ce gave him her hand to
kiss, and so took leave of him.

[SN: and the Chancellor.]

From the Court Whitelocke went and visited the Chancellor, and delivered
to him (what he had before promised and was put in mind to do) an
engagement under his hand to procure a supply of the defect of power,
which they excepted to in his commission. The engagement was thus:--

"Polliceor plenam me mihi potentiam ac facultatem procuraturum a sua
Serenissima Celsitudine Domino meo, Domino Protectore Reipublicae
Angliae, Scotiae, et Hiberniae, intra trimestre spatium, ab appulsu
meo in quemlibet portum Angliae, ad supplendum qualemcunque defectum
facultatis ac potentiae mihi antehac datae, ad tractandum cum
Serenissima Majestate sua Regina Sueciae aut commissariis suis, et ad
rata habenda omnia, quae inter Majestatem suam vel suos commissarios
et me conclusa fuerint. Datum Upsaliae 18^o Maii, anno Domini 1654.

"BULSTRODE WHITELOCKE."

The Chancellor and Whitelocke fell into discourse touching their
Ricksdag; part whereof follows.

[SN: The Swedish Diet and Constitution.]

_Whitelocke._ I received much satisfaction in the favour of being
admitted to see the manner of the meeting and proceedings of your
Ricksdag, and shall be glad to be instructed by you touching some of the
passages of it.

_Chancellor._ I shall be ready to inform you the best I can in these
matters, and I have had some experience in them.

_Wh._ In that and all other matters touching the government of this
kingdom, I believe no man's experience or judgement will be opposed to
yours. I pray, Father, let me know the ground of proposals being made by
the Queen to the Ricksdag, and whether it be as I have heard, that they
consult of nothing but what is first proposed to them by the Queen.

_Chan._ That is very true, and is the ground of our quiet and of avoiding
factions among us; for where a Council consists of seven or eight hundred
men, as our Ricksdag doth, and they hold themselves to have an equal
liberty and power, and are most of them active spirits; if every one
amongst them might move and propound what he pleased according to his own
fancy, there would never be an end of proposals and debates, and they
would break out into several factions and the greater affairs of the
kingdom be retarded, and many times thrust out to make way for lesser
matters for the most part but of private int