On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
been unable to appease Cromwell , though they made the most obsequious submission , and had offered to engage that the Dutch Ambassadors shoukLin future stand uncovered in his presence , in the . beginning of the year 1653 , they employed Colonel Doleman and others to learn the
sentiments of the leading men of the Parliament , and gain over Hugh Peters to plead for them . * This office Peters undertook , and it seems he was authorized to offer the sum of three hundred thousand pounds to purchase the ainitv of the Parliament and the
Protector , f This attempt , however , did not succeed , and when the negociation was broken off , the Dutch fitted out another large fleet under Van Tromp , De Witt and De Ruyter , and appointed four other deputies to go upon another embassy to England . These men arrived on the 2 d of July ,
I 60 S , and " all joined in one petition for a common audience , pray ing thrice humbly that they may have a
favourable answer , and beseeching the God of peace to co-operate . ' % These ambassadors , like the foregoing , sought out Peters , and engaged him to
present their petition . Hugh Peters received it with great affability , and having delivered it to Secretary Thurloe , that amiable man laid it before the Council of State , where it was
immediately attended to . After a variety of interviews , peace was at last concluded , and the ratifications were mutually exchanged on the 2 ri of May , 1654 j a circumstance which produced such universal joy in Holland , that the government ordered several medals to be struck on the
occasion . That the Dutch , thought Hugh Peters had sufficient influence to promote the pacification , is demonstrated by the circumstance of both deputations having besought his assistance ; and that the English thought ; he had actually been of service in the business , is , I think , evident from the historian of that war , ( who was a high Tory , and had no inclination to do honour to Peters , ) having made
* Stul > bc on the War , quarto , 1673 , rart II . p , 81 . f Life of Admiral Blake , printed for Miller , duodecimo , London , p . 71 . J Stubbe on the War , quarto , 1673 , Part II . p . 83 .
Untitled Article
choice of an engraved representation of the four deputies , in the act of presenting their petition to Peters , as a frontispiece to that work . The book to which 1 refer , is entitled " A Justification of the War against the United Netherlands , by Henry Stubbe , 1673 , " That Hugh Peters , who had
undoubtedly a great deal of benevolence and right feeling in his composition , was actuated by a good principle in this interference in behalf of tbe Dutch , I should have readily supposed , if nothing had been recorded
respecting it 5 but Ludlow has informed us , that ' * In gratitude to the Ho ] landers for the sanctuary he had
found among them in the time of his distress , he was not a little serviceable to them in composing their differences with England . " * This business was concluded in tbe
year 1654 , and in the beginning of the following * year , a melancholy affair happened' upon the continent , which demanded the interference and kind offices of the wise and good
throughout . Lurope . Hugh Peters , who appears to have been always ready at the call of the unfortunate , was not backward in his duty , either as a man , or as a Christian minister , lift this instance . What 1 refer to was
the persecution and massacre of the Protestants in the Valleys of Piedmont . The afflictive story [ heed
not relate , but 1 will recommend the perusal of a most interesting work , entitled ** The History of the Wsxldenses , by Wm . Jones , in 2 vcls .
8 vo . " where a very full account is given of the whole transaction , and of the persuasive and pathetic letters which the immortal Milton wrote , by the desire of Cromwell , to every Court in Europe , in behalf of this suffering people . Milton ' s beautiful Sonnet , beginning .
u venj > e , O Lord , thy slaughter ed saints , ' was written on tin ' s occasion . To the eternal honour of Cromwell it is recorded , that as soon as he heard of the persecution , he ordered a collection to he made through the kingdom for the sufferers , ; uid that it amounted to upwards of thirty-eight thousand * Ludlow * Memoirs , III . < 31 ,
Untitled Article
-604 The Nonconformist . No . XIV .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1819, page 604, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1777/page/16/
-