take the engagement of adherence to the parliament (Cromwelliana, pp. 75, 81; Whitelocke, Memorials, iii. 166). He took no part in the expedition to Scotland, but seems to have been present at the battle of Worcester, and exhorted the assembled militia regiments on the significance of their victory (Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth, i. 445). According to the story which he subsequently told to Ludlow, he perceived that Cromwell was excessively elevated by his triumph, and predicted to a friend that he would make himself king (Ludlow, Memoirs, ed. 1894, ii. 9).
The fortunes of Peters were now at their zenith. On 28 Nov. 1646 parliament had conferred upon him by ordinance a grant of 200l. per annum out of the forfeited estates of the Marquis of Worcester, and he had also been given in 1644 the library of Archbishop Laud (Lords' Journals, viii. 582; Last Legacy, p. 104). According to his own statement, however, what he had received was simply a portion of Laud's private library, worth about 140l. (ib.) When John Owen accompanied Cromwell to Scotland as his chaplain, Peters was made one of the chaplains of the council of state in his place (17 Dec. 1650), and subsequently became permanently established as one of the preachers at Whitehall, with lodgings there and a salary of 200l. a year (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1650 p. 472, 1651 p. 72, 1651–2 pp. 9, 56). Friends from New England who visited him there were struck by his activity and his influence. ‘I was merry with him, and called him the Archbishop of Canterbury, in regard of his attendance of ministers and gentlemen, and it passed very well,’ wrote William Coddington (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 4th ser. vii. 281). To Roger Williams Peters explained that his prosperity was more apparent than real, and confided the distress caused him by the insanity of his wife and its effect on his public life. ‘He told me that his affliction from his wife stirred him up to action abroad; and when success tempted him to pride, the bitterness in his bosom comforts was a cooler and a bridle to him’ (Knowles, Life of Roger Williams, 1834, p. 261; Masson, Life of Milton, iv. 533). In his letters he complains frequently of ill-health, especially of melancholia, or, as it was then termed, ‘the spleen,’ and both in 1649 and again in 1656 he was dangerously ill. His fear was, as he expressed it, that he would ‘outlive his parts’ (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 4th ser. vi. 112).
Whenever Peters was in health, his restless energy led him to engage in every kind of public business. In March 1649 he presented to the council of state propositions for building frigates which were referred to the admiralty committee (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50). One of the questions he had most at heart was the reform of the law. While in Massachusetts he had twice been appointed on committees for drawing up a code of laws for the colony, and in Holland he had seen much which he thought worthy of imitation in England. On 17 Jan. 1652 parliament appointed a committee of twenty-one persons for the reformation of the law, of whom Peters was one. ‘None of them,’ writes Whitelocke, ‘was more active in this business than Mr. Hugh Peters, the minister, who understood little of the law, but was very opinionative, and would frequently mention some proceedings of law in Holland, wherein he was altogether mistaken’ (Memorials, ed. 1853, iii. 388). In a tract published in July 1651, entitled ‘Good Work for a Good Magistrate,’ he summed up his scheme of reforms, proposing, among other things, a register of land titles and wills, and suggesting that when that was established the old records in the Tower, being merely monuments of tyranny, might be burnt (p. 33). R. Vaughan of Gray's Inn answered his proposals in detail on behalf of the lawyers, and Prynne furiously denounced the ignorance and folly shown in his suggestion about the records (‘A Plea for the Common Laws of England,’ 1651, 8vo; ‘The Second Part of a Short Demurrer to the Jews long-discontinued Remitter into England, by William Prynne,’ 1656, 4to, pp. 136–47). In the same pamphlet Peters proposed the setting up of a bank in London like that of Amsterdam, the establishment of public warehouses and docks, the institution of a better system for guarding against fires in London, and the adoption of the Dutch system of providing for the poor throughout the country. Unfortunately none of these public-spirited proposals led to any practical result.
Peters did not limit his activity to domestic affairs. During the war with the Dutch in 1652 and 1653 he continually endeavoured to utilise his influence with the leaders of the two countries to heal the breach. At his instigation, in June 1652, the Dutch congregation at Austin Friars petitioned parliament for the revival of the conferences with the Dutch ambassadors, which had just then been broken off, and the demand was earnestly supported by Cromwell. Confident of the approval of the army leaders, who were opposed to the war, Peters even ventured to write to Sir George Ayscue and bid him to desist from fighting his co-religionists. Ayscue, however, sent the letter to parlia-
