es to engage in intrigue,
and the subtleties and falsehood to which he could occasionally descend,
than the history of Glamorgan's mission to Ireland. In this note I purpose
to lay before the reader the substance of the several documents relating to
the transaction.

On the 1st of April, 1644, the king gave to him, by the name of Edward
Somerset, alias Plantagenet, Lord Herbert, Baron Beaufort, &c., a
commission under the great seal, appointing him commander-in-chief of three
armies of Englishmen, Irishmen, and foreigners; authorizing him to raise
moneys on the securities of the royal wardships, customs, woods, &c.;
furnishing him with patents of nobility from the title of marquis to that
of baronet, to be filled up with names at his discretion; promising to give
the Princess Elizabeth to his son Plantagenet in marriage with a dower of
three hundred thousand pounds, a sum which did not much exceed what Herbert
and his father had already spent in the king's service, and in addition to
confer on Herbert himself the title of duke of Somerset, with the George
and blue ribbon.--From the Nuncio's Memoirs in Birch's Inquiry, p. 22.

This commission was granted in consequence of an understanding with the
deputies from the confederate Catholics, who were then at Oxford, and its
object is fully explained by Herbert himself in a letter to Clarendon, to
be laid before Charles II., and dated June 11, 1660. "For his majesty's
better information, through your favour, and by the channel of your
lordship's understanding things rightly, give me leave to acquaint you
with one chief key, wherewith to open the secret passages between his late
majesty and myself, in order to his service; which was no other than a
real exposing of myself to any expense or difficulty, rather than his just
design should not take place; or, in taking effect, that his honour should
suffer; an effect, you may justly say, relishing more of a passionate and
blind affection to his majesty's service, than of discretion and care of
myself. This made me take a resolution that he should have seemed angry
with me at my return out of Ireland, until I had brought him into a posture
and power to own his commands, to make good his instructions, and to reward
my faithfulness and zeal therein.

"Your lordship may well wonder, and the king too, at the amplitude of
my commission. But when you have understood the height of his majesty's
design, you will soon be satisfied that not