Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/359

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THE TIMES OF CHARLES THE SECOND.
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wishes you more good than myself. You will have so much a better account how matters go here from other hands, that I will not trouble you with so silly an opinion of affairs as mine. However, I wish every man in his station would prefer the cause of the public before his own advantage; and that, how different soever men's opinions may be, that might be each man's standard. If the French King renew the ratification, I hope his conquests may be bounded, though not his ambition; and to have had a hand in it is a blessing, which Mr. Sidney's work gives him. If I may by any means prove serviceable to you, pray command me, for

I am your most faithful servant,

W. Harbord.

THE EARL OF SUNDERLAND TO MR. SIDNEY.

January 12.

I have received the letters you writ to me by your servant, of January 7th, which do not exactly suit with the present affairs, for the difficulty is not what is to be done after the King should declare he would pass the bill,[1] but how to persuade him to pass it, which I believe he never will do; and that

  1. The passages in italics are in cipher.
R 2