Economy, however, is a virtue easily recommended to statesmen by any pinch of necessity, and it so chanced that at the very time we have now reached, April 1655, the Protector and his Council, being in money straits, were in a very economical mood (see ante p.

35).

Here, accordingly, is what we find in the Council Order Books under date April 17, 1655.
_Tuesday, April_ 17, 1655:--Present the Lord President Lawrence, Lord Lambert (styled so in the minute), Colonel Montague, Colonel Sydenham, Sir Charles Wolseley, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Major-General Skippon.
"The Council resumed the debate upon the Report made from the Committee of the Council to whom it was referred to consider of the Establishment of the Council's Contingencies.
"_Ordered:_-- "That the salary of L400 _per annum_ granted to MR.

GUALTER FROST as Treasurer for the Council's Contingencies be reduced to L300 _per annum_, and be continued to be paid after that proportion till further order.
"That the former yearly salary of MR.

JOHN MILTON, of L288, &c., formerly charged on the Council's Contingencies, be reduced to L150 _per annum_, and paid to him during his life out of his Highness's Exchequer.
"That the yearly salaries hereafter mentioned, being formerly paid out of the Council's Contingencies,--that is to say L45 12_s._ 6_d._ _per annum_ to Mr.Henry Giffard, Mr.Gualter Frost's assistant,--_per annum_ to Mr.John Hall,--_per annum_ to Mr.Marchamont Needham,--_per annum_ to Mr.
George Vaux, the house-keeper at Whitehall,--_per annum_ for the rent of Sir Abraham Williams's house [for the entertainment of Ambassadors], and--_per annum_ to M.Rene Angler,--be for the future retrenched and taken away.
"That some convenient rooms at Somerset House be set apart for the entertainment of Foreign Ambassadors upon their address to his Highness.
"That it be referred to Mr.Secretary Thurloe to put that part of the Intelligence [from abroad] which is managed by M.Rene Augier into the common charge of Intelligence, and to order it for the future by M, Augier or otherwise, as he shall see most for the Commonwealth's service.
* * * * * "That it be offered to his Highness as the advice of the Council that several warrants be issued under the great seal for authorizing and requiring the Commissioners of his Highness's Treasury to pay, by quarterly payments, at the receipt of his Highness's Exchequer, to the several officers, clerks, and other persons after-named, according to the proportions allowed them for their salary in respect of their several respective offices and employments during their continuance or till his Highness or the Council shall give other order: that is to say:-- "To John Thurloe, Esq., Secretary of State:--For his own office, after the proportion of L800 _per annum_; for the office of Mr.Philip Meadows, Secretary for the Latin Tongue, after the rate of L200 per annum; for the salaries of--clerks attending his [Thurloe's] office at 6_s._ 8_d._ _per diem_, a piece (which together amount to----); for the salaries of eleven messengers at 5_s._ _per diem_, apiece (which together amount to L1003 15_s._): amounting in the whole to ---- "To Mr.Henry Scobell and Mr.William Jessop, Clerks to the Council, or to either of them:--For their own offices, viz.