]

[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates given, and Godwin, IV,
300-303.]

Legislative work being back in the hands of a Parliament, the
Protector and his Council had confined themselves meanwhile to
matters of administration, war, and diplomacy. Vane had been released
from his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight by order of Council, Dec.
11, and permitted to return to Lincolnshire; and there had been other
relaxations of the severities attending the opening of the
Parliament. There had been an order of Council (Oct. 2) for the
release of imprisoned Quakers at Exeter, Dorchester, Colchester, and
other places, with instructions to the Major-Generals in the
respective districts to see the order carried out and the fines of
the poor people discharged. The business of the Piedmontese
Protestants still occupied the Council, and there were letters to
various foreign powers. Of new diplomatic arrangements of the
Protector about this time, and through the whole session of the
Parliament, account will be more conveniently taken hereafter; but
Ambassador Lockhart's temporary presence in London, and his frequent
colloquies with the Protector over French affairs, Spanish affairs,
the movements of Charles II abroad, a rumoured dissension between
Charles II. and his brother the Duke of York, and Mazarin's astute
intimacy with all, are worthy of remark even now. It was on Dec. 10,
1656, that Lockhart received from his Highness the honour of
knighthood at Whitehall; and on Feb. 3, 1656-7, it was settled by his
Highness and the Council that Lockhart's allowance thenceforward in
his Embassy should be L100 a week, i.e, about L18,000 a year in
present value. Lockhart's real post being in Paris, his attendance in
Parliament can have been but brief. His fellow-Scotsman, Swinton of
Swinton, also gave but brief attendance. The Protector had taken the
opportunity of Swinton's visit to London to show him special
attention, and to promote in the Council certain very substantial
recognitions of his adhesion to the Commonwealth when other Scots
abhorred it, and of his good services in Scotland to it and the
Protectorate since. But, as his proper place was in Edinburgh, it was
ordered, Dec. 25, 1656, that he, and his fellow-members of the
Scottish Council, Major-General Charles Howard and Colonel Adrian
Scroope, should return thither. This was the more necessary because
Lord Broghill did not mean to return to Scotland, the air of which
did not su