In short, what was proposed was the conversion of a terminable salary of L288 a year, payable out of the Council's contingencies, into a life-pension of L150 a year, payable out of the Protector's Exchequer: which was as if in a corresponding modern case a terminable salary of over L1000 a year were converted into a life-pension of between L500 and L600.

On studying the document, I have no doubt that the intention was to relieve Milton from that moment from all duty whatsoever, putting an end to that anomalous _Latin Secretaryship Extraordinary_, into which his connexion with the Council had shaped itself since his blindness, and remitting him, as _Ex-Secretary_ Milton, a perfectly free and highly-honoured man, to pensioned leisure in his house in Petty France.

For it is impossible that the Council could have intended to retain.

Milton in any way in the working Secretaryship at a reduced salary of L150 a year while Meadows, his former assistant, had the title of "Secretary for the Latin Tongue," with a higher salary of L200 a year.

Perhaps one may detect Thurloe's notions of official symmetry in the proposed change.