Finally, on the 18th of December, partly in consequence of the departure of the Dutch Ambassador Nieuport in the preceding month, for some temporary stay at home on private affairs, GEORGE DOWNING, ESQ.

(ante pp.

43 and 191) was appointed to follow him in the capacity of Resident for his Highness in the United Provinces.[1] [Footnote 1: Council Order Books of dates; Whitlocke, IV.

311-313; and _Cromwelliana_, 168-169.] The general purport of these three missions of Cromwell in 1657 requires explanation.

Not commercial interests merely, but also zeal for union among the Protestant Powers, had all along moved his diplomacy; and now the state of things in the north of Europe was so extraordinary that, on the one hand, the cause of Protestant union seemed in fatal peril, but, on the other hand, if it could be retrieved, it might be retrieved perhaps in a definite and magnificent form.