CXCVII.-WILLIAM HARBORD TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.

MAY IT PLEASE YR EXCELLENCY,

23 Jan. 1674.

I receaved this morning yrs of ye 16th instant, & gave ye inclosed to my Father, who will, I suppose, give you an answer to it this night. Sr Henry being come up, I intend to begin my journey for Holyhead Thursday next, & pray yr Excellency to send ye yacht theither, wth all the speede the Captain possibly can. As for Essex House I dare assure Essex that there is no danger of its being sold in hast; & if upon the whole after that Essex shall have well thought of ye present state of the publique & his private Affairs, & resolve to proceede, W. Harbord will serve him in that & in all things to ye utmost of his power, & I dout not in the least to have King to give Essex a good summe upon y renewing of the Farme. Ranelagh & Trear: had this day audience of King an hour. Ranelagh tells me that it was upon ye State Affairs, & how great an addition of Soldiers will be raised upon y expiration of his terme ; & I hope he did not attaque Essex before Trear: for I have, I thinke, weakened his creditt pretty well there, for Trear: told Charles Bartie, who hates him above all men, but yesterday, that he pretty well knew what use to make of Ranelagh, & how farr he was to be trusted. His wife hates him, & can not endure to see him wth Trear: who, I believe, is well pleased with Essex his friendship; & before I leave this place I will acquaint Trear: wth Essex his hopes yt King will assiste him upon the renewing of ye Farme, & though Ranelagh is not to be trusted Trear: will be ashamed to breake his word with Essex. I will omitt writing many things, but give yr Excellency an Account of ym at my arrivall. Some saye yt Shaftesbury is coming to court agen. Duke has given over rayling at Arlington, wch makes men thinke that King will not abandon him to Duke. There is no money, & therefore Parliam' must be called & sitt in Aprill.

CAMD. SOC.

2 P

VOL. I.

CXCVIII.

[Essex desires Harbord to confirm the good understanding between himself and Coventry, though he will obey the King's orders, "without reguarding whom it pleaseth or displeaseth." He is anxious also to keep fair both with Danby and Ranelagh.]-Dublin Castle, Jan. 23, 1674.

CXCIX.-THE EARL OF ESSEX TO SIR H. CAPEL.

DEAR BROTHER,

Dublin Castle, Jan. 30, 167. Believing Mr Harbord will certeinly be upon ye road for Ireland, before this Letter can arrive, I must hold my correspondence with you for such matters as I would have comunicated to him, & therefore I have herewith enclosed a Lie written to him concerning Essex House. "Tis most of it in cypher, wch ye Key will unfolde, as also one other to S Charles Harbord, wch I desire you to deliver.

The Citty here is at this present in a good deale of disorder, ye Aldermen & Comons almost perpetually jarring & differing. At my first coming over they were in great confusion, & severall Mutinies had bin here, & in one of them, concerning ye building of a bridge, ye Tumult was so great, as Sr Arthur Forbese, then one of ye Las Justices, was forced to draw out some of ye Soldiers, & cause them to fire among them before they would be quieted, wherein some men lost their lives. Afterwards by ye vile practices of Sr Ellis Leighton to get himselfe into ye Receiver's place, & some other advantages of money, St John Totty, then Mayor, joyning wth other seditious people of ye Comons, at once turned out eight Aldermen & ye Recorder; and ye matter being extraordinary, & ye manner of displacing these men, who were ye wealthiest & most substantiall of ye Citty, being very irregular & turbulent, they

applied themselves to ye King in England, & his Majestie at my first coming over ordered me to hear & determine it according to justice. The Affaire had a full hearing at large, & ye proceedings of turning out these Aldermen appearing not only contrary to all ye practice & customs of this Citty, but also agt ye Rules of Comon Justice, It was declared voyd by ye whole board, there being at least 20 of ye Counc" present, not one dissenting, & that ye Aldermen should be replaced agen, as also that all Acts & proceedings relating to ye turning out of these Aldermen, should be raced out of ye Citty books. The first part was performed, & ye Aldermen putt in possession of their places agen, but as for ye latter ye Citty has neglected to do it hitherto, & ye last weeke, there being a Quarter Assembly, ye matter was taken into consideration; ye Mayor & Aldermen unanimously agreed, & sent into ye Comons. Ye Commons by Vote have refused obedience to our order. I am now considering what to doe in ye Thing. Sure I am I will not suffer his Majesties Authority to be slighted, but will see our order obeyed, & these proceedings by one means or other rased out of their books.

