A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654 Part 13

_Whitelocke._ Father, if you please to peruse this writing, you will be satisfied that the Protector, since the late change of Government in England, hath thought me worthy to be trusted and furnished with sufficient power as to this treaty.

_Chancellor._ My dear son, this is very full, and a large testimony of the good opinion your master hath of you. All your powers and the originals of your commissions (according to custom) are to be left with us, to be registered in our Chancery.

_Wh._ I suppose you will also deliver to me the originals of your powers, to be enrolled (according to the English custom also) in our Chancery.

_Chan._ That shall be done.

_Wh._ The like shall be done on my part; and the Protector will be ready to do whatever shall be judged further necessary for the ratifying of this business.

_Chan._ It will be requisite that you let me have in Latin your instructions from the Protector.

_Wh._ I shall cause it to be done, except such part of them as are secret.

_Chan._ That which is to be reserved in secresy I desire not to see; there will be sufficient besides to show your powers.

_Wh._ They will fully appear.

_Chan._ I should counsel you, before your departure out of this kingdom, to make a visit to the Prince of Sweden; he will take it in good part, and it will testify a respect of the Protector to him, and render the alliance the more firm.

_Wh._ It is my purpose to visit the Prince; not that I am in doubt of the validity of the treaty made with the Queen, unless the Prince approve of it, but, as you advise, to show the respect of the Protector to his Kingly Highness, and to acquit myself of a due civility.

_Chan._ It will be fit for you to do it; and I shall advise you, at your return home, to put the Protector in mind of some particulars which, in my judgement, require his special care.

_Wh._ I shall faithfully do it, and I know they will be received with much the more regard coming from you: I pray do me the favour to let me know them.

[SN: Oxenstiern's advice to Cromwell.]

_Chan._ I would counsel the Protector to take heed of those dangerous opinions in matters of religion which daily increase among you, and, if not prevented and curbed, will cause new troubles, they never resting till themselves may domineer in chief.

_Wh._ Will not the best way to curb them be to slight them, and so they will fall of themselves?

_Chan._ I doubt they have taken too much root to fall so easily; but if they be not countenanced with preferments, they will the sooner wither and decay.

_Wh._ That will surely lessen them.

_Chan._ The Protector must also be careful to provide money and employment for his soldiers, else he will hardly keep them in order.

_Wh._ That is very requisite; and for money there is good provision already made.

_Chan._ He must likewise be watchful of the King's party, who will be busy at work, especially upon the new change.

_Wh._ The care thereof is the life of our affairs, and his Highness is most vigilant.

_Chan._ It behoves him to be so, for they that could not vanquish him by arms will endeavour to do it by craft and treachery of your own party, which you must look to.

_Wh._ He hath good intelligence of their plots.

_Chan._ It will also be prudence in him to let the people see that he intends not to rule them with an iron sceptre, nor to govern them by an army, but to give them such a liberty and enjoyment of the benefit of their laws that the continuance of his government may become their interest, and that they may have no cause to desire a change; else, though they must bear the yoke for a time, yet as soon as they meet with an opportunity they will shake it off again.

_Wh._ This is counsel proper to come from such a mind and judgement as yours is, and I shall not fail to report it to his Highness; and your Excellence hath rightly stated the disposition of my countrymen, who love peace and liberty, and will hardly brook slavery longer than they are forced to it by necessity; and the best way to govern them is to let them enjoy their laws and rights, which will rule them better than an iron sceptre.

_Chan._ It is the disposition of all generous and free people, as the English are, whom I truly respect, and him that is their head, that gallant person the Protector.

They had much other discourse; and after being together till six o'clock, the father and son, and the Chancellor and Whitelocke, called one another, and all the company parted.

_April 11, 1654._

[SN: The Queen proposes a secret article.]

The Chancellor had promised to procure Whitelocke his despatch in a few days. He sent Canterstein to communicate to him the articles drawn in form, with the amendments, to see if there were any mistake in them.

Whitelocke and the secretary perused them together, and agreed on all except two or three points, in which was some small difference; and Canterstein promised to hasten the engrossing of them.

