May 18. Confesses he is melancholy; for he speaks in Parliament as men fence in the dark-"Speak what I think, and mean well, but very uncertain when I do good or hurt by it."

Dec. 26, 1676.

For your other letter, your Excellency states all things very right: what a wise and honest man proposes to himself is what is his duty; some things better to suffer for, than gain by the contrary.

Letters to the Duke of Ormond.

Sept. 8, 1677. Threats from the Spaniards of breaking with us, and seizing merchants' effects, on account of Salines and Fonseca.-Alarm on 'Change; "it gives occasion to a sad reflection, that he who is over all the world beaten, should threaten us."

Sept. 18.

Ministers inform against Rutherfort.-Correspondence of sectaries in Ireland with those of Scotland.

Newmarket, Oct. 12.

"The town is full of public ministers, to watch what the arrival of the Prince (of Orange) will produce.—I do not believe he and his uncle have one word beyond what Newmarket may justify; so that I believe the foreign ministers will be hard put to it, to give an account to their superiors of their journey hither."

Nov. 6.

Answer to application for pay to general officers.-Lord Essex had made a saving.

Dec. 18.

No levies to be made for France.

Dec. 25.

Condoles with his gout; but expects some pity for himself, who is like to have gout and parliament together.

Jan. 1, 1678.

The King refuses a recommendation concerning the Provost of Dublin, "saying, that where there are many young men in a college that are not to be dispensed with, he knoweth no reason why those that are elder should; and to forbid the youth of the college any indulgence to that

appetite, and at the same time to bring womert into the college to be always in sight, is like the Welsh hook, a puller-to, and a putter-from."

Jan. 15.

Several distastes of the Speaker, but the adjournments only held forth.

March 5.

Directions for holding the Parliament of Ireland.

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Upon many accounts, His Majesty finding it absolutely necessary to increase his army in that kingdom, and that when it is so, there will be less need, upon any sudden occasion, to arm either the Scots, the non-conformists, or the old militia, none of which can be done without some danger, he judgeth, ten thousand men, besides officers, is the number he would constantly. maintain there."

April 13.

Upon the French King's declaration on what terms he would have peace, and that before the 10th of May, he says, "never was so great a part of Christendom, united, treated so de haut en bas, since it was Christendom."

June 18.

A long debate in the House, unsuccessful on the Court side.

Oct. 1.

"We have been these four days, morning and night, busied in council about the information of this Oates. If he be a liar, he is the greatest and the adroitest I ever saw; and yet it is a stupendous thing to think what vast concerns are like to depend upon the evidence of one young man, who hath twice changed his religion, if he be now a Protestant. There will many things, I believe, appear in the papers of some men taken, that will administer matter for noise; and some think a matter of this great consequence should have been digested somewhere else, before it had been brought so openly upon the stage. It is now too late to be recalled; and be the matter of the information true or false, it hath given occasion to so many enquiries, and awakened so many men and discourses upon a theme the people were but too eagerly concerned in before, that I cannot conceive it can pass over without drawing some great severity upon the Catholics, or giving so great a dissatisfaction to the kingdom as will be attended with great inconveniences."

Oct. 8.

"We have much noise, and we of the council much business about a plot. Would two witnesses swear but half that which one doth, there would be enough to hang a great many men. Several are imprisoned, and very pernicious papers found, which, whether published, or not published, will produce great consequences."

Oct. 15.

"Our new plot, or pretended plot, (for as yet we have but one witness, and none confessing,) hath produced so many collateral contrivances of disturbing the government, that I doubt it will not only busy the Council, but the Parliament a good while.

"If you had Peter Talbot's papers, doubtless many things would appear, though, perhaps, notin relation to this plot; yet men that look for the philosopher's stone, though they miss that, yet find medicines to cure the itch, and sometimes bigger diseases."

Nov. 26.

"We must be preserved by a greater miracle

than we were restored, or else perish."