the "Council of State" took his proposals into consideration, and on 2 January, 1650, appointed him to be "Consul at Andalusia." Two days later, perhaps on ascertaining the fate awaiting him in Spain, Peters withdrew, and the Council's vote was "vacated" ('Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1649-50,' pp. 449, 466, and 468). He obtained, however, another appointment. Downing wrote to Winthrop from "Salem, 29. 2. 50" (29 May, 1650), "Your father Peters is a colonell and governor of Milford Haven" (C.M.H.S., Series IV., vol. vi. p. 76). Henceforward, up to June, 1650, a letter from Peters to Walker appeared every week in Severall Proceedings. After this Peters's regiment still existed, though there is the same dishonesty and concealment about it in all official documents.
In 1651 Christoph Arnold, a German, came to London, and wrote to his friend Richter as follows:——
"Dux Independentium, Hugo Petrus aliiq. homines (ceu quidem videntur) sacri centuriones et primipili fiunt et antesignani qui ordines Londini et alibi ducunt. Hugo iste cohortem in Hiberniâ habet, cujus fortitudinem ipse imperator Cromwellus in tantum prædicat ut vel solum hunc concionatorem militibus centum potiorem ducat. Hunc enim semper in aggere occupando primum reliqui è vestigio insequuntur ita ut jam aliquot in Hiberniâ urbes hac ipsa alacritate ceperit."—Georg Richter, 'Epistolæ Selectiores,' &c., Nuremberg, 1662, pp. 482-94.
Mercurius Pragmaticus for 18-30 January, 1649 (not then written by Nedham), contained a distich about Pride and Peters, which seems to have been thoroughly justified:—
When Pride shall pray and Peters fight,
The Devil needs must take delight;
When Pride shall fight and Peters pray,
The Devil makes a Holy Day.
(To be continued.)
THE ROYAL SOCIETY'S
250th ANNIVERSARY.
(See ante, pp. 181, 202.)
The first President of the Philosophical Society was Sir Robert Moray, for although his name is not given in the list of Presidents of the Royal Society he is mentioned in 'The Record' as having been elected on the 6th of March, 1660-61, and re-elected on April 10th for another month. He had been knighted by Charles I., and joined Charles II. in his exile. With the latter monarch he had much influence, which he used greatly to the benefit of the infant Society. Bishop Burnet in the 'History of his own Times' states that Seth Ward was the second President; but although his services to the Society are mentioned, he does not appear to have been President. 'The Record' gives the following list of the Presidents:—
- ↑ He was elected to the chair only to serve until the ensuing anniversary, and was elected a second time, July 2, 1772, to fill the chair till the following anniversary.