Many strangers dining with Whitelocke made him the later in his visit to the Queen, to take his leave of her Majesty before her intended journey to see her mother. She promised Whitelocke that during her absence she would leave order with the Chancellor and his son to conclude the treaty, and at her return she would do what belonged to her for the speedy despatch of Whitelocke, to his contentment. She promised also to give order to her Chancellor about the business of Guinea, whereof they had much discourse.

She was pleased to propound to Whitelocke a secret article to be between her and the Protector, and not to be in the treaty between her Commissioners and Whitelocke, nor to be known to any of them. She said, that if it might be done, she should take it in very good part; but if Whitelocke thought it not likely to be done, then she would think no more of it. She said the substance of what she desired was that it might be agreed, by a particular article between the Protector and her, that in case those here should not perform what they promised to her upon her resignation of the government, that then it should be in the power of the Protector to break the treaty now made, and not to be bound by it.

Whitelocke was much troubled at this proposal, and upon a great difficulty in it--that if he should deny it, the Queen might be distasted and break off from his treaty; and to consent to it he had no commission, nor held it reasonable; but he told the Queen that it was a matter of great weight, deserving her Majesty's serious thoughts what to do in it.

He said he had no instructions upon any such article as this, nor could agree to it; but if her Majesty pleased to have such an article drawn up, and to sign it herself and send it to the Protector, he promised to use his best interest to persuade his Highness to a consent thereunto, and to sign it at Whitelocke's return to England, and so to return it to her Majesty.

She said that Woolfeldt should confer with Whitelocke about the drawing up of such an article, whom she would trust in it, but not any of the Swedes, because it might concern them, and occasion prejudice to them.

Whitelocke agreed that Woolfeldt was a fit person to be trusted in this business, and one with whom he should willingly confer about any service for her Majesty; that he believed something might be done herein to the Queen's advantage, but whether in this way of a secret article, and as part of the treaty, he doubted, lest thereby offence might be given, and the treaty thereby, as to both parts, be weakened. The Queen replied that it would keep those here in some fear lest if they should break with her, that then the Protector would not keep the treaty with them.

Whitelocke thought it best to be at some reserve in this article of secresy, not wholly to dissuade the Queen from it, lest she might be distasted. He saw advantage to the Protector to have it put into his power to break the treaty upon this occasion; but he doubted the honour and clearness of it, and therefore he judged it best to say the less at this time. Only he observed what a condition the Queen had brought her affairs unto when she thought not fit to trust any of her countrymen in this business; and before her resignation she distrusted the performance of the conditions of it towards herself, and therefore would have this secret article as a bridle to them. But as she distrusted her own party, so she testified great confidence in the Protector and in Whitelocke, to whom she propounded this secret article of so much concernment to her.

Whitelocke persuaded her Majesty to appoint faithful persons to order her revenue for her, and not to stay long here after her resignation, because she would then find a great difference in the carriage of persons to her.

She said she had taken care about her revenue as he had advised her, and that she would be gone out of Sweden presently after her resignation; that she expected the alteration of men's carriages towards her after it, but it would not trouble her; that the world was of such a condition, that nothing of respect was to be looked for but where advantage was hoped for by it. She never esteemed the fawnings of men for their own ends, but her own private contentment and satisfaction.

Whitelocke sent his son James and his secretary (Earle) to Canterstein with a copy of the form which Whitelocke intended to follow in the instrument intended to be delivered by him, where he put the Protector's name first, and some other small variations, as usage required; wherewith Canterstein promised to acquaint the Chancellor and to return an answer.

Whitelocke employed his son for his experience to be gained in these affairs.

_April 12, 1654._

[SN: Woolfeldt opposes the secret article.]

Mr. Woolfeldt having done Whitelocke the favour to dine with him, they retired and discoursed privately to this effect:--

_Woolfeldt._ The Queen was pleased the last night to send for me, and to communicate to me the matter of a secret article which, she said, she had before imparted to you.

_Whitelocke._ What is your opinion of such an article?

_Woolf._ Truly, I dissuaded her from it, as not convenient, in my poor opinion, for either party.

_Wh._ I know your judgement is grounded upon solid reason.

_Woolf._ My reasons are, because this article is to be kept secret, and to be added as a part of the treaty by her Majesty without the knowledge of those here, which, when it shall come to be known, will give them the more cause of objection and hatred against her for it, and expose her to more inconveniences than it can bring advantage to her; and therefore I thought it better for her Majesty to forbear it.