Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 07.djvu/36

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14
PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND
[14 Mar.

speak with Mr. Milton, to know, Whether he will be employed as Secretary for the Foreign Languages? and to report to the Council.’[1] I have authority to say, that Mr. Milton, thus unexpectedly applied to, consents; is formally appointed on Thursday next; makes his proof-shot, ‘to the Senate of Hamburgh,’[2] about a week hence;—and gives, and continues to give, great satisfaction to that Council, to me, and to the whole Nation now, and to all Nations! Such romance lies in the State-Paper Office.

Here, however, is another Letter on the Hursley Business, of the same date as Letter xci.; which must also be read. I do not expect many readers to take the trouble of representing before their minds the clear condition of ‘Mr. Ludlow’s lease,’ of ‘the 250l.,’ ‘the 150l.’ etc., in this abstruse affair: but such as please to do so, will find it all very straight at last. We observe, Mr. Mayor has a decided preference for ‘my ould land’; land that I inherited, or bought by common contract, instead of getting it from Parliament for Public Services! In fact, Mr. Mayor seems somewhat of a sharp man: but neither has he a dull man to deal with,—though a much bigger one.

LETTER XCII

“FOR MY WORTHY FRIEND RICHARD MAYOR, ESQUIRE, AT HURSLEY: THESE”

“London,” 14th March 1648.

Sir,—I received your Paper by the hands of Mr. Stapylton. I desire your leave to return my dissatisfaction therewith. I shall not need to premise how much I have desired (I hope upon the best grounds) to match with you. The same desire still

  1. Order-Book of the Council of State (in State-Paper Office), i. 86; Todd’s Life of Milton (London, 1826), pp. 96, 108-123.
  2. Senatus Populusque Anglicanus Amplissimo Civitatis Hamburgensis Senatui, Salutem. (In Milton’s Literæ Senatus Anglicani, this first Letter to the Hamburgers is not given.)