The Reports woh every day are transmitted hither from England of my Remove is ye principall cause of their stubbornesse, & indeed it is a misfortune to his Majesties Affairs that such rumors are spread, for I doe not believe that under ye Sun there are a people who are more apt to despise & affront their Governors, then some here are, & will be, if they have any imagination that they are to be recalled; but I know not how this can be helpt in such a Loose Age as this, when all men write and speak what they please; however, doubtless it much weakens his Majesties Authority.

The reason that I have writt all this is to introduce another matter wherein I desire you to aske my Lord Keeper & Sr Will: Jones y Atturney Genr their opinions; There is one Philpott a Haberdasher, who both in my Lord Berkeley's Time, & now since my coming, hath bin ye Principall Ringleader of these seditious people. This man, while ye eight Alderman were turned out, was

himselfe & one Gressingham chosen into ye places of Two of ye Aldermen, wch Election was by judgmt of ye board made voyd. Sometime after ye Councell had given this sentence, this Philpott being master of one of ye Corporacions of ye City, & there being some Cupps wch belonged to them to be new cast, He, without orders of his Corporacion, directed a Motto to be put upon them, in these words: These Cupps were made in ye year when Philpott and Gressingham were Aldermen, which Cupps are constantly used at all ye Feasts in ye Citty. Now, perhaps, though ye Thing may seem but Triviall in it selfe, yet I conceive it is of some consequence to ye Governm that a kind of Memoriall should be kept, & every year sett before ye Faces of y° people contradicting an order of ye Ld Lieut & Councell who have adjudged these men not to be Aldermen, & that their Election was totally irregular and voyd, & that, to ye end there might be no memory of such irregularities, all proceedings relating to it should be raced out of ye bookes.

I am very sure ye Citty will never be in any tollerable quiett till some few of ye Chiefe Incendiarys doe smart for it; being loath in my owne nature to make use of power for ye chastisement of such exorbitancies, I have been watching to lay hold of some particular to fix upon any one of them, wch might bear an Indictmt in some of ye Kings Courts, & if I mistake not, this will upon ye score of sedition; wherefore I desire you to take some opportunity to speake with these Two persons before mentioned, so soon as conveniently you can, & let me know their opinions; I would not have it discoursed of abroad, but only to aske them privately, & let me understand their sense. The insolencies of some of these little Fellows have bin insufferable, & what course soever I shall thinke fitt to take wth them, I would be glad to be fortified wth ye judgmt of those Two great men, I mean my Lord Keeper & Mr Atturney, being loath to beginne with any of them in a Point weh will not certeinly hold.

CC.-WILLIAM HARBOBD TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.

The Lords & Bishops have spent some time at Lambeth, & brought their debates to severall heads tending to a prosecution of ye papists, & a proclamation is coming out accordingly. The particulars I refer till I have the Honor to waite on you on that side the water. King is discontented at some thing extremely, & hath been so these two days, but I can not learne at what; I am apt to thinke tis' ye ill posture of his Affaires, for Trear. can not tell what to doe for mony & hath this weeke again stopt all payments.

Yesterday, upon hearing my La Trear did consent to allowe the Forths 20000lb. in full for their defalcations, Ranelagh opposed them much, & would faine have had it, but 16 (?) in hopes y they would have bribed him to have helped them; but it would not doe, & I believe they will not forgive him. I have much to say upon this subject but shall differ it till my comming.

CCI-HENRY THYNNE TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.

His Maty was pleased yesterday in Councell to tell them that he designed to give all the satisfaction that could be desired of his firmenesse to the Church of England and zeale agt the Papists, and to that end will put out a Proclamation (as I am informed) to this effect.

a

To take off the stopp in the Court of Excheq' against the Con

Danby had made up his mind to a frank return to the policy of Clarendon, an alliance of the Church and Government against all forms of Dissent.