admired in the progress of your achievements, and the steady career of your victories against a prince, now your confederate, the same by God's assistance, may you enforce them to behold once more in their subversion. From our palace at Westminster, March 30, 1658.

OLIVER, Protector of the Commonwealth of ENGLAND, &c., To the most Serene Prince, FERDINAND, Great Duke of TUSCANY.

MOST Serene Prince-The answer which we have given to your agent here residing, we believe, will fully satisfy your highness as to our admiral, who but lately put into your ports. In the mean time, John Hosier, master of a ship called the Owner, has set forth in a petition to us, that in April, 1656, he hired out his ship by a charty-party agreement, to one Joseph Arman, an Italian, who manifestly broke all the covenants therein contained; so that he was enforced, lest he should lose his ship and lading, together with his whole principal stock, openly to set forth the fraud of his freighter, after the manner of merchants; and when he had caused it to be registered by a public notary, to sue him at Leghorn. Joseph, on the other side, that he might make good one fraud by another, combining with two other litigious traders, upon a feigned pretence, by perjury, seized upon six thousand pieces of eight, the money of one Thomas Clutterbuck. But as for his part, the said Hosier, after great expenses and loss of time, could never obtain his right and due at Leghorn: nor durst he there appear in court, being threatened as he was, and waylaid by his adversaries. We therefore request your highness, that you would vouchsafe your assistance to this poor oppressed man, and according to your wonted justice, restrain the insolence of his adversary. For in vain are laws ordained for the government of cities by the authority of princes, if wrong and violence, when they cannot abrogate, shall be able by threats and terror to frustrate the refuge and sanctuary of the laws. However, we make no doubt, but that your highness will speedily take care to punish a daring boldness of this nature; beseeching Almighty God to bless your highness with peace and prosperity.

From our court at Westminster, April 7, 1658.

To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, King of FRANCE. MOST Serene and Potent King, and most August Friend and Confederate-Your majesty may call to mind, that at the same time, when the renewing the league between us was in agitation, and no less auspiciously concluded, as the many advantages from thence accruing to both nations, and the many annoyances thence attending the common enemy, sufficiently testify; those dreadful butcheries befel the Piedmontois, and that we recommended, with great fervency of mind and compassion, their cause, on all sides forsaken and afflicted, to your commiseration and protection. Nor do we believe that your majesty of yourself, was wanting in a duty so pious, that we may not say, beseeming common humanity, as far as your authority, and the veneration due to your person, could prevail with the duke of Savoy. Certain we are, that neither ourselves, nor many other princes and cities, were wanting in our performances, by the interposition of embassies, letters, and entreaties. After a most bloody butchery of both sexes, and all ages, at length peace was granted, or rather a certain clandestine hostility covered over with the name of peace. The conditions of peace were agreed in your town of Pignerol; severe and hard, but such as VOL. II. 2N 2

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those miserable and indigent creatures, after they had suffered all that could be endured that was oppressive and barbarous, would have been glad of, had they been but observed, as hard and unjust as they were. But by false constructions, and various evasions, the assurances of all these articles are eluded and violated; many are thrust out from their ancient abodes; many are forbid the exercise of their religion, new tributes are exacted, a new citadel is imposed upon them; from whence the soldiers frequently making excursions, either plunder or murder all they meet. Add to all this, that new levies are privately preparing against them, and all that embrace the protestant religion are commanded to depart by a prefixed day; so that all things seem to threaten the utter extermination of those deplorable wretches, whom the former massacre spared. Which I most earnestly beseech and conjure ye, most Christian king, by that RIGHT HAND which signed the league and friendship between us, by that same goodly ornament of your title of MOST CHRISTIAN, by no means to suffer, nor to permit such liberty of rage and fury uncontrolled, we will not say, in any prince, (for certainly such barbarous severity could never enter the breast of any prince, much less so tender in years, nor into the female thoughts of his mother,) but in those sanctified cut-throats, who, professing themselves to be the servants and disciples of our Saviour Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, abuse his meek and peaceful name and precepts to the most cruel slaughter of the innocent. Rescue, you that are able in your towering station, worthy to be able, rescue so many suppliants prostrate at your feet, from the hands of ruffians, who, lately drunk with blood, again thirst after it, and think it their safest way to throw the odium of their cruelty upon princes. But as for you, great prince, suffer not, while you reign, your titles, nor the confines of your kingdom, to be contaminated with this same Heaven-offending scandal, nor the peaceful gospel of Christ to be defiled with such abominable cruelty. Remember, that they submitted themselves to your grandfather Henry, most friendly to the protestants, when the victorious Lesdiguieres pursued the retreating Savoyard over the Alps. There is also an instrument of that submission registered among the public acts of your kingdom, wherein it is excepted and provided among other things, that from that time forward the Piedmontois should not be delivered over into the power of any ruler, but upon the same condition upon which your invincible grandfather received them into his protection. This protection of your grandfather these suppliants now implore from you as grandchild. It is your majesty's part, to whom those people now belong, to give them that protection which they have chosen, by some exchange of habitation, if they desire it, and it may be done; or if that be a labour too difficult, at least to succour them with your patronage, your commiseration, and your admittance into sanctuary. And there are some reasons of state, to encourage your majesty not to refuse the Piedmontois a safe asylum in your kingdom: but I am unwilling that you, so great a king, should be induced to the defence and succour of the miserable by any other arguments than those of your ancestor's pledged faith, your own piety, royal benignity, and magnanimity. Thus the immaculate and entire glory of a most egregious act will be your own, and you will find the Father of mercy, and his Son, King Christ, whose name and doctrine you have vindicated from nefarious inhumanity, so much the more favourable and propitious to your majesty, all your days. The God of mercy and power infuse into your najesty's heart a resolution, to defend and save so many innocent Christians, and maintain your own honour.

