The Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, in Which is Included a Continuation of His History of the Gra

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: dignation, and being then interrupted by the com- Part ing of persons of quality, told him, he would some - other time run over all these particulars again, and that he should recollect himself for other instances of that strange nature, The next time the archbishop returned to Croy- don, which he usually did once in the week during the summer, and stayed a day or two, impatient to understand more of the matter, he sent for Mr. Harvey, and told him, " that his last discourse had " given him much cause of sorrow, in finding how " the king had been used, and that he knew his na- " ture so well, that he could confidently say, that he " never knew of that kind of proceeding, and that " he wondered that the merchants had not then pe- " titioned the king to hear the matter himself." He answered, " that they had left no way unattempted " for their ease, having no fear of displeasing the " treasurer; that they had caused a petition to be " drawn by their council, which was signed by all " the principal merchants in the city, wherein (to " obviate the calumny concerning refusing to pay, " or stealing customs) they declared, that they were " all very willing to pay all duties to his majesty, " and would never refuse the same, (which was " a declaration would have been much valued a " year or two before, and ought to have been so " then,) only desired to be left at liberty to ship " and land their goods as they had been accustomed " to; that they had given this petition to a secre- " tary of state to present it to the king, who re- " ferred it to the consideration of the treasurer; and " thereupon they pursued it no further, knowing " how he stood resolved, and the cause of it, which Part " troubled them most, viz. that that custom-house L " quay did, though not in his own name, in tru...