bstance was probably
drafted by the Council and Thurloe, and only handed to Milton for
re-expression and translation; nay, it is possible that even in the
work of translation, to save time, Milton and Meadows may have been
partners. All in all, however, as the proofs are all but certain that
Milton's hand was to _some_ extent employed in the document, it
may mark his return to ordinary official work in Oct.-Nov. 1655,
after three months of renewed exemption from such work, following his
batch of state-letters on the subject of the Massacre in
Piedmont.[1]

[Footnote 1: The _Scriptum Domini Protectoris contra Hispanos_
was reprinted, as indubitably Milton's, in 1738, and again in 1741,
to assist in rousing British feeling afresh against Spain; and Birch
and all succeeding editors of Milton have agreed in regarding it as
his. Godwin, however (_Hist. of Commonwealth_, IV. 217-219,
footnote), suggests doubts.]

What adds to the probability that Cromwell's Manifesto against Spain,
dated Oct. 26, 1655, and published Nov. 9, was partly of Milton's
composition, is the fact, to which we have now to request attention,
that he did about this time resume ordinary office-work to an extent
beyond expectation. The following is a list of Letters to Foreign
States and Princes written by him for Cromwell from Dec. 1655 to May
1656 inclusively. Two or three of them are important Cromwellian
documents, and require elucidation:--

(LXV.) TO THE DOGE OF VENICE, _Dec. 1655_:--His Highness
congratulates the Venetians upon their recent naval victory over
the Turks, but brings to their notice the fact that among the ships
they had taken in that victory there was an English one, called
_The Great Prince_, belonging to William and Daniel Williams
and Edward Beal, English merchants. She had been pressed by the
Turks at Constantinople, and employed as a transport for Turkish
soldiers and provisions to Crete. The crew had been helpless in the
affair, and the owners blameless; and his Highness does not doubt
that the Doge and Senate will immediately give him a token of their
friendship by causing the ship to be restored.--The naval victory
of the Venetians was, doubtless, that which Morus had celebrated
In the Latin poem for which he received his gold chain (ante pp.
212-213).

(LXVI.) To LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE, Dec. 1655:--Samuel Mico, William
Cockain, George Poyner, and other English merchants have petitioned
h