Westminster, May —, 1658.

To the Evangelic Cities of the Switzers.

ILLUSTRIOUS and most Noble Lords, our dearest Friends-How heavy and intolerable the sufferings of the Piedmontois, your most afflicted neighbours, have been, and how unmercifully they have been dealt with by their own prince, for the sake of their religion, by reason of the fellness of the cruelties, we almost tremble to remember, and thought it superfluous to put you in mind of those things, which are much better known to your lordships. We have also seen copies of the letters which your embassadors, promoters and witnesses of the peace concluded at Pignerol, wrote to the duke of Savoy, and the president of his council at Turin; wherein they set forth, and make it out, that all the conditions of the said peace are broken, and were rather a snare than a security to those miserable people. Which violation continued from the conclusion of the peace till this very moment, and still growing more heavy every day than other; unless they patiently endure, unless they lay themselves down to be trampled under foot, plashed like mortar, or abjure their religion, the same calamities, the same slaughters hang over their heads, which three years since made such a dreadful havoc of them, their wives and children; and which, if it must be undergone once more, will certainly prove the utter extirpation of their whole race. What shall such miserable creatures do? in whose behalf no intercession will avail, to whom no breathing time is allowed, nor any certain place of refuge. They have to do with wild beasts, or furies rather, upon whom the remembrance of their former murders has wrought no compassion upon their countrymen, no sense of humanity, nor satiated their ravenous thirst after blood. Most certainly these things are not to be endured, if we desire the safety of our brethren the Piedmontois, most ancient professors of the orthodox faith, or the welfare of our religion itself. As for ourselves so far remote, we have not been wanting to assist them as far as in us lay, nor shall we cease our future aid. But you, who not only lie so near adjoining, as to behold the butcheries, and to hear the outcries and shrieks of the distressed, but are also next exposed to the fury of the same enemies; consider for the sake of the immortal God, and that in time, what it behoves ye now to do: consult your prudence, your piety, and your fortitude; what succour, what relief and safeguard you are able, and are bound to afford your neighbours and brethren, who must else undoubtedly and speedily perish. Certainly the same religion is the cause, why the same enemies also seek your perdition; why, at the same time the last year, they meditated your ruin, by intestine broils among yourselves. It seems to be only in your power next under God, to prevent the extirpation of this most ancient scion of the purer religion, in those remainders of the primitive believers; whose preservation, now reduced to the very brink of utter ruin, if you neglect, beware that the next turn be not your own. These admonitions while we give ye freely, and out of brotherly love, we are not quite as yet cast down for what lies only in our power so far distant, as we have hitherto, so shall we still employ our utmost endeavours, not only to procure the safety of our brethren upon the precipice of danger, but also to relieve their wants. May the Almighty God vouchsafe to both of us, that peace and tranquillity at home, that settlement of times and af fairs, that we may be able to employ all our wealth and force, all our studies and counsels in the defence of his church against the rage and fury of her enemies.

From our court at Whitehall, May, 1658.

To his Eminency Cardinal MAZARINE.

MOST Eminent Lord-The late grievous cruelties, and most bloody slaughters perpetrated upon the inhabitants of the valleys of Piedmont, within the duke of Savoy's dominions, occasioned the writing of the enclosed letters to his majesty, and these other to your eminency. And as we make no doubt but that such tyranny, and inhumanities, so rigorously inflicted upon harmless and indigent people, are highly displeasing and offensive to the most serene king; so we readily persuade ourselves, that what we request from his majesty in behalf of those unfortunate creatures, your eminency will employ your endeavour and your favour to obtain, as an accumulation to our intercessions. Seeing there is nothing which has acquired more goodwill and affection to the French nation, among all the neighbouring professors of the reformed religion, than that liberty and those privileges, which by public acts and edicts are granted in that kingdom to the protestants. And this among others was one main reason why this republic so ardently desired the friendship and alliance of the French people. For the settling of which we are now treating with the king's embassador, and have made those progresses, that the treaty is almost brought to a conclusion. Besides that, your eminency's singular benignity and moderation, which in the management of the most important affairs of the kingdom you have always testified to the protestants of France, encourages us to expect what we promise to ourselves from your prudence and generosity; whereby you will not only lay the foundations of a stricter alliance between this republic and the kingdom of France, but oblige us in particular to returns of all good offices of civility and kindness: and of this we desire your eminency to rest assured. Your eminency's most affectionate.

