the warrant himself.

Polignac is gone to Paris, but the Duke thinks not to be
Minister. Polignac told him that he wished to return here, as he
thought he could do more good here than there.

[Page Head: THE STATE PAPER OFFICE.]

Yesterday I went with Amyot to the State Paper Office to look
after my Council books. I found one book belonging to my office
and nearly thirty volumes of the 'Register of the Council of
State,'[28] which I mean to ask for, but which I suppose they
will refuse. Amyot suggests that as all the acts of the Council
of State were illegal and of no authority they cannot be
considered as belonging to the Council Office, and are merely
historical records without an official character. I shall try,
however, to get them. Mr. Lemon showed us a great many curious
papers. When he first had the care of the State papers they were
in the greatest confusion, and he has been diligently employed in
reducing them to order. Every day has brought to light documents
of importance and interest which as they are successively found
are classed and arranged and rendered disposable for literary and
historical purposes.

[28] [Of the time of the Commonwealth. The 'Privy Council
Register' extends from the last years of Henry VIII. to
the present time, not including the Commonwealth.]

Lemon has found papers relating to the Powder Plot alone
sufficient to make two quarto volumes, exceedingly curious; all
Garnett's original papers, and I hope hereafter they will be
published.[29] We saw the famous letter to Lord Mounteagle, of
which Lemon said he had, he thought, discovered the author. It
has been attributed to Mrs. Abington, Lord Mounteagle's sister,
but he thinks it was written by Mrs. Vaux, who was a friend of
hers, and mistress, probably, of Garnett; it is to her that many
of Garnett's letters are addressed. It seems that Mrs. Vaux and
Mrs. Abington were both present at the great meeting of the
conspirators at Hendlip, and he thinks that the latter, desirous
of saving her brother's life, prevailed on Mrs. Vaux to write the
letter, for the handwriting exactly corresponds with some other
writing of hers which he has seen. There is a remarkable paper
written by King James with directions what questions should be
put to Guy Faux, and ending with a recommendation that he should
be tortured first gently, and then more severely as might be
necessary. Then the depositions of Faux in the Tower, wh