had been of use. The immediate object of the
missions, a reconciliation of Sweden and Denmark, had been
accomplished; and what remained farther was, as Cromwell hints, the
association of the other Continental Protestant powers with these
two Scandinavian kingdoms in a league against Austria and Spain.
How exactly this idea accorded with reflective Protestant sentiment
everywhere appears from a few sentences in one of Baillie's
letters, commenting on the very occurrences that occasioned
Cromwell's present despatch. "I am glad," writes Baillie, "that by
a Peace, however extorted, the Swedes are free to take course with
other enemies. I wish Brandenburg may return to his old posture,
and not draw on himself next the Swedish armies; which the Lord
forbid! for, after Sweden, we love Brandenburg next best.... Our
wish is that the Muscoviter, for reforming of his churches,
civilizing of his people, and doing some good upon the Turks and
Tartars, were more straitly allied with Sweden, Brandenburg, the
Transylvanian, and other Protestant princes. We should rejoice if,
on this too good a quarrel against the Austrians ... he [Charles
Gustavus] would turn his victorious army upon them and their
associates, with the assistance of France and a good Dutch league.
It seems no hard matter to get the Imperial Crown and turn the
Ecclesiastic Princes into Secular Protestants."[2] Very much in the
direction of Baillie's hopes were Cromwell's envoys, Meadows,
Jephson, Bradshaw, and Downing, to labour for the next few months.
Of their journeys hither and thither, their expectations and
disappointments, there are glimpses in successive letters in
_Thurloe_; from which also it appears that Meadows and Downing
gave most satisfaction, and that, after a while, Jephson was
relieved of the main business of the Swedish mission, and that
mission was conjoined with the Danish in the hands of Meadows
(Thurloe, VII. 63-64).

[Footnote 1: The translation of this letter by Phillips is unusually
careless. It jumbles the tenses in such a manner that the Peace
between Sweden and Denmark does not seem to have yet taken place,
but only to be hoped for by Cromwell. In fact, Phillips's
translation robs the letter of all its meaning and interest.]

[Footnote 2: Baillie, III. 371.]

(CXIX.) TO THE GRAND-DUKE OF TUSCANY, _April_ 7, 1658:--A John
Hosier, master of a ship called _The Lady_, had been s