OLIVER, Protector of the Commonwealth of ENGLAND, &c., To the most Serene and Potent Prince, LEWIS, King of FRANCE.

MOST Serene and Mighty King, our most August Friend and Confederate-It being the intention of Thomas viscount Falconbridge, our son-inlaw, to travel into France, and no less his desire, out of his profound respect and veneration to your majesty, to be admitted to kiss your royal hands; though by reason of his pleasing conversation we are unwilling to part with him, nevertheless not doubting but he will in a short time return from the court of so great a prince, celebrated for the resort of so many prudent and courageous persons, more nobly prepared for great performances, and fully accomplished in whatsoever may be thought most laudable and virtuous, we did not think it fit to put a stop to his generous resolutions. And though he be a person, who, unless we deceive ourselves, carries his own recommendations about him, wheresoever he goes; yet if he shall find himself somewhat the more favoured by your majesty for our sake, we shall think ourselves honoured and obliged by the same kindness. God Almighty long preserve your majesty in safety, and continue a lasting peace between us, to the common good of the Christian world. From our court at Whitehall, May, 1658.

OLIVER, Protector of the Commonwealth of ENGLAND, &c., To the most Eminent Lord, Cardinal MAZARINE.

MOST Eminent Lord-Having recommended to the most serene king Thomas viscount Falconbridge our son-in-law, desirous to see France; we

could not but acquaint your eminency with it, and recommend him in like manner to yourself, not ignorant of what moment and importance it will be to our recommendation first given him. For certainly, what benefit or advantage he shall reap by residing in your country, which he hopes will not be small, he cannot but be beholden for the greatest part of it to your favour and goodwill; whose single prudence and vigilancy supports and manages the grand affairs of that kingdom. Whatever therefore grateful obligation your eminency shall lay upon him, you may be assured you lay upon ourselves, and that we shall number it among your many kindnesses and civilities already shown us.

Westminster, May, 1658.

OLIVER, Protector, &c., To the most Eminent Lord, Cardinal MAZARINE.

MOST Eminent Lord-Having sent the most illustrious Thomas Bellasis, viscount Falconbridge, our son-in-law, to congratulate the king upon his arrival in the camp at Dunkirk; I gave him order to attend and wish your eminency long life and health in our name, and to return thanks to your eminency, by whose fidelity, prudence, and vigilancy, it chiefly comes to pass, that the affairs of France are carried on with such success in several parts, but more especially in near adjoining Flanders, against our common enemy the Spaniard; from whom we hope that open and armed courage now will soon exact a rigorous account of all his frauds and treacheries. Which that it may be speedily done, we shall not be wanting, either with our forces, as far as in us lies, or with our prayers to Heaven. From our court at Whitehall, May —, 1658.

OLIVER, Protector of the Commonwealth of ENGLAND, &c., To the most Serene and Potent Prince, LEWIS, King of FRANCE.

MOST Serene and Potent Prince, our most August Friend and Confederate-So soon as the news was brought us, that your majesty was arrived in your camp, and was sate down with so considerable an army before Dunkirk, that infamous nest of pirates, and place of refuge for searobbers, we were greatly overjoyed, in certain assurance that in a short time now, with God's assistance, the seas will be more open and less infested by those plundering rovers; and that your majesty, by your military prowess, will now take speedy vengeance of the Spanish frauds; by whom one captain was by gold corrupted to the betraying of Hesden, another treacherously surprised at Ostend. We therefore send the most noble Thomas viscount Falconbridge, our son-in-law, to congratulate your majesty's arrival in your camp so near us, and that your majesty may understand from his own lips, with what affection we labour the prosperity of your achievements, not only with our united forces, but our cordial prayers, that God would long preserve your majesty, and perpetuate our established friendship, to the common good of the Christian world.

From our court at Westminster, May —, 1658.

To the most Serene Prince, FERDINAND, Grand Duke of TUSCANY. MOST Serene Great Duke-In regard your highness in your letters has ever signified your extraordinary affection toward us, we are not a little grieved, that either it should be so obscurely imparted to your governors and ministers, or by them so ill interpreted, that we can reap no benefit or