d on the 22nd of April by the enforced dissolution
of the Parliament, Richard's Protectorate was more visibly at an end
on the 7th of May, when the Wallingford-House chiefs agreed with the
Republicans in restoring the Rump. Eight days after that event Milton
was called on to write two letters for the new Republican
authorities. They were as follows:--

(CXLVIII.) TO CHARLES GUSTAVUS, KING OF SWEDEN, _May_ 15,
1659:--"Most serene and most potent King, and very dear Friend: As
it has pleased God, the best and all-powerful, with whom alone are
all changes of Kingdoms and Commonwealths, to restore Us to our
pristine authority and the supreme administration of English
affairs, we have thought it good in the first place to inform your
Majesty of the fact, and moreover to signify to you both our high
regard for your Majesty, as a most potent Protestant prince, and
also our desire to promote to the utmost of our power such a peace
between you and the King of Denmark, himself likewise a very potent
Protestant prince, as may not be brought about without our
exertions and most willing good offices. Our pleasure therefore is
that our internuncio extraordinary, Philip Meadows, be continued in
our name in exactly the same employment which he has hitherto
discharged with your Majesty for this Commonwealth; and to that end
we, by these presents, give him the same power of making proposals
and of treating and dealing with your Majesty which he had by his
last commendatory letters. Whatever shall be transacted and
concluded by him in our name, the same we pledge our promise, with
God's good help, to confirm and ratify. May God long preserve your
Majesty as a pillar and defence of the Protestant cause.--WILLIAM
LENTHALL, _Speaker of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of
England_."

(CXLIX) To FREDERICK III., KING OF DENMARK, _May_ 15,
1659:--The counterpart of the foregoing. His Danish Majesty,
addressed as "most serene King and very dear Friend" is informed by
Lenthall of the change in English affairs, and of the sympathy the
present English Government feels with him in his adversity. They
will do their utmost to secure a peace between him and the King of
Sweden; and Philip Meadows, their Envoy Extraordinary to the King
of Sweden, has full powers to treat with his Danish Majesty too for
that end. "God grant to your Majesty, as soon as possible, a happy
and joyful outcom