Milton’s case was evidently treated as a peculiar one.  It was certainly proposed that his allowance should be reduced from L288 18_s._ 6_d._ a year, which had hitherto been its rate, to L150 a year—­i.e. by nearly one half.  Most of us perhaps are disappointed by this, and would have preferred to hear that Milton’s allowance had been doubled or tripled under the Protectorate,—­made equal, say, to Thurloe’s.  Records must stand as they are, however, and must be construed coolly.  Milton’s L288 a year for his lighter and more occasional duties had doubtless been all along in fair proportion to the elder Frost’s L600 a year, or Thurloe’s L800, for their more vast and miscellaneous drudgery.  Nor, if Milton had ceased to be able to perform the duties, and another salaried officer had been required in consequence, was there anything extraordinary, in a time of general revision of salaries, that the fact should come into consideration.  The question was precisely as if now a high official under government, who had been in receipt of a salary of over L1000 a year, was struggling on in blindness after six years of service, and an extra officer at L700 a year had been for some time employed for his relief.  In such a case, the official being a man of great public celebrity and having rendered extraordinary services in his post, would not superannuation on a pension or retiring-allowance be considered the proper course?  But this was exactly the course proposed in Milton’s case.  The reduction from L288 to L150 a year was, it ought to be noted, only part of the proposition; for, whereas the L288 a year had been at the Council’s pleasure, it was now proposed that the L150 a year should be for life.  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.  Milton’s Latin Secretaryship Extraordinary or Foreign Secretaryship Extraordinary may have begun to seem to Thurloe an excrescence upon his own general Secretaryship of State, and he may have desired that Milton should retire altogether, and leave the Latin Secretaryship complete to Meadows as his own special subordinate in the foreign department.