A document has recently come into my possession which may perhaps be deemed
worth preserving in the pages of "N. & Q." It is a letter from the
University of Cambridge to General Monk, and, from the various corrections
which occur in it, it has every appearance of being the original draft.
Unfortunately it is not dated; but there can, I presume, be little doubt of
its having been written shortly before the assembling of the parliament in
April, 1660, which led to the Restoration, and in which Monk sat as member
for the county of Devon. The words erased in the original are here placed
between parentheses, and those substituted are given in Italics:
My Lord,
As it hath pleased God to make your Excell^{cie} eminently instrumental
for the raising up of three gasping and dying nations, into the faire
hopes and prospect of peace and settlement, so hath He engraven you (r
name) in characters of gratitude upon the hearts of all (true) _to_
who_m_ (cordially wish) the welfare of _this_ church and state (are)
_is_ deare and pretious. (Out) From this principle it is that our
University of Cambridge hath, with great alacrity and unanimity, made
choyse of your Excellency with whom to deposite the(ire) managing of
theire concernments in the succeeding Parl^t, w^{ch}, if your
Excell^{cy} shall please to admitt into a favourable (interpretation)
_acceptance_, (you will thereby) you will thereby (add) _put_ a further
obligation of gratitude upon us all; w^{ch} none shalbe more ready to
expresse than he who is
Your Excell^{cies} most humble serv^t,
W. D.
[Endorsed]
To the L^d General Monk.
Who was "W. D."? Was he the then Vice-Chancellor?