress any sedition that should happen among them. After I am for some month's acquainted with their humors, I shall then, towards ye end of ye summer, remove them to such Garrisons as are of most importance.

CXLI.-WILLIAM HARBORD TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.

MAY IT PLEASE YR EXCELLENCY,

21 Apr: 1674.

I gave you an Account of what passed at Newmarkett, and sent you his Maties Letter for stopping all proceedings upon those Letters for allowing Deficiencies to Coll: Dillon, &c., wch I hope came safe to yr Excellency; since wch my Lord Arlington, by his Maties Command, hath read yr Letter to him concerning my Lord Ranelagh's proceedings upon his undertaking, & y observation & thought thereon, wch did at first very much disturb his Lop, and he, wth a i.e. Ranelagh.

passion enough, exprest his sence of it, & pretended yt he would be heard by his Maty at ye Comittee for forrain Affaires, & yt he did not dout of being able to satisfye his Maty of his having performed wth his Maty, & though in some part his Covenants had not been so fully performed, according to ye Letter of his Covenant, as he wished, yet in other things he had for his Maties Especiall service, & by his particular direction, so much overdonne his other failings, yt he hoped & did not dout but that upon the whole his Maty was abundantly satisfyed thereby. And nobody defended these Arguments & this cause so briskly as Bridgeman, & Essex must be mistaken, he was sure. In order that no surprise might be put upon yr Excellency by the defered hearing, I made application to all y officers, yt hearing yt my Lord Ranelagh had received ye Heads of yr Letter, I desired yt he might have liberty to be heard as he desired, & yt his answer thereunto might be given in writing & transmitted to y' Excellency for y' opinion and answer, yt so both lying before him he might examine the truth on each side & make his judgment upon ye whole matter; but being this day at my L Trears, I mett wth my La Ranelagh, who pretends to have no dissatisfactions any wayes considerable, but saith y this night, by ye post, he will acknowledge ye same to yr Excellency, & yt he will ever submitt all his pretensions to you; but what judgment to make of him God he knowes. I am sure that his friend Speaker Seymora doth with great concern doe Essex all the ill effects he can, & particularly about the Connaught Letter. I was in hopes this evening to have gotten an Audience of his May upon some particulars, but could not possibly have an opportunity; to-morrow I hope I shall, & laye the thing plainely before him. This Letter of yr Excellency hath very much shaken his partner's Creditt, but all yt either see it or reade it are abundantly satisfyed wth yr Excellencies conduct in this affaire. He is willing to have a Letter sent over to command his partners to laye before you ye state of all such monies as they have receaved & paid, & what they are still to paye & to receave,

a Who was in close alliance with Danby.

towards ye doing of it; & yt you may be also directed to passe their accounts, & then to state their failings, wch I will accordingly endeavour to procure by ye next, if possible, & to give a dispatch of yr Letter about Connaught wch hath been referred to my La Keeper, & some additions made to it by his Lordp., whereoff yr Excellency shall have an Account by ye next.

CXLII. THE EARL OF ESSEX TO THE EARL OF ARLINGTON. MY LORD, Dublin Castle, Aprill 25th, '74.

The last week's Packett brought over a News Lře, wch hath bin dispersed through all ye country & read at severall coffee houses in this Citty. It begins wth ye mention of some Orders lately sent to me from England, & for ye first part of them, concerning ye banishing ye Roman Clergy (other than that I thinke it may be very inconvenient for his Maties service to have such Ordrs as are sent me made publick), there can be no harme in it; but then for ye second part, wch pretends to mention ye Lře I had concerning ye Citty of Dublin, ye matter is quite mistaken, & if this recitall of ye substance thereof be such as any sense can be drawn from it, it can only serve to incite & encourage people to make their Exceptions agt ye Rules, wch yr LP well knows was ye intention of that Lre to obviate & prohibite.

I finde it hath left some of yo Citty a discoursing one wth another what it might mean, each man making a construction according to what he would have it. I sent for ye Post master & examind him how this Lre came to be dispersed, & he told me that ye Originall of it was from Mr. Ball, an Under Clerke of St Joseph Williamson,

that ye Lre was writt to one Burroughs, of Kinsale, to whom Mr. Ball does constantly write ye ordinary news of ye Towne, and Mr. Burroughs permitts him to open that packett & copy ye Lře & divulge it here; ye Master of ye Packett hath promised me ye Originall, but cannot have it returned from Kinsale till ye next weeke. However, in ye mean Time I have sent yr LP a copy of it, & scored that part wth a、pen at wch I take exceptions, & submitt ye whole to yr LPs consideration.

I have made enquiry what persons have bin admitted to their freedoms in this Citty since ye publishing of ye Rules, & if any have come in upon ye Acct of ye words (or others). My La Mayor hath assured me that not any one person hath bin brought in upon that score. One single man, a Protestant, who says he was borne in Amsterdam, but of English parents, hath petitioned for his freedome, wch is not yet allowed him, in regard there hath, since his application, no Assembly mett who could grant it; but excepting him there is not any hitherto hath so much as desired it. I am also confidt that there is none in ye other part of ye Kingdome who upon this Acct have bin priviledgd.

Whitehall, 11th Aprill, 74.

His Matie hath sent his Comands to my Ld Lieut & Councell of Ireland to take some speedy course to banish all ye Popish Titular Clergy out of that Kingdome, & to examine y late misinterpretation of his Ord" about regulating Corporacions, that all imaginable satisfaction may be given to his people there.

Last weeke dyed ye Earle of Denbigh, etc.

VOL. I.

2 F

CAMD. SOC.

CXLIII. SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE TO THE EARL OF ESSEX. MY LORD,

Shene, Apr. 28, '74.

Since my last I have mett with very little that was worth y1 Excy's trouble, and less that was very fitt to pass in this commerce; besides, I knew you were so well informed by my Excellent Neighbor heere, that it would have been a wrong to him to offer at it while wee were both together upon the same scene, as we have commonly been of late, either in the Towne or Country. I thought it, therefore, the least troublesome parts to yr LP, as well as the most neighbourly to y' Brother, to talke over to him any thing that came in my way, and that I imagine was worth either of y1 knoledge, wch Hee tells mee hee gives you parte of among those better lights hee drawes from other hands. All the present talke is about the great preparations on all hands for this present Campania, wch will beginn with great forces and expectations, and, without the fortune of great battails or great sieges, may very well ende in the French being putt upon a defensive parte. This inclines them very much to a peace, and the pointe of trade falling so unavoydably into our hands by the continuance of a warr, disposes the States and people of Holland as much toward it on their side, though the Prince of Orange bee not in the same dispositions nor interest. Our Courte and Sweden seem both desirous of the peace so by our mediations, but neither Spaine nor Holland having yet accepted the offer of His Majty's, I doubt the events of this Campania must governe it, since the Empire being now united, Spaine must bee unwilling to loose the occasion they think they now possess of reducing France to the dispositions of leaving the world in quiet and their neighbors in the enjoyment of what they take to bee their right by the Pyrenean peace. I have verry narrowly escaped the being hurryed away into Hollande last weeke, even without the formality of staying for the arrivall of the Dutch Ambrs, but I doubt I shall not bee able to deferr my going many days after they are come, wch goes a little

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