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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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to the lung- —he used me civilly ; T , in requital , offered my poor thoughts three times for his safety . " * And Mr . Whitlock relates , that " at a conference between him and the king , the king desired one of his own chaplains might be permitted to come to him , for his satisfaction iu some scruples of conscience , and thereupon the Bishop of London was ordered to go to his Majestic . " f At another time , when Charles was in the hands of the
army , Sir John Denham was entrusted by the Queen with a message to his Majesty , and he relates that he got admittance to the king by the assist * ance of Hugh Peters . J
In January 1649 , the king was beheaded ; and although Peters , by his frequent addresses to the army , encouraged them to proceed in the businesS'of the Revolution , I do not find that he was employed at the time , or
was in the least accessary to the actual death of the king . That he was very instrumental in promoting the views of the Republicans there is abundant evidence , and the zeal which he manifested in the cause is abundantly sufficient to account for the inexorable revenge with which lie was pursued by the Royalists . It is very well
known that he addressed the soldiers at Bridgwater , and again at Mil ford Haven 3 and that , by a sermon he preached in the Market-place at Torrington , he induced many , who had hitherto adhered to the king ' s party , to leave that party and declare for the
Parliament . It appears also from a letter , written by ¦ llushworlh to the Speaker of the House of Commons , that the gentlemen of Cornwall were induced to decide for the Parliament ,
by a persuasive harangue which Peters delivered to them on Bod mi n 13 owns . § All this , however , may have been done by a man of bis sentiments , with the purest and most philanthropic intentions .
About the year 1649 or 1650 , Hugh Peters was appointed by Cromwell to be one of the triers for the ministry , an appointment which was designed
* Last Legacy , p . 103 . t Whitlock , p . 370 . X Dedication of Denliam ' s Poems to Kin ^ Charles II . 1671 . § H&i-leiftn Miscellany , V , 563 .,
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to keep improper men out of the church . Of this appointment Peters himself speaks with great modesty in his Last Legacy . * Butler has , however , endeavoured to turn the office into ridicule , f
I do not find any document to shew how Peters was engaged in the year 1650 , but oil the 20 th January , in the year 1651 , a committee was appointed to remove certain inconveniences ih the mode of administering the laws of the land ; and Peters , together with
Mr . John Rush worth , the historian , Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper , afterwards Earl of Shaftsbury , and many other men of rank * were appointed on that committee . J Upon this circumstance I shall merely remark , that Cromwell and his Parliament usually filled the offices of trust with men of
talent and unimpeachable integrity ; therefore the appointment of Peters by the Parliament of England to an office of such dignity and importance , and with such men , is of itself no small praise . Especially when it is considered , that the Parliament had
ample means of rewarding all whom they chose to employ ; § that they voted Milton one thousand pounds for writing his lconoclastes , |] and allowed him a weekly table for the entertainment of learned men and foreign ambassadors . %
The next affair of any importance , in which Hugh Peters was engaged , or rather , the next in point of time which lias come to my knowledge , was at the instance of the
Government of Holland . The Dutch having : been much alarmed at the repeated defeat of their fleets by Admiral Bliake , and the messengers whom they had sent to sue for peace having "
* Page 109 . ? ^ JSec the Third Canto of lludibras . X Harris e s Life of Cromwell , pp . 289 ^ 291 . ^ Ibid . p . 292 . || See Richardson ^ s Lift ? of Milton . % Toki »<]\ s Life of Milton , Note , p . lltf , 8 vc > . 2 < 1 edition . Tlie nnmi . ieence of
Oliver : iiid the Parliament wore also displayed in their treatment of Major-General Lambert , to whom , in consequence of his valour , they voted a thousand pounds for the purchase of a jewel ; and afterwards Oliver granted him a pension o £ £ 2000 per annum .
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* The Nonconformis t * No . XIV . 60 S
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1819, page 603, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1777/page/15